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Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, Volume 1, Issue 5, Page 10

Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, Volume 1, Issue 5, Page 10
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periodical Publisher
Irish Folk Song Society
periodical Editor
[Periodical]
periodical Title
Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society
volume Number
1
issue Content
18Grim, King of the Ghosts, make hasteAnd bring hither all your train;See how the pale moon does Waste,And just now is in the wane.Many poets wrote verses to fit this tune, and it became quite a political vehicle; butthere is no proof that it originally was an Irish air, though Balfe arranged it for MadameVestri .GRIM, KING OF GHOSTS.e -z z iijThe next air in the Beggars Opera ha Mr. Grattan Flood claims to be Irish isOf all the simple things we do. This was a favourite with an Irishman namedThomas Doggett, who was an actor, and he put this comical tune to the words thatThomas DLTrfey wrote for the play of The Country Wake, printed in 1696.This same Doggetts name is well known to the Thames watermen, as he left a sumof money with coat and badge to be rowed for every year, and the Doggett coat race isone of the chief excitements on the river.In Playfords Dancing Master the air is called, Old Hob; or, The Mouse Trap.There is a slight difference in the Playford version in the last bar of the first part.* i19The tune in the Beggars Opera, XXI., called Would you court a young Virginof Sixteen Years, is an old dance called a Maggot, and is printed in several dance-books, from whence the authors of this Opera must have extracted it. There is no traceof its having had an Irish origin. In Charles II.s reign Tom DUrfey wrote the wordsof Would you court, &c., for his play, Modern Prophets, and used this tune whichwas then an old one, for it. It is to be found in The Compleat Country DancingMaster, printed in London by J. Walsh in 1719; and in early editions of John Play-fords Dancing Master, which is a valuable store, and has descriptions of how thefigures are to be performed in the dance. In these books it is called, Would you courta young Virgin; or, Poor Robins- Maggot, and is danced by four couples as followsThe first man and second woman meet and gire a jwnp.The second man and the first woman do the same, then all four take hands and goround. The first couple slide up into their own places, meet and kiss, and then castoff, &c.This is an English dance, and not an Irish jig, though Mr. Gratton Flood claimsit as such.The air is Of such a simple character that it can be played on two chords, whichshows an early origin. In the Lancers Quadrille it is called, La Native, which givesit a French flavour, and lets us see that it had found its way across the Channel. Aquadrille was originally a game of cards played by tour couples of men and women,and was popular both in France and England.%mL4 ay I/%f , z- r-A/-f . 4 . - flj rJj r_Lr I C r rh t..Lr r 1 irJ_r U_rir rr ltSJrIJ r Si (I C-1 lt!t_LfI rThe air XXXVI. is marked irish Trot, but it seems here to. have been altered agood deal from the Irish Trot which is in the older book of the Playfords Dancing
issue Number
5
page Number
10
periodical Author
[Periodical]
issue Publication Date
1967-01-01T00:00:00
allowedRoles
anonymous,guest,friend,member

Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, Volume 1, Issue 5

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