BURLESQUE, THE. AKA - "Burlesque Jig, The." AKA and see "Monmouth Assembly," "Powderham Castle." English, Jig (6/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody appears unique under this title to London publisher Charles and Samuel Thompson's 1757 country dance collection. "The Burlesque" also appeared in Edinburgh music publisher Neil Stewart's Select Collection of Scots, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, Jiggs and Country Dances (1788, p. 135). It was the source for Boston music publisher Elias Howe when he reprinted the tune a century later (along with a number of other tunes from Stewarts Select Collection vol. 3). The exact same tune appears elsewhere under other names: Straight and Skillern called it "Monmouth Assembly" and it appears in Jamie Knowles modern collection Northern Frisk (1988) as "Powderham Castle."
Additional notes
Printed sources : - Elias Howe (Musician’s Omnibus Nos. 6 & 7), Boston, 1880-1882; p. 603. Neil Stewart (Select Collection of Scots, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, Jiggs and Country Dances), 1788; p. 135. Thompson (Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 1), 1757; No. 115.
