A-Hunting We Will Go

For the Goodies episode, see Hunting Pink.

"A-Hunting We Will Go"
Song
Published	1777
Composer(s)	Thomas Augustine Arne

A variant of the melody

"A-Hunting We Will Go" is a popular folk song and nursery rhyme composed in 1777 by English composer Thomas Arne.^[1] Arne had composed the song for a 1777 production of The Beggar's Opera in London.^[2]

The a- is an archaic intensifying prefix; compare "Here We Come A-wassailing/Here We Come A-caroling" and lyrics to "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (e.g., “Six geese a-laying”).^{[citation needed]}

See also

• A-Haunting We Will Go (disambiguation), a title play on this song
• "Bye, baby Bunting, Daddy's Gone A-Hunting", a similarly constructed song
• "Ee Aye Addio" - an English football chant to the same tune
• "The Farmer in the Dell" - a song with similar lyrics, content, and music
• "You're in the Army Now" - another song with similar lyrics

References

1. Kelly, Ian (2012). Mr Foote's Other Leg: Comedy, Tragedy and Murder in Georgian London. Pan Macmillan. p. 15.
2. Sexuality in Eighteenth-century Britain. Manchester University Press. 1982. p. 250.