Annotation:King's Complaint

Back to 

 KING'S COMPLAINT. AKA and see "Fain I Would." English, Country Dance Tune (6/4 time). D Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The tune appears under this title in Elizabeth Rogers' Virginal Book. Chappell (1859) was of the opinion that this tune was considerably older than the mid-17th century, when it appears in publications, and offers as proof the widely differing variants in Elizabeth Rogers' MS and Playford's Dancing Master. "In all probablility," remarks Chappell, "it was origianlly a dance tune to which was adapted the ballad, now lost, of 'Fain I Would'" (p. 295). A ballad called "Parthenia" was later sung to the tune (albeit not the "Parthenia" that is to be found in Playford's Musick's Delight on the Cithren, 1666).  Source for notated version:  Printed sources: Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Times), vol. 1, 1859; p. 295.  Recorded sources:

Back to