Annotation:Love and Friendship
X:1 T:Love and Friendship M:4/4 L:1/8 R:Air B:O'Flannagan - The Hibernia Collection (Boston, 1860, p. 34) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:D de|f2d2d2D2|F2A4 (dc)|B2A2G2F2|E2e4 ef| g2f2e2d2|(cd) e2A2c2|(de) f2 (ef) g2|f2 d4:| |:(fg) a2 a4|(ef) g2 g4|de f2e2d2|cd e2A4| d3c B4|e3d c4|a3g f2 (ed)|A2c2 d4:|]
LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP. AKA and see "Leave off the idle prating," "Steward's Lodge Song." English, Air (4/4 time). C Major (Howe): D Major (O'Flannagan). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The air is quite old and was printed with words as a song ( "Love and Friendship") in John Watts' Musical Miscellany vol. 6 (London, 1735, 40-43), although it apparently predates Watts, as the untitled words (no music) were printed in The Choice: Being a Collection of Two Hundred and Fifty Celebrated Songs, vol. 1 (London, 1729, p. 180). It continued to be anthologized in songsters throughout the 18th century. Words to the song in the 'Miscellany' begin:
Leave off the idle prating,
Talk no more of Whig and Tory;
But drink your glass,
Round let it pass,
The bottle stands before ye.
Cho:
Fill it up to the top,
Let the night with mirth be crown'd;
Drink about, see it out,
Love and friendship still go round.
If claret be a blessing,
This night devote to pleasure;
Let worldly cares and state affairs,
Be thought on at more leisure.
James Aird printed it as "Steward's Lodge Song" in his Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. II (Glasgow, 1785, No. 24). Fr. John Quinn finds a somewhat distanced version as an untitled tune in the large c. 1883 music manuscript collection (p. 65, No. 217) of fiddler biography:Stephen Grier (c.1824-1894, of Newpark, Bohey, Gortletteragh, Co. Leitrim).
