Annotation:Maiden's Blush (1) (The)

Back to Maiden's Blush (1) (The)

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MAIDEN'S BLUSH [1], THE. AKA - "Bump Her Belly." English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABB. Under the title "Bump Her Belly" the tune was first printed by John Young in his Second Volume of the Dancing Master [1] (1710), by which title it also appeared in the second edition of that volume, printed in 1714. However, with the third edition (1718, p. 95, and in the fourth edition of 1728) the title changed to "The Maiden's Blush," and "Bump Her Belly" was relegated to alternate title status. Under the title "Bump Her Belly" the tune appears in Walsh & Hare's The Second Book of the Compleat Country Dancing-Master (1719, p. 114, reissued in 1754).

"Bump Her Belly" certainly gives a more lascivious twist to the blushing maiden of the tune, for to 'belly-bump' or 'bump her belly' was slang for coitus, and 'to get a belly-bumper' was to become pregnant with child.

There is a song for which the indicated tune is "Bump Her Belly" in J. Hippisley's opera Sequal to Flora (1732) that begins:

What lusty young babies by us will be got,

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Sharp (Country Dance Tunes), 1909; p. 50.

Recorded sources:

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