Annotation:Lovely Lass to a Friar Came (1) (A)
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LOVELY LASS TO A FRIAR CAME [1], A. AKA - "Lovely Nun to a Friar Came." AKA and see "Cailín Dear," "Friar and the Nun (2) (The)." English, Air (4/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. The tune appears in John Gay's ballad opera The Beggar's Opera, 1728, (under the title "Thus when a food housewife sees a rat") and in a collection by Odell in 1729, after which it became very popular for a time under this title in England, but it was originally an Irish air called "Cailin Dear" which dates to 1660 (according to the sometimes unreliable Grattan Flood, 1906, for one). It was printed by the Irish collector Edward Bunting in the early 1800's, who was apparently unaware of the Irish title and used instead Gay's English one (see note for Annotation:Lovley Lass to a Friar Came (2)). The song and air were also printed in Watts' Musical Miscellany (1731).
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1), 1782; No. 138, p. 48. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 58 (facsimile of the Beggar's Opera).
Recorded sources: