NANCY OF THE DALE. AKA - "Dear Nancy of the Dale," "My Nancy leaves the rural," "Snug in the Camp." English, Air (whole time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. The tune accompanies a song by playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan [1] (1751-1816) and appeared in his very successful entertainment The Camp[2] (1778, Act II, sc. 1), written with assistance from John ("Gentleman Johnny") Burgoyne and David Garrick. The song was advertised "as sung by Mr. Webster". The lyric goes:
Actress Charlotte Walpole dressed as a soldier for her role in The Camp.
My Nancy quites the rural train A camp's distress to prove, All other ills she can sustain, But living from her love. Yet, dearest, tho' your Soldier's there, Would not your spirits fail, To mark the hardships you must share, Dear Nancy of the dale.
Or should you, love, each danger share, Ah! how shall I secure Your health, 'mid toils which you are born To soothe, but not endure? A thousand perils I must view, A thousand ill assail, Nor must I tremble e'en for you, Dear Nancy of the Dale.
The popular song was published in numerous songsters of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, among them The New Vocal Enchantress (1788), The Vocal Library (1822), The Songster's Companion (1785), and The Busy Bee, or, Vocal Repository (1790).
