SOURCE: "The Gentle Shepherd," in Society and the Lyric: A Study of the Song Culture of Eighteenth-Century Scotland, Scottish Academic Press, 1979, pp. 70-96.

In the following excerpt, Crawford examines the political and social context and implications of The Gentle Shepherd.

According to Ramsay's own statement The Gentle Shepherd was written in the years 1724 and 1725. When the first edition came out in 1725 there were only four songs, "Peggy, now the King's come", II, iii; the duet between Patie and Peggy, "By the delicious warmness of thy mouth", II, iv; Bauldy's snatch of song, "Jenny said to Jocky, 'Gin ye winna tell'", IV, i; and the conclusion to the whole work, Peggy's "My Patie is a lover gay". Although it is most unlikely, as is sometimes claimed, that the first edition, containing a mere handful of songs, had any influence on The Beggars' Opera, it is nevertheless certain that there...