Annotation:Heiress (2) (The)
X:1 T:Heiress [2], The M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Country Dance B:Samuel, Ann & Peter Thompson -- Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 5 (1788, p. 19) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:A A2A AEA|cAc ece|agf edc|BcA GFE| A2A AEA|cAc ece|fga gfe|Tf3 e3:| |:ece dBd|cAc BGB|Aba gfg|aed cBA| ece dBd|cAc BGB|Aba gfg|a3 A3:|]
HEIRESS [2], THE. English, Country Dance Tune or Jig (6/8 time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The Heiress (London, 1786) a comedy in five acts and the most famous work by John "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne, the British general turned playwright, who had been defeated by the American army at Saratoga in 1777. Burgoyne also wrote political satire. The play was regarded by contemporaries and later critics as an authentic depiction of upper-class society of the period, and met with enthusiastic popular success. "The Heiress" ran for thirty performances at London's Drury Lane Theatre Royal in 1786, and remained popular in England and on the Continent for half a century; it also went through ten published editions in a year.
Lord, sir, nothing so easy as to bring every living creature in this town to the window; a tame bear, or a mad ox; two men, or two dogs fighing; a balloon in the air (or tied up to the ceiling, 'tis the same thing); make but noise enough, and out they come, first and second childhood childhood, and everything between.
Prompt to Lord Gayville in The Heiress' (1786), Act 1, Scene 2.
The tune was entered in the mid-19th century music manuscript of William Winter (1774-1861), a shoemaker and violin player who lived in West Bagborough in Somerset, southwest England. It is identical to the Thompson's printed version.
