"Mage on a Cree" is an English Country Dance tune in 6/8 time and G Dorian mode. The parts are played AA. The tune appears in the first edition of John Playford's English Dancing Master (1651). It continued to be published as "Mage on a Cree" until the 4th edition of 1670, when the title was altered to "Mage on a Tree". The 'Mage' version of the title was retained through the 7th edition of 1686. In the 8th through 16th editions the title was altered again, to "Madge on a Tree" and in the final editions of the Dancing Master it appears as "Madge on a Tree; or Margery Cree". The melody was also published by the Walshes, in The Compleat Country Dancing Master (editions of 1718, 1731 and 1754). The title has not been definitively explained, although it may have been a corruption of an Irish word or phrase. It has nothing to do with the mostly Canadian Native-American tribe, the Cree. It was printed in Barlow's Complete Country Dance Tunes from Playford's Dancing Master (1985), Barnes' English Country Dance Tunes (1986), Fleming-Williams's English Dance Airs; Popular Selection, Book 1 (1965), Raven's English Country Dance Tunes (1984), Sharp's Country Dance Tunes (1994) and Walsh's Complete Country Dancing-Master, Volume the Fourth (1740).