Annotation:Happy Dick

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HAPPY DICK. English, Country Dance Tune (2/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. The melody also appears in John Walsh's Third Book of the Compleat Country Dancing-Master (London, 1735, p. 40, and in the subsequent edition of 1749). "Happy Dick" also appears on songsheets, although there appears to be two different airs the song was set to, both appearing in one or another publication. The song (printed in Calliope) begins:

Whence comes it, neighbor Dick,
That you with youth uncommon,
Have served the girls this trick
And married an old woman?
Happy Dick!

Each belle condemns the choice
Of a youth so gay and sprightly;
But we, your friends, rejoice,'
That you have judged so rightly;
Happy Dick!

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Wright (Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances), 1740; p. 12.

Recorded sources:

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