Annotation:Spanish Lady's Love for an English Gentleman (The)
X:1 T:Spanish Lady, The L:1/8 M:3/4 S:Chappell – Popular Music of the Olden Times Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:A EA|G3 A BB|c/B/ A3 AG|F3E FG|A4 EA|G3A BB|c/B/ A3 AG| F3E FG|A3 A/B/ ce|Dc BA cd|e3 A/B/ ce|dc BA cB|A4||
SPANISH LADIES LOVE (FOR AN ENGLISH GENTLEMAN), THE. AKA - "The Spanish Lady." English, Air (3/4 time). C Major (Merryweather): A Major (Chappell, Kines). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (Chappell, Kines): AA'BB' (Merryweather). The tune dates from the late 16th century, state both Chappell (1859) and Merryweather (1989), apparently on the strength that it metrically matches the first line of a ballad of that time published by "the prolific" Thomas Deloney, which goes: "Will you heare a Spanish Lady, how she wooed an Englishman?" They also cite the 18th century Bishop Thomas Percy who alleged the the ballad "took its rise from one of those descants made on the Spanish coast in the time of Queen Elizabeth and, in all likelihood, from the taking of Cadiz" (which occurred in June, 1596). The ballad was entered at Stationers' Hall to William White in 1603 and the song appears in the [George] Skene Manuscript (c. 1615 or 1620), Percy's Reliques, and, on the stage, in The Quaker's Opera (1728). Kines (1964) reports the 'Englishman' protagonist in the song has variously been identified as being Sir Richard Levison, Sir John Bolle, and a gentleman of the Popham family.
