Annotation:Budgeon it is a Delicate Trade (The)

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BUDGEON IT IS A DELICATE/FINE TRADE, THE. AKA and see "Llydaw," "Miller o' Dee." English, Air (6/8 time). G Minor (Chappell): A Minor (Scott). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Chappell (1859) gives that the 'budge' is a particular type of burglar who "slips into houses in the dark, to steal cloaks and other articles near the door." The air appears in the ballad operas The Quakers' Opera (1728), The Fashionable Lady, and Love in a Village (1762), but the song first appeared in The Canting Academy (2nd ed.) of 1674. Scott ascribes the words to Charles Coffey, from his The Devil to Pay, and notes the tune is the "Jolly Miller," further stating: "It is interesting to notice how a cheerful song like 'The Miller of Dee' which this most usually is, can take on such an obligingly tragic ring under the persuasion of Mr. Coffey." There are versions of "The Jolly Miller" that are similar, but not the same tune as "Budgeon/Llydaw/Miller o' Dee."

Tho' ravished from my husband's arms,
To dwell in stench and pain,
I'll break thro' all their Majick charms
And liberty regain.
Then sweet Revenge shall calm my woes,
And every grief asswage;
Whilst all who did my bliss oppose
Shall feel my powerful rage.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time), vol. 2, 1859; p. 124. Scott (English Song Book), 1926; p. 14.

Recorded sources:

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