The water doctor (Anonymous)
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- (Posted 2013-05-13) CPDL #29123:
- Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2013-05-13). Score information: A4, 4 pages, 76 kB Copyright: Personal
- Edition notes: This edition comprises a modern realisation, and a statement of the piece in its original specialized format. Please click on the link for preview/playback/PDF download.
General Information
Title: The water doctor
Composer: Anonymous
Lyricist: Anonymous , probably the composer
Number of voices: 3vv Voicing: TTT
Genre: Secular, Glee
Language: English
Instruments: A cappella
First published:
Description: Published without attribution in Warren's twenty-sixth collection of glees and catches.
This is one of those catches that is more lubricious in performance than the anodyne lyrics might suggest. It illustrates a brief but interesting period in social history: when purveyors of folk remedies (water doctors and cunning men) were accorded respect; when inoculation was still a folk remedy, yet to be established as an efficacious technique by Jenner; when the introduction of an item of armour was widely (but erroneously) credited to a specific personage; and when that innovator's name would, amongst the ton, be pronounced as "the Duke of Cundum".
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
"O great and learned doctor, to you from far I'm come,
To bring my daughter's water; Alas, poor girl, she's dumb."
"Oh ho, is she so? I'll soon prescribe a charm;
The girl must have a prick, sir, in the arm."
"I humbly thank your honour, she'll not dislike the plan.
Oh, what should we have done without a cunning man?"