Annotation:Polly Hopkins Waltz

Back to Polly Hopkins Waltz

POLLY HOPKINS WALTZ. English, Scottish, American; Waltz. D Major (Kerr, Howe/Diamond): C Major (Howe/Accordeon). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. A song from an c. 1820’s broadside printed in York goes:

The other morn I met with Polly Hopkins,
How do you do, how do you do,
None the better Mr. Tomkins
For seeing you, for seeing you.
With all my wealty -Be quiet pray
A man of health -do get away,
Oh! cruel pretty Polly Hopkins,
Don't tell me so, don't tell me so,
Oh! silly, silly Mr. Tomkins,
To use me so, to use me so.
Fal, lal, lal, &c.

Baltrimore publisher George Willig printed a variant of the comic song under the title “Polly Hopkins & Tommy Tompkins” in 1827, a duet “as sung by the Miss Gillinghams.” It begins:

TOMMY: Pretty, pretty Polly Hopkins, how d'ye do? how d'ye do?
POLLY: None the better Tommy Tompkins for seeing you, for seeing you.
TOMMY: I'm a man of wealth.
POLLY: Be quiet pray.
TOMMY: Take all my self.
POLLY: Pray get away.
TOMMY: Oh cruel, cruel Polly Hopkins to treat me so, to treat me so.
POLLY: Oh cruel Tommy Tomkins to tease me so, to tease me so.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Howe (Complete Preceptor for the Accordeon), 1843; p. 20. Howe (Diamond School for the Violin), c. 1861. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 1), c. 1880; No. 13, p. 51.

Recorded sources: