Annotation:Cupid Disarm'd

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CUPID DISARM'D. English, Jig. A Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune appears in London publisher John Walsh's 24 Country Dances for the year 1717, his Second Book of the Compleat Country Dancing Master (editions of 1719 and 1735) attributed to dancing master Nathaniel Kynaston (1683-1757). It also appears in John Young's Dancing Master, vol. II, 4th ed. (London, 1728). Although very little is known about him, Kynaston appears to have been active from 1705 to about 1722 in the Shropshire/Wales border area. Walsh published some 120 of Kynaston's tunes and dances over several publications. The Selattyn parish register in Shropshire records that a "Nathanial Kynaston, gent., & Mrs. Elizabeth Davies, both of Oswestry" married on August 25th, 1719--although whether this was the dancing master is unknown. Kynaston appears to have been a not uncommon name in Shropshire, and the family includes Sir Humphrey Kynaston, a notorious 16th century highwayman and Robin Hood figure, who preyed on the wool merchants of Shrewsbury.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes, vol. 2), 2005; p. 26.

Recorded sources: Belshazzar's Feast - "Mr. Kynaston's Famous Dance, vol. 1 (2003).




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