Annotation:Smirking Nan
X:1 T:Smirking Nan N:”The words by Mr. Allan Ramsay.” M:C L:1/8 R:Air B:Apollo’s Banquet; or, The Muses Delight (London, 1756, p. 147) F: https://vmirror.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/9/90/IMSLP100881-PMLP207040-apolloscabinet_vol1_songs_muses_delight.pdf Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Dmin (FG)|A3c (Ac) (AG)|F2 (ED) D2 CD|F3G (AB) (cA)|d2 (GA) G2 (FG)| A2 (A/B/c) (BA) (GF)|G2A2 f3e|d3c (Ac) (GA)|d2 (D>F) D2|| AB|c3d c2 (BA)|f2 c2c2 (fe)|d3e (fe) (fg)|(ag) (fe) d3 (c/B/)| A2f2 (cA) GF|G2A2 f3e|d2 (cB) (Ac) (GA)|d2 (D>F) D2||
SMIRKING NAN. AKA – “Poor Walley's Complaint.” English, Air (cut time). D Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. A popular song from the mid 18th century. It appeared in the London Magazine (1751, p. 228), and Allan Ramsays’s The Muses Delight (1754). It was also issued on broadsides with the title “Smirking Nan, or Poor Walley’s Complaint.” The name was earlier used for a racehorse, Marksman’s “Smirking Nan”, recorded as having been sent to Ireland in 1748. She was still racing in April of 1754, losing the Sportsman’s Purse at the Curragh to “Trunnion”. Dance versions appear in Johnson’s Choice Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 5 (1750), and Walsh’s Compleat Country Dancing Master, vol. 5 (1754, p. 64). The air was included in the late 18th century manuscript copybook of Henry Livingston, Jr. Livingston purchased the estate of Locust Grove, Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1771 at the age of 23. In 1775 he was a Major in the 3rd New York Regiment, which participated in Montgomery’s invasion of Canada in a failed attempt to wrest Montreal from British control. An important land-owner in the Hudson Valley and a member of the powerful Livingston family, Henry was also a surveyor and real estate speculator, an illustrator and map-maker, and a Justice of the Peace for Dutchess County. He was also a musician and presumably a dancer, as he was elected a Manager for the New York Assembly’s dancing season of 1774-1775, along with his 3rd cousin, John Jay, later U.S. Chief Justice of Governor of New York.
Oh! Wae is me poor Walley cry’d…