Annotation:Charming Fellow (The)
X:1 T:Charming Fellow, The M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Country Dance B:Samuel, Ann & Peter Thompson - Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 5 (1788, p. 31) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:D dd g/f/e/d/|c/d/e/f/ eA|dd g/f/e/f/|d2 aa| dd g/f/e/d/|c/d/e/f/ eA|B/c/d/B/ e/d/c/B/|A2 dd:| |:da f/a/f/d/|ce c/e/c/A/|daf/g/a/f/|d2aa| (d/f/)(a/f/) (b/a/)(g/f/)|(g/f/e/d/) (d/c/B/A/)|(B/c/d/e/B/) (e/d/c/B/) |A2 dd:|]
CHARMING FELOW, THE. AKA and see "Corn Riggs." English, Country Dance Tune (2/4 time). The melody is a variant of the venerable air "Corn Riggs are Bonny." "Charming Fellow" was also entered in the mid-19th century music manuscript of William Winter (1774-1861), a shoemaker and violin player who lived in West Bagborough in Somerset, southwest England, and in the 1788 music copybook of Ensign Thomas Molyneaux (Shelburne, Nova Scotia), of the 6th Regiment.
A version of the tune was the vehicle for a song in wikipedia:The_Agreeable _Surprise (London, 1781), a comic opera in two acts, with music composed by Samuel Arnold and the libretto by John O'Keeffe. It was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket (London), in September, 1781. The same stage version was also published in Thomas Cahusac's Compleat Tutor for the German Flute (1788, p. 34). The words go:
Lord! what care I for mam or dad?
why let them, scold and bellow;
For while I live I'll love my lad,
He's such a charming fellow.
The last fair-day, on yorder-green,
The youth he danc'd so well O!
So spruce a lad was never seen,
As my sweet charming fellow.
The fair over night was come,
The lad was some what mellow;
Says he my dear, I'll see you home —
I thank'd the charming fellow.
We trudg'd along the moon shone bright,
Says he, my sweetest Nelo!
I'll kiss you here by this good night,
Lord what a charming fellow!
You rogue says I, you've stopp'd my breath,
Ye bells ring out my knell O!
Ag in I'd die so sweet a death
With such a charming fellow.
