Annotation:De'il Take the Wars

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DEIL TAK THE WARS. AKA and see "Devil Take the Wars". English, Scottish, Country Dance Tune (4/4 time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody was printed by Henry Playford in his Second Part of the Dancing Master, a supplement to the 9th edition of the Dancing Master published in London in 1696. It appears in all subsequent Dancing Master editions through the 16th (1716). It was also published by John Walsh in his Compleat Country Dancing Master, editions of 1718, 1731 and 1754. The melody, somewhat altered from the Playford original, appears in the music manuscript collection of musician John Rook (Warerton, 1840), given as "Mark Yonder Pomp of Costly Fashions, or Deil Tak the Wars." While "De'il take the wars" must have been an ancient epithet, Rook's longer title is from a Robert Burns song written in 1795 and set to the melody of "Deil tak the wars," printed by Thomson in the Scots Musical Museum. It begins:

Mark yonder pomp of costly fashion
Round the wealthy, titled bride:
But when compar'd with real passion,
Poor is all that princely pride.
What are the showy treasures?
What are the noisy pleasures?
The gay gaudy glare of vanity and art:
The polish'd jewel's blaze
May draw the wond'ring gaze,
And courtly grandeur bright
The faney may delight,
But never, never can come near the heart.

The song was one of the group of Scots songs sent by Thomson to Ludwig van Beethoven, who arranged a setting for it [6 Songs of Various Nationalities WoO 158c].

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Barlow (Compleat Country Dance Tunes from Playford's Dancing Master), 1985; No. 374, p. 89. Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes, vol. 2), 2005; p. 28.

Recorded sources: Flying Fish FF358, Robin Williamson - "Legacy of the Scottish Harpers." Wildgoose Records Belshazzar's Feast - "Mr. Kynaston's Famous Dance, vol. 2."