Annotation:Warwickshire Will

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WARWICKSHIRE WILL. AKA and see "Ye Warwickshire Lads and Ye Lasses." English, Country Dance Tune (whole time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody was first published in Charles and Samuel Thompson’s Compleat Collection, vol. 3 (London, 1773). “Warwichshire Will” is one of the “missing tunes” from Northumbrian musician William Vickers’ music manuscript collection, begun in 1770. The title is from a song called “The Warwickhshire Lad,” probably penned by actor David Garrick, performed at the Stratford Jubilee in 1769 (see note for “Stratford Jubilee”). It goes, in part:

Old Ben, Thomas Otway, John Dryden,
And half a score more we take pride in,
Of famous Will Congreve we boast too the skill,
But the Will of all Wills, was a Warwickshire Will,
Warwickshire Will, Matchless still,
For the Will of all Wills, was a Warwickshire Will.

A popular song, it was printed and reprinted in numerous songsters of the 18th and 19th centuries, such as The Universl Songster, vol. 1 (1825, p. 185).

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Thompson (Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 3), 1773; No. 125.

Recorded sources:

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