Annotation:Good Morrow Gossip Joan

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GOOD MORROW, GOSSIP JOAN. AKA and see "Gossip Joan," "Why how now Madam Flirt." English, Air (4/4 time). E Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. The air appears in Pills to Purge Melancholy, and John Gay's Beggar's Opera (1729, as the vehicle for "Why how now Madam Flirt") as well as other ballad operas. Another song to the same tune is called "Happy Dick" and appears in Watts' Musical Miscellany and Vocal Miscellany (1734).

Why how now, Madam Flirt,
If you thus must chatter,
And are for flinging dirt,
Lets see who best can spatter.
Madam Flirt!
Why how now, saucy jade,
Sure the wench is tipsy! How can you see me made
The scoff of such a gipsy?
Saucy Jade!


The tune appears in The Cavendish Music Books No. 22: Album of National Dances (ca. 1900), with the first 8 measures of "Rule Britannia" added for a second part, as music for the Cushion Dance.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time), vol. 2, 1859; p. 98. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 61. Scott (English Song Book), 1926; p. 38.

Recorded sources:



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