Annotation:We've Cheated the Parson (1)
X:1 T:We've Cheated the Parson [1] (Old English) M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig Q:"Moderato" B:Thomas Wilson - A Companion to the Ball Room (London, 1816, p. 92) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G G|dcB cBA|dBA GFG|ABc cBA|d2B G3:| |:d2B d3|e2c e2f|gfe dBG|d2B G3:|]
WE'VE CHEATED THE PARSON [1]. AKA - "Boys and Girls Come Out to Play." AKA and see "Boys and Girls to Play." English, Jig (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. There are two 6/4 or 6/8 melodies called "We've Cheated the Parson." The older one was printed by Henry Playford in Apollo's Banquet: The Second Book in 1691 and appears in numerous ballad operas [see "We've Cheated the Parson (2)"]. A second melody, the subject of this entry, was printed in John Gay's Polly (1729, Air XLVI) and in London publisher John Young's Third Volume of the Dancing Master (1628, under the title "Girls and Boys, come out to play: the new way". It was called "the new way" in Young's volume because the first part of the older tune was abandoned, while the second strain was attached to a different first strain.
