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.
Additional notes
Printed sources : - Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes), 1986. Barron, Leber, & Ward (Step Stately - Country Dances for Two and Three Couples from 17th and 18th Century England), CDSS, 1980. Bernard J. Bentley (Fallibroome 3), 1968.
