Annotation:Jolly Toper

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JOLLY TOPER. English, Country Dance Tune (whole time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Toper = Tosspot, a drunkard. The are other 18th century airs by this name, including this English broadside [1]:

With my pipe in one hand, and my jug in the other,
TI'll drink to my neighbors and friends;
All care in a whiff of tobacco I'll smother,
For life I know shortly must end.
For while Ceres most kindly refills my brown jug
With good liquor I'll make myself mellow;
In a an old wicker chair I'll seat myself snug,
Like a jolly, true-hearted fellow.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Straight and Skillern (Two Hundred and Four Favourite Country Dances, vol. 1), c. 1775; No. 10, p. 5. Skillern (Skillern's Compleat Collection of Two Hundred & Four Reels...Country Dances), 1780; p. 83.

Recorded sources:

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