Annotation:Humors of Dublin (3)
X:1 T:Humours of Dublin [3], The T:Slow men of London M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig B:John & William Neal - Choice Collection of Country Dance Tunes (Dublin, c. 1726) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Dmin d2 e fed|^c2d e3|f3 e2d|^c2=B A3:| |:FGF ced|FGF cdc|d2A BAG|~F2E D3:|
HUMOURS OF DUBLIN [3]. AKA - "Slowmen of London (The)." Irish, English; Jig (6/8 or 6/4 time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). The melody was first published in Dublin by John & William Neal in 1726, followed by appearances in John Walsh's Third Book of the Compleat Country Dancing Master (London, 1735), his Compleat Country Dancing Master, volume the Third (London, c. 1749), and John Johnson's publication of Daniel Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances (London, c. 1740, where the alternate title "The Slowmen of London" appears).
'Humors' in the context of the title means 'whim', 'fancy' or 'mood'. "Humors of Dublin [3]" was also probably known for a time as "The Rutland Jig," a shortening of "Duchess of Rutland's Jig (The)." The name appears in a list of tunes in an obituary for German-born Jewish hammered dulcimer player biography:Isaac Isaacs, who entertained in Dublin for thirty years in the latter 18th century, and who had an excellent reputation. According to Seán Donnelly[1], an existing tune was re-named for Mary Isabell Manners (1756-1831), "complacent wife" of Dublin's famous madam, Mrs Leeson's favorite client, Charles Manners, 4th Duke of Rutland AKA "Honest Charlie," lord lieutenant of Ireland in the 1780's. Donnelly notes that "The Rutland Jig" was known in County Leitrim in the 20th century, and believes it to have originally been named "Humors of Dublin (3)", as printed by the Neals in Dublin in 1726, and in London by John Walsh in 1733.
- ↑ Seán Donnelly, "A German Dulcimer Player in Eighteenth-Century Dublin", Dublin Historical Record Vol. 53, No. 1 (Spring, 2000), p. 81.