Annotation:Oxfordshire Tragedy (The)

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OXFORDSHIRE TRAGEDY, THE. AKA and see "Miller and his sons (The)." English, Air (3/4 time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The song appears in The Cobblers' Opera (1729), The Village Opera (1729) and Silvia, or the Country Burial (1731, Air XVII). The lengthy ballad (which runs some 44 stanzas), entitled "The Oxfordshire Tragedy; or, The Death of Four Lovers" begins:

Near Woodstock town, in Oxfordshire,
As I walk'd forth to take the air;
To view the fields and meadows round,
Methought I heard a dreadful sound.

Down by a crystal river side,
A gallant bower I espy'd,
Where a fair lady made great moan,
With many a bitter sigh and groan.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time, vol. 2), 1859; p. 153.

Recorded sources:

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