Let the Toast Pass (Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen)

DESCRIPTION: "Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen, Now to the widow of fifty, Here's to the flaunting establishment quean, And here's to the housewife that's thrifty. Let the toast pass, Drink to the lass...." The singer toasts all women, whatever their station
AUTHOR: Words: Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816)
EARLIEST DATE: 1777 ("The School for Scandal," according to Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 744, "Let the Toast Pass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24401
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(131), "Here's to the maiden of blushing fifteen," R. and W. Dean and Co. (Manchester), c. 1805; also Harding B 19(30), "Here''s to the maiden of blushing fifteen," unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.15(173), "Here's to the maiden of blushing fifteen," unknown, n.d.
SAME TUNE:
What Did You Join the Army For? (File: BrPa045A)
NOTES [203 words]: Very popular as a poem, and widely reprinted. Traditional? I'm not so sure. But Steve Roud gave it a number, and the tune has been used for at least one traditional song, so I'm putting it here to help you find it.
In "The School for Scandal," it is sung by Sir Toby Bumper with chorus (Charles Surface, Careless, and unnamed gentlemen). It is in Act III, Scene III.
Despite the broadside title "Here's to the maiden of blushing fifteen," every authoritative text of Sheridan' play that I've seen gives the opening line as "Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen." Nonetheless, Sheridan reportedly revised the play several times, and there was no authorized version published, so it is possible that the "blushing" version was used somewhere or other.
The earliest dated account of the song in the field seems to be that of Laura Ingalls Wilder, who reports her father singing it in 1883 or so (These Happy Golden Years, chapter 18, "The Perry School"). Allegedly Charles Ingalls changed the words to "Here's to the maiden of bashful sixteen," since Laura was sixteen at the time. Does this imply traditional currency? As with all things Laura quotes, it's hard to be sure, since she was writing sixty years later. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: CPMLtTPa

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