Annotation:Romp (2) (The)

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  ROMP [2], THE. English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. To 'romp' was to engage in boisterous dancing and behavior. The waltz, for example, was introduced in England early in the second decade of the 19th century, though not always welcomed. Even as late as 1820 G. Yates complaied that "the fashionable scamper that has now usurped the name...is nothing in short but an outright romp." The boisterousness was tolerated in some cases, but suppressed in others. "Do not romp in dancing" was one of the many admonitions in Rules of Etiqutte & Home Culture (1886). The Rev. George Griffin Stonestreet complained in 1815 of the Duchess of Richmond's ball the night before the Battle of Quatre Bras: ''Whenever they get together the severest etiquette is present. The women on entering always salute on each side of the cheek;'' ''they then set [sic] down as stiff as waxworks. They begin a ball with a perfect froideur they go on with their dangerous waltz'' (in which all the Englishwomen join) and finish with the gallopade, a completely indecent and violent romp. The country dance version of the melody was first printed in John Walsh's Third Book of the Compleat Country Dancing-Master (London, 1735 & 1749), followed by inclusion in Henry Carey's The Musical Century, vol. 1 (1737, p. 28), and Daniel Wright's Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances (1740, p. 97). It was also entered into the music manuscript collection of American flute player Henry Beck (1786). As a song "The Romp [2]" predates the instrumental version. It was written and composed by Henry Carey (along with a second song) and was inserted into the stage comedy The Provok'd Husband; or, A Journey to London (Jan., 1729), started by Sr. John Vanbrugh and left unfinished when he died in 1726. It was completed by Colley Cibber (1671-1757) in 1728. "The Romp" was written for the character Jenny, a young country girl who comes to London with her family to look for a rich husband. It was also issued on period song-sheets. What tho' they call me country lass, I read it plainly in my glass, That for a duchess I might pass, Oh, could I see the day! Would fortune but attend my call, At park, at play, at ring, at ball, I'd brave the proudest of 'em all, ''With a stand by, ... clear the way!'' Surrounded by a crowd of beaux, With smart toupets and powder'd cloathes, At rivals I'll turn up my nose, Oh, could I see the day! I'll dart such glances from these eyes, Shall make some nobleman my prize, ''And then, ... Oh, how I'll tyrannize!'' ''With a stand by, ... clear the way!'' Oh, then for grandeur and delight, For equipage, for diamonds bright, And flambeaux that outshine the light, Oh, could I see the day! Thus ever easy, ever gay, Quadrille shall wear the night away, And pleasures crown the growing day, ''With a stand by, ... clear the way!''

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