ABSTRACT
All three musical sources for ‘Collin’s Complaint’ record the vocal melody only, without any accompaniment, in the manner of a broadside. Indeed, the melody to which the lyric is set is in all three cases the same ballad tune, ‘Grim King of the Ghosts’, or ‘The Frantick Lover’, familiar for its use in Air 8 of The Beggar’s Opera. 1 A musical setting of the anonymous reply to Rowe’s lyric, ‘Ye Winds to whome Collin complains’, circulated as a song sheet of the same format, with the music attributed to Handel (probably correctly). 2
