Annotation:See what a conquest love has made

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SEE WHAT A CONQUEST LOVE HAS MADE. English, Air (whole time). A Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. A Roxburghe ballad that was much anthologized in the 18th century. Printed in The Cupid, A Collection of Love Songs, in Twelve Parts), 1739; (p. 138-139), and similar songsters, the first three stanzas go:

See what a conquest love has made:
Beneath the myrtle's am'rous shade
The charming fair Corinna lies;
And, melting in desire,
Quenching in tears those flowing eyes
The set the world on fire.

What cannot tears and beauty do!
The youth by chance stood by, and knew
For whome those crystal streams did flow;
And though he ne'er before
To her eyes brightest rays did bow,
Weeps too, and does adore.

So when the heavn'ns, serene and clear,
Gilded with gaudy light appear,
Each craggy rock, and ev'ry stone,
Their native rigour keep;
But when in rain the clouds fall down,
The hardest marbles weep.

Thomas Tudway

The lyric, by Richard Duke (born c. 1660), was set to music by Thomas Tudway and published in Playford's Choice Ayres (1683). Duke, of Cambridge University was a friend of Otway, Dryden, and Creech, and was the translator of classical works in Green and Latin, and the author of a few love-songs. Thomas Tudway (c. 1650-1726) was an English musician, Professor of Music at Cambridge, composer, and compiler of Anglican church music.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Manson (Hamilton’s Universal Tune Book, vol. 2), 1846; p. 16. John Playford (Choice Ayres, vol. iv), 1683; p. 63.

Recorded sources:




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