Annotation:Mad Moll (1)
Back to Mad Moll (1)
MAD MOLL [1]. AKA and see "Cuddle Me, Cuddy," "Cuma Liom," "Here We Go Up, (Up, Up)," "The Peacock Followed/Follows the Hen," "Riding a Mile [1]," "The Virgin Queen," "Yellow Stockings," "Is Cuma Liom" (I Don't Care). English, Air (9/8 time). F# Minor (Chappell): A Minor (Kennedy). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Chappell): AABB (Kennedy). The title dates at least from 1698 when it was published in Playford's Dancing Master, which may be the earliest printed version of the tune, although R.D. Cannon in his article "English Bagpipe Music" (Folk Music Journal, 1972) suggests the progenitor of this large tune family is the Scots jig "Up with Aley." A comic play, Mad Moll, by Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekkar, was penned in 1611 and featured the heroine Moll Cutpurse. George Petrie prints an untitled version collected in Ireland in his collection of 1855 (Stanford/Petrie, No. 101, p. 25). 'Mad Moll' may refer to Mary, Queen of Scots, suggest Stokoe and Bruce, who was subject to periods of mental incapacity. As "Virgin Queen (The)" the tune appears in Playford's Dancing Master of 1703 and later editions, and as "Yellow Stockings" it is in Wright's North Country Frisks (1713) and in the ballad opera The Boarding School (1733). See Borders and Northumbrian versions under the titles "Cuddle Me Cuddy" and "Peacock Follows the Hen." As "Mad Moll" the tune appears in Burton Leonard, Yorkshire, miller and fiddler Joshua Jackson's (1763-1839) music manuscript copybook (kept from 1798 until about 1820). Other titles in the tune family include "Brose and Butter," "Hey My Nanny/Hey My Nancy," "Honeymoon (The), "Dusty Miller (The)," "Faraway Wedding," "Follow Her Over the Border," "Cudgel (The)," "Jerry Houlihan" "Kitten (The)," and "Drops of Brandy."
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time), vol. 2, 1859; p. 74. Kennedy (Fiddler's Tune-Book: Slip Jigs and Waltzes), 1999; No. 42, p. 10. Thompson (Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 2), 1765; No. 184. Wilson (Companion to the Ball Room), 1816; p. 32
Recorded sources:
Back to Mad Moll (1)