Annotation:Wolsey's Wild
X:1 T:Wolsey's Wild M:6/4 L:1/8 S:Chappell – Popular Music of the Olden Times Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:C G2 | c4 G2 E2C2F2 | E3F G2 D4G2 | c4G2 E2C2E2 | D3C D2C4 :| E3F G2 G4G2 | A3Bc2 B4G2 | E3F G2 C4G2 | A3B c2 B6 || || E2G4F2A4 | E2G4D2F4 | E2G4 F2A4 | E4D2 C6 ||
WOLSEY'S WILD. AKA and see "Wilson's Wild(d)," "Quoth John to Joan." English, Dance Tune (6/4 time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. This early seventeenth century popular dance air appears under this and other titles in several lute and virginal books, including the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (No. 157) and the Folger Dowland Manuscript (c. 1600). The 'Wolsey' title is thought to refer to Cardinal Wolsey, the powerful advisor to King Henry VIII, but appears to be a later re-naming of "Wilson's Wild." Merryweather notes the earliest record of the tune was when it was used as the vehicle for a ballad called "The Queenes visiting of the Campe at Tilsburie with her entertainment there," which commemorated Queen Elizabeth I's famous "heart and stomach of a King" speech before her mustered militia on August 10th, 1588 (old calender). The ballad was published barely twenty-four hours after the event. Composer William Byrd set the tune in 1623 as one of his 14 Pieces for Keyed Instruments. The tune appears as "Wilson's Wild" in John Playford's Musick's Delight on the Cithren (1666) and, as "Wilson's Wile," in William Ballet's Lute Book (c. 1610).