Annotation:Was not that Provoking

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WAS NOT THAT PROVOKING. AKA – "Now, was that not provoking?" English, Air and Country Dance (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The air is to a song by Thomas Hook, sung at Vauxhall Gardens by Mrs. Wrighten. The lyric was published in Kimber's London Magazine; or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer (August, 1781, p. 395) and begins:

For twice twelve moons had Harry sued,
With down cast looks and sighing,
Yet never caught me in the mood,
For softness or complying;
'Till told by Phillis of the grove,
(And she I hop'd was joking.)
Her sister Susan heard his love,
Now was not that provoking?

The London Budget of Wit; or, A Thousand Notatable Jests () printed the following annecdote about the Vauxhall performer:

Mrs. Wrighton being one day rather indesposed with a cold, her husband came into the parlour where she was practising and air for Vauxhall, and observing a phial of physic which she had before said she had taken, he flung it at her head with great fury. A gentleman in the neighbourhood, mentioning the cruelty of it some time afterwards to a friend, he very drily observed—He could not see any great impropriety in the affair; Mrs. W. was singing, and Mr. W. only accompanied her with the viol.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Skillern (Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1782), p. 1.

Recorded sources:

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