Annotation:Modest Question (The)

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MODEST QUESTION, THE. English, Air (3/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCDD. The song appears in the second volume of John Simpson's Caliope, or English Harmony (London, 1746, p. 66), John Sadler's The Muses Delight (Liverpool, 1756), The London Songster, or Polite Musical Companion (1767), and similar songsters. The lyric begins:

Can love be controul'd by advice,
Can madness and reason agree?
O Molly! who'd ever be wife,<br? If madness is loving of thee?
Let sages pretend to despise
The joys they want spirits to taste;
Let me seize old Time as he flies,
And the blessings of life while they last.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Thumoth (12 English and 12 Irish Airs with Variations), c. 1745; No. 3, p. 6-7.

Recorded sources:

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