Annotation:Poyntin's Maggot
X:1 T:Poyntin's Maggot M:6/4 L:1/8 R:Country Dance B:Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances (1740, p. 71) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:A A6 E6|C3D E2 A,4A2|D4B2 E4c2|F2e2c2 B6:| |:e2|a6 e6|c3d e2 A4f2|G4e2 F4d2| E2c2A2 B2G2E2|F2A2C2 B,2B2^G2|A6 A4:|
POYNTIN'S MAGGOT. English, Country Dance Tune and Jig (6/4 time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody was printed by London publisher John Walsh in his Second Book of the Compleat Country Dancing Master, 3rd edition (1735), reprinted in 1749. It was also published by John Johnson in Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances (1740, p. 71).
There is a town called Poyntin in Cheshire (coincidently a premier English Country Dance venue in modern times), although it is unclear if it is associated with this tune. Maggot in this context means a trifle, fancy, caprice, or whim, perhaps from the Italian Maggiolata or Italian May song, or, as Emmerson (1972) suggests, from the Italian maggioletta, meaning a plaything.
