Annotation:Harlequin Highlander
X:1 T:Harlequin Highlander M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Country Dance B:T. Skillern - Twenty-Four New Country Dances for the Year 1799 (p. 12) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G d|BGG BGG|Bgf edc|cAA cAA|eag fed| cec BdB|cec BdB|FcB AGF|GDB, [G,2G2]:| |:g|(gfe) (dcB)|(edc) (BAG)|cBA GFE|(DEF G2)g| (gfe) (dcB)|(edc) (BAG)|cBA GFE|DEF G2:|]
HARLEQUIN HIGHLANDER. English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The Harlequin Highlander, Or Sawney Bean's Cave was a serio-comic pantomime first performed at Jones's Royal Circus, on Monday 11th June, 1798. It was one of numerous afterpieces featuring the stock Harlequin characters (descended from the Italian comedia dell'arte) known collectively as Harlequinades. 'The Monthly Mirror for July, 1798, reported:
JONES'S ROYAL CIRCUS
The unbounded success of the excellent pantomimes and ballets produced at this theater by Mr. Cross, has induced the manager, with his usual liberality, to allow him a share in the house, for which he is entitled to our unequivocal praise. Since Mr. Jones purchased and embellished this theater, and appointed Mr. Cross his deputy, its prosperity has far exceeded that of any other period, even under the generalship of Palmer.--Black Beard is a very grand spectacle; and the pantomime of Harlequin Highlander, aided by the "light fantastic toe" of Mrs. Wybrown, and the pedantry of Master Blackmore, in Lingo, has for the last month occasioned a complete overflow every evening. Simpson, the Covent Garden Harlequin, has been engaged, and we understand novelty, which has been long in preparation, will shortly be produced.
