Annotation:Courtiers Courtiers

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X:1 % T:Courtiers Think it No Harm M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Air Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Emin G2E G2A | B>cB E2F | G>AB e2B | G2 F/E/ E3 :| e/f/ |g>fe ^d2e | e2E E2F | G>AB d2B | d2B A2F | G>AB e2B | G2F/E/ E2 ||



COURTIERS, COURTIERS (THINK IT NO HARM). AKA and see "King of Poland (The)." English, Air (6/8 or 6/4 time). E Minor (Gay, Howe): D Minor (Chappell). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The air appears in John Gay's Beggar's Opera (1729) under the title "Man may escape from rope and gun," and in Playford's Dancing Master , 7th edition (1686) as "The King of Poland." It is also on early half-sheet music and broadsides and in Thomas D'Urfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy (London, 1719), under the title "The Beggar's Delight." It begins:

Courtiers, courtiers, think it no harm,
That silly poor swains in love should be;
For love lies hid in rags all torn,
As well as silks and bravery:
For the beggar he loves his lass as dear
As he that hath thousands, thousands, thousands,
He that hath thousand pounds a year.


Additional notes

Source for notated version: -

Printed sources : - Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Times), vol. 2, 1859; p. 60. Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; p. 166. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 58.

Recorded sources: -



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