Annotation:Poor Robin's Maggot
X:1 T:Wou'd you have a young Virgin: Or, Poor Robin's Maggot M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Air and Jig B:Young - Second Volume of the Dancing Master, 1st edition (1710) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:F A/B/|cdc cdc|f2c c2 A/B/|cdc cdc|g2c c2A/B/| cdc cdc|f2c g2c|agf cfe|f2F F2:| |:f/g/|agf agf|g2c c2 f/g/|agf agf|b2g g2 f/g/| agf agf|agf bag|abg ede |f2F F2:||
POOR ROBIN'S MAGGOT. AKA and see "Would You have a Young Virgin (of Fifteen Years)," "Set de Vaudreuil 2ème partie." English, Air (6/8 time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. This air with country dance directions ("Longways for as many as will") appears in all four editions of London publisher John Young's Second Volume of the Dancing Master [1] (1710-1728), Thomas D’Urfey’s Pills to Purge Melancholy (vol. 1, 132, 1719), and many ballad operas, including The Generous Freemason (1731) and John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1728, where it appears under the title "If the heart of a man is deprest with cares"). Thomas D'Urfey wrote his song "Would You Have a Young Virgin (of Fifteen Years" for the last act of his work Modern Prophets (1709) and directed it to be sung to the air "Poor Robin's Maggot"; thus, "Poor Robin" is the older name for the tune. In the Dancing Master "Poor Robin's Maggot" is the alternate title, while "Wou'd You have a Young Virgin" is the main title. The tune appears with the titles reversed in John Walsh's Second Book of the Compleat Country Dancing-Master (London, 1719), with "Poor Robin's Maggot" as the main title. Sixteenth and seventeenth century country dance tunes sometimes had the word "maggot" in their titles, perhaps derived from Italian Maggiolatta or Italian May song, but used in England to mean a whim, fancy, plaything, 'trifle'--essentially an 'earworm'.
The tune received a boost in popularity in the next century, when it was incorporated as the third figure ("Native (La)") of the hugely popular set of dances "Lancers Quadrilles." See also Montreal fiddler Joseph Allard's (1873-1947) "Set de Vaudreuil 2ème partie."