Annotation:Beaux Delight (The)
X:1 T:Beux [sic] Delight, The M:6/4 L:1/8 N:”Longways for as many as will.” B:John Walsh – Complete Country Dancing-Master, Volume the Fourth B: (London, 1740, No. 108) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:C E3F G2C4c2|B3c d2G4cB|c3d e2A3f e4|d6G6| E3F G2C4c2|B3c d2G4gf|e3f g2G3cB2|c6 C6|| G2E2G2 A2F2A2|G2E2G2 A2F2A2|G2E2G2 A2B2c2|B6G6| d2B2d2 e2c2e2|f2d2f2 g2e2g2|a2g2a2 d2e2f2|e6 c6||
BEAUX DELIGHT, THE. AKA and see "Roger and James." English, Country Dance Tune and Jig (6/4 time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The melody and country dance directions ("Longways for as many as will") were first printed by Henry Playford in the Dancing Master [1], 11th edition, 1701. The dance and tune were retained in the long-running series of Dancing Master editions, through the 18th and final edition of 1728 (which was printed by John Young, heir to the Playford publishing concerns). It also was printed by Walsh and Hare in their The Compleat Country Dancing Master (1718), and in subsequent and various of John Walsh's (Sr. and Jr.) volumes. London musician Thomas Hammersley entered it into his 1790 music manuscript (along with an alternate title, "Roger and James"), and, in America, in the 1721 commonplace book of Ebenezer Parkman (Cambridge, Mass.).
The phrase "Beaux delight" is fairly common, and appears frequently in 18th century literature. It must have been a common compliment to a lady:
No wonder I'm the beaux delight,
The poet's praise, my sex's spite. ... (The Lady's Magazine: Entertaining Companion, for the Fair Sex, 1778)
The dance is mentioned (along with "Roger de Coverly" and "Jumping Joan") in the poem "Edwina" in The Prompter (1734), in the passage:
In open Fields the rustic Lovers meet,
And to the merry Bag-pipe shift their Feet.
Old Roger's Charms the nimble Fair excite,
Or Jumping Joan, perhaps, or Beaux's Delight.
