Annotation:King and the Miller (The)

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KING AND THE MILLER, THE. English, Song Air (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. There was a ballad called "The King and the Miller," printed on broadsides and in songsters such as Thomas D'Urfey's Tea Table Miscellany (p. 322). The lyric begins:

How happy a state does the miller possess!
Who wou'd be no greater, nor fears to be less;
On his mill and himself he depends for support,
Which is better than servilely cringing at court.
What tho' he all susty and whit'ned does go,
The more he's bepowder'd, the more like a beau;
A clown in his dress may be honester far,
Than a Courtier who struts in his Garter and Star.

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