Annotation:My Peggy is a Young Thing

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MY PEGGY IS A YOUNG THING. English, Scottish; Air (whole time). A Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The song "My Peggy is a young thing" was published by Allan Ramsay (1686-1758) who introduced it into his is Gentle Shepherd (1725, Sang 1), a "pastoral comedy," after the success of John Gay's Beggar's Opera with its employment of popular airs and songs. James Oswald printed an instrumental setting of the tune in The Caledonian Pocket Companion book 3 (1743-48).

It begins:

My Peggy is a young thing,
Just entered in her teens,
Fair as the day, and sweet of the May,
Fair as the day, and always gay:
My Peggy is a young thing,
And I'm nae very auld,
Yet weel I'd like to meet her at
The wauking of the fauld.

"My Peggy is a Young Thing" also appears published with music in Orpheus Caledonius (1725), but it appears to be a different tune.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1), 1782; No. 133, p. 47.

Recorded sources: