Annotation:Free Mistress (The)

Back to Free Mistress (The)

FREE MISTRESS, THE. English, Country Dance Tune (cut time). D Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. "The Free Mistress" is the name of a period song, and was published on single song sheets, and in the periodical Weekly Amusement (1735, p. 200, as "Song III"). It goes:

In spite of love, at length I find
A mistress that can please me;
Her humour free and unconfin'd,
Both night and day she'll ease me.
No jealous thoughts disturb my mind,
Tho' she's enjoyed by all mankind;
Then drink and never spare it,
'Tis a bottle of good claret.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Wright (Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances), 1740; p. 94.

Recorded sources:

Back to Free Mistress (The)