Annotation:Nancy the Pride of the East (1)

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NANCY THE PRIDE OF THE EAST [1]. Irish, Air (3/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. An early 19th century broadside ballad [Roud 2345]. It begins:

One day, as I chanced for to rove,
When Phoebus shone clear from the East,
And down by a sweet shady grove,
Where the feather'd fowl stray'd from their nest,
I espied a fair maid all alone,
As the fond bird had lull'd her to rest--
A girl just the age of sixteen,
Call'd Nancy, the pride of the East.

Robert Dwyer Joyce penned a song "Mary, the Pride of the West" to the tune of "Nancy, Pride of the East", printed in his volume Ballads of Irish Chivalry (Boston, 1872). Robert was the brother of Irish antiquarian Patrick Weston (P.W. Joyce), and was a poet and physician who practiced for much of his career in Boston, returning to Ireland in his age and infirmity.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Roche (Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 1), 1912; No. 57, p. 28.

Recorded sources:

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