Annotation:Hyp Doctor (The)
HYP DOCTOR, THE. AKA - "Hip Doctor (The)." AKA and see "Ship Doctor (The)." English, Slip Jig (9/8 time). E Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Peter Kennedy (1999) upgrades the spelling to "Hip Doctor." The tune, however, has some antiquity, first being published in John Johnson's Choice Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 5 (London, 1750, p. 3) as "The Hyp Doctor." It was reprinted by John Walsh in his Compleat Country Dancing-Master, volume the Fifth (London, 1754, p. 65) and in the London Magazine (1751, p. 180). London dancing master Thomas Wilson included it in his Companion to the Ball Room (1816, p. 22), although noted its provenance was "Irish." Jackie Small, editing Irish collector Brendan Breathnach, published it in Ceol Rince na hEirreann, vol. 4 (1996) as "The Ship Doctor."
The title refers not to a physician, but rather to a weekly periodical entitled Hyp-Doctor edited by John Henley and published in the 18th century. It was a pro-Walpole newspaper established in political opposition to another periodical of the period, The Craftsman.