Guitar music in London, 1730

[Dr. Christopher Page]

Dear All,

Can anyone help with a curious reference of 1730 to guitar music? Any suggestions gratefully rerceived.

In John Mottley’s comedy, The Widow Bewitch’d, published in 1730, one of the principal characters is an elderly lady, ‘a whimsical, talkative old Woman; a great Admirer of the manners of the last Age’. Much of the humour in the play arises from her being wholly out of date in her tastes and opinions. At one point, she offers to entertain Stanza, ‘a Fop of good Estate and Pretender to Poetry’, with music. She says:

 

 "I’m resolv’d, Cousin Stanza, to send for my guitar to Town, on purpose that you may hear me play Huntly’s Chimes, and the hundred and thirteenth Psalm; then there’s old Gautier’s Sarabande and Price’s Gavott, are good pretty things".

Gautier is no problem, I imagine (though I have no idea whether a particular piece by one of the two Gautiers is meant) but does anybody know recognise Huntley's Chimes Price’s Gavott?