Come Lasses and Lads (2)

 COME LASSES AND LADS [2]. English, Air (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The earliest copy that Chappell (1859) finds of this ballad, "still popular" at the time he was writing, is in Westminster Drollery (part ii., 1672) where it is titled "The Rural Dance about the May-pole: the tune, the first Figure-Dance at Mr. Young's Bal, in May, '71." By the time Cecil Sharp commented on the song in English Folk Song (1907) it had ceased to be sung in folk tradition. Sharp, a critic of Chappell due to his meddling with traditional tunes through over-editing them, points out that "the modulation to the relative minor at the middle cadence is obviously the addition of a latter day musician." Chappell's song is taken from Pills to Purge Melancholy (vol. iii., 1719). You lasses and lads, take leave of your Dads, And away to the Maypole hie, There ev'rey he has got him a she, And the minstrels standing by. For Willy has got his Gill, and Johnny has his Joan, To jig it, jig it, jig it, jig it, jig it, up and down. Printed source: Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time), vol. 2, 1859; p. 114.

X:1 T:Come Lasses and Lads [2] L:1/8 M:6/8 S:Chappell - Popular Music of the Olden Time (1859) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G d|d>ed B2G|G>AG F>EF|GED G2D|(B,3 B,2)G| G>AG E2E|A>BA F2A|B>^cd d2c|(d3d2)||d|d>ed A2B| (c3 c>)de|dB2 A2G|(F3 F2)f|gd2 ed2|c2B ABc|B>AG G2F|(G3G2)||