Annotation:Splendid Shilling (The)
X: 1 T:The Splendid Shilling C:Unknown, 1790-1800 S:Colin Hume's website, colinhume.com - chords can also be printed below the stave. Q:3/8=120 M:6/8 L:1/8 F:http://www.john-chambers.us/~jc/music/abc/mirror/Colin_Hume/20180912-Colin_Hume_tunes.abc K:G P:A1 D | "G"G3 BGB | "D7"c2A F2D | "G"G3 BGB | "G7"d2B GAB | "C"c2e "D7"A2c | "G"B2d "Em"G2B | "Am"A2B "C"c2B | "D7"ABG FED | P:A2 "G"G3 BGB | "D7"c2A F2D | "G"G3 BGB | "G7"d2B GAB | "C"c2e "D7"A2c | "G"B2d "Em"G2B | "Am"AcB "D"AGF | "G"G3 G2d || P:B "G"g3 dcB | "Am"cBc "D"dfa | "G"g3 dBd | "Am"ecA "D"A2d | "Em"g2a bag | "D"f2g afd | "A7"egf ed^c | "D"d3 dcB | "C"c2d edc | "G"B2c dcB | "Am"A2B "C"c2B | "D7"ABG FED || P:A3 "G"G3 BGB | "D7"c2A F2D | "G"G3 BGB | "G7"d2B GAB | "C"c2e "D7"A2c | "G"B2d "Em"G2B | "Am"AcB "D"AGF | "G"G3 G2 |]
SPLENDID SHILLING, THE. English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'BC. The tune dates to c. 1790, however, the title is much older and belongs to a poem by John Phillips (d. 1708) written around the turn of the 18th century. It was first appeared in Charles Gildon's A New Miscellany of Poems (1701). It begins:
Happy the Man, who void of Cares and Strife,
In Silken or in Leathern Purse retains
A splendid Shilling: he nor hears with pain
New Oysters cry'd, nor sighs for cheerful Ale;
But with his Friends, when nightly Mists arise,
To Juniper's, or Magpye, or Town-Hall repairs:
Where mindful of the Nymph, whose wanton Eye
Transfix'd his Soul, and kindled Amorous Flames,
Chloe or Phillis; he each Circling Glass
Wisheth her Health, and Joy, and equal Love.
Juniper's, Magpye and the Town-Hall were Oxford taverns.
