Georgian Musical page print, Moor of Moor Hall, from ‘Hickman’s Musical Entertainer’ 1740

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Georgian engraving,  music page with hand-coloured illustration to the comic opera at the top within rococo frame, titled ‘On Gallant Moor of Moor Hall, sung by Miss Isabella Young’,  beginning “He’s a Man every inch I assure you, stout vig’rous active & Tall…” !

From ‘Hickman’s Musical Entertainer’, published C. Corbett, London 1740

“He’s a Man every inch I assure you, stout vig’rous active & Tall…” !

set in early frame,  38 x 25cm

Condition: frame with some minor losses, the paper has browned, colours are still bright. Displays well.

This is an example of the printed sheets & booklets available for a modest fee in the Georgian period. They could then be used for an evening’s entertainment – pre-TV age ‘pop-culture’.

Moor of Moor Hall was a character in a ‘Burlesque Opera’ by Henry Carey & John Frederick Lampe,  ‘The Dragon of Wantley‘, which was actually the re-telling of a local Yorkshire, Rotherham-area folk tale/ ballad.
Moor / Moore is the hero of the day when he saves a village from a rampaging, child-eating dragon by despatching the marauding beast with a well-aimed ‘Kick on the Back-side’ !
It was first performed at the ‘Little Theatre’ in the Haymarket on 16^th May 1737. While on the surface it’s a comic tale for entertainment, the lyurics are open to interpretation – the Dragon perhaps representing the excesses of a corrupt government, and Moore the hero who defends the common people…. a theme still very active in today’s politics and pop-culture….

This sheet comes from ‘Hickman’s Musical Entertainer’ published by C. Corbett, London, 1740.

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