Annotation:Jovial Beggars (2) (The)

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JOVIAL BEGGARS [2], THE. AKA and see "Jovial Crew (The)," "May Hill," "Restoration of King Charles," "Twenty Ninth of May." English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune appears under the "Jovial Beggars" title in the 9th edition of Henry Playford's Dancing Master (1698, second section, p. 41). However, the tune had earlier appeared under a similar title, "Jovial Crew (The)" in Playford's Apollo's Banquet for the Treble Violin (editions of 1670 and 1678). Under this same 'Crew' title, it was printed in the 7th edition of the Dancing Master (1686). That the tune was used early for dances is attested to by a reference in Roxburghe Ballads (7, pp. 342-44):

The Piper he stuck up and Merrily he did play,
The shakeing of the sheets, and eke the Irish hay
Then up with Aley, Aley, Up with Priss and Prue;
In came wanton Willy, amongst the jovial crew.

To a merry Scotch tune, or Up with Aley, Aley, & c.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Barlow (Complete Country Dances from Playford's Dancing Master), 1985; No. 258, p. 66. Kidson (Old English Country Dances), 1890.

Recorded sources:

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