Annotation:I'll tell thee Dick where I have been

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I'LL TELL THEE, DICK, WHERE I HAVE BEEN. English, Air (3/4 time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One Part. Chappell (1859) reveals that this "celebrated" ballad by Sir John Suckling was occasioned by the marriage of Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery, and Lady Margaret Howard, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk. The tune appears in Loyal Songs (1685) and Pills to Purge Melancholy (1699 & 1707), while the words can be found in Wit's Recreation (1654), Merry Drollery Complete (1661), Antidote to Melancholy (1661), The Convivial Songster (1782), Ritson's Ancient Songs, and Ellis' Specimens of Early English Poets. Numerous songs were written to the tune including "The Cavalier's Complaint," "An Echo the the Cavalier's Complaint," "Upon Sir John Suckling's 100 Horse," "Three Merry Boys of Kent," "A Ballad on a Friend's Wedding", and "A Christmas Song."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Times), vol. 2, 1859; pp. 43-44.

Recorded sources:




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