Annotation:Franklin is Fled Away

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 FRANKLIN IS FLED AWAY. AKA and see "O hone O hone." English, Air (3/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Chappell (1859) notes this is one of the tunes from which "God Save the King" or, in America, "My Country 'Tis of Thee" is said to have been derived. It appears in Apollo's Banquet for the Treble Violin (1669), Loyal Songs (1685 & 1694), and Pills to Purge Melacholy (1707). As with many such ballad tunes, it was adapted to several lyrics and appears in numerous collections including "A Mournful Caral" (Pepys, Roxburghe, Douce, and Bagford Collections), and "The Two Faithful Lovers" (Bagford Collection), as well as the ballad opera The Jovial Crew (1731) where it appears as "You gallant ladies all." The tune is sometimes known by its burden "O hone, O hone" leading Chappell to speculate that it is derived from an Irish Gaelic lamentation. He quotes Gayton's Festivous Notes upon Don Quixote (1654): "Who this night is to be rail'd upon by the black-skins, in as lamentable noyse as the wild Irish make their O hones." Alhough the tune is sometimes claimed as Scottish, Chappell states it is of English composition. However, "Franklin is Fled Far Away" appears in the Scottish Blaikie Manuscript (no. 27), a collection of lyra-viol music dated 1695. A similar melody was printed in Wales in 1781 (with claims of Welsh provenance) called "Margaret that Lost her Garter" (Kidson, Groves).  Source for notated version:  Printed sources: Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Times), vol. 2, 1859; p. 20.  Recorded sources:

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