Digital Tradition Mirror

Langolee 3

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Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

Langolee 3

Ye Ladies attend to your juvenile poet,
  Whose labours are always devoted to ye,
Whose ambition it is, and most of you know it,
  To charm all your hearts, with his Langolee.
    Langolee! what sweet vowels compose it,
      It is the delight of each fair maid that knows it
    And she that does not, may with rapture suppose it,
      That Irish shillalee, call'd Langolee.

The loss of our eminent Handel's lamented,
  Yet in this opinion all ladies agree,
That his solos, concertos, and all he invented,
  Could ne'er charm their senses like Langolee.
     Langolee, oh! Handel resign it,
       The contest is vain, you had better decline it;
     For musical ladies thus chose to define it,
     The gamut of music is Langolee.

Ye languishing beauties, with asthma disorder'd,
  If from the consumption you'd wish to be free,
My sweet pretty patients, take this that is order'd,
  The pectoral essence, call'd Langolee.
     Langolee makes a noble decoction,
     'Tis a nice three-square root of true Irish extraction;
     Dear Ladies pray always take for your protection
     That Irish physician, call'd Langolee.

This elixir, this wonderful physic,
  Cure female disorders of every degree;
The young of green-sickness, the old of the phthisic,
  And makes them alert, and as brisk as a bee.
     Langolee! to prevent imposition,
     You'll get it of none but an Irish physician,
     Made up un triangular pills for emission
     That Hibernian coltsfoot, call'd Langolee.

   The song here is from <<The Festival of Anacreon>>, London: L.
Halland, Seventh Edition, 1789. A second 'Seventh Edition,'
without date was published by George Peacock, c 1791, with a few
additional songs. The publisher's names here and the edition
numbers are undoubtably fake. The 'Halland' edition is probably
the second. The actual publisher was undoubtably Wm. Holland,
whose name appears on the frontispieces of both parts of the
'Peacock' edition. A book by Holland, containing several of the
same songs as in <<The Festival of Anacreon>>, and in the same
type and style, will be noted below.

     The song and tune here are both entitled "Langolee." The
tune is actually "New Langolee," which is metrically quite
different from the original "Langolee," and the latter cannot be
the tune for any songs mentioned below. The earliest appearance
of the tune that I have seen is among the nine country dance
tunes used for a comic dance performance in London, <<The Irish
Fair>>, 1772, where it is entitled "New Langolee," and is set too
high for a vocal score. The tune is also on a single sheet song
with music, "Langolee," commencing "There li
Four Country Dances for the Year 1775>>, and several songs were
written to it about that time, one of which, "The Banks of the
Dee", is given as #516 in <<The Scots Musical Museum>>.

WBO
apr00

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!