784
Ad No
" } c o,
KEEP YOUR CARD IN THIS POCKET
*eop.| same at
otberwise the last borrower
held responsible for 'all imp
tsooka drawn on his card.
> t No boo
J'UBLIC LIBRARY
D DDD1 L453fl3Sfl 7
2 1 OCT
,u|'*UI*l.S
ro
19W
19
8JA0 >
MvB 220c'
8
Stories of Famous Songs
Stories of
Famous Songs
By ""* '
S. J. Adair Fitz-Gerald
In Two Volumes
Vol. I
Illustrated
'All great song has been sincere song"
' RUSKtN
Philadelphia & London
J. B. Lippincott Company
1901
Electrotyfitd and Printed bv
J. S. Lippincotl Company, Philadelphia, [f.H. A
D EDIC ATED
TO MY FRIEND
AND FELLOW-
CRAFTSMAN
S. O. LLOYD
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
INTRODUCTION ..... 9
I. " HOME, SWEET HOME" 19
II. " ROBIN ADAIR AND EILEEN AROON" ... 31
III. " AULD LANG SYNE" , 46
IV. "LA MARSEILLAISE" 61
V. "THE MISTLETOE BOUGH" 77
VI. "EVER OP THEE" 90
VII. "DIE WACHT AM RHEIN," "Difc SCHWERT-
LIED," " KUTSCHKE LlED," AND OTHER
GERMAN SONGS . . . 105
VIII. THE ^.STAR-SPANGLED BANNER./' "YANKEE
DOODLE," AND OTHER AMERICAN SONGS . . 121
IX. " AULD ROBIN GRAY," AND "LES CONSTANTES,
AMOURS D'ALIX ET D' ALEXIS" 144
X. "KATHLEEN MAVOURNEEN" AND " KATTY
AVOURNEEN" l6o
XI. "THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER," "THE B.ELLS
OP SHANDON," AND " THE EXILE OF ERIN" 175
XII. CONCERNING SOME FAVOURITE SONGS .... 190
" Blondel," " Annabel Lee," " My Pretty Jane," " The
Lass of Richmond Hill," " Sally in our Alley," " The
Roast Beef of Old England," " Hearts of Oak," and
" Rule Britannia."
5
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
CHAP. PAGE
XIII. HENRY RUSSELL'S SONGS AND OTHERS ... 211
"Woodman spare that Tree/' " Cheer, Boys, Cheer,"
" A Good Time Coming," " A Life on the Ocean Wave,"
"Come where my Love lies Dreaming-," " Rest, Trou
bled Heart," "The Gypsy Countess," and "The Beat
ing of my own Heart."
XIV. ABOUT SOME MORE FAVOURITE SONGS . . . 227
"The Postman's Knock," "Rousseau's Dream,"
"The Old Hundredth," "The Savoy," "There is a
Happy Land," "Little Drops of Water," "The Vicar
of Bray," " Lilhburlero," " Ye Manners of England,"
"Ye Gentlemen of England," "Excelsior," "The Old
Clock on the Stairs," and "The Village Blacksmith."
ILLUSTRATIONS
VOL. I.
PAGE
REV. SAMUEL FRANCIS SMITH .... Frontispiece
Author of "America"
HOME OF JOHN HOWARD PAYNE (AUTHOR OF " HOME,
SWEET HOME"), EAST HAMPTON, LONG ISLAND 22
From the painting by George B Wood
ROUGET DE LISLE SINGING THE "MARSEILLAISE"
FOR THE FIRST TIME 62
From the painting by G Guffens Property of
the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
"OH, NAME THE DAY, THE WEDDING DAY" ... 198
From the painting by "W. Magrath
ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL 234
INTRODUCTION
THIS work is the practical proof of some fifteen
years' agreeable labour in the fields of lyric
literature and song lore. These histories, as far
as possible accurate, of all the world's most
famous and popular songs and ballads, have
been gathered from all sorts of available sources,
books, magazines, and newspapers, and living
representatives and friends of deceased writers.
Many of the particulars as to origin, authorship,
and outcome of several of the ballads and
pieces here appear in print for the first time;
while nothing has been set down without due
investigation and confirmation of the veracity of
the various details and statements. Tracing
the history of a favourite song, though interest
ing and enchanting, is no easy task. You may
have to turn over a score books without gain
ing any reliable knowledge whatever. You
cannot take a song and run it to earth, so to
speak ; the truth must slowly accumulate and
grow. In writing these Stories of Famous
Songs I have consulted every possible authority,
every likely work biographies, histories, re-
9
INTRODUCTION
miniscences, and collections of songs and have
done my utmost to make the information
absolutely authentic and trustworthy. I have,
during the period I have had the work in hand,
referred to many hundred sources, and have left
no possible or probable clue untouched in order
to make the history and origin of our best
known and most beloved songs complete. To
give a list of the writers and the works and the
papers, manuscript and printed, that I have laid
under contribution, would be to fill pages ; but
throughout the different chapters I mention most
of the authorities to whom I may have been
mostly indebted, and to all I tender my thanks :
to the writers known and unknown and to
many friendly correspondents who have assisted
me in my searches and in the compilation of my
facts.
Of course there are dozens of songs-
familiar friends to hundreds of people that will
not be found in this volume. If there is no
history of any moment connected with the com
position of any particular song, it is impossible
to tell one. Now and then I have made passing
reference to some famous production whose
origin lies buried in obscurity, but for the most
part I have confined myself to the pleasure of
relating the stories of such lays and lyrics as
10
INTRODUCTION
were written under some romantic, pathetic, or
entertaining circumstances. Though many a
favourite song may be missing from these pages,
I do not think that one, with which there is
any history associated as to its inception and
birth, has been omitted that is, not any cele
brated effusion.
While aiming all the time at accuracy and
truth as to the development of the world's
famous musical ballads, my object has been to
produce, not so much a pedantic reference guide
or dictionary for the library, as an entertaining,
amusing, and instructive work that shall appeal
to the hearts and sympathies of all true lovers
of songs with music.
In dealing with the Irish and the Scottish
sections I have striven to be just to each*
When selected portions of the " Stories" were
appearing in " Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper," I
was assailed quite violently by certain Scottish
gentlemen, who were highly indignant with me
for various statements I made as to who wrote
and who did not write particular songs that
had generally been accepted as having been
born in Scotland. But nobody has yet proved
that abuse is either argument or logic, and as
I have found no reason to alter the views I
originally expressed, they remain exactly as I
INTRODUCTION
first wrote them down, except in one or two
instances where I have been enabled to
strengthen my convictions.
With the sore point that has long vexed the
patriotic pride of Hibernia and Caledonia as to
the nationality of the music of many old ballads
I have nothing to do; but as some modern
Scottish writers are apt to claim most of the
ancient airs as springing from their own country
or countrymen, I venture to quote from a letter
written by Robert Burns to his friend and
publisher Thomson in 1793, when a National
Collection of Scottish Songs was in progress.
"Your Irish airs are pretty, but they are
downright Irish. If they were like the ' Banks
of Banna' for instance, though really Irish, yet
in the Scottish taste, you might adopt them.
Since you are so fond of Irish music, what say
you to twenty-five of them in an additional
number ? We could easily find this quantity of
charming airs : I will take care that you shall
not want songs ; and I assure you you would
find it the most saleable of the whole." While
Thomson admits in a letter to Burns, February
5th, 1796, the high quality of Irish melodies, he
annexes them, at the same time reconciling him
self to the act of spoliation in this way :
" We have several true-born Irishmen on the
12
INTRODUCTION
Scottish list, but they are now naturalized and
reckoned our own good subjects. Indeed, ive have
none better"
For the rest, I have been impartial and given
honour where I have honestly believed or dis
covered it to be due.
In treating of the history and origin of these
Famous Songs, not only of our own country
but of other lands, it has seemed inevitable that
I should begin with " Home, Sweet Home,"
and end with the much-discussed " God Save
the King." It also seems imperative that I
should refer to that frequently quoted Fletcher
of Saltoun. and his well-worn aphorism about
making the ballads of a country. " Poets," as
Emerson has finely said, " should be lawgivers ;
that is, the boldest lyric inspiration should not
chide or insult, but should commence and lead
the civil code and the day's work." It was in
reference to this class of song that Fletcher of
Saltoun, in his "Account of a Conversation
concerning the right Regulations of Govern
ments for the common good of mankind," ut
tered his famous dictum, or rather repeated it,
to the Earl of Montrose, in 1703 : " The poorer
sort of both sexes," he exclaimed, " are daily
tempted to all manner of wickedness by infa
mous ballads sung in eveiy corner of the streets.
13
INTRODUCTION
I know," he continues, " a very wise man that
believed if a man were permitted to make all
the ballads, we need not care who should make
the laws of a nation. And we find that most
of the ancient legislators thought they could
not well reform the manners of any city with
out the help of a lyric, and sometimes of a
dramatic poet." It is certain that our songs
have not only made history of themselves but
for those who have sung and listened to them.
Moreover, song and ballad making has ever
been held in the highest repute by all classes,
and still remains one of the best testimonials
to man's sterling quality and literary capacity.
Though, as the Russian proverb has it, " It is
not every song that is sung to its last verse."
In this volume I have given as many of the
Welsh as I found tolerably general ; and though
the information concerning American songs is
surprisingly difficult to obtain this side of the
Atlantic, and rather scant when secured, I think
I have succeeded in saying something about
most of the old favourites known in Great
Britain. I have not included any songs from
the Isle of Man, as they do not seem to me to
be, except in a few instances, sufficiently dis
tinctive. Besides, they are mostly unknown
outside the Island, and do not possess any start-
14
INTRODUCTION
ling novelty in the way of origin. At the same
time I would like to draw consideration to a
useful collection of " Manx National Songs,"
edited by W. H. Gill, and published in 1896.
I should also like to direct attention to that
monumental work in eight volumes, " English
Minstrelsie," edited by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould,
as being the most comprehensive collection of
English songs ever published.
That I could have extended this volume into
many without going beyond my originally con
ceived scheme, will be patent to all who know
anything of the existence of the unexplored and
half explored mines of literary and antiquarian
wealth of this fascinating subject. I trust I have
at least succeeded in drawing a larger attention
to the principal gems than can possibly be
secured by more learned and exclusive publica
tions devoted to the entertaining themes of
songs and music. " My true intent is all for
your delight."
Chaucer gives a character to the Knight in
the " Canterbury Tales" by saying : " He could
songes make, and wel indite ;" and that arch
rascal, Falstaff, exclaims : " I had rather than
forty shillings I had my Book of Songs and
Sonnets here/' for the pleasures of a sweet song
have no end. And though many poets " learn
INTRODUCTION
in sorrow what they teach in song," they at any
rate teach what we are glad to know and appre
ciate. Great Britain for many hundred years,
has been singularly rich in songs, ballads, and
madrigals of all kinds ; May Day songs, Christ
mas carols, Easter and Whitsun madrigals,
catches, canons, roundels and lyrics of high life
and humble life; Shakespeare's and Ben Jonson's
incomparable lyrics, to say nothing of the love-
lyrics of other Elizabethan masters of verse and
the Cavalier poets; and writers of all ages,
English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh : no other
nation can show such variety, such charm as
we favoured Britons possess in our countless
melodies.
If words were given us to conceal our
thoughs, music must have been given us to ex
press them, to turn our tears to laughter and
our laughter to tears ; to make our brief joys
long and our worst sorrows brief. For what
more thrilling voice is there than the voice of
music the voice of all our passions blended
into witching melody or soul-inspiring har
mony ?
The most popular and the most appreciated
music with all classes is the music of Song.
Tender words wedded to sympathetic music will
do more to move the multitude than all the
16
INTRODUCTION
wealth promises of the Indies. And though few-
seek to know the origin of the songs that please
them, the telling of the tale always adds to
their attraction. Of course there are many
ballads that have lived through all the ages,
many more that have yet to be handed to pos
terity, that have no tangible history at all, that
are simply the glorious outcome of the poet's
fancy and the composer's art, but there are also
many that were born of pain, perhaps misery,
of patriotism, and of love, and of many of these
I have endeavoured to tell.
S. J. ADAIR FITZ-GERALD.
WIMBLEDON,
Augttst, 1897.
17
Stories of Famous Songs
CHAPTER I
" HOME, SWEET HOME"
"HOME, Sweet Home," which is so essentially
an English song in sentiment and feeling, was,
curiously enough, written by an American, John
Howard Payne. Perhaps though, as he was a
nomad the greater part of his feverish existence,
it were fitter to describe him as a Cosmopolitan,
for truly, in any case, Art is ever cosmopolitan.
But the song was first sung in an English opera,
or operatic melodrama, entitled " Clari, the
Maid of Milan," the words being written by
John Howard Payne, and the music composed
and arranged by Sir Henry Bishop, who was
decidedly English. Of this song it has been
well asserted by Dr. Charles Mackay, that it is
not too much to say that it " has done more
than statesmanship or legislation to keep alive
in the hearts of the people the virtues that
flourish at the fireside, and to recall to its hal-
19
STORIES OF
lowed circle the wanderers who stray from
it."
Round both words and music of this ever
green song, controversy has raged for years,
but I think by what follows, which is all based
on the most reliable information, I shall be
able to set these differences at rest for ever. Of
the words of the opera of " Clari " I think there
can be no doubt whatever of their having
emanated from Howard Payne, though the bio
grapher of M. J. O'Sullivan, a dramatic author
and contemporary of Payne's, asserts that he
(O'Sullivan) had a hand in the composition.
But I have been unable to trace any grounds
for the claim. Payne undoubtedly wrote the
lyric, though I have often wondered whether the
unfortunate author of this very sweet song a
song that will only cease to live when all Nature
is dead and Time is no more ever read the
old holiday and breaking-up song "Dulce
Domum," so popular at Winchester School, for
it certainly contains many of the elements of
Payne's plaintive ballad. Here is the first verse
with its chorus :
' * Sing a sweet melodious measure,
Waft enchanting rays around,
Home 1 a theme replete with pleasure,
Home ! a grateful theme resound.
20
FAMOUS SONGS
" Home, sweet home ! an ample treasure,
Home ! with every blessing crown' d.
Home 1 perpetual source of pleasure,
Home I a noble strain resound."
Brand says, in speaking of " Dulce Domum,"
which was originally written in Latin, and was
translated into English by a writer in the
" Gentleman's Magazine" for March 1796, that
" it is doubtless of very remote antiquity," and
that its origin must be traced "not to any
ridiculous tradition, but to the tenderest feelings
of human nature." The story runs as follows :
Upwards of two hundred and fifty years ago, a
scholar of St. Mary's College, Winchester, was
confined for some misconduct by order of the
master, just previous to the Whitsuntide vaca
tion, and was not permitted to visit his friends.
He was kept a prisoner in the college, tied to" a
pillar. His reflections on the enjoyments of home
inspired him to compose " Dulce Domum." The
student must have been of a very sensitive na
ture, for he died soon after, " worn down with
grief at the disgraceful situation he was in," as
well as disappointment. In commemoration of
the event, on the evening preceding the Whitsun
holidays, the masters, scholars, and choristers
of St. Mary's College, attended by a band of
music, walk in procession round the court and
21
STORIES OF
the pillar to which it is alleged the scholar was
tied, and chant the verses which he composed
in his affliction.
Payne, as far as can be gathered, wrote the
words of " Home, Sweet Home" one dreary day
in October, 1822, while he was far from home
in Paris. John Howard Payne was the son of
William Payne, a schoolmaster who was favour
ably known as an elocutionist in New York,
where young Payne was born on April I, 1791.
Much against the desire of his father, the future
author abandoned commerce, for which he was
intended, and took to the precarious profession
of actor. He was not without ability, for he
made a very successful first appearance at the
Park Theatre, New York, in the character of
Norval, in " Douglas," in February, 1807. For
some years Payne continued to act in various
parts of America, and occasionally contributed
articles to New York papers and journals.
Not satisfied with his success in America, he
was anxious to learn the verdict of a British
audience. He entered the English metropolis
with excellent credentials, having letters of
introduction to Lord Byron, John Kemble,
Coleridge, and other celebrities of the day. In
1813 he made his bow at Drury Lane Theatre,
choosing for his debut his former role of Norval,
22
FAMOUS SONGS
and, according to all accounts, he greatly pleased
the critics as well as the playgoers. But it
was very difficult in those days to continue a
favourite with the fickle public, nothing short
of a genius which Payne was not being re
quired to satisfy their desires. So after a while
Payne exchanged acting for writing, and took
to translating French melodramas and operettas.
The " Maid and the Magpie " was his first offer
ing, and it enjoyed a fair meed of favour at
Covent Garden Theatre. Edmund Kean made
"Brutus," a tragedy by Payne, a success by
the force of his subtle and powerful acting.
Charles Kemble also acted in Payne's " Charles
II.," a whimsical comedy revived as a first piece
some years ago at the Lyceum. "Love in
Humble Life" from the French by Payne is
occasionally played in the provinces, but veiy
few of his pieces exhibited any great literary
skill or power.
As to " Home, Sweet Home," only two verses
of the song were sung originally. These were
slightly altered and sung by Miss Maria Tree
in " Clari, the Maid of Milan," also an adapta
tion, of the virtuous peasant and villainous lord
order. For this, however, Payne received from
Charles Kemble ^250, no mean sum in those
days of short runs. The piece was produced at
23
STORIES OF
Covent Garden Theatre on May the 8th, 1823,
and continued to hold the boards at intervals
for some years. The music of this " musical
drama" there were only six numbers was
composed by Henry Bishop, and the melody of
" Home, Sweet Home" was said to have been
adapted from a Sicilian air, but this is erroneous.
Miss Tree created quite a furore by her singing
of the touching melody, and the words going
straight to the hearts of the audience, it was not
long before the song became marvellously popu
lar all over the country, soon to penetrate to the
farthermost parts of the world. It is stated that
more than 300,000 copies of the song were sold
the first year of publication.
Now in regard to the words of " Home, Sweet
Home," nearly twenty years after the author's
death, when the subject of the music was being
discussed, there appeared in the London " Daily
Telegraph," a letter signed J. R. Planche, in
which the writer asserted that with the full con
sent of the author, " I undertook the revision
of it (the play). I cut nearly a third of the
dialogue, which was of terrific length. The
ballad in question (' Home, Sweet Home/) con
sisted originally of two verses of eight lines
each. I reduced them to four : and at the sug-.'
gestion of Mr. Bishop added the refrain of
24
FAMOUS SONGS
' home, sweet home.' " And yet, Mr. Planche
allows Payne to have the full right and honour
of the authorship of the words all his life, and
not till twenty years after his death does he
come forward with his claim. But long before
this Michael John O'Sullivan, a journalist and
writer of plays, gave it out that he not only
wrote the song, but also the opera of " Clari " !
Of course it would be quite logical for a theat
rical manager to pay an author two hundred
and fifty pounds for a work he did not write !
the sum that Kemble paid Payne for a piece that
was written, according to their version, by Mr.
Planche and Mr. O'Sullivan not in collabora
tion, but separately ! And not only that. They
allowed Payne's name to appear nightly in
the bills and to be advertised on the song,
and advertised on the book of the words, as
published by Lacy in the Strand. Here is the
title-page. "Clari, the Maid of Milan! A
musical drama, in two acts, by John Howard
Payne, Author of Brutus,' ' The Lancers,' ' Love
in Humble Life,' ' Charles the Second,' ' Ali
Pacha/ etc., etc." I think that should settle the
matter. O'Sullivan's claim may be dismissed
forthwith. As for Mr. Planche, we fancy his
memory was playing him a trick he was over
eighty-two when he wrote the letter quoted,
25
STORIES OF
above, and after the lapse of sixty years an inci
dent may get entangled with something else.
Payne was a personal and intimate friend of
Kemble's, and it does not seem at all probable
that he would permit any one but the author to
hack about the piece he was producing.
Before continuing with Payne's life/ let me
explain the origin of the melody, as related by
the late Charles Mackay, who wrote to a Lon
don paper a long letter on the subject, affirming
distinctly that Sir Henry Bishop did compose
the air. Said Dr. Mackay, " During the process
of our (Sir Henry's and his own) work on the
National Melodies of England, I was thrown
into friendly and constant intercourse with that
gentleman. During one of our many conversa
tions on well-known English melodies, I took
occasion to ask for information on the subject
of 'Home, Sweet Home,' the authorship of which
was often attributed to him and as often denied
by many who claimed it as a national Sicilian
air which Sir Henry had disinterred and re
arranged. He thereupon favoured me with the
whole history. He had been engaged in his
early manhood by the once eminent firm of
Gouldmg, D'Almaine and Co., musical pub
lishers, of Soho Square, to edit a collection of
National Melodies of all countries. In the
26
FAMOUS SONGS
course of his labours he discovered that he had
no Sicilian air, and as a Sicilian melody had
been announced Sir Henry thought he would
invent^one. The result was the now well-known
air of ' Home, Sweet Home/ which he arranged
to the verses of Howard Payne. Pirates were
in the field as now, and believing the air to be
Sicilian and non-copyright, they commenced
issuing the song in a cheaper form, but Messrs.
Goulding, D'Almaine and Co., brought actions
against the offenders and won the day on the
sworn evidence of Sir Henry Bishop, who de
clared himself to be the inventor of the same."
This should decide the matter for all time.
To return to Payne. After the success of
" Clari" affairs seemed to have gone badly with
him, for in the year 1832 we find him in New
York having a " benefit" got up for him at the
Park Theatre to start him afresh. He then
subsisted on the income derived from journal
istic work until he was appointed Consul at
Tunis, but he soon lost this appointment owing
to the change of government, and he once more
contributed to the Press. However, some good
friends used their influence and, in consideration
of the fact that he was the first American
dramatist who had made any name at all, Payne
was eventually reinstated at Tunis, But he
27
STORIES OF
had barely undertaken the duties a twelvemonth
when he died, on his sixty-first birthday, in 1852,
and was buried at Tunis. His remains, after a
lapse of more than thirty years, were removed to
Oak Cemetery, Washington, where a monument,
erected by public subscription, marks the spot
where rest his ashes. In Tunis, by the way,
there was still, some ten years back, a tomb in
the Protestant burying ground with the follow
ing inscription : " In memory of Colonel John
Howard Payne, twice Consul of the United
States of America for the city and kingdom of
Tunis, this stone is here placed by a grateful
Country. He died in the American Consulate
in this City after a tedious illness April 1st,
1852." And then particulars were given of his
birth in the City of Massachusetts, and spoke
of his merits as a poet and dramatist. Round
the tombstone were engraved the following
lines :
' ' Sure, when thy gentle spirit fled
To realms beyond the azure dome,
With arms outstretched, God's angel said :
Welcome to Heaven's Home, Sweet Home."
And now I append " Home, Sweet Home,"
as it was first written :
28
FAMOUS SONGS
" 'Mid pleasures and palaces, though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home ;
A charm from the sky seems to carry us there,
Which, seek thiough the world, is not met with elsewhere.
Home ! home ! sweet, sweet home I
There' s no place like home, there' s no place like home.
" An exile from home splendour dazzles in vain ;
Oh, give me my lowly thatched cottage again ;
The birds sing gaily that came at my call
Give me them with the peace of mind dearer than all,
Home ! home ! sweet, sweet home 1
There's no place like home, there's no place like home.
" How sweet, too, to sit 'neath a fond father's smile,
And the cares of a mother to soothe and beguile,
Let others dehght 'mid new pleasuies to roam,
But give me, oh, give me ! the pleasures of home !
Home ! home ! sweet, sweet home !
There's no place like home, there's no place like home.
" To thee I'll return, overburdened with care ;
The heart' s dearest face will smile on me there,
No more from that cottage again will I roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
Home 1 home ! sweet, sweet home !
There's no place like home, there's no place like home."
The sweet sadness that pervades this simple
little domestic poem is exquisitely expressive of
the melancholy felt by poor Payne when he
penned the lines, alone, in a foreign country (he
was stranded in Paris at the time) away from all
that he held dear. '
29
STORIES OF
Payne, I may add, was an intimate friend of
Charles Lamb, who conducted much of his
play business in London for him, while he was
abroad.
A pleasing incident recorded by the " Phila
delphia Record" may fittingly close this account.
" No commoripoet ever received a more enviable
compliment than one paid to John Howard
Payne by Jenny Lind, on his last visit to his
native land. It was in the great National Hall
of the City of Washington where the most
distinguished audience that had ever been seen
in the capital of the Republic was assembled.
The matchless singer entranced the vast throng
with Her most exquisite melodies ' Casta Diva'
the 'Flute Song/ the 'Bird Song/ and the
' Greeting to America.' But the great feature
of the occasion seemed to be an act of inspira
tion. The singer suddenly turned her face to
the part of the auditorium where Payne was
sitting and sang 'Home, Sweet Home/ with
such pathos and power that a whirlwind of
excitement and enthusiasm swept through the
vast audience. Webster himself almost lost his
self-control, and one might readily imagine that
Payne thrilled with rapture at this unexpected
and magnificent rendition of his own immortal
lyric."
30
FAMOUS SONGS
CHAPTER II
" ROBIN ADAIR AND EILEEN AROON"
PERHAPS in the whole range of songs new and
old, none is so popular as the plaintive " Robin
Adair," the air of which is based upon the very
ancient melody of " Eileen Aroon," a piece that
dates back to very early times indeed. At a
venture I would suggest about 1450, when livmg
money was still in use, as in the first stanza the
hero says he would spend a cow to entertain
his lady love. It is only fair to add, however,
that some authorities think it is no older than
the sixteenth century. In any case it was a
favourite with the majority of the Irish harpers
and wandering minstrels, and most emphatically
it is not of Scottish origin, as one or two writers
have imagined. The curious thing about the
song is that the words of both versions, " Eileen
Aroon" (Ellen, the treasure of my heart), and
" Robin Adair" were the outcome of very
romantic circumstances. I shall deal with each,
and I shall also give the history of the ancient
and the modern song. Let me speak of the
31
STORIES OF
music first. The melody was taken down in
1792 by Edward Bunting (though already a
variation of the same had been secured by
Lyons in 1702) who has done so much to
preserve the music of Old Ireland, from the
playing of a famous harper, Denis a Hampsy,
or Hempson. Hempson was born in 1695, and
lived to the great age of one hundred and twelve
years, having died in 1807. He was a well-
known character, sober and respectable (unlike
some of the itinerant harpers) and was greatly
respected. Lord Bristol, when "the minstrel
was infirm and old," gave a ground rent free,
and paid for a house to be erected for him ; and
in his declining days Hempson was looked after
and literally fed by the Rev. Sir H. Harvey
Bruce, who was with him at his death. Hemp-
son died with the harp in his hand after having
struck a few notes on one of his best pieces
in all probability the ravishing, soul-breathing
"Eileen." From first to last this player's life
was full of interest and is worth penning. The
dates which I have given should be borne in
mind, in order that the nationality of the air
may be settled once for all.
At the age of about eighteen, having been a
harper from the age of twelve (he lost his sight
at three through small-pox) Hempson com-
32
FAMOUS SONGS
menced a tour of Ireland and Scotland which,
lasted until 1716. Now the Scotch claimed the
melody, and published it to the British public
under the name of " Robin Adair" about 1800.
The grounds for this assumption, Hardiman
informs us in his " Irish Minstrelsy," published
in 1831, appear in the correspondence between
Robert Burns and his publisher, Thomson, in
1793. The latter, in a letter to the bard, wishes
him to give " Robin Adair" (meaning of course
"Eileen Aroon") a Scottish dress. "Peter
(Pindar) is furnishing him with an English suit.
Robin's air is excellent, though he certainly has
an out-of-the-way manner as ever poor Parnas
sian wight was plagued with." In reply Burns
says that he believes the air to be Scotch, having
heard it played by a man from Inverness, so
that " it could not be Irish" (the question had
arisen between them) though he admits that
through the wandering habits of the minstrels,
the air might be common to both. As a matter
of fact, it was Hempson who carried the air to
Scotland between 1710 and 1716, and the High
land minstrels annexed it. During his second
visit to Scotland, in 1745, Hempson was taken
into the Young Pretender's presence by Colonel
Kelly of Roscommon, and Sir Thomas Sheri
dan, when he played and sang " When the King
3 33
STORIES OF
shall enjoy his own again" as a compliment to
Charles Edward. He also played " Cooling
" The Dawning of the Day," " Eileen Aroon,"
" Cean dubh dilis," etc. ; so there is no doubt as
to how so many of the Irish melodies, in
cluding " Maggie Lauder," came to be num
bered amongst the Scottish national airs. Thus
it was only natural that when Burns was asked
to dress " Robin Adair" in the kilt, he should
have already heard the song. But, for some
reason unknown, Burns did not write or re
write the words, though the erudite Dr. Charles
Mackay assumes that he did, as those interested
will gather from the " Royal Edition of Songs
of Scotland" still published. Again, Robin
Adair was a real personage, an Irishman, but
not the ancestor of Viscount Molesworth, as is
generally believed, who lived at Holly Park, in
the County of Wicklow. This was another
Robin Adair, who had no connection with the
song, though tradition has tried to fix it so. At
Bray, in Wicklow, by the way, there is still a
" Robin Adair's" well. This Robin's house
stood at the foot of the great Sugar-loaf moun
tain (properly Slieve Cullinn). The real Robin
Adair was most likely a grandson of Patrick
Adair of Bailymena, County Antrim, whose
son, Sir Robert, married four times and had
34
FAMOUS SONGS
many children, and Robin might have been
&ie of these. Adair, I may state, is most
essentially Irish, and as " old as the hills," or
perhaps I should say trees, as the name is de
rived from Diarmaid and Diarmah the good
Dair, the oak there are other variants, but the
meaning and etymology are the same. Adair,
therefore, means " of the oak."
The true story of " Eileen Aroon" appears
almost word for word in the " Gentleman's
Magazine" for 1827, and in " Hardirnan's Min
strelsy" of 1831. It is as follows: Carol
O' Daly, commonly called " Mac Caomh Insi
Cneamha," brother to Donogh More O'Daly, a
man of much consequence in Connaught, was
one of the most accomplished gentlemen of his
time, and particularly excelled in poetry and
music. He paid his addresses to Eileen, or
Ellen as we should say now, the daughter of a
Chieftain named Kavanagh ; she was a lovely
and amiable young lady who returned his affec
tion, but her friends disapproved of the connec
tion, for, it is believed, political reasons. Carol
O'Daly was obliged to leave the country for a
time, aiid her family availed themselves of the
opportunity, which his absence afforded, of im
posing upon Eileen a belief in his (supposed)
faithlessness, and of his having gone to be mar-
35
STORIES OF
ried to another ; and after some time they pre
vailed upon her to consent to marry a rival of
O'Daly's. The day was fixed for the nuptials,
but O'Daly returned the evening before. Under
the first influence of his disappointment, he
sought a wild sequestered spot on the sea-shore,
and inspired by love, composed the song of
" Eileen Aroon." Disguised as a harper he
gained access among the crowd that thronged
to the wedding. It happened that he was called
by Eileen herself to play and sing. It was then
touching the harp with all the pathetic sensi
bility which the interesting and dramatic occa
sion incited, he infused his own feelings into
the song he had composed, and breathed into
his " softened strain" the very soul of plaintive
melody. In the first stanza he intimates, ac
cording to Irish idiom, that he would walk with
her, that is, be her partner for life, or constant
lover for life. In the second, that he would
entertain, and afford her every delight; and
then he continues :
" Then wilt thou come away?
Eileen a Roon !
O wilt thou come or stay ?
Eileen a Roon."
She soon felt the power of his eloquent plead-
and answered, by signs, in the affirmative,
36
FAMOUS SONGS
having long recognized him. Then he bursts
out rapturously ;
< ' Cead mille failte !
Eileen a Roon !
Cead mille failte !
Eileen a Roon."
And still with more welcomes and ecstasies he
greets her, and to reward his fidelity, she con
trives to elope with him that same night the
night before the intended marriage with his
rival, and of course they lived happily ever
after. It may be noted that the well-known,
motto of Irish hospitality, Cead mille failte a
a hundred thousand welcomes was taken from
this song. It is related that Handel extrava
gantly declared that he would rather have been
the composer of this exquisite air than of all
the music he had written. And so enchanted
with it was Signor Tenducci, a distinguished
singer who sang in the Italian Operas in Lon
don and Dublin, that he resolved upon studying
the Irish language, and become master of it,
which proves that the Signor heard the original
composition.
Guisto Ferdinand Tenducci was born about
1736, and first sang in London in 1758, when
he at once became the idol of the fashionable
world and was invited out everywhere to private
37
STORIES OF
parties and At-Homes. Doubtless he met Lady
Caroline Keppel at one of the great houses, and
we hear of him singing first " Eileen Aroon,"
and then " Robin Adair," at Ranelagh Gardens
in 1762, presumably with Lady Catharine's
words. Tenducci was quite a spoiled darling,
and lived very wastefully. He ran through
one fortune and nearly made another. He died
early in the present centuiy, at his native place
in Italy. It may be added that in the days of
Elizabeth " Eileen Aroon" was sung by a large
majority of the people in the streets. There
is a curious similarity, by the way, between
" Eileen Aroon" and the melody Scott's " Loch-
nivar" used to be sung to.
In the west and other parts of Ireland the
peasantry still sing " Eileen" and will have
nothing to do with the modern song. It may
be mentioned that the tribe of O'Daly furnished
several bards of celebrity. Donogh More
O'Daly, Lord Abbot of Boyle in 1244, was a
famous poet, emphatically styled the Ovid of
Ireland, from, the sweetly flowing melody of
his verse.
Now we cometo Robin Adair. The real Robin
was a native of Ballymena, County Antrim,
and in all probability a descendant of the Des
mond Fitz-Geralds, "the mighty Geraldines."
38
FAMOUS SONGS
His father was probably made a knight-baronet
after the battle of the Boyne. The new version
of the song was written about 1750 by Lady
Caroline Keppel to Robert, or Robin Adair,
with whom she was deeply in love. I will re
peat the story as it is handed down.
About a centuiy and a half ago, an impulsive
young Irishman named Robert Adair, who was
studying in Dublin for the medical profession,
got into some scrape, and as he possessed little
money and few friends, the only way he saw out
of the difficulty was flight. So he speedily
quitted Dublin and made his way to Holyhead,
with the intention of going to that golden city
of ambitious youth, London. Post travelling
in those days was very expensive, and when
Adair reached Holyhead, he discovered that his
purse was as light as his heart ; consequently
he had nothing to do but accept the inevitable,
and so he manfully set out to walk to the me
tropolis. He had not gone far when he came
upon a carriage that had been overturned, for
the roads at that time were in a horrible con
dition. The owner and occupant of the vehicle
a well-known leader of fashionable society, was
greatly alarmed at the accident, and had be
sides, received some slight personal injury.
Adair, like a true Irishman, at once offered his
39
STORIES OF
services, and in a very short space of time had the
carnage righted, and the lady, carefully attended
to. Adair was a very handsome and aristocratic
young fellow, and notwithstanding that his
dress might have been of finer texture and in
better condition, he had a striking appearance.
With ready frankness he soon explained that he
was a surgeon, and begged permission to ex
amine into the extent of the lady's injuries.
An examination soon showed that they were of
merely a trifling nature that the nerves were
more upset than the body hurt Adair then
took the opportunity to explain that he was on
his way to London to endeavour to make a
name in the profession he had chosen, and as
the fair lady was still apprehensive of unknown
dangers, and still felt the effect of the shock,
she offered the vjvacious young Irishman ** seat
in her carriage as a protector, for she herself
was travelling to the metropolis when the acci
dent occurred. He was only too delighted to
accept the proffered kindness, and very soon
restored his travelling companion to health and
good spirits. Arrived in London she presented
Hm with a hundred guineas, and invited him,
to come to her house as often as he pleased.
Robin Adair was a wise and energetic young
man, and took full advantage of the lucky turn
40
FAMOUS SONGS
in his fortunes to study assiduously, and soon,
with the assistance of his patroness, acquired a
good connection in the best end of the town.
He was frequently at the dances given by this
lady and others, he being a graceful dancer, a
good conversationalist, and a man of consider
able natural ability. One night, at a party, he
found that his partner was Lady Caroline
Keppel, the second daughter of the Earl of
Albemarle. It was a case of love at first sight
mutual love; and Lady Caroline's attach
ment was as sincere as it was sudden; they
were the observed of all the guests ; and after
a few meetings the relations were in despair.
The young couple, however, continued to meet
again and again, and their affection ripened into
an intense passion. Her kinsfolk were stupe
fied with amazement. Were they to allow an
unknown Irishman to carry off the flower of
their flock, the beautiful Caroline ? They set
their wits to work to try and persuade her to
give him up. But all in vain. Handsome heirs
of the oldest and stiffest families were prevailed
upon to woo her, but she would not listen to
them. She was sent abroad to see if travel
would alter her determination ^and cure her
" folly," but without avail, and gradually she
fell ill. When she was at Bath for the benefit of
STORIES OF
her health, she wrote the verses now so popular,
and adapted them to the melody of " Eileen
Aroon," which Robin Adair had doubtless often
sung to her. At last the separation from Adair
and the importunities of her relatives caused
her to become so dangerously ill, that, upon
the doctors despairing of her life, and seeing
the disease was more of the heart and mind
than of the flesh, the union of the faithful pair
was consented to.
The event was duly notified in the " Grand
Magazine of Universal Intelligence" thus :
"February 22nd, 1758, Robert Adair, Esq., to
the Right Honourable the Lady Caroline Kep-
pel." This was the culminating point in the
pretty love story. A short time after his mar
riage Adair was appointed Inspector-General
of Military Hospitals through the influence of
his wife's relations ; nor did his good luck end
here, for the King, being taken with Adair's
agreeable manner and undoubted skill made
him Surgeon-General, King's Sergeant-Surgeon,
and Surgeon of Chelsea Hospital. Good for
tune did not spoil him, and he continued to
work hard at his profession, and the King was
so greatly gratified at the successful way in
which he treated the Duke of Gloucester, that
he offered to make him a baronet ; Adair, how-
42
FAMOUS SONGS
ever, declined. Adored and admired by all who
knew him, he lived to the ripe old age of eighty,
and his death was deeply lamented. Lady
Caroline, however, who did not enjoy good
health, died after giving birth to their third
child. Knowing how devotedly attached her
husband was to her, she felt he would not
marry again, and she was right. Except on
State occasions, when he was obliged to don.
Court costume, he wore mourning in remem
brance of his love and his wife, until he died in
1790, when he was buried with her in the family
vault. Their only son, the Right Honourable
Sir Robert Adair, died in 1855 at the advanced
age of ninety-two, after a brilliant career, having
proved himself a very capable diplomatist. The
only part of this story which appears in any
way doubtful, as far as reliable data go, con
cerns the episode on the road to London. For
the rest the writing of the song, and the mar
riage with Lady Keppel are perfectly accurate,
and Robin Adair was well known in London
society as " the lucky Irishman" and was often
so addressed by George III.
This sketch would hardly be complete with
out the words of the song, and I here append
the lyric as originally written by Lady Caroline
at Bath, and wrongfully attributed to Burns.
43
STORIES OF
" What's this dull town to me ?
Robin's not near;
He, whom I wish to see,
Wish so to hear.
Where's all the joy and miith,
Made life a heaven on earth ?
O ! they're all fled with thee,
Robin Adair.
"What made th' assembly shine?
Robin Adair !
What made the ball so fine ?
Robin was there !
What, when the play was o' er,
What made my heart so sore ?
O ! it was paiting with
Robin Adair.
" But now thou'rt far from me,
Robin Adair !
And now I never see
Robin Adair 1
Yet he I love so well,
Still in my heait shall dwell ;
O ! I can ne'er foiget
Robin Adair."
There are other versions, notably one com
mencing' " Welcome on Shore, again ;" and a
ridiculous parody " Welcome to Punchestown,
Johnny Adair," but the above is the true one.
In the British Museum there are three copies
of the music of "Eileen Aroon" (circa 1740).
44
FAMOUS SONGS
" Robin Adair" was published just about the
time of Lady Caroline's marriage. In later
years Braham adapted and sang it. The air of
" Eileen Aroon" has been claimed by the Welsh
as well as the Scottish, John Parry pretending
that it dates from 1755 or 1760. In 1770 was
issued a work called " A Collection of Favour
ite Scots tunes, by the late Mr. Chas. McLean,"
in which "Eileen a Roon" appeared according to
Mr. Alfred Moffat and in other collections of
earlier date, but as already stated Hempson in
troduced it into Scotland when a youth, about
1710. It was popular with the people every
where in England and Scotland, as well as in
its native country Ireland, towards the close of
the seventeenth century. Though Burns failed
to fit words to the beautiful melody of " Robin
Adair," others succeeded, notably Gerald Grif
fin, who called his lines after the original Irish
Ebhhn a Ruin. In Walker's "Irish Bards"
(1786), the tune will be found in all its primi
tive purity. As far as I have been able to dis
cover, the incidents related have not been
turned to account on the stage as a play, though
" Eileen Aroon" has formed the basis of many
a story.
45
STORIES OF
CHAPTER III
" AULD LANG SYNE"
" AULD LANG SYNE," though it owes its birth
to Scotchmen and to Scotland, has been so pop
ular for quite a hundred years with English-
speaking people all the world over, that it may
fairly rank as a lyric of universal sentiment and
universal nationality. But contrary to the
general belief, which, it must be acknowledged,
editors of Burns's works have done their best to
foster, " Auld Lang Syne" was not written by
the author of " Tarn O'Shanter." And, as a
matter of history, Burns never once claimed
the song as his, only his misguided and over
anxious friends and worshippers have done this,
and consequently much confusion has arisen
over the subject. It so happens that, like many
another ballad that lives in the hearts of the
people, this essentially human song was written
by a writer unknown, who may perhaps have
never written anything else worth remembering.
In Scotland, as in Ireland, and to a lesser extent
in England and Wales, many of the humbler
46
FAMOUS SONGS
folk possess the gift of making homely verses,
and many a piece has found its way into the
world anonymously, to find a reciprocating wel
come in many a heart and home. But, though
Burns did not write this song, which is included
in nearly every collection of his poems pub
lished, he was the first to give it to the world in
the form which we now know and sing it. In
deed, many pieces have been attributed to Burns
which he never wrote ; the text of Burns has
been as much tampered with, perhaps, as that
of any ancient or classic author, and requires to
be as carefully revised. This, unfortunately, is
true not only with respect to words and phrases,
but with respect to whole stanzas and poems
erroneously ascribed to him and regularly in
cluded in the posthumous editions of his works.
It would not be difficult to enumerate at least
a dozen pieces in some of the best editions
which are certainly not by him Many injudi
cious Burnsites have been too anxious to over-
exalt a reputation that already stood and stands
as high almost as any poet could wish. It was
Carlyle's fancy to represent Burns as an illiterate
prodigy who, without models, or with models
only of the meanest sort, attained by sheer force
of native talent to a foremost place in contem
porary literature ; but this is all wrong ; Burns
47
STORIES OF
studied the best models, and particularly did he
follow in the footsteps of Goldsmith. Burns
drew his inspiration from both English and
Scottish literary sources, and he had a singular
aptitude for seeing possibilities in bald and
badly expressed conceptions. Burns was de
cidedly inventive in a large degree, but his gift
of expression was far greater than his power of
original thought. However, it is not of Burns's
genius that I wish to write that has long been
acknowledged but of " Auld Lang Syne" and
his connection therewith. Naturally the phrase
is of the heather born, and even the quaint
lexicographer, old Jamieson, could not help
growing sentimental over the soothing words,
in his " Scottish Dictionary" : " To a native of
the country," he says, " it conveys a soothing
idea to the mind, as recalling the memory of
joys that are past." It " compresses into small
and euphonious measure much of the tender
recollection of one's youth which, even to mid
dle-aged men, seems to be brought from a very
distant but very dear past." " Auld Lang Syne,"
be it remembered, was a phrase in use in very
early times, and it can be traced to the days of
Elizabeth, in connection with the social feelings
and the social gatherings of the Scot ; as a con
vivial and friendly song it existed in broadsides
FAMOUS SONGS
prior to the close of the seventeenth centuiy.
An early version of the song is to be found in
James Watson's collection of Scottish Songs,
published in 1711, and it will be seen from the
verses quoted below, that Burns very spiritedly
changed the weak periphrasis of the old poet
into the tender and beautiful phrase so peculiarly
pathetic and Scotch :
" Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And never thought upon,
The flame of love extinguished
And fairly past and gone ?
Is thy land heart now grown so cold,
In that loving breast of thine,
That thou canst never once reflect
On old long syne. ' '
Here we have a very fine idea badly expressed
the touch of sincerity seems lacking, whilst
the art is commonplace. This stanza is from a
poem written by Sir Robert Ayton (1570-1638)
of Kincaldie. He was the friend of Ben Jonson
and other Elizabethan writers, very likely
Shakespeare himself. Sir Robert undoubtedly
obtained the phrase from current idiomatic ex
pressions. He wrote several pieces of minor
power. Allan Ramsay, who, before the advent
of Burns, was making an encouraging reputation
as a writer of verses and a compiler of old songs
4 49
STORIES OF
and ballads, soon seized upon the rough lyric
believed to have been " polished" by Francis
Sempill, of Beltrees and destroyed the in
tention of the original, as may be observed from
this verse, in which Ramsay casts good-fellow
ship overboard, and makes love the keynote :
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Tho' they leturn with scars,
These are the noble hero's lot,
Obtained in glorious wars ;
"Welcome my Vara, to my breast,
Thy arms about me twine,
And make me once again as blest
As I was lang syne."
This song of honest Allan's was first printed
in his "Tea-Table Miscellany" in 1724, from
which it was transferred to Johnson's " Musical
Museum," published during Burns's sojourn in
the Scottish capital. Allan Ramsay's lyric is
not so bad as many have tried to make out, and
as a love-song was very popular for a long time.
Burns, who was partly responsible for the edit
ing of the " Musical Museum" for Johnson, in
which so many ancient pieces first saw the light
as printed matter, made many annotations and
alterations, and of "Auld Lang Syne" he
wrote : " Ramsay here, as usual with him, has
taken the idea of the song and the first line
50
FAMOUS SONGS
from the old fragment which will appear in the
' Museum/ vol. v." Of this " old fragment" I
shall have something to say later. But it may
be as well to state that it is very evident that
there were several verbal versions of this song
long known to the peasantry and others of
Caledonia stern and wild. It was decidedly a
folk-song, and though it is not easy to conjec
ture when, or how " Auld Lang Syne" arose as
a form of speech or song, its introduction into
literature is not so problematical. Somewhat
more than a century ago on the i/th Decem
ber, 1788 Mrs.DunlopjOf Dunlop,the daughter
of Sir Thomas Wallace of Craigie, and a de
scendant of the heroic race of Elderslie, received
from Burns a letter, in which the following
passages occurred : " Your meeting, which you
so well describe, with your old schoolfellow and
friend, was truly interesting. Out upon the
ways of the world ! they spoil these social off
springs of the heart. Two veterans of the
world would have met with little more heart-
workings than two old hacks worn out on the
road. Apropos, is not the Scot's phrase,
'Auld Lang Syne' exceedingly expressive?
There is an old song and tune which has often
thrilled through my soul. You know I am an
enthusiast on old Scot songs. I shall give you
5i
STORIES OF
the verses." And he enclosed the words of
" Auld Lang Syne" as we know them, and un
less Burns was wilfully concealing fact, he only
trimmed the lines and did not originate or
write the lyric. He continues somewhat ex
travagantly : " Light lie the turf on the breast
of the heaven-inspired poet who composed this
glorious fragment ! There is more of the fire
of native genius in it than half-a-dozen modern
English bacchanalians." Burns would hardly
write like this about himself and his work, so
we may take it that he only preserved it from
forgetfulness.
Three years afterwards, when sending the
song to George Thomson, his publisher, and
the editor of another collection of miscellaneous
songs, he writes, " One song more, and I am
done 'Auld Lang Syne.' The air is but
mediocre, but the following song, the old song
of the olden times, and which has never been
in print, nor even in manuscript, until I took it
down from an old man's singing, is enough to
recommend any air."
On the face of it, though many writers have
denied that Burns was telling the truth in
writing the above, the poet gives us the real
origin and rescue of the song from oblivion.
There is not the slightest doubt that Burns
, 52
FAMOUS SONGS
polished and improved the words and made the
song more singable and consistent, and there
is not the slightest doubt that he did take it
down, in a rough state, perhaps, from the lips
of some old minstrel they were just dying out
then or wandering bag piper, as he avowedly
took down so many other songs. Now Burns
has had many pieces credited to him which he
never acknowledged himself, and Burns was
not the writer to deny himself the least claim
to fame or celebrity. The fact is that Burns
communicated in words and music more than
sixty songs, "begged, borrowed or stolen," as
he jocularly declares, to make up the " Mu
seum." Besides which, a great number of his
own finest songs carried no signature, and it is
therefore not wonderful that some confusion
should have occasionally occurred in allocating
a few of the borrowed ones. For instance,
" Comin thro' the Rye" (" Gin a body meet a
body") is attributed by Joseph Skipsey to the
poet, while another editor says he wrote " Could
aught of So'rig" pieces that were anonymous
long before Burns's time ! It seems to me that
we have no right whatever to assume that
Burns was deliberately deceiving both Mrs.
Dunlop and Mr. Thomson as to the authorship
of the song. Anyhow, the words of the
S3
STORIES OF
music I shall speak presently duly made their
appearance in their final form in 1794, and are
as follows :
" Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mm' ?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o' lang syne ?
" For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne ;
We'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne*
" We t-wa hae run about the braes,
And pu'd the gowans fine ;
But we've wander' d mony a weary foot
Sin' auld lang syne.
" We twa hae paidl't i' the burn
Frae morning sun till dine ;
But seas between us braid hae roar' d
Sin' auld lang syne.
" And here's a hand my trusty fere,
And gie's a hand o' thine,
And we' 11 tak' a right guid-willie waught,
For auld lang syne.
" And surely ye' 11 be your pint-stoup,
And surely I'll be mine ;
And we'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne."
54
FAMOUS SONGS
It may be noted that between the version
given to Mrs. Dunlop and Johnson and that
issued by Thomson there is one important dif
ference in the sequence of the stanzas. In
Johnson's publication the last verse is placed as
the second, and this arrangement was used for
some years, but the order of the stanzas, as
given above, is obviously correct, though we
fear that there are not many people who could
repeat the song right off, much as they rave
about it. Generally speaking, after the first and
second verses, the singing of the song is aban
doned, as so few know it.
As to the meaning of " willie-waught,"
several opinions have been offered. However,
in a collection of Scotch songs, published by
Blackie and Son in 1843, the words " guid" or
"gude" and "willie" are joined together by a
hyphen, which means, will take a right good- will
ing (God-be-with-you) draught the draught of
good-will and friendship. The grasping of
hands in the same verse seems pretty strong
proof that that is its meaning. By the way, in
the " Museum" the words are signed with a
" Z" signifying that it is an old song with addi
tions and alterations. The first, fourth and
fifth verses are undeniably fragments of an old
ditty ; the second and third verses betray the
55
STORIES OF
tenderness and sentiment of the poet himself,
and these we are inclined to accept as being by
Burns.
And now as to the music of this fine old song.
The original air, which Burns pronounced to be
mediocre, was soon abandoned, and one said to
be from " I fee'd a lad at Michaelmas," which,
in its turn, was taken from a Strathspey dance
tune called " The Miller's Wedding," was used
in its stead, and is given in Bremner's " Collec
tion of Scots Reels," 1759. The tune bears a
strong resemblance to " Comin' thro' the Rye,"
" Oh hey, Johnnie lad," and " For the sake of
Somebody." To come to the point at once, the
melody to which the lyric is now sung was be
yond dispute composed by William Shield, who
was born at Durham, 1748, and buried in West
minster Abbey in 1829. He wrote the music
of thirty-five operas, operettas, dramas and pan
tomimes, and to such favourite old songs as
"Old Towler," "The Thorn," "The Wolf,"
" The Heaving of the Lead," " Arethusa," " The
Post Captain" and "Auld Lang Syne." A
writer in the "Newcastle Weekly Chronicle,"
early in December 1891, said: "I have been
privileged to read the correspondence between
Dr. Bruce and Mr. Chappell, the learned author
of 'Popular Music in the Olden Times,' on
56
FAMOUS SONGS
this subject, and I am firmly convinced that the
opinion of both Dr. Bruce and Mr. Chappell
is fully borne out by historical facts, that the
air of ' Auld Lang Syne' was first published
in the opera composed by Shield. The opera
(in question) of 'Rosina' was first brought
out on December 3ist, 1782. It met with
great success ; the overture in which occurs
the melody of 'Auld Lang Syne' was pub
lished separately in 1783, and the air became
popular as a pianoforte piece, and, being thor
oughly vocal, afforded others the opportunity
of setting words to it, which Shield did not do
himself." This is the first date of the air, and
this, there is every reason to believe, was the
air which Thomson used in his collection. No
doubt other words, as indicated above, had
already been adapted to the melody, but this
would not deter Thomson the publisher from
using it, for he was not above annexing any
lyric or melody that suited his purpose. The
" mediocre" air referred to by Burns would be
the one the old man sang to Allan Ramsay.
But Burns's version of " Auld Lang Syne" first
appeared in 1793 ; it was set to a different air
from the one we know it by, and different also
from Allan Ramsay's song of 1740. The pre
sent air and Burns's words first made their
57
STORIES OF
appearance wedded together twelve years after
Shield's " Rosina" was given to the world. And
then, as I have said, Thomson issued the song
in his collection (1799). Apart from the fact
that the dates are all in favour of Shield, there
is another point. When Shield had occasion in
his operas to introduce the melodies of other
writers, he was careful in every case to studi
ously acknowledge his obligations. The air
known as "Auld Lang Syne" he distinctly
claimed as his own composition ; therefore, as
no one has ever been able to disprove Shield's
claim, there is every evidence that his statement
must be accepted and he is proclaimed com
poser of this immortal song. In the " Popular
Songs and Melodies of Scotland," however,
there is a quotation note, without the authority
being named, which runs : " Shield introduced
it into his overture to the opera of ' Rosina'
written by Mr. Brooks (query Miss Brooke?)
and acted at Covent Garden in 1783. It is the
last movement of that overture, and in imita
tion of a Scottish bagpipe tune, in which the
oboe is substituted for the channter and the bas
soon for the drone"
In the "Musical Times" for January 1896,
Mr. W. H. Cummings gives the air from
" Rosina," and says " My edition of Shield's
58
FAMOUS SONGS
'Rosina' is an oblong folio, published in 1783 ;
the tune I take to be the original of ' Auld Lang
Syne' is given to the oboe, the bassoons playing
a pedal bass with the words, inserted by the
composer to ' imitate the bag-pipes.' " " Auld
Lang Syne," continues Mr. Cummings, " was
published with two airs, one in 1740, the other
in 1793, and it was not till twenty years after
the production of ' Rosina' that it appeared with
the tune now always associated with the words,
the earlier tunes having been abandoned." I
would like to point to a suspicious similarity
between portions of the melody of " The Thorn"
by Shield, and " Auld Lang Syne" which has
not been referred to by any other writer as
being strong proof of the two being composed
by the same man. At the same time I think it
only fair to say that Mr. Alfred Moffat (the
editor of" The Minstrelsy of Scotland") disputes
Shield's claims, and some of the above state
ments, which, however, I see no sufficient rea
son to abate or alter. George Thomson has a
note to " Auld Lang Syne" in his " Collection
of original Scottish Airs" (1799) to this effect:
" From an old MS. in the Editor's possession"
but Thomson was too many days after the
fair. The melody was already a favourite
owing to the circumstances of its birth in 1783,
59
STORIES OF
as already recorded. Thomson could easily
have taken it from Johnson's " Scots Museum,"
wherein was published a version of the air in
1792.
The libretto of W. M. Shield's two act comic
opera " Rosina," by the way, was written by
Mrs. Francis Brooke, the authoress of several
plays and novels. It was first produced at
Covent Garden Theatre, December 3ist, 1782.
I may add that the song was introduced into
an adaptation of Scott's " Rob Roy" and sung
on the stage at Edinburgh in 1819, and also
before George IV. in 1822, by the actor playing
the part of Francis Osbaldistone. A drama
called " Auld Lang Syne" in three acts, written
by G. Lash Gordon, was produced at the Opera
Comique Theatre, London, August 3rd, 1878.
60
FAMOUS SONGS
CHAPTER IV
"LA MARSEILLAISE"
THE wild, pulse-stirring, revolutionary song
" Le Chant des Marseillaise" it was called
"patriotic" in the last decade of the last
century which has had so much effect on
political and social life in more countries than
France, was originally written by Claude Joseph
Rouget de Lisle in the winter of 1792. I say
" originally," because many versions appeared
almost immediately after its production, so popu
lar did it become with the soldiers and peasants
alike, when several hundred sturdy revolution
ists from Marseilles marched into Paris to its
strains. The Parisians took it up immediately,
and the Austrian and Prussian regulars were
beaten again and again by the ragged sans
culottes to this tune, as every reader of Carlyle's
"History of the French Revolution" knows.
Curiously enough, the "Marseillaise" is still
the official patriotic hymn in France under the
present most Philistine of Republics ! And we,
on this side of the Channel, duly recognized
61
STORIES OF
the fact of its being the National melody by
playing it at the Mansion House during a ban
quet to a French minister in the year of grace
and loyalty, 1893 ! But what a wonderful his
tory has this truly marvellous song ! And how
often has it been erroneously related !
There are several variants as to the circum
stances under which it was composed and
written, for Rouget de Lisle wrote both words
and music. Our author, says one version, was
a young artillery officer at Strasburg, who was
imbued with considerable poetic and musical
talent, and under the combined influence of love
and patriotism he wrote the hymn one night in
the house of his sweetheart's father during the
severe winter of 1792. The young maiden
who had inspired him with the idea shed tears
upon hearing the stirring strains. At once
conveying the exact prevailing spirit of the
whole of France, the song quickly spread from
Strasburg to Alsace, where the melody was
learnt by the Marseilles troops then on their
way to Paris. The piece created a tremendous
furore in the French capital, and soon the re
frain was being sung and played all over the
country. This is only partly true, because there
is some doubt about the sweetheart incident.
The real facts are as follows, though his claims
62
FAMOUS SONGS
to both words and music have often been dis
puted. Of the many claimants to the honour I
shall have a word to say later. Rouget de Lisle
was greatly esteemed among his friends for his
poetical and musical gifts, and was a particular
friend of the family of the Baron de Dietrich, a
noble Alsatian then Mayor of Strasburg.
" One night during the winter of 1792 the young
officer was seated at the table of this family.
The hospitable fare of the baron had been so
reduced by the calamities and necessities of war
that nothing," says Mdme. Fanny Raymond
Ritter, " could be provided for dinner that day
except garrison bread and a few slices of ham.
Dietrich smiled sadly at his friend, and lament
ing the poverty of the fare he had to offer, de
clared he would sacrifice the last remaining
bottle of Rhine wine in his cellar, if he thought
it would aid de Lisle's poetic invention, and in
spire him to compose a patriotic song for the
public ceremonies shortly to take place in
Strasburg. The ladies approved, and sent for
the last bottle of wine of which the house could
boast." After dinner de Lisle sought his room,
and though it was bitterly cold he at once sat
down at the piano, and between reciting and
playing and singing eventually composed " La
Marseillaise," and, thoroughly exhausted, fell
63
STORIES OF
asleep with his head on his desk. In the morn
ing he was able to recall every note of the
song, immediately wrote it down and carried it to
his friend Baron Dietrich. Everyone was en
chanted with the song, which aroused the
greatest enthusiasm. A few days later it was
publicly given in Strasburg, and thence it
was conveyed by the multitude to the insurg
ents of Marseilles, and, of its after popularity we
know. De Lisle's mother was a most devoted
Royalist, and asked, " What do people mean by
associating our name with the revolutionary
hymn which those brigands sing?" De Lisle
himself, proscribed as a Royalist, when flying
for his life in the Jura mountains, heard it as a
menace of death, and recognizing the well-
known air, asked his guide what it was called.
It had then been christened the " Marseillaise
Hymn," and was so called until hymns went
out of fashion, when it was known by the one
word. In his late years de Lisle is said to have
been twice in prison, and to have been reduced
to the utmost poverty. A short time before his
death, when all hopes and ambitions had been
extinguished in him by age, he was decorated
with the ribbon of the Legion of Honour.
Soon after this tardy recognition several pen
sions were conferred upon him which he did
64
FAMOUS SONGS
not live long to enjoy. He was the author of
many essays, songs, dramas, and musical com
positions, his sole means of support during a
large part of his life being his literary labours.
I believe that several of de Lisle's plays were
translated and played in England. He died in
1836.
Of the words only six stanzas were originally
written, but at least a dozen more were added
by other hands about the same time. I append
the first verse of de Lisle's version.
" Aliens, enfants de la Patrie !
Le jour de gloire est arrive ;
Centre nous de la tyrannic,
L' etendard sanglant est Iev6
Entendez-vous, dans les campagnes,
Mugir ces f6roces soldats ?
Us viennent jusque dans nos bras,
Egorger nos fils : nos compagnes 1
"Aux armes, mes citoyens !
Formez vos battaillons :
Marchons, maichons, Qu'tux sang impur :
Abreuve nos sillons."
The Republican version of the lyric differs
somewhat from the original.
One of the first and best English versions
was published so soon as 1795, only three years
5 65
STORIES OF
after it was written, and is as follows. Unfor
tunately the translator's name is not given :
I.
' ( Ye sons of France, awake to glory,
Hark, hark what myriads bid you rise,
Your children, wives, and grandsires hoary,
Behold their tears and hear their cries !
Shall hateful tyrants, mischief breeding,
With hireling hosts, a ruffian band,
Affright and desolate the land,
While peace and liberty lie bleeding ?
REFRAIN.
" To arms ! to arms, ye brave '
Th' avenging sword unsheath !
March on, march on, all hearts resolved
To victory or death.
II.
"Now, now the dangerous storm is scowling
Which treacherous Kings, confederate, raise ;
The dogs of war, let loose, are howling,
And lo ! our fields and cities blaze,
And shall we basely view the ruin,
While lawless force, with guilty stride,
Spreads desolation far and wide,
With crimes and blood his hands embruing ?
III.
" With luxury and pride surrounded,
The vile, insatiate despots dare,
Their thirst of power and gold unbounded,
To mete and vend the light and air ;
66
FAMOUS SONGS
Like beasts of burden would they load us,
Like gods would bid their slaves adore :
But man is man, and who is more ?
Then, shall they longer lash and goad us ?
IV
" O, Liberty ! can man resign thee 1
Once having felt thy gen'rous flame?
Can dungeon, bolts, and bars confine thee,
Or whips thy noble spirit tame ?
Too long the world has wept, bewailing
That falsehood' s dagger tyrants wield :
But fieedom is our sword and shield,
And all theii arts are unavailing."
No wonder such a lyric as this, with the oft-
repeated chorus, should have stirred the people
to action ! Lamartine exclaimed of " La Mar
seillaise :" " It received, from the circumstances
amid which it arose, an especial character, that
renders it at once solemn and sinister; glory
and crime, victory and death, are mingled in
its strains." And Heine wrote of it in 1830:
"A strong joy seizes me, as I sit writing!
music resounds under my window, and in the
elegiac rage of its large melody I recognize
that hymn with which the handsome Barba-
roux and his companions once greeted the city
of Paris. What a song! It thrills me with
fiery delight, it kindles within me the glowing
star of enthusiasm and the swift rocket of
67
STORIES OF
desire. Swelling, burning torrents of song rush
from the heights of freedom, in streams as bold
as those with which the Ganges leaps from the
heights of the Himalaya ! I can write no more,
this song intoxicates my brain; louder and
nearer advances the powerful chorus :
" ' Aux Annes, citoyens !'"
To hear a large concourse of enthusiastic
Frenchmen sing this song is an experience of
the most thrilling description. Rachel chanted
the song with such fire and passion that the
audience grew crazy with excitement, and, as it
were, reached for their swords. The music of
" La Marseillaise" is at once striking and en
thralling; the theme forcible, and the refrain
" Aux armes, citoyens !" so pathetic and ex
pressive that few can hear it without being
affected to tears.
As I have already stated, there are several
other translations; two in 1800, and one which
was published about 1857 and sung by Mrs.
Howard Paul in the " Mimic and Musical En
tertainment Patchwork." John Oxenford wrote
this version, and just listen to it, as a specimen
of what the mild and genial dramatic critic
of the " Times" could turn out :
68
FAMOUS SONGS
" Come children of your country, come,
New glory dawns upon the world,
Our tyrants, rushing to their doom,
Their crimson standard have unfurled.
Already on our plains we hear
The murmurs of a savage horde,
They threaten with the murd'rous sword
Your comrades and your children dear
Then up, and from your ranks the hireling foe withstand,
March on, march on, his craven blood must fertilize the land."
So popular had the song become that every
body seemed imbued with the idea that they
had had a hand in its composition. According
to that curious work " An Englishman in Paris,"
not only did de Lisle not write the whole of his
song the Abbe Pessoneaux during the Reign
of Terror declared he wrote the last strophe of
the lyric but, it is said, he had stolen the music,
note for note, during the period he was writing
the song when a prisoner in the fortress of St.
Jean, at least three years after de Lisle really had
been inspired with the whole composition ! It
is Boucher Alexandre Boucher, a well-known
eccentric violinist, who vowed, says the author
of " An Englishman in Paris," that he, Boucher,
had written it for the colonel of a regiment who
was about to leave Marseilles the next day.
I give it, says the writer of the work I have just
referred to: "In the very words of Boucher
STORIES OF
himself as he told it to a Paris journalist whom
I knew well : ' A good many years afterwards
I (meaning Boucher) was seated next to Rouget
de Lisle at a dinner-party in Paris. We had
never met before, and, as you may easily
imagine, I was rather interested in the gentle
man, whom, with many others at the same
board, I complimented on his production ; only
I confined myself to complimenting him on his
poem. " You don't say a word about the music,"
he replied; "and yet, being a celebrated musician,
that ought to interest you. Do you not like
it?" "Very much indeed," I said, in a some
what significant tone. " Well, let me be frank
with you. The music is not mine. It was that
of a march which came, heaven knows whence,
and which they kept on playing at Marseilles
during the Terror, when I was a prisoner at the
fortress of St. Jean. I made a few alterations
necessitated by the words, and there it is."
Thereupon, to his great surprise, I hummed the
march as I had originally written it. " Wonder
ful !" he exclaimed; "how did you come by
it?" he asked. When I told him he threw
himself round my neck. But the next moment
he said: "I am very sorry, my dear Boucher,
but I am afraid that you will be despoiled for
ever, do what you will ; for your music and my
70
FAMOUS SONGS
words go so well together that they seem to
have sprung simultaneously from the same
brain, and the world, even if I proclaimed my
indebtedness to you, would never believe it."
" Keep the loan," I said, moved in spite of my
self, by his candour. " Without your genius,
my march would be forgotten by now. You
have given it a patent of nobility. It is yours
for ever." ' "
This is quite touching, but unfortunately the
dates don't fit in; the Reign of Terror was
scarcely consummated until 1793, when Robes
pierre for a time was triumphant, de Lisle was
undoubtedly at Strasbourg in 1792, and was not
taken captive till more than a twelvemonth after
the song was turning all France into demons,
and, as I have said, the song was already pub-
hshed'm England by J. Bland, Holborn, London.
But I am enabled to demolish this fable of
Boucher by advancing the countless fictitious
claims of other impostors. Amongst the many
appears to have been a certain Holtzmann who
was discovered by a Monsieur Tappert. Only
quite recently (1892) the origin of "La Mar
seillaise" was greatly exercising the minds of the
good people of Cahors. It seems, according
to the correspondent of a London news
paper, that the bishop of that place happened to
STORIES OF
find himself in the course of a public ceremony,
forced to listen to the famous Republican hymn
and apparently was not at all shocked, conse
quently some officious nobody wrote to the
local papers about him. One of these, the
" Semaine Religieuse," took the matter up in a
manner least expected, and said " How is it
possible that anybody should be astonished that
a bishop should listen with complaisance to an
air which in reality has a religious origin?"
The idea, promulgated not for the first time,
was that the author plagiarized it from a piece
of sacred music. Then was revived the story
not of Simon Tappertit, but M. Tappert. He
affirmed that the theme of the " Marseillaise"
was to be found m a credo of a mass composed
in 1776 by Holtzmann, chapel master of the
parish church at Meersbourg. Naturally this
announcement caused an immense sensation
among the musical savants , and more particular
ly among those who worshipped the piece as a
national and patriotic anthem. M. Tappert was
immediadely called on to explain where this
mass was to be found, but up to the last he
failed to do so, and therefore we are at liberty
to assume that he invented the story for some
reason or other. In 1886 it was also stated
that the air was taken from a religious source
72
FAMOUS SONGS
by M. Arthur Loth in the " Univers," who de
clared that Grisons, although a clerical, had
embraced the cause of the Revolution. But
Grisons did not avow himself the composer
until 1793 a year after it was really written
when he actually did introduce it into a
into a score which was executed by choristers
from the church of St. Omer. Of course his
claim was very soon put out of court when the
matter was thoroughly investigated he had
simply stolen a few bars from " La Marseillaise,"
and embodied them in his own work. It is odd
that the piece should have been so often tem
porarily appropriated by some charlatan anxious
to secure a little cheap fame. The " Marseil
laise" has been made use of by many well-
known people, but invariably the indebtedness
has been acknowledged by them : Salieri, for
instance, in the opening chorus of his opera,
"Palmira" (1795). It stands in Grisons' intro
duction to his oratorio, " Esther," which is still
in MS., and which excited so much speculation
as to whether he invented the melody or de
Lisle. Schumann uses it in his song of the
" Two Grenadiers" with excellent effect, also in
his overture to " Hermann and Dorothea."
Louis Philippe conferred a pension on de
Lisle for his patriotism and poetry. There is a
73
STORIES OF
picture by Pils, representing de Lisle singing the
" Marseillaise," well known from the engraving.
Finally, there is no simpler method of settling
this vexed question than by referring to " La
Verite sur la Paternite de la Marseillaise : par
A. Rouget de Lisle," published in 1865. The
writer was a nephew of the original Rouget, and,
says W. F. Waller in "Notes and Queries,"
he showed, by precise documentary and other
evidence, that Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle
was a captain of engineers, quartered at Stras
bourg in 1792; that when Dietrich, Mayor of
Strasbourg, wanted a patriotic song for the
Bas Rhin volunteers then under orders to join
Luckner's corps to sing, the engineer cap
tain went home to his lodgings, and on the
night of April 24th composed the words and
music of a song which he called " Chant de
Guerre pour TArmee du Rhin," the title which
appears on the first edition of the song, pub
lished by Dannbach of Strasbourg, and dedi
cated to Marechal Liickner. This " Chant de
Guerre" was sung at Dietrich's house on April
25th. The scene is familiar enough, as shown
in the engraving from Isidore Pils's picture.
Band parts were ready next day, and the band
of the Garde Rationale played the " Chant" on
Sunday, April gpth. It was a matter of two
74
FAMOUS SONGS
months before it got to Marseilles. On June
25th Mireur sang it at a banquet there, and
with so much effect that it was printed and dis
tributed amongst Barbaroux's " Six Hundred"
who were about to march to Paris. They sang
it when they entered Paris on July 30th, and at
the attack on the Tuileries on August loth.
Jean Alexandre Boucher, who claimed to have
written the song, as previously stated, was an
extraordinary individual, born the same year his
homonym, the Painter of Dubarrydom, died.
He was a Court fiddler at the early age of six.
He was of the " Concert Spirituel" at seven ;
and solo-violinist to the King of Spain whom
Napoleon Empereur vanquished. After the
peace he toured through Europe, and made a
great sensation wherever he went. He called
himself "Alexandre des Violons," and won a
reputation second only to that of the great
Paganini. His chief hobby seemed to be in
imitating Napoleon, whom he closely resembled.
He made a considerable fortune, and died in
1861.
I have purposely given all the versions and
particulars respecting the " Marseillaise" that I
have come across from time to time, and I trust
that such facts as I have been at some pains to
unearth and verify, will remove all doubt on the
75
STORIES OF
subject of the authorship of this composition
for the future. A full account of the song may
also be found in " Les Melodies Populaires de la
France," by Loquin, published in Paris, 1879.
In conclusion, it is pleasant to be able to add
that Frenchmen have acknowledged the genius
of Rouget de Lisle at last by erecting a statue
to him in their beloved city of Paris, 1892.
Amongst de Lisle's best works may be men
tioned " Hymne dithyrambique sur la conjura
tion de Robespierre et la revolution du 9 ther-
midor" (1794), " Chant des Vengeances" (1798),
"Chant du Combat" (1800, for the Egyptian
Army). He also wrote the libretto of the
comic opera "Jacquot, ou 1'ecole des meres"
(music by Delia Maria, 1795), and of the grand
opera " Macbeth," to the music of Chelard, 1827.
I can trace only two plays in which the story
of the writing of the " Marseillaise" has been
utilized, the best, called " An Old Song," by the
Rev. Freeman Wills and A. Fitz-Maurice King,
was produced at the Great Hall, Tunbridge
Wells, August 2nd, 1894, and reproduced with
out much success at the Criterion Theatre in
the fall of 1896.
FAMOUS SONGS
CHAPTER V
THE MISTLETOE BOUGH
THE sale of a chest in February, 1893, alleged
to be associated with the stoiy of the " Mistletoe
Bough" at Basketts-Fletchwood, naturally re
vived interest in the tragedy (or tragedies) upon
which the song is founded, and which is said to
have happened in so many families during the
last century, and much speculation was rife.
Some years ago several correspondents tried to
thresh the subject out in the pages of " Notes
and Queries," but only with partial success.
Lieutenant- Colonel H. F. Greatwood, who has
been kind enough to let me see a booklet on
the subject, claims to have the identical chest at
The Castle, Tiverton, North Devon, but I fear
that such is not the case. This chest was for a
number of years in the possession of the Cope
family, of Bramshill, Hertford Bridge, Hamp
shire, and the late Sir William Cope wrote the
booklet mentioned, giving many interesting par-
77
STORIES OF
ticulars respecting the same. The story as told
in verse both by Samuel Rogers and Thomas
Haynes Bayly, is as follows : A youthful and
playful bride on her wedding day hid herself,
while playing hide and seek, in an oak chest ; she
let down the lid, the spring caught, and she was
buried alive. She was sought for high and low,
but it was not until some considerable time had
elapsed that the old chest was broken open, and
her skeleton discovered. But though this story
is stated as having occurred at Bramshill, no
reliable data have ever been discovered to make
the belief any more than a tradition. It is
denied that any Miss Cope ever met with such
a fate, though the incidents have been circum
stantially set forth. A lady wrote to the late
Sir William Cope, that there could be no doubt
of Bramshill being the seat of the tragedy ; that
Miss Cope was extremely young, and just home
from school at the time she was married. She
proposed a game of hide and seek, which was
pooh-poohed for a long time. At last she said,
"Well, then, I shall go and hide myself/' and
she was never found again. The family left
the place dreadfully unhappy. About two years
after Lady Cope wrote to the housekeeper to
say they were coming down ; and in going about
the rooms with the housemaids to prepare for
FAMOUS SONGS
them, she (the housekeeper) missed some
counterpanes or something similar. In search
ing for the missing articles she went into some
rooms that had not been occupied for many
years.
" Oh, they may be in the chest, and yet I do
not think it likely," said the housekeeper.
However, she opened the chest and to her
horror beheld the wedding garments of the lost
girl. Upon the family being made acquainted
with the discovery they had forty rooms pulled
down, as the mansion was excessively large, and
they could not bear to go into that part of the
house again. It is true that, at the beginning
of the last century, a projecting wing containing
thirty-three rooms was pulled down. But no
faith is placed in the story of the lost bride.
However, there was a daughter, Elizabeth, of
Sir John Cope, the sixth baronet, who met her
death in this way. She died, aged 13, in 1730.
But of her being the lady of the chest there
is no tradition, for if there had been any truth
in this version, Sir Richard, the ninth baronet,
who was her cousin and nine or ten years old
at the time of her death, would surely have
known. He died in 1836. It is stated, how
ever, that he was a man of peculiar disposition
and did not like being questioned about the
79
STORIES OF
chest or the accident, whatever it was, that
caused his cousin Elizabeth's death.
The oak chest now at the Castle, Tiverton,
was described by the late Sir William Cope as
follows : "The chest is one of those called in
Italian ' Cassone/in which the bride's trousseau
was enclosed and conveyed to her future home.
It is about seven or eight feet long ; about three
feet high and the same in breadth. The ex
terior and the interior of the lid are inlaid with
ornamental designs. The front is divided into
three panels. The subjects of these panels are
landscapes, in one of which is a man cutting
down a tree ; the stiles dividing and enclosing
the panels are each ornamented with the figure
of a man with the legs of an animal (a satyr).
The two on the exterior stiles are carrying goats,
the other two on the dividing stiles are blowing
horns ; one carrying a trident, the other a club.
At the foot of one of the satyrs is a tortoise ; of
another, a serpent ; and of the other two, dogs
or some similar quadrupeds. The frame is de
corated with arabesques. The inside of the lid,
which has three hinges the long straps of which
end in fleur-de-lys, is decorated. In the upper
centre is the globe, supported by two ' amoretti'
and below these are arabesques. On one side
in a landscape are two unarmed figures kneeling
80
FAMOUS SONGS
in homage to a crowned figure, holding a sceptre,
and seated on a throne ; and behind the kneel
ing figures is a man in full armour. On the
opposite side are two men fully armed, and with
shields, meeting a third. At each extremity is
a man in armour standing on a tesselated pave
ment. The whole of this ornamentation is
bordered by arabesques." Assuming this orna
mentation to be of Italian workmanship, Sir
William Cope was willing to give credence to
the story told by a lady of a distinguished
Italian house to the effect that the incident
happened in her own family, and was a well-
known record. The chest was said to have
been sold to an Englishman, whom Sir William
believed to have been the fifth baronet, who
resided in Italy for many years, and who con
veyed it to Bramshill about the beginning of
last century. He cites Rogers's " Ginevra" in
support of his contention, but unfortunately the
poet in a footnote to his poem said : " This
story is, I believe, founded on fact, though
the time and place are uncertain. Many old
houses in England lay claim to it." Rogers
laid the scene in Modena. At Florence, how
ever, is an old Castello, opposite to the church
of St. Florence, where the " identical chest" is
still shown to visitors.
S 81
STORIES OF
Miss Mitford, in 1829 (" Life," vol. ii., 281),
says the story belongs to Bramshill, Sir John
Cope's house in Hampshire. But she adds:
" This story is common to old houses ; it was
told me of the great house at Malsanger."
This last house is near Basingstoke and at
nearly the same date is said to have been un
occupied. There seems to be no doubt that the
old oak chest of Bramshill was connected with
some tragical event, but whether it took place
in Italy or England it is hard to say, though I
incline to the belief that it was in England, as
the oak chest was at one time one of the prin
cipal articles of furniture in most family man
sions. The oak, too, is a special product of
England, but not of Italy. Moreover, the same
sad circumstance has been associated with at
least four other houses. First at a Leicester
shire house, the house of the Hartopps ; sec
ondly at Marwell Old Hall near Winchester,
where the coffer sold at Basketts-Fletchwood
was, previously to its passing into the possession
of the late Rev. J. Haygarth, at Upham,
Hants, at whose death it went to Mr. Lawson
Tait's house in the New Forest ; thirdly, at a
house not far from Bridg water. In the parish
church of Bawdrip, about three miles from
Bridgwater there is a monument to Edward
FAMOUS SONGS
Lovell, his wife Eleanor (nee Bradford) and their
two daughters, Maria and Eleanor. The in
scription touching the latter is : " Eleanor . . .
obiit Jun 14 1681. Hanc, subito et immaturo
(ipsos pene inter hymenaeos) fato correptam
mcestissimus 1-uxit maritus, et in gratam piamq,
parentum sororis et dilectissimae conjugis mem-
oriam, monumentum hoc erigi voluit." The
month Jun. might easily be a mistake for Jan.
Roughly translated, the above may be rendered
as, " Her afflicted husband mourned her snatched
away well nigh on her wedding day by a sud
den and untimely fate ; and he resolved to have
this monument erected to the pleasant (agree
able) and pious memory of parents, sister, and
most-beloved spouse." Tradition connects this
sudden death with the story of the bride play
ing at hide and seek. It is curious that in
Haynes Bayly's song the bridegroom's name
should be Lovell. There is no mention in the
monument of the name of the bereaved hus
band. The father, Edward Lovell was fourteen
years rector of Bawdrip, and fellow of Jesus
College, Cambridge, and died in 1675, so he
could not have been present at the wedding as
represented in the song. He came from Bat-
combe, near Castle Gary, at which latter place
the Lovells were seated in very early days. It
83
STORIES OF
is quite conceivable that the bride and bride
groom were cousins, both Lovells, and it would
be interesting to know upon which legend
Bayly based his lyric.
The third house that is held to be the scene
of the tragic mishap is Exton Hall, the seat of
the Noels. The incident is related by an an
cestor of the family, it having been handed
down from Dorothy Noel, bom in 1693, who
was present as a child at the time of the occur
rencesay about 1700-1705. Her version of
the story is as follows : There was merry-making
at Christmas in the old family hall, and amateur
theatricals were performed. In one of the
scenes it was necessary to represent a funeral.
Accordingly one of the young ladies present
personated the dead girl of the piece, and was
lowered into an old oak chest, and the lid closed
over her. When the scene was finished the lid
was raised, when to the dismay of the party she
was discovered to be dead. Never again were
private theatricals enacted in that house, for the
judgment of God was supposed to have been
manifested in the event, and the family (said to
have been previously given to gaiety and disre
gard of serious subjects) thereafter became noted
for its strict performance of religious duties.
This variant does not fit in with Haynes
84
FAMOUS SONGS
Bayly's once popular song, wherein he indi
cates that the game of hide and seek was
played. It may be here stated that Collet tells
a similar story to Bayly's in his " Relics of
Literature ;" it also finds a place in the " Causes
Celebres." The words of the song at once dis
pose of the claims of Italy as being the scene
of the catastrophe, though by some eccentric
freak of fancy, when it appeared in a collection
called " Songs of the Season," set to music by
Sir H. R. Bishop about 1830, these lines from
Rogers's " Italy" were used as a motto :
" The happiest of the happy,
When a spring-lock that lay in ambush there,
Fastened her down for ever. ' '
But there is no evidence that Bayly was in
fluenced by the " Ginevra" of Rogers. Rogers
was the popular poet of the period, and every
body quoted from him.
"THE MISTLETOE BOUGH."
"The mistletoe hung in the Castle Hall,
The holly branch shone on the old oak wall ;
And the baron' s retainers blithe and gay
Were keeping their Christmas holiday.
The baron beheld, with a father's pride,
His beautiful child, young Lovell' s bride ;
While she with her bright eyes seemed to be
The star of the goodly company.
Oh, the mistletoe bough 1 the mistletoe bough !
85
STORIES OF
" ' I'm weary of dancing now,' she cried ;
' Here tarry a moment, I'll hide, I'll hide I
And, Lovell, be sure thou' rt first to trace
The clue to my secret lurking place '
Away she ran, and her friends began
Each tower to seaich, and each nook to scan ;
And young Lovell cried, ' Oh ' where dost thou hide ?
I'm lonesome without thee, my own dear bride !'
" They sought her that night, they sought her next day !
And they sought her in vain, when a week passed away !
In the highest, the lowest, the loneliest spot,
Young Lovell sought wildly, but found her not.
And yeais flew by, and their grief at last
Was told as a sorrowful tale long past ;
And when Lovell appeared,the children cried,
' See, the old man weeps for his fairy bride 1'
" At length an old chest that had long lain hid
Was found in the Castle they raised the lid
And a skeleton form lay mouldering there,
In the bridal wreath of that lady fair.
Oh ' sad was her fate in sportive jest,
She hid from her lord in the old oak chest ;
It closed with a spring, and, dreadful doom !
The bride lay clasped in her living tomb !"
This is all essentially English, particularly the
Christmas festivities, when the baron's retainers
were wont to keep their Christmas holidays the
same as the barons themselves. Mrs. Bayly in
the "Life" of her husband, published in 1844,
throws no light on the subject, but it seems
tolerably evident that the ballad was founded
86
FAMOUS SONGS
by Bayly (who was born at Bath in 1797, and
died 1839, after having written hundreds of
songs and some thirty-six dramatic pieces) on
some well-known family tradition, and in all
probability he at some time or other visited
Bawdrip and read the inscription in the church
yard, which I have transcribed above. Indeed,
Bayly might have heard the tale of the Lovell
family from his father, who was a solicitor at
Bath, or he may even have met a descendant
of the Lovells is it not probable that the elder
Bayly was the Lovell family solicitor, and con-
'sequently in full possession of their history?
But what has become of this particular old oak
chest? The one sold on the loth of February,
1893, belonging to Mr. Lawson Tait, of Bas-
ketts-Fletchwood, was said by a gentleman who
saw it to be of Spanish mahogany, and not of
oak. Will the story ever be traced to its original
source ? Bayly was the author of, amongst
other songs, " I'd be a Butterfly," " She Wore
a Wreath of Roses," and many poems of a
homely nature. Joseph Philip Knight wrote
the music of " She Wore a Wreath of Roses,"
and to most of Bayly's lyrics. He was born in
1812 and died 1886.
Although Haynes Bayly was a dramatic
author, he does not appear to have seen the
' 87
STORIES OF
possibilities of a drama in the story of the song ;
but during his lifetime a fellow-dramatist,
Charles Somerset, turned it to account, and
produced at the Garrick Theatre, Whitechapel,
in 1834, a melodrama in two acts, entitled, " The
Mistletoe Bough ; or, the Fatal Chest." Mr.
Somerset's editor says that " a story in Rogers's
'Italy' produced the ballad upon which this
drama is founded," and gives an extract from the
poem. He continues : " Mr. Somerset, seeing the
dramatic impossibility of confining himself to this
single incident, has amplified the story by intro
ducing a variety of characters, the most promi
nent of which is a Goblin Page, a dwarfish,
deformed, malignant imp of mischief. The lady
dies, not by her own youthful frolic, but the
vengeance of a rejected lover, who, after she
has got into the chest, stabs her and closes the
lid. His treachery meets with retribution. The
spirit of his victim stands forth as his accuser ;
and, in a paroxysm of shame, remorse, and
despair, he plants a dagger in his heart !" The
transpontine and cispontine dramas were nearly
all built that way sixty years ago the avenging
spirit was always on top, so to speak. It is a
most wonderful and weird concoction of tragedy
and farce playing at hide and seek to the end.
The song is introduced and sung as a " Romance
FAMOUS SONGS
and Chorus/' and many liberties are taken with
Bayly's words. The Spirit also glides on to
wards the end, and sings a new version of the
lyric, suitable to the occasion, to her sleeping
lover, Lovell. At one time " The Mistletoe
Bough" was a great favourite at the pantomime
theatres, and it was frequently introduced into
the orchestral selections.
Amongst the many novelists who have used
this title may be mentioned Anthony Trollope,
who contributed a story called the " Mistletoe
Bough" to the Christmas number of the " Illus
trated London News," December 2 1st, 1861.
STORIES OF
CHAPTER VI
"EVER OF THEE"
THE story of this at one period extraordinarily
popular song, has been told many times in
various ways. The simplicity of the words
and homely characteristics of the melody natu
rally appealed to the public some few decades
ago, and occasionally one comes across it as a
favourite side by side with " Little Nell," " What
are the Wild Waves Saying?" and similar pieces,
especially in country houses. Its sale for many
years was something abnormal, and even now
there is a more or less steady demand for it.
The publisher, Mr. Turner, is said to have
reaped a fortune by it its author, oblivion.
But let me relate the romance concerning the
origin of the song which was said to have been
written and composed by James Lawson, whose
name will be looked for in vain on this or any
other publication.
Here is the story. On a certain cold day in
the month of January, 1850, the door of Mr.
Turner's music shop in the Poultry, Cheapside,
90
FAMOUS SONGS
London, was nervously opened, and a most un
lovely, unclean specimen of ragged humanity
dragged himself in. He looked as though he
had not had a bath for months. His beard was
unkempt, dirty, and matted. In the place of
boots he wore some filthy rags, and altogether
he was a most pitiable and degraded-looking
object.
One of the clerks eyed him cautiously, and
told him to clear out as speedily as possible.
Two ladies who were in the shop noticed his
woe-begone appearance, and were about to
give him some money, when the kind-hearted
manager stepped forward, and seeing the poor
fellow shivering with cold and, apparently,
hunger, took him into the workshop so that he
might have a " warm up" by the fire. A few
minutes later Mr. Turner, the proprietor, came
in, and seeing the ragged individual, asked what
he wanted, and " who allowed you in ?"
" I did," said the manager; "the poor fellow
looked so cold and miserable, that I could not
send him into the piercing wind again without
giving him a warm ; and besides, he says he
has some business with you."
" Business with me ?"
" Yes, sir ; I have a song I should like you to
listen to," answered the tramp.
STORIES OF
Mr. Turner eyed him from head to foot, and
then laughed incredulously.
The miserable-looking object at the stove
began to grow uneasy, and begged to be per
mitted to play the melody of his song, which
he then unearthed from his pocket, and handed
to the music publisher. Mr. Turner looked at
it, and said, " Who wrote this ?"
" I did, sir," was the reply.
" You ! Well, I'll have it played over, and
if it's any good I'll give you something for it."
" I beg your pardon, sir, I should prefer to
play it myself."
" What ? You play ? Well, bring him up to
the piano-room when he gets warm, and we'll
humour him," said Mr. Turner to his manager.
Veiy shortly the bundle of rags was seated
at a concert grand piano, and " Ever of Thee"
was played for the first time by its composer,
James Lawson.
His listeners were electrified when they heard
this dilapidated tramp make the piano almost
speak. His touch is said to have been simply
marvellous, and his very soul seemed to sob at
his finger-tips. When he had finished, he turned
to his small audience, and said, apologetically,
" I'd like to sing it for you, but I have a ter
rible cold. I have not been in bed for five nights.
92
FAMOUS SONGS
I am hungry and ill, and I feel I could not do
it justice."
The publisher was almost dumb with amaze
ment. The air was so catching and plaintive,
that he felt sure it would take and be a success ;
and he was convinced in his mind that this was
no ordinary man, but one with a history that
was worth investigating. So he determined to
cultivate him, and pressed him to sing at least
one verse of the song. Lawson protested, but
finally agreed, and if Turner was amazed when
he heard him play, he was positively enraptured
when that hungry voice, hungry with love,
hungry physically, poured out, in the sweetest
of tenors, the first stanza of the song in which
his soul lived. It was the story of a lost love,
but he cherished it, and, as he sang, it was easy
to see that he lived and breathed only for that
love. " Ever of Thee" has never been so sung
since. That trial verse made its success, and
to the experienced publisher, Mr. Turner, it
was decidedly evident that he had secured a
great song.
Addressing his manager, he said, " Take this
man along ; get him a bath, a shave, and some
decent clothes, in fact, have him properly at
tended to, and then bring him back, and we
will see about this song."
93
STORIES OF
Accordingly this was done, and a wonderful
transformation took place when "rigged out"
from top to toe in clean wholesome clothing,
James Lawson felt himself a new man; and
indeed, he looked what in reality he was, or had
been, a gentleman. One of the causes of his down
fall was not long in manifesting itself, when he
expressed a desire several times to have a drink.
" But won't you let me have a drink ?" he
said to his companion. "I want it please let
me have a drink."
The manager, however, discreetly refused to
grant this almost feverish request ; he told Mr.
Lawson that if he wanted a dinner it should be
provided, but drink he could not have. Finally
the two went into the " Ship and Turtle" dining-
rooms, and over a good meal, the author and
composer of " Ever of Thee" told the following
story :
" I was once rich you know what I am now.
You were astonished to hear me play the piano
so well. That little song has been the only
companion from which I have gained any com
fort during the last twelve months. It brought
back to me the days when I was rich, loved,
respected and happy ; of course it has its sad
side for me. But the memory of what it recalls
is the dearest thing in my existence."
94
FAMOUS SONGS
The manager interrupted him at this point
and indicated that it was getting late.
" Please bear with me," rejoined Lawson.
" I will not detain you long. Let me tell you
how and why I composed ' Ever of Thee/
Two years ago I met a girl at Brighton. If
God ever allowed one of his angels to come
to earth, she was that one. I adored her. She
seemed to return my affection. I escorted her
everywhere, and was at her beck and call, morn,
noon, and night, and it was currently believed
that Miss Blank and I were engaged. I had to
return to London on business and when I went
back to Brighton she was gone.
" Three months after I met her at a ball.
She had just finished a waltz with a tall, good-
looking man, and was promenading the hall on
his arm. She recognized me. But when I
said, ' How do you do, Miss Blank/ she quickly
replied
"'I'm well, thank you, Mr. Lawson; but I
am surprised to hear you call me Miss Blank.
When you left Brighton so suddenly, I thought
I should never see you again. You left no
address, never called again, and well, I am
married !'
" ' Married ! To whom ?' I gasped.
" ' To Mr. Prize,' she replied, pointing at the
95
STORIES OF
same time to the gentleman with, whom she
had been dancing.
" That ended my life. My Marie, my dream,
was gone. I left the hall, went to a gambling
place I knew, and in drink and gambling endea
voured to kill my grief. It lasted but a little
while, this fearful dissipation, and in four months
I was ruined.
" Then came my trial. The men who had
played with me and won my money shunned
me. My friends shut their doors against me,
and my last sovereign was gone. I was utterly
stranded, homeless and wretched. I had no
desire to live, no energy to do anything. For
nights I slept in the cabmen's coffee-houses;
there I was considered a nuisance, for I still
drank heavily, spending all I could get in drink,
and some friendly doorstep was my only bed,
I pawned everything I possessed, and finally
I spent three months in a workhouse under an
assumed name.
" It was there the presence of Marie haunted
me again. One day Christmas Day we
were at dinner. Several rich people came to
distribute among us gifts, such as tobacco, warm
clothing, tea, and so on. I was weary and did
not look at the visitors ; suddenly a voice I knew
too well said to me, 'My good man, which
96
FAMOUS SONGS
would you prefer, some warm clothing, or some
pipes and tobacco ?' I looked up. It was
Marie. I rushed from the table out into the
garden at the back, and there I was found,
O 7 '
hours after, insensible.
" In my bed there in the workhouse-hospital,
I wrote the words of the song you heard me
sing to-day. Then I got well, and, sick of the
life, I left the place and became night-watch
man at some new buildings they were putting
up in Aldersgate Street. While there the
melody of my song came to me. I got a scrap
of music-paper and jotted it down, and for a
time was happy. My old friends often passed
me at night, jolly and careless, little dreaming
that James Lawson was the poor night-watch
man who answered their indolent questions.
" Often, when all was still, I poured out my
soul in this tender song, and after a while the
homeless gamins used to come and listen to me.
It pleased them, and perhaps made them for
get their misery. To me it brought back the
memory of a dead love and ruined life. But
you are tiring of my story there is little more
to tell. I could not endure the solitary medita
tion of my past I again began to drink it
became a disease with me. I lost my situation,
and as a last resource I thought that perhaps
7 97
STORIES OF
my song might be worth a few pounds, and so
took it to Mr. Turner."
At this point the poor fellow burst into tears.
When he was himself again, they left the dining-
rooms and repaired to Mr. Turner, who, ad
dressing Lawson, after having spoken with his
manager aside, said :
"Mr. Lawson, here are ten shillings. It
will be enough to get your supper and a decent
room to-night. To-morrow morning I want
you to call here, and I shall give you a good
position in my warehouse. As for your song,
I want you to remember this : if you will keep
sober I will pay you a fair royalty ; but if you
spend this ten shillings in drink, not another
penny will you get."
This seems rather a high hand for the pub
lisher to have taken, considering that .he had
only that day seen Lawson, and he seems to
have shown a great lack of tact and discretion.
Anyhow, he had no right to dictate such terms
to one who had suffered so much. Lawson
certainly did not know the value of his song,
while the publisher, who eventually made a
fortune by it, did. As it is stated that he did
not pay Lawson any royalty for the song, one
would like to know how he salved his con
science while he was robbing this weak mortal
FAMOUS SONGS
of his rights. If he had acted humanely at once,
he might have rescued the outcast and restored
him to society.
But to continue this distressing history. Law-
son left the shop and did not make his appear
ance again for five days. Then he was in a
condition almost as bad as when he first entered
it. His vest was gone; his boots were ex
changed for old ones ; his hat was shabby in
the extreme. His coat (an old one) was buttoned
tightly round his collarless neck, and his face
was dirty and his chin unshaven. Mr. Turner
looked at him. He did not even speak to him.
The smell of stale alcohol sufficiently told its
own tale. He took half-a-crown from his
pocket, handed it to Lawson, and turned on his
heel, saying to his manager, " If this man comes
here again put him out."
The composer of " Ever of Thee" left the
shop and never entered Turner's place again.
What became of him none can say, for he was
never seen more.
Now this story, which was first printed (as
far as I can ascertain) in the " Albany (New
York) Journal/' in the winter of 1888, and was
afterwards rather extensively copied into the
English papers in London and the provinces
under various titles this story, I am informed
99
STORIES OF
by the publishers, " is merely and absolutely the
creation of some inventive writer." Yet there
are some circumstances connected with the
issue of the song which I am not able to fathom,
and which create a sort of mystery regarding
it The person who wrote the history seemed
to indicate that he was in the employ of the
publishers when the song was purchased.
"Ever of Thee" was published in 1859, if
one may judge from the copy in the British
Museum, which bears the date stamp of re
ceipt 1 8th October of that year. The words
were by George Linley, and the music by Foley
Hall. So, naturally, the question arises, who
was James Lawson, who claims to have written
and composed the song? He certainly was
not George Linley, who was a prolific writer
who wrote ballads, songs, and operettas for the
theatres, and was well known. He wrote both
words and music of " The Toymaker," a suc
cessful operetta produced at Covent Garden,
November 2Oth, 1861. Linley was born in
1798, and died September loth, 1865. H. Foley
Hall, besides composing " Ever of Thee," wrote
the music of many other songs including " Thy
Smile turns all to Light" (words by G. Linley) ;.
"Blame not the Heart" (words by E. N.
Browne) 1860; "Far from those I love," 1859;
100
FAMOUS SONGS
"O yes thou'lt Remember," 1854; "Stars
Shining Above," 1860; "Still in my Dreams"
(words by G. Linley), 1857; "Thou art my
Guiding Star" (Linley), 1858; and "When I
am far away" (words by Miss G. B. Burton),
1848. George Linley and H. Foley Hall were
two distinct persons I am assured by one who
knew both, but I am unable to find any par
ticulars of Hall's life or what sort of a man he
was, except that he was somewhat erratic. All
the lyrics that he set were of an extremely
sentimental nature, and not of a very high
poetic standard. How the circumstantial story
of " Ever of Thee" came to be written I cannot
say ; but I am now in a position to prove that
James Lawson and H. Foley Hall were not one
and the same person, for there was such a per
son as Lawson, though the publisher refuses to
throw any light on the subject.
Since writing the foregoing, I have met two
gentlemen who were acquainted with Foley
Hall, and I have heard from others who knew
both Hall and Lawson. The fact is, that though
this singularly circumstantial story may be quite
true as far as the reporter is concerned to whom
some one, Lawson presumably, stated the mat
ter, it is otherwise false from beginning to end.
A magnificent effort of some one's James Law-
101
STORIES OF
son's, possibly imagination. Mr. Turner did
purchase the song, but it was from George
Linley, who wrote the words, and Foley Hall,
who composed the music. The song, it is true,
was sung by James Lawson, a tenor, during the
years 1856 and later, and it was published in
October, 1859. Curiously enough, both Foley
Hall and James Lawson were very erratic and
extraordinary men, and very likely, after the
death of Foley Hall, Lawson, broken down and
ruined through too great a fondness for the
bottle, thinking to raise some money when
stranded in New York, invented and related
the above fiction. Though the publishers de
clare the story to be without foundation, I am
inclined to the belief, supported by certain
facts communicated to me by those who were
acquainted with both Foley Hall and James
Lawson, that the latter, or some other hard up
singer, did tell the above fable to the unsus
pecting New York scribe, especially as Foley
Hall gave MS. copies of the song to several
singers of the day, in order to get it known to
the public. And it was sung at several music
halls, including the Trevor, Knightsbridge,
during 1856 and onwards. Mr. Beaumont
Read, then singing as " Master Beaumont," was
presented with a manuscript copy of the song
102
FAMOUS SONGS
by Foley Hall, and he sang it in 1857. Of the
ultimate fate of James Lawson I am unable to
give any reliable particulars, but Foley Hall,
who looked more like a well-to-do farmer than
a musician, died in Chelmsford Gaol, possibly
before the publication of the song, as one who
was present at his deathbed, and who is still
alive, is strongly of opinion that he expired in
1859, attended by his beautiful and heartbroken
wife Foley Hall, like most composers and
wanderers in Bohemia, was always hard up,
and the cause of his incarceration was through
some irregularity in the passing of cheques but
over that matter let us draw a veil. Whether
Foley Hall or his next-of-kin ever received any
royalty for the song I cannot say. Possibly he
sold his interests right out. The royalty system
of payment was not practised very much thirty-
five years ago.
" Ever of Thee" is forgotten now, perhaps,
though in the country theatre it used to be
almost invariably played in the orchestra when
" East Lynne" was put up as an attraction.
From a musical point of view the song is
beneath serious criticism, though the air is
" catchy," and, as for the words, I give them
for your verdict :
103
STORIES OF
" Ever of thee I'm fondly dreaming,
Thy gentle voice my spirit can cheer ;
Thou wert the star, that mildly beaming,
Shone o' er my path when all was dark and drear.
Still in my breast thy form I cherish,
Ev'ry land thought like a bird flies to thee ;
Ah ! never till life and mem' ry perish,
Can I forget how dear thou art to me
Morn, noon, and night, where' er I may be,
Fondly I'm dreaming, ever of thee.
" Ever of thee, when sad and lonely,
Wand' nng afar my soul joy' d to dwell ;
Ah, then I felt I lov'd thee only,
All seem' d to fade before affection' s spell.
Years have not chill' d the love I chensh,
True as the stars hath my heart been to thee ;
Ah, never till life and mem'ry perish,
Can I forget how dear thou art to me."
It is almost equal, perhaps, to some of the
drawing-room songs of the present day.
104
FAMOUS SONGS
CHAPTER VII
" DIE WACHT AM RHEIN," " DIE SCHWERTLIED,"
" KUTSCHKE LIED," AND OTHER GERMAN SONGS
MOST of the National (historical) German songs
date from the time during which the German
States were under the heel of the great Napo
leon, or had just emancipated themselves that
is, from 1805 to 1814. As is well known, from
the earliest ages Germany was cut up into
many provinces ruled by different princes and
barons, and subject to varying and far from
satisfactory laws. These separate states were
constantly at war with each other, and con
sequently dissensions were ever rife. There
were to be considered the conflicting and
mighty powers of Austria and Prussia, and
the lesser ones of Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and
Saxony. Then followed Westphalia, Hesse-
Darmstadt, Mecklenburg, and a vast number
of other principalities more or less turbulent,
and dissatisfied with the ruling of the petty
princes and the controlling of the Great Powers.
And it was not until the repulse of Napoleon
105
STORIES OF
in Russia, and the thrashing his armies received
in Spain from the Duke of Wellington, that any
hope of deliverance appeared on the horizon.
In 1813 Frederick William III. of Prussia struck
the keynote of freedom when he called upon all
the states to fight together for the " Fatherland."
The French were routed, and the Battle of
Waterloo ended the murderous career of Napo
leon, and set Germany on the high road to
prosperity, though still not an undivided coun
try. It is to this epoch-making time that Ger
many owes the birth of such songs as " Was^
ist des Deutschen Vaterland," "*-Bie Schwert-
lied," and other national songs. Indeed, all the
songs of this period are really war hymns, and
encourage armed rebellion against the French
Power. But they were not exclusively directed
to the driving out of the French forces. The
French Revolution had sounded the knell of
despotism, not only in France, but in Germany
also. The principle underrunning all these
battle-chants was : First drive out the French,
and then restore the native powers that be, but
with essential modifications. The princely pre
rogatives were to be curtailed, and more consti
tutional modes of government introduced. This
explains to a certain extent the extraordinary
patience with which the German princes bore
106
FAMOUS SONGS
the French yoke : they feared the new aspira
tions of their subjects, who, if victorious, would
dimmish their influence and strength personally
quite as much as Napoleon I. It was out of
these sentiments of fearsomeness and distrust
that the notorious " Holy Alliance" grew.
Chief among the new politicians was the
educated youth of the country, notably the
students' associations (Burschenschaften). In
those days it was treason, punishable by im
prisonment, to talk of reconstituting the Ger
man Empire, and consequently up rose the
Secret Societies intent upon internal reforma
tion. The Bztrschenschaften, by the way, con
tributed enormously to the popular song-lore.
One of the most powerful war-hymns was
that of Arndt, the first verse of which runs :
" Der Gott, der Eisen wacnsen Hess,
Der wollte keine Knechte ;
Drum gab er Lanze, Schwert und Spiess ;
Dem Mann in seine Rechte.
Dram gab er mm dem kiihnen Muth
Den Zom der freien Rede ;
Dass er bestunde bis auf ' s Blut
Bis m dem Tod dJFehde."
Ernst Moritz Arndt was also the author of
"What is the German Fatherland?" ("Was ist
des Deutschen Vaterland"). He was a culti
vated writer and a professor at the universities.
107
STORIES OF
He was born in 1769, in the Isle of Riigen, and
died in 1860. But it was not till ten years later
that the prophesy of his song was fulfilled :
"Where'er men speak in German tongue,
Where German songs to God are sung,
That only be thy boundary line
That, valiant German, call it thine.
The whole of Germany shall it be !
0, God of Heav'n, look down and see,
And German courage to us send,
To love and guard it to the end ' '
The unfortunate Korner, author of the
" Schwertlied," who wrote several plays of con
siderable merit, also published a great many
songs under the title, " Leyer und Schwert"
("Lyre and Sword"). Karl Theodor Korner
was the son of veiy respectable parents, of
Saxony. He was born in 1791, and had as a
lad the happiness to be acquainted with the
great Schiller. Although somewhat delicate,
he was a handsome and accomplished youth,
and gave promise of immense intellectual
strength. He studied with success at the
universities of Leipsic, Berlin, and Vienna, and
at the age of twenty appeared as poet with a
tragedy that had a large measure of popularity.
He had known Schiller and Goethe, and now
became intimate with Humboldt and Schegel.
108
FAMOUS SONGS
Just at the time that Prussia's call to arms
resounded through the length and breadth of
the land, he fell in love with a beautiful maiden,
and they were duly betrothed. But his country-
called upon him to fight, and so he joined the
corps of volunteers known as " The Black
Huntsmen." The following is extracted from
a letter to his father : " Now that I know what
happiness may be realized in this life, and when
all the stars of my destiny look down on me
with such genial rays, now does a righteous
inspiration tell me that no sacrifice can be too
great for that highest of all human blessings,
the vindication of a nation's freedom."
His prowess and daring soon caused him to
be made a lieutenant, and during the intervals
of rest he wrote many a lyric round the bivouac
fires, and in particular the fine " War Song,"
" The Summons to Arms," and the magnificent
" Prayer before Battle."
He composed his famous "Sword Song,"
" Du Schwert an meiner Linken," when lying
in ambush waiting for the foe during the month
of August, 1813. Two hours later he was shot
dead, some authorities say, by a renegade coun
tryman in a skirmish near Wobbelin, in Meck
lenburg, while others say by the French sol
diery, who surprised and surrounded them.
109
STORIES OF
The lyric was found in his pocket-book. He
was buried by the roadside near an oak tree,
and a monument marks the resting-place of
this brave patriot, who was only twenty-two
when he was killed. I give the first verse of
the " Sword Song" in the original, and some
extracts from a most spirited translation by
Miss Elizabeth Craigmyle the very best that
has ever been done, though there are numbers
extant :
" Du Schwert an memer Linken,
Was soil dem heitres Blinken?
Bin freien Mannes Wehr,
Das freut dem Schwerte sehr."
" Sword at my left side gleaming,
Why are thy glances beaming
Upon me, shyly-sweet,
With joy thine eyes I greet !
" My heart for joy is leaping,
Within a brave knight' s keeping ;
How should my glance be staid ?
I am a free man's blade !
* * * * *
" Now leave that sheath, unsightly,
Thou joy to all the knightly ,
Flash out, my sword, flash free '
I lead thee forth with me "
There are sixteen verses, all of surprising power
and stirring rhythm. The music, which was
no
FAMOUS SONGS
composed by Weber, has added greatly to the
celebrity of the passionate stanzas.
Many other national songs were written later,
such as " Deutschland iiber Alles," by Hoffmann
von Fallersleben. The chief modern patriotic
song is, of course, " Die Wacht am Rhein ;"
the hymn " Heil Dir im Siegeskranz," by the
way, is sung to the same tune as " God Save
the Queen." (The histories of both of these
songs will be found in later chapters of this
work.) The Rhine comes in for a good share
of notice in patriotic poems. The well-known
song of Nicolaus Becker, written about the
year 1840, and entitled "Sie sollen ihn nicht
haben, den freien Deutschen Rhein" (" They
the French shall not have it, the free German
Rhine"), was answered by the satirical poem of
Alfred de Musset, " Nous 1'avons eu, votre Rhin
allemand" (" We have had it already, your Ger
man Rhine!").
In Prussia the favourite patriotic song in the
fifties and sixties was " Ich bin em Preusse,
Kennt ihr meine Farben?" (" I am a Prussian,
do you know my colours?"). It is now some
what out of date, but the melody, by A. Neit-
hardt, which is stirring, is frequently adapted to
other songs. The patriotic songs of the present
day are mostly tame and commonplace ; there
in
STORIES OF
is a sameness about the expressions that make
them exceedingly feeble and unexciting. In
Germany, as in all countries, stirring songs
are only written at stirring times. The song
"Schleswig-Holstein, Meerumschlungen" is still
remembered in North Germany ; it dates from
the period when the provinces Schleswig and
Holstein were struggling with Denmark for
their independence. This capital piece was
written in 1844 by Chemnitz. " Patriotic"
songs were common under Frederick the Great,
but they were mainly mere glorifications of the
famous commander, and with the exception per
haps of " Fredericus Rex/' I have not come
across any of particular merit.
National ideas were chiefly carried on after
the fall of the French First Empire by the
gymnastic associations (Turnvereine?), which
were very numerous just after 1816. In Ger
many, it is we.ll to bear in mind, gymnastics
have always been, more or less, mixed up with
politics a questionable blend which, happily,
is now going out, and only lingers from force
of tradition.
In the turbulent times of 1848 and 1849 " Die
Fahne Schwarz-roth-gold" was very much the
vogue. The principal popular song writers of
this century (they are all dead) are Schenken-
112
FAMOUS SONGS
dorf, Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Riickert (read
his " How Christ came to a Lonely Child"),
Heine, Geibel, Scheffel, and Freiligrath ("Hurra,
Germania" and " Were I before the Gates of
Mecca"), besides of course the great masters,
known to all the world.
It is not my intention to treat of the songs
founded on the Rhine legends they are too
many, and many of these beautiful pieces are
familiar, as, for instance, Heine's lovely lyric,
" Die Loreley." Freiligrath and Scheffel are
favourites with all English lovers of the ballad ;
the latter and Chamisso have produced some
exquisite humorous and pathetic poems. " The
Widow's Son" and "The Toy of the Giant's
Child" are splendid specimens of Chamisso's
talent. Ruckerf's " Barbarossa" (the old legand
of the Emperor Frederick Red Beard, whom
the popular imagination of the Middle Ages
pictured as confined underground with his beard
growing through the stone table at which he
was sitting !) is still a leading favourite in student
circles. The touching ballad, " Andreas Hofer,"
is much sung in South Germany and the Tyrol.
Andreas Hofer is the name of the heroic inn
keeper who was shot as a rebel in 1810.
Humorous, agreeable songs mostly of a bac
chanalian character are as plentiful as black-
8 113
STORIES OF
berries in September, and need no further men
tion. And of course Germany at the present
time is very rich in. lyric writers of varying
ability. They do not make song-writing a mere
trade as is the habit with so many of our own
drawing-room bards.
And now let us inquire into the story of the
" Watch on the Rhine." This was written by
Max Schneckenburger in 1840, and, as is not
uncommon in the history of literature, it has
superseded much better poems on the subject.
It was selected from a great number to be the
war song of 1870, when it immediately " caught
on" and took the place of Korner's " Schwert-
lied." Schneckenburger was a quiet and per
fectly obscure Swabian merchant who, as far as
I have been able to discover, was never moved
to write, or at any rate publish, any more than
this one song, and did not live to enjoy the
fame that was thrust upon it during the Franco-
Prussian war of 1870. "The Watch on the
Rhine" had a rival in a piece that commenced :
" It never shall be France's,
The free, the German Rhine,
Until its broad expanse is
Its last defender's shrine."
But the martial " Watch" became the universal
favourite when the aged King of Prussia rode
114
FAMOUS SONGS
forth to meet and vanquish the foe, and with
the defeat of France the dream of Bismarck's
life was realized, for, having quarrelled with
and conquered and annexed Schleswig-Holstein,
Prussia assumed the head of a United Germany
the best thing, as events have proved, that
could have happened to the Fatherland.
" Es braust em Ruf wie Donnerhall,
Wie SchwertgeHirr und Wogenprall :
Zum Rhein, zum Rhein, zum Deutschen Rhein,
Wer will des Stromes Huter sein ?
Lieb Vaterland, magst ruing sein,
Fest steht und treu die Wacht am Rhein."
The music was composed first as a chorus for
male voices by Carl Wilhelm, music teacher
and conductor, who was born at Schmalkalden
and died some eight or nine years ago, says
Fanny Raymond Ritter. But there is another
account given of the composition of this great
national song by Carl Hauser, which is very
curious. The song, says this writer, composed
by Carl Wilhelm, was not originally intended
for a national hymn. Carl Wilhelm was a
thorough Bohemian, and wrote some of his best
compositions on lager beer tables amid fumes
of tobacco smoke. He had a great difficulty in
selling his compositions, even cheap, and when
STORIES OF
he struck a bargain it was generally employed
in settling his beer score. On one occasion a
friend of Wilhelm, a schoolmaster, asked him
as a favour to compose a chorus for his pupils,
which they would sing on prize-distribution day.
Wilhelm acceded. The promise was kept, and
the school teacher wrote words appropriate for
the event. Later he unscrupulously sold the
manuscript so generously composed for a special
object, and thus the " Wacht am Rhein" was
brought to light with what success everybody
knows. Thousands of copies were sold all over
the world, but poor Wilhelm derived no benefit
therefrom. Neither of these stories is quite
correct ; the music was composed by Carl Wil
helm in 1854. It was first sung with united
choruses at Crefeld, June nth, 1854. Wilhelm
was born at Schmalkalden, September 5th, 1815.
He was appointed director of the Liedertafel at
Crefeld in 1840, and held the post until 1865.
In 1871 he was granted an annual pension of
one hundred and fifty pounds, and died at his
native place in 1873.
There are numberless English versions of
the " Watch on the Rhine," for it was excep
tionally popular in England during the seven
ties. One by C. H. P. (published by Cramer
and Co.) is worthy of mention, as also is another
116
FAMOUS SONGS
by Herbert Fry, but I am inclined to consider
the translation by Lady Natalie MacFarren as
being superior to any that has appeared, though
not faultless, and consequently I give it m
extenso from Chappell's edition :
" Like gathering thunder spreads a cry,
Like clash of arms when battle's nigh,
The Rhine ' there's danger to the Rhine !
Who'll shield it from the foe's design?
Dear Fatherland, no fear be thine,
Steadfast and true, we guaid our German Rhine.
" The tidings flash through million hearts,
From million flaming eyes it darts ;
Our valiant sons, in danger strong,
Will guard our hallow' d stream from wrong !
"What though the foe my life should quench,
I know thy wave will ne' er be French ;
And ample as thy tide of blue,
The living stream of heroes true.
" The shades of heroes past and gone.
Upon our deeds are looking down ;
By home and Fatherland we swear
The foeman from thy banks to scare.
" While through my veins the life is poured,
As long as I can hold a sword,
No stranger shall our land despoil,
No foeman desecrate our soil.
117
STORIES OF
" Proclaim tie vow from shore to shore,
Let banners wave and cannons roar,
The Rhine ! the lovely German Rhine,
To keep it Germans all combine.
Dear Fatherland, all fear resign,
Stout hearts and true will keep watch on the Rhine."
Max Schneckenburger, the author, died in
Berne in 1849. His remains were piously
brought back to his native place, Thalheim in
Wurtemberg, where a handsome monument has
been raised to honour the name and fame of the
poet.
The most popular song of the German sol
diers during the war of 1870-71 was the so-
called " Kutschke Lied." In the " Neue Preus-
sische Zeitung" of August I4th, 1870, there
was a paragraph, probably by Hesekiel, stating :
" Among the many songs of this war, decidedly
the best of the hero songs is that composed by
Fusilier Kutschke of the Fortieth Regiment at
the advanced posts at Saarbriick. As he saw
the French running away at the edge of the
wood he sang :
*' ' Was Kraucht da in dem Busch heruin ?
Ich glaube es ist Napohum. '
"Both text and words are simple and
thoroughly soldierly. ' Hurrah for Kutschke ! ' "
118
FAMOUS SONGS
Chariot's " Chanson des Allemands centre la
France pendant la guerre d'invasion 1870-1871"
attributes the composition to a Prussian general,
probably the Crown Prince. It was evident,
indeed, that the song was the work of a man
of education, who was attempting- to write in a
popular style. The real author was one of the
most unpopular men of his day, a declared
Lichtfeind, afterward a Lutheran minister at
Basedow, in Mecklenburg, who had been a
soldier in his youth. The song is a develop
ment of some verses written about the first
Napoleon :
' ' Was hat der nun za Kraachen dort ?
Drauf, Kameraden, jagt ihn fort,"
and originally consisted of four stanzas that
were printed in the " Mecklenburgische An-
zeiger" for the first time. At once various
guesses as to the author were made, while
presents of all kinds, from all parts, were sent
to the army in the field " For the brave fusilier
Kutschke." But Pistorius had a rival claimant.
A Rhineland poet arose and said that he had
written a song exactly the same in a Rhenish
railroad car, where he had left it lying, and that
in all probability Pistorius had picked it up.
Pistorius was most likely never on a Rhenish
119
STORIES OF
railroad in his life, and the Rhenish poet finally
abandoned his claim. The only present ac
cepted by Pistorius was one sent from Chicago
" Fiir Kutschke."
The other Kutschke Lieder, eight in number,
such as " Ne ganze Erbswursch wett' ich drauf,"
were written by Gustav Schenk, editor of the
" Berliner Fremdenblatt." Pistorius died in
1877.
The whole song, however, is inspired by the
old song of the War of the Liberation that
begins :
" Immer langsam voran, immer langsam voran,
Dass die ostreich'sche Landwehr nachkommen kann !
" WIT Oestreicher sein goar prave Leit',
Wir marschiren des Tags m holbe Meile weit.
" Das Marschiren nimmt halt goar kan End'.
Weil l^ener ^ler Uffziere die Landkoarten kennt ;' '
in which occur the lines :
" Bie Leipzig woar anne grusze Schlacht,
Do hoan barr zahn Tute zu Gesangenen gemacht
"Woas schleicht ock durt im Puscherum?
Doas is gewiets Napolium.
" Reiszt aus, reiszt aus, reiszt olle, olle aus !
Durt stht a feindliches Schilderhaus !"
Whereupon let us ask, "Is there anything
new in the world ?"
120
FAMOUS SONGS
CHAPTER VIII
THE " STAR-SPANGLED BANNER," " YANKEE
DOODLE," AND OTHER AMERICAN" SONGS
UP to the present America, apart from the fact
that she has not produced any great composer
or even song writer of note, has not succeeded
in inventing any national anthem worthy of her
eminence and power. Minor songs of a more
or less negro blend have been turned out in
thousands, and have grown into favour with the
general public of most nations. But as yet
only the " Star-Spangled Banner," " Columbia,
the Gem of the Ocean," " Hail, Columbia," and
" America" have appeared as national produc
tions, neither of which is in any way admirable.
The eccentric "Yankee Doodle," of which I
shall speak in detail later, seems to be more
universal than any of the purely American
pieces, and that is not American at all. In a
national air worthy of the grandeur of a great
nation, simplicity and strength should be domi
nant features, but neither of the pieces I have
mentioned exhibits these qualities, in fact they
121
STORIES OF
are wofully commonplace ; the grand American
hymn has yet to be written, and fame and for
tune await poet and musician alike who shall
step into the breach to sing their country's
glories. Up to the year 1 8 1 2, " Yankee Doodle,"
with its ridiculous refrain :
" Yankee doodle, keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy ;
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy."
was the only national song our cousins had.
The " Star-Spangled Banner" would appear to
have been more or less of an inspiration. One
account says that in the war of 1812 Francis
Key was taken prisoner by the British, and that
during the attack on Fort McHenry, which he
was compelled to witness, he composed the now
famous verses. But it is also said that at the
time they were written, Key was not held as a
prisoner on board the British Fleet under
Admiral Cockburn, as has been generally sup
posed ; but that he had visited it under a flag
of truce to obtain the release of a friend cap
tured by the enemy, and was unable to return
to Baltimore until the day following the attack
upon Fort McHenry. He thus became a spec
tator of the midnight siege, and in the morn-
122
FAMOUS SONGS
ing, seeing the flag still floating from the ram
parts, the words of the " Star-Spangled Banner"
took form almost involuntarily in his mind. He
speedily committed the lines to paper, and read
them on his return to a party of his comrades
who received them with unbounded enthusiasm.
The circumstances, says Mr. Charles F. Adams,
attending their first reading and of their being
set to music, are narrated by Mr. Hendon, who
was one of the party, as follows :
" It was a rude copy and written in a scrawl
that Horace Greeley might have mistaken for
his own. He (Francis Key) read it aloud once,
twice, three times, until the entire division
seemed electrified by its pathetic eloquence.
An idea seized Ferdinand Durang. Hunting
up a volume of old flute music, which was in
my tent, impatiently whistled snatches of tune
after tune as they caught his eye. One, called
'Anacreon in Heaven' struck his fancy and
riveted his attention. Note after note fell from
his puckered lips, until with a leap and a shout
he exclaimed, ' Boys, I've hit it !' and fitting the
tune to the words, there rang out for the first
time the song of the ' Star-Spangled Banner/
How the men shouted and clapped ! for never
was there poetry set to music made under such
inspiring influences ? It was caught up in the
123
STORIES OF
camps, sung around our bivouac fires, and
whistled in the streets, and when peace was
declared and we scattered to our houses, it was
carried to thousands of firesides as the most
precious relic of the war of 1812."
Here are the verses of the "Star-spangled
Banner" as written by Francis Scott Key, who
was born in 1780 and died 1843.
" Oh ' say, can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous
fight
0' er the ramparts we watch' d, were so gallantly streaming ?
And the rocket' s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh ! say, does the Star-spangled Banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
" On the shoie, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses ?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream,
'Tis the Star-spangled Banner 1 Oh ! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave 1
' ' Oh ! thus be it ever, when foemen shall stand
Between their loved home and foul war 3 s desolation ;
Blest with vict'ry and peace may the Heav'n-rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation !
124
FAMOUS SONGS
Then conquer we must, when our cause is so just,
And this be our motto ' In God is our trust !'
And the Star-spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
O' er the land of the free and the home of the brave !' '
The song was first sung in a tavern near
the Holiday Street Theatre, Baltimore, by Fer
dinand Durang. The tune, "Anacreon in
Heaven," was composed by John Stafford Smith
betweeen 1770 and 1775 to words by Ralph
Tomlinson president of the Anacreontic So
ciety, which held its meetings at the Crown and
Anchor Tavern, Strand, London.
There is no romance whatever attached to
the origin of " Hail, Columbia," the words of
which are very tame and little better than
doggerel. We know of no other lyric by
Francis Key than the one quoted above, and we
know of no other than the " Hail, Columbia"
of Judge Joseph Hopkinson. The judge wrote
this song in 1798 to oblige an actor named Fox,
who sang it with great success at one of the
theatres in Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania. The
music was taken from a piece called "The
President's March," which had seen the light
ten years previously. It was composed by a
German named Fyles on some special visit of
Washington's to the John Street Theatre, New
125
STORIES OF
York. I present the first verse and chords 15
specimens of the whole.
" Hail, Columbia, happy land !
Hail ye heroes ! heavea-born band,
Who fought and bled in freedom's cause
Who fought and bled in freedom's cause !
And when the storm of war had gone,
Enjoy 3 d the peace your valour won ;
Let independence be your boast,
Ever mindful what it cost !
Ever grateful for the pnze,
Let its altar reach the skies.
"Firm, united, let us be,
Rallying round our liberty ;
As a band of brothers joined,
Peace and safety we shall find."
It would be interesting to know how a man
could "rally" round his liberty. The author
died in 1842. -
"Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" was
written by Timothy Dwight, ancestor of the
famous president of Yale College. Dwight was
a law student, but as there was a dearth of
chaplains in the revolutionary army he joined
Parson's Brigade of the Connecticut Line as a
chaplain, and it was during the time that he
held office that he wrote this lyric, the only one
of his many poems and songs that has endured
to the present day. It was very popular at one
126
FAMOUS SONGS
period. After leaving the army, Dwight be
came president of the Yale College, a position
he held till his death, which occurred in
1817.
A very hastily composed song was " America,"
written by the Rev. Samuel Francis Smith (born
1808) in 1832 at Andover Seminary, Mass.
Though very unpretentious, it has secured a
permanent place in the hearts of the people.
The words were written to " God Save the
Queen," the tune to which the lyric is still sung.
During the great Civil War many stirring lays
issued forth, though the majority are quite
forgotten now. An exception is "Marching
through Georgia," with its almost irresistible
melody. It was written by Henry C. Work,
who wrote quite a number of patriotic and
homely songs that were at one time exceed
ingly popular. Dr. George F. Root also was
responsible for a vast quantity of military songs,
his " Battle Cry of Freedom" was not the least
striking of the northern melodies. " From the
year 1861 till the close of the war, it was heard
everywhere ; and it is a matter of history that
the Union cause was aided in many a critical
juncture by its stirring strains. Dr. Root is
doubtless entitled to the position of America's
foremost writer of war songs. His composi-
127
STORIES OF
tions in all number nearly sixty, among them
being 'Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys are
Marching/ 'Just before the Battle, Mother/
' The Vacant Chair/ and many others that will
be recalled by all veteran soldiers." Dr. Root
was born in 1820 and died in 1896.
In the course of a sympathetic article in the
"Chicago Tribune" at the end of 1887 the
writer speaks feelingly of the songs of two and
three decades ago. How many of the popular
songs, he inquires, can the old folk of the day
recall ? How many of the melodies that thrilled
them in the days of their hot youth have found
an abiding place in their memory ? The evolu
tion of the popular song presents a striking
illustration of the survival of the unfittest. The
great sentimental ditty of the ante-war period
was undoubtedly "Ben Bolt." The untimely
death of something lovable and beautiful was
the usual theme of the song of sentiment in
those days, though it varied occasionally in
order to picture the heart havoc caused by the
separation of slave lovers. "Ben Bolt," written
by Dr. Thomas Dunn English, was an enormous
success all over the country, and was as well
known in England as America. It received a
new lease through Du Maurier's " Trilby" in
1895. The music was adapted to the poem by
128
FAMOUS SONGS
>
a tenor named Nelson Kneas from a German
melody fifty years ago.
" Don't you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt,
Sweet Alice, whose hair was so brown ;
Who wept with delight when you gave her a smile,
And trembled with fear at your frown ?' '
Other songs, sung by minstrel and other
troupes, that swept through the country like
a cyclone, were " Darling Nelly Gray" and " O
Susanna," both depicting the suffering of slave
lovers.
" Oh ! my poor Nellie Gray,
They have taken you away,
And I'll never see my darling any more,"
was heard on every side and voiced by all sorts
of singers. " O Susanna" was more in the
comic vein, and the request, " Don't you cry
for me" was based on the consoling fact that
"I've come from Alabama with my banjo on
my knee." " Uncle Ned," that curious - old
nigger we all knew in our youth, was of earlier
growth, and may still be met with in old-
fashioned places occasionally. Dan Emmett's
" Dixie" and Harrington's " Swanee River"
(which has been revived again quite recently in
London) have proved the most prominent and
9 129
STORIJib U
lasting of the ante-war melodies. Stephen Colin
Foster, who so happily caught the negro musical
methods and eccentricities., was one of the most
popular song writers that America has ever had.
He was born of Irish parents near Pittsburg }
Pennsylvania, on July 4th, 1826, and died in
New York, January i^th, 1864. Rewrote the
words and music of such old-time favourites as
" The old Folks at Home," " Willie, we have
missed you," which resembles " Jock o' Hazle-
dean," " O Susanna,"' " Come where my love
lies dreaming," "My old Kentucky Home,"
" Massa's in the cold, cold Ground," " Uncle
Ned," " Old Dog Tray," " Poor old Joe," and
many more.
As regards the composition of the favourite
Confederate air, " Dixie," many conflicting ac
counts have been given, but it seems quite
certain that it was not as has been supposed I
am quoting from Mr. Adams again of southern
origin. The song was written and composed
in New York in 1859 by Daniel Ernmet, at that
time a principal member of Bryant's Minstrels,
as a " grand walk round" for their entertain
ment. The familiar expression upon which the
song was founded was not a southern phrase,
but first appeared among the circus people of
the North. Emmet travelled with many of
130
FAMOUS SONGS
these companies, when "the South" was con
sidered by showmen to be all routes below
Mason and Dixon's line. As the cold weather
approached, the performers would think of the
genial warmth of the section they were headed
for, and the exclamation would be, " Well, I
wish I was in Dixie!" The remembrance of
this gave Emmet the catch line, and the re
mainder of the song is claimed to be original.
It was continually used during the struggle be
tween North and South, and the rest of the
world wondered as half a great nation took
up arms to the sound of "John Brown's soul
is marching on," while the other half an
swered by defiantly playing the comic " Dixie's
Land."
A sentimental ballad, says the " Tribune,"
called " Lorena," was an immense favourite in
the sixties, and for thirty years previous to the
appearance and philosophy of " Old Rosin the
Bow" became known to every one. A state of
warfare has always proved conducive to song.
The flourishing condition of minstrelsy m ages
past was due largely to the warlike and adven
turous spirit of the times. During the civil war
both sides were prolific in song-making. The
South made the first striking hit with Randall's
" Maryland, my Maryland." The " Bonnie
131
STORIES OF
Blue Flag" was the Southern national air, and
was to the boys in gray what "Yankee Doodle"
was to the boys in blue. The Southern women
took it up with marvellous enthusiasm, and
the chorus rang wildly through every city and
town.
"The Bonnie Blue Flag" was written in
1862 by Mrs. Annie Chambers-Ketchum to an
Irish melody adapted or composed by Henry
McCarthy. The authoress of the words is still
alive.
Among the other living lyrics of the war,
sentimental and otherwise, were Charles Carroll
Sawyer's "Who will care for Mother now?"
and "When this cruel War is over." Then
came "Fairy Bell," "Annie of the Dell," "Toll
the Bell for lovely Nell," "Wait for the
Waggon," "Lily Dale," "Old Cabin Home,"
"Fair, fair, with golden Hair," and "Daisy
Dean," by various writers. To these may be
added F. H. Smith's " Tenting to-night on the
old Camp Ground," S. J. Adams's "We are
coming, Father Abraham, Three Hundred
Thousand More," and the rollicking " When
Johnny comes marching home again," said to
have been composed by the 'celebrated Patrick
S. Gilmore. Does anybody remember this
curious production ?
132
FAMOUS SONGS
" When Johnny comes marching home again, hurrah ! hurrah !
We'll give him a hearty welcome then, hurrah ! hurrah 1
The girls will sing, the boys will shout,
The ladies they will all turn out,
And we' 11 all feel quite gay,
When Johnny comes marching home !"
The military and volunteer bands used to play
it, but we have not heard the old air for years
now. One of the great war songs of the North
was " John Brown's soul is marching on," and
not the " Star-Spangled Banner." A truly beau
tiful song, popular with North and South during
the war, was " Rock me to Sleep, Mother,"
written by an Irish-American, D. K. O'Donnel,
and composed by Florence Percy. This, of
course, is well-known in England also. The
South produced two war-songs that evince gen
uine poetic feeling, and have been accorded un
stinted praise by the critics. They are " The
Conquered Banner," by Father Ryan, and " All
quiet along Potomac to-night," by Lamar Foun-
taine. That most pathetic poem, was it not
written by a Miss (or Mrs.) Rose Carey?
" Somebody's Darling," was produced about
this period, and touched many a parent's
heart.
It is not always easy to fathom the reason
of the popularity of any particular song.
133
STORIES OF
Often the most absurd mixture of bathos
and sense will fascinate the public, while
a really genuine effusion falls flat. It is cer
tain that after the internecine war the quality
of the songs fell off considerably, though the
quantity increased, and we must confess that
some of the very worst specimens of English
music-hall songs, introduced by various bur
lesque and variety troupes, assisted in the
downfall of taste and sentiment. However,
the Americans are too independent not to be
able to retrieve their lost position in the song
world, and many clever poets and composers
are working to-day towards that devoutly to be
wished consummation.
And now let us turn our attention to that
peculiar production, " Yankee Doodle." With
all due reservation I first give what is sup
posed to be the origin of the word " Yankee."
" Yankee" is stated to be an Indian corruption
of the word English, Yenglees, Yangles, Yan-
klees, and finally Yankee. It grew into general
use as a term of reproach thus : About the
year 1713 one Jonathan Hastings, a farmer at
Cambridge, in New England, used the word
Yankee as a cant word to express excellence, as
a Yankee (good) horse, Yankee cider, and so on.
The students at the college having frequent
FAMOUS SONGS
intercourse with Jonathan, and hearing him
employ the word on all occasions when he
desired to express his approbation, applied it
sarcastically, and called him Yankee Jonathan.
It soon became a slang phrase among the col
legians to designate a simple, awkward person ;
thence it spread over the country till from its
currency in New England it was at length
taken up and applied to the New Englanders
indiscriminately. It was in consequence of
this, says a recent writer, that the song called
" Yankee Doodle" was composed. As this last
statement is erroneous, it will be just as well to
take the rest of the story with a pinch of
salt.
From Sir George Grove's " Dictionary of
Music and Musicians" I extract the following :
"The origin of the American national air is
enveloped in almost as great obscurity as that
which surmounts the authorship of ' God Save
the King.' Though the song is but little more
than a century old, the number of different ac
counts of its origin which are given in American
works is extremely bewildering." Precisely,
each " authority" seems to have lighted upon a
first legend concerning it. One writer says,
" The time-honoured tune of ' Yankee Doodle/
which was our only national anthem in con-
STORIES OF
tinental days, has been traced as far back as
Oliver Cromwell's time, when, in words similar
to our own it was sung in derision of the Great
Protector (or Usurper, whichever you like).
The air was handed down to the Puritans, and
finally became a New England jig. In the
natural order of things, it was fitted with appro
priate words by some revolutionary rhymester,
and served such an excellent purpose in satir
izing the British troops, that it was adopted
throughout the colonies as the patriotic song
of the Sons of Liberty. At the present day,
no American Fourth of July, or other festive
occasion, is considered complete without its
rendition, and its perennial music bids fair to
last as long as the Republic itself."
I refrain from enlarging upon the irony of
Paul's stealing the thunder to play upon Peter.
There is much that seems probable in the above
account, and it has received the support of most
American papers during the last fifty years.
There was an ancient rhyme that ran,
" Yankee Doodle came to town,
On a little pony,
He stuck a feather in his cap,
And called it Macaroni. ' r
"Yankee Doodle" is said to have been a
136
FAMOUS SONGS
nickname for Cromwell, who was also called
Macaroni ; it is also said that another ballad,
" Roundheads and Cavaliers," was sung to the
same melody.
" This story" (about the royal party calling
Cromwell Macaroni), says the " Dictionary
of Music and Musicians," " is said to occur in
the ' Musical Reporter' of May, 1841, but who
ever invented it showed lack of antiquarian
knowledge in fixing upon the period of the
Civil Wars as the date of the song." The
Macaroni Club, by the way, was in existence
from 1750 to 1770, and this is believed to have
been the first introduction of the word Macaroni
into the common language. The Rev. T.
Woodfal Ebsworth, " undoubtedly the greatest
living authority on English ballads," conclu
sively disproves the Cromwellian origin. Sev
eral nursery rhymes are even now sung by
children to the tune of Yankee Doodle, in
cluding " Lucy Locket," and " Rosy's in the
Garden." Various well-meaning folk have as
serted its connection with certain pieces, and
have gone so far as to attempt to trace it to
such differing sources as Dutch, Spanish, and
Hungarian music. But whoever invented the
melody, whether it was carried to America, say
by the Pilgrim Fathers, if antiquity is desired,
i37
STORIES OF
or not, it is very evident that it was very popular
so far back as 1730. Dr. Shuckburgh, it is true,
has been credited with originating the air, but
in all probability he only wrote the words, and
as he was a surgeon in the army (1737) he no
doubt suggested its adoption by the troops.
There are so many versions of the "lyric"
extant that it is almost impossible to fix the
date of the birth of the first. But no matter
what may be said for or against the song,
beyond all question it belongs to America and
the Americans by long possession. And as the
Hon. Stephen Salisbury said, in an address
delivered before the American Antiquarian
Society, October 2 1st, 1872: /Yankee Doodle
is national property, but it is not a treasure of
the highest value. It has some antiquarian
claims for which its friends do not care. It
cannot be disowned, and it will not be disused.
In its own words,
" ' It suits for feasts, it suits for fun,
And just as well for fighting.'
It exists now as an instrumental and not as a
vocal performance. Its words are never heard,
and, I think, would not be acceptable in America
for public or private entertainments. And its
music must be silent when serious purposes are
138
FAMOUS SONGS
entertained and men's hearts are moved to high
efforts and great sacrifices)'
According to the " Cyclopedia of Music and
Musicians" published by Messrs. Scribner in
New York, the piece is "a national air of
American origin unknown. The trivial words
of the original song, in derision of the ill-assorted
provincial troops, are said to have been written by
Dr. Shuckburgh, who served as surgeon under
General Amherst during the French and Indian
war. Several versions of the song, the original
of which was 'The Yankee's Return from
Camp,' are extant. The tune, always called
'Yankee Doodle/ from the chorus or refrain,
has passed through various changes. The his
torical associations connecting the air with the
American Revolution, when it was universally
played, have prevented criticism of the melody,
which is simple and incisive, but shrill and
shallow. It is almost certainly of English origin,
though it has been ascribed to various countries
and probably dates from the eighteenth cen
tury." I can supplement this by adding that
the tune of " Yankee Doodle" appears in Dr.
Samuel Arnold's comic opera, " Two to One,"
written by George Colman the elder, which
was produced " with universal applause" (as the
title page tells) at the Theatre Royal in the
i39
STORIES OF
Haymarket. The score of this opera was pub
lished by Hamilton and Co., Paternoster Row,
July 5th, 1784. The tune " Yankee Doodle" is
so called in the score of the opera, showing
that it was well known by that name before
that time. In the opera it is sung by a char
acter called Dicky Ditto, impersonated by Mr.
John Edwin, a celebrated burletta actor and
singer in his too brief day. The words of the
song are the veriest trash imaginable, and tg&
vulgar to be quoted and this was the work of
the great George Colman, who, when he was
appointed examiner of plays, expunged the
mildest of oaths and expletives.
Of the original words of " Yankee Doodle, or
the Yankee's Return from Camp," it is impos
sible to say one good thing. They are to be
seen in the British Museum on a single sheet,
quarto, printed about 1825 (?), and sold at the
time by L. Denning, Hanover Street, Boston.
The chorus I have previously given ; there are
fifteen stanzas, and each succeeding one from
the beginning grows more idiotic. The first
verse is :
" Father and I went down to Camp,
Along with Captain Goodmg ;
There we see the men and boys,
As thick as hasty pudding."
140
FAMOUS SONGS
The second verse :
" And there we see a thousand men,
As rich as Squire David ;
And what they wasted every day,
I wish it could be saved !"
Here is the eleventh verse :
" And there was Captain Washington,
And gentlefolks about him ;
They say he' s grown so ' tarnal proud,
He will not ride without 'em."
But I think I have quoted sufficient to show
the kind of senseless stuff it is and yet what
a sensation the melody has made in the world !
Before taking leave of this eccentric composi
tion I may add that, in the " Illustrated London
News" for February i6th and March ist, 1856, it
is authoritatively stated that "Yankee Doodle"
was based upon " Kitty Fisher's Jig." This
"Jig" is to be found in Walsh's collection of
dances published in 1745, and is there asso
ciated with the well-known nursery rhyme :
" Lucky Locket lost her pocket,
Kitty Fisher found it ;
Not a penny was there in 't,
Only binding round it."
These two ladies flourished in the reign of
the second George, and were well-known
141
STORIES OF
characters rival dancers, in all probability,
says Mr. F. Rimbault. Another correspondent
in the "News" says, "In my youth I was
accustomed to hear a song of which Kitty
Fisher and the famous Countess of Coventry,
who were rival beauties in their respective lines,
were the heroines." He proceeds to give ex
tracts from the not very elegant song he refers
to. Many particulars about these curious ladies
and the manners and customs of the age in
which they lived are to be found in " Mr. Gren-
ville's Correspondence," edited by the Duke of
Buckingham, published in 1855.
Kitty Fisher's portrait was painted by Sir
Joshua Reynolds in the suggestive character of
" Cleopatra dissolving the Pearl" for the Lord
Bovingdon of that day. " Kitty Fisher's Jig"
is in all probability a misprint for "Fisher's
Jig/' this last bearing a strong resemblance to
the tune while the first does not. A " Yanky
Doodle" was certainly published in Aird's
"Selection of Scotch, English, and Irish Aiis,"
vol. i, 1782. "Fisher's Jig," besides being in
Walsh's dances, reappears in Thomson and
Sons' "Twenty-four Country Dances," 1760,
and again in 1773.
A meritorious version of the song was written
by one, J. S. Fessenden, "Original Poems,"
142
FAMOUS SONGS
1804 but there are forty-eight stanzas, so I
refrain from quoting. Indeed, to go into the
subject fully a volume would be required to be
written.
Though, as I have already stated, America
has not sent any musical genius into the world
yet, she has at least given birth to one composer
and pianist of considerable merit. I refer to
Louis Moreau Gottschalk, born at New Orleans,
May 8th, 1829. His melodies were frequently
brilliant, though inclined to sentimentalism and
were almost invariably Spanish in tone and
expression. He died at Rio de Janeiro,
December i8th, 1869.
r43
STORIES OF
CHAPTER IX
"AULD ROBIN GRAY" AND "LES CONSTANTES
AMOURS D'ALIX ET D'ALEXIS"
UP to the present no one has ever questioned
Lady Anne Barnard's claim to the authorship
of the words of "Auld Robin Gray," and,
though I am not going to cast doubt upon the
fame of the writer at this late day, I shall shortly
show that prior, not only to the appearance but
to the writing of the world-famous song, there
was a French ballad extant containing the gist
of the story and the plot, by Paradis de Moncrif,
entitled " Les Constantes Amours d'Alix et
d' Alexis." But there is one very curious thing
about Lady Anne Barnard, and that is that we
have no record whatever of her ever having
written any other song or composed anything
else of literary merit whatever, with one slight
exception, and yet she is said to have been in
spired with the idea of " Auld Robin Gray"
when " she was quite a girl," as a matter of
fact, when she was twenty-one in the year
1771. It seems to have been almost a preco-
144
FAMOUS SONGS
cious inspiration that surprised itself into silence.
Before giving the history of Lady Anne's song
I may mention that the author of the French
romance mentioned above, and to which I shall
refer fully later, died in 1770 at the age of
seventy-three.
From an article contributed by the Reverend
A. B. Grosart, LL.D., to the " Dictionary of
National Biography," I extract the following
information: "Lady Anne Barnard, was the
eldest daughter of James Lindsay, fifth Earl of
Balcarres, by his wife Anne, daughter of Sir
Robert Dalrymple, of Castleton. She was born
December 8th, 1750, and married, in 1793,
Andrew Barnard, son of Thomas, Bishop of
Limerick. They went to the Cape (she and
her husband) where her husband died in 1807,
without issue. Lady Anne returned to London
and lived with her sister in Berkeley Square
until 1812. The sister's house was a literary
centre, and was frequented by Burke, Sheridan,
Windham, Douglas, and the Prince of Wales,
who were all habitual visitors. Lady Anne won
the life-long attachment of the Prince Regent.
' Auld Robin Gray' was written by Lady Anne
when she was twenty-one years old. It was
published anonymously, and various persons
claimed the authorship. Lady Anne did not
10 145
STORIES OF
acknowledge it as her own until two years
before her death when she wrote to Sir Walter
Scott and confided the histoiy of the ballad to
him. Lady Anne Barnard died May 6th, 1825,
in her seventy-fourth year."
Mr. JEneas Mackay, in a paper entitled " The
Songs and Ballads of Fife" which appeared in
" Blackwood" for September, 1891, says: "A
song altogether of Fife origin and authorship
marks the commencement of the period of
modern ballads. It will be acknowledged that
'Auld Robin Gray' has few superiors, either
amongst its predecessors or successors, though
to call it the ' King of Scottish Ballads,' as
Chambers does, is to raise it to a dangerous
eminence which it would not be prudent even
for the most patriotic native of the ' Kingdom'
to claim for it." And he then gives an extract
from the letter Lady Anne Barnard wrote in
1823 to Sir Walter Scott, who had referred in
the "Pirate" to " Jeannie Gray," the village
heroine in Lady Anne Lindsay's beautiful ballad.
From Dr. Charles Mackay's "Thousand and
One Gems of Songs" (1889) I quote as below:
" This beautiful ballad, of which the author
ship was long a mystery, was written by Lady
Anne Lindsay. ... It appears to have been
composed at the commencement of 1772, when
146
FAMOUS SONGS
the author was yet a young girl. It was pub
lished anonymously and acquired great popu
larity. No one, however, came forward to lay
claim to the laurels lavished upon it; and a
literary controversy sprang up to decide the
authorship. Many conjectured that it was as
old as the days of David Rizzio, if not composed
by that unfortunate minstrel himself, while
others considered it of a much later date. The
real author was, however, suspected ; and, ulti
mately, when her ladyship was an old woman, Sir
Walter Scott received a letter from Lady Anne
herself openly avowing that she had written it."
Before giving Lady Anne's version, it would
be interesting to know why she was suspected
of being the author. The song was published
in 1776 and also in 1790. Was she suspected
of being the author before she went to the Cape
after her marriage with Andrew Barnard in
1793, or after her return to England in 1808?
She died in 1825; the Rev. William Leeves,
who composed the second and now familiar air
(it is said in 1770, in " Grove's Dictionary of
Music and Musicians") did not die until 1828.
As he must have known who was the real
author, it is a pity that we do not possess his
corroboration as an historical fact. However,
revenons a nos romance: Lady Anne stated
i47
STORIES OF
that she had been long suspected by her more
intimate friends, and often questioned with re
spect to the mysterious ballad, but that she had
always managed to keep her secret to her
self without a direct and absolute denial. She
was induced to write the song by a desire to see
an old plaintive Scottish air ("The bridegroom
grat when the sun gaed down"), which was a
favourite with her sister, fitted with words more
suitable to its character than the ribaldry which
had hitherto, for want of better, been sung to
it. She had previously been endeavouring to
while the tedium occasioned by her sister's
marriage and departure for London by the com
position of verses ; but of all she had written,
either before or since, none have reached the
merit of this admirable little poem. It struck
her that some tale of virtuous distress in humble
life would be most suitable to the plaintive
melody of her favourite air ; and she accordingly
set about such an attempt, taking the name of
" Auld Robin Gray" from an ancient herd of
Balcarres. When she had written two or three
of the verses, she called to her junior sister
(afterwards Lady Hardwicke) who was the only
person near her, and thus addressed her : " I
have been writing a ballad, my dear; I have
been oppressing my heroine with many mis-
148
FAMOUS SONGS
fortunes ; I have already sent her Jamie to sea
and broken her father's arm, and made her
mother fall sick, and given her Auld Robin
Gray for her lover ; but I wish to load her with
a fifth sorrow within the four lines poor thing !
Help me to one." " Steal the cow, sister Anne,"
said the little Elizabeth. " The cow," adds Lady
Anne, " was immediately lifted by me, and the
song completed. At our fireside among our
neighbours, 'Auld Robin Gray' was always
called for. I was pleased with the approbation
it met with."
This is so circumstantially related that there
seems no doubt whatever about the origin of
the lyric.
The famous Miss Stephens, afterwards Count
ess of Essex, is believed to have made the song
popular to English ears. It may be noted that
the melody of the first four lines differs from the
rest, and it is strongly believed that the first part
was borrowed from some old Scottish air and
the rest set by the Rev. William Leeves. This,
indeed, appears certain, and some authorities
declared Leeves's music not to be Scottish at
all. In any case it was severely criticised by
John Hullah. In 1880 the song was published
by Messrs. Novello and Co. as " words by Lady
Anne Lindsay, set to music by Rev. William
149
STORIES OF
Leeves." The song was first printed anony
mously in " Hood's Ancient and Modern Songs,"
second edition, 1776; also in "Johnson's
Museum," 1790, both set to the old air only.
A correspondent to " Notes and Queries" (6th
Series, vol. v.) says that the words were very
popular set to the old air before Miss Stephens
sang it. According to Grove's " Dictionary of
Music and Musicians," the Rev. William Leeves
was born in 1748, and became in 1779 rector
of Wrington, Somerset, the birthplace of John
Locke, the philosopher. He composed some
good sacred music, but will be chiefly remem
bered as the composer of the music of " Auld
Robin Gray," which he wrote in 1770, though
it was not known as his till 1812. He died
May 25th, 1828, at the age of eighty. There is
a mistake here. He could not have written the
music in 1770, as the words were not written till
a year later. Since first writing the history of
this song I was favoured, quite by chance, with
the hereunder particulars relative to the Rev.
William Leeves through a descendant of that
composer. The Rev. William Leeves was at
one time a lieutenant in the first Foot Guards.
He entered His Majesty's service as ensign,
June 2Oth, 1769, and received a lieutenant's
commission February 3rd, 1772. He took
FAMOUS SONGS
orders in 1/79, and was appointed to the living
of Wrington, in Somersetshire, where he resided
as Rector for fifty years. The words of the
song were sent him by Lady Anne through the
Honourable Mrs. Byron when he was living
at Richmond, and presumably whilst he was yet
in the army. He was an excellent musician
and a skilful player on the violin. When at
Wrington, Hannah More, who lived in the
village, was on the closest terms of intimacy
with the Leeves. It was not until the year
1812 that he made known to the public the fact
that he was the composer of the popular air.
He communicated the information in a letter to
his very dear friend Thomas Hammersley,
which is now in the possession of one of his
granddaughters. I append a copy.
" My dear Sir, Anxious as you have ever
been for the rule of right, as well as for the fair
fame of your friends, you have more than once
solicited that I would publicly claim an offspring
which for more than forty years has been of
uncertain origin. Nothing could have induced
me to undertake this at my period of life, but
the offer of your kind testimony to the genuine
ness of this, my early production, which an
acquaintance with it in manuscript, long before
it surreptitiously found its way to the public eye,
151
STORIES OF
enables you so convincingly to bear. As to the
story, you may remember that I received it
from the Honourable Mrs. Byron, and under
stood it to have been written by Lady Anne
Lindsay," etc.
Mr. Leeves received no remuneration what
ever for his music, and had to rest content with
the approbation of his private friends !
It is recorded that when Mr. Leeves first
heard Miss Stephens (afterwards Countess of
Essex) sing "Auld Robin Gray," he was so
much delighted with her expression and her
melting tones that he shed tears. The song
stress was most gratified on hearing of the effect
of her singing, and wished to be introduced to
the venerable author, which desire was readily
gratified.
. And now let us examine the old French
romance by Paradis de Moncnf. Let me at
once acknowledge that my first acquaintance
with this poem dates from the early part of
1889, when I came across some correspondence
on the subject in the "St. James's Gazette."
One gentlemen wrote to the effect that " one of
the happiest instances of the kind of plagiarism
which, like charity, blesses both giver and re
ceiver, is to be found in the famous ballad of
'Auld Robin Gray/ which, as some of your
152
FAMOUS SONGS
readers may be aware, is taken from the French.
The poem of Paradis de Moncrif, which served
as a model to Lady Anne Barnard, is entitled,
'Les Constantes Amours d'Alix et d Alexis/
and though more than a century old, is still
considered to be the finest example of what the
French call a romance." I beg to disclaim here
any extraordinary faith in the certainty with
which this writer makes his interesting dis
covery of similarity between the two pieces ; the
fact is, I hardly know what to think. He pro
ceeds : " It has the naivete and the prolixity so
charming in its apparent triviality proper to that
kind of composition ; and in comparing it with
Lady Anne's poem, it is interesting to observe
how in the passage of the tale northwards the
romantic beauty of the original gives place to a
tragic intensity in harmony with the severer-
genius of the Scottish Muse." The author of
this truly beautiful poem was born in 1687, was
made a member of the French Academy in
1733, and died in 1770 at the age of eighty-
three, just a year before "Auld Robin Gray"
was composed. In the French poem there are
thirty-seven stanzas, which are too many to
quote. In the first verse, by the way, the poem
begins by asking the parents why they should
have broken off the engagement between the
153
STORIES OF
young people, as they were so suited to each
other. I give verses as under, commencing with
the second :
" A sa mere, <tant deja grande,
La pauvre Alix,
A deux genoux, un jour demande
Son Alexis :
Ma mere, il faut par complaisance
Nous marier,
Ma fille, je veux 1' alliance
D'un conseiller.
III.
" Un jour . . . quelle malice d'ame
La mere a dit :
Alexis a pris une femme
Sans contredit.
Et puis, lui montrant une lettre,
Ltd dit ; Voyez,
II vous ecrit ; c' est pour permettre
Qua 1'oubliez."
In the second verse it will be seen that poor
Alix falls on her knees and cries to her mother
to let her have Alexis. But the mother repulses
her, and says she intends that she shall be
married to the councillor or judge. In the third
verse the mother invents a story to the effect
that Alexis has taken a wife and has written to
tell her to foiget him. In the fourth verse the
judge arrived with the notary, and against her
i54
FAMOUS SONGS
will Alix is married, and all the time the others
are making merry her thoughts are far away
with her lost lover. In the fifth verse, Alix is
made to appear very faithful to her husband and
his household, and because of his great love for
her tries to love him in return. But in the next
verse Alix, grown sad, her husband tries to
please her with rich jewels and love-knots. In
verse seven :
" Baise-moi, montonne chdrie,
Je vais au plaid ;
Tiens, prende de cette orferverie
Ce qui te plait.
L' argent n'est que pour qu'on se donne
Quelque bon temps ;
N' epargne rien ; voila, mignonne,
Vingt dcus blancs."
The husband takes an affectionate leave of her,
as he has to go to the " plea" (the law court, he
being a judge,) and gives her more jewellery and
money that she may want for nothing. The
twelve stanzas that follow describe the return of
Alexis, who had been faithful to her, their inter
view and recognition. Then follow these two
verses :
" Alix, mon Alix, mon tant aime,
Helas ! c' est moi !
Alix, Alix tant regrette
Ramme-toi !
155
STORIES OF
Ton Alexis vient de Turquie
Tout a 1' instant,
Pour te voir et quitter la vie,
En sanglotant.
" Par ces tristes mots ramme'e
Alix parla :
Alexis, j'ai ma foi donnee ;
Un autre 1' a.
Ne dois vous ouir de ma vie
Un seul instant :
Mais ne mouiez pas, je vous prie ;
Partezpourtant."
In which, as the reader will see, Alexis tells
Alix not to give way to despair, and that he
has come in great haste from Turkey to see her
(having heard of her marriage), and to die with
a broken heart. Then Alix revives, but though
she has given her faith (or troth) to another,
begs him not to die, but to depart. Alexis in the
next stanza promises this, but before going away
from her for ever, he takes her hand. The hus
band returns, and seeing them thus together,
stabs them both to the heart. Alexis is dead,
and Alix, dying, kisses his eyes, and says she
dies innocent. Her husband in his jealousy has
taken her life, but she dies without regret. And
then the husband is seized with remorse, and at
night-time the spirit of his wife visits him, and
pointing to the wound in her breast " sobs to
156
FAMOUS SONGS
him in a long murmur" that he is her assassin.
And so the end, except for a rather weak anti
climax in the way of a moral.
I have tried to give a general idea of the
story in rough English, though there are some
idiomatic phrases in the piece that are not
quite clear. It is altogether an elegant and
gracefully written poem, full of tender touches.
As to its obvious resemblance to "Auld
Robin Gray" I make no suggestion, but leave
everyone to judge of the remarkable coinci
dence.
" Auld Robin Gray" was a favourite song
with the great Miss Anna Maria Tree, who
sang it constantly, as did other less known
vocalists.
Augustus J. C. Hare, in " The Story of Two
Noble Lives," suggests that Lady Margaret
Lindsay was the real victim in " Auld Robin
Gray," as written by her sister. It is said,
though, that she married "Jamie" after " Rob
in's" Mr. Fordyce's death. I merely repeat
this story.
" Auld Robin Gray/' which Dr. Cobham
Brewer says was written by the authoress to
raise some money for the benefit of her nurse
upon what authority I know not has been
adapted to the stage by several writers, both
i57
STORIES OF
French and English. There is M. Andre
Theuriet's " Jean Marie," avowedly taken from
the story of " Auld Robin Gray," which has
been translated again into English by three or
four different writers. One version, by George
Roy, was given at the Imperial Theatre, Sep
tember 22nd, 1883. And an operetta bearing
the same title was produced at the Surrey
Theatre in April, 1858, with music by the " late
Alexander Lee" who died in 1851. Lee com
posed the music as far back as 1838. The
libretto was written by Edward Fitz-Ball, and
the piece was intended for the English Opera at
Drury Lane, but the continued illness of Mrs.
Waylett, who was to have played Jenny, caused
the operetta to be shelved for twenty years.
Lee, by the way, married Mrs. Waylett, the
celebrated actress. She died of a broken heart,
it is said, soon after his death. There was a
previous opera of the same name, written by
S. J. Arnold, and composed by his father, Dr.
Arnold, produced July' 26th, 1794, at the
Theatre Royal, Haymarket. The report of the
play in the " Thespian Magazine" for September,
1794, says, " The piece is ascribed to the son of
Dr. Arnold, and bids fair to become a favourite ;
the music is selected with great judgment by
the father of the author from the most approved
158
FAMOUS SONGS
Scotch tunes, and justice was done to it by the
performers." The latest stage version of " Auld
Robin Gray," entitled " The Wanderers," was
successfully performed at Dundee, on Christmas
Day, 1893.
159
STORIES OF
CHAPTER X
" KATHLEEN MAVOURNEEN" AND " KATTY
AVOURNEEN"
IT has been said, with more regard for epigram
than fact, that this queen amongst Irish songs
was born out of its own country, of English
parents. But the truth is that though the com
poser, F. N. Crouch, was an Englishman he
might have been Irish if he had chosen, for
there are many of that name in the Green Isle
the writer of the words, Mrs. Julia Crawford,
was a true daughter of Erin, having been born
in County Cavan towards the close of the last
century. By taking up her abode at a small
town in Wiltshire when quite young, and where
she resided for many years, her few biographers
have been led into the error of supposing her to
be English. Besides " Kathleen Mavourneen,"
she wrote over a hundred lyrics, mostly Irish in
sentiment, and published, with F. N. Crouch as
the composer of the music, a volume of " Irish
Songs" in 1840. She wrote, says David J.
O'Donoghue in his " Dictionary of the Poets of
160
FAMOUS SONGS
Ireland," a great deal of verse for the " Metro
politan Magazine," edited by Captain Manyat
(London, 1830-40) and also autobiographical
sketches for the same publication. " Her " Kath
leen Mavourneen" appeared therein. Unfortu
nately no one thought it necessary to preserve
any particulars of the life and works of this
charming writer. She may possibly have been
the Mrs. Crawford who published " Stanzas"
about 1830, and the following novels between
1830 and 1857: "Lismore," "The Story of a
Nun," "Early Struggles," "The Double Mar
riage," and " The Lady of the Bedchamber."
Frederick Nicholls Crouch led a singularly
hard life one full of vicissitudes and bad luck.
When Crouch wrote his greatest song he was
travelling for a firm of metal brokers in Cornhill.
Afterwards he was appointed musical director
at Drury Lane Theatre and brought out many
a singer who has long since achieved name and
fame. The words, as already stated, were
written by Mrs. Crawford, a contemporary of
Mrs. Hemans and Sheridan Knowles the Irish
dramatist, whose verses were occasionally set by
this once eminently fertile composer; among
them the "Swiss Song of Meeting" and
" Zephyrs of Love" which achieved immediate
success through the inimitable singing of Marie
ii 161
STORIES OF
Malibran and Anna Tree, to whom they were
respectively dedicated. The melody of " Kath
leen Mavourneen," according to Crouch, came
as an inspiration one day when he was riding
along the banks of the Tamar. Soon after
wards he sang it at Plymouth for he was a
capital ballad singer and for more than half a
century it has continued to find a place in con
cert programmes. The Queen of Song, Adelina
Patti, often gives it to this day. But although
the song is said to have brought in profits to the
extent of fifteen thousand pounds it did not
enrich the composer who only received a small
sum down for it originally. So hard were the
times with Crouch, and so unwind his country
to him, that he who was a friend of the great
Rossini when George the Fourth was king, had
to emigrate to America in 1849 to earn a living.
But matters did not seem to mend, and he was
reported to be starving at Baltimore some few
years ago when subscriptions were raised for his
relief. Apparently the tide turned at last, for in
the early autumn of 1892 a grand banquet, was
given in honour of the anniversary of the
veteran's birthday at Portland, in the State of
Maine, when the grand old composer sang his
own glorious song, he being then eighty-four
years of age.
162
FAMOUS SONGS
Here again is the story of this famous song
told in Crouch's own words : " The words in
stantly attracted my attention by their purity of
style and diction. I sought the authoress, and
obtained her permission to set them to music.
Leaving London as traveller to Chapman and
Co , Cornhill, while prosecuting my journey to
wards Saltash I jotted down the melody on the
historic banks of the Tamar. On arriving at
Plymouth, I wrote out a fair copy of the song,
and sang it to Mrs. Rowe, the wife of a music
publisher of that town. The melody so capti
vated her and others who heard it that I was
earnestly solicited that it should be given the
first time in public at her husband's opening
concert of the season. But certain reasons
obliged me to decline the honour. I retired to
rest at my hotel, and rising early next morning,
and opening my window, what was my surprise
to see on a hoarding right opposite a large
placard on which was printed in the largest and
boldest type : ' F. Nicholls Crouch, from Lon
don, will sing at P. E. Rowe's concert, " Kath
leen Mavourneen," for one night only !' Amazed
and confused at such an unwarrantable and
unauthorized announcement, I hurriedly com
pleted my toilet, took my breakfast, and rushed
off to Mr, Rowe's warehouse. But, despite my
163
STORIES OF
reluctance, and overcome by the entreaties of
the fascinating Mrs. Rowe, I appeared and sang
the song to a crowded audience, with the most
enthusiastic applause. On returning to London
I entered the establishment of Messrs. 'D'Al-
maine, music publishers, as precentor, and
'Kathleen Mavourneen' and other songs
' Dermot Astore,' ' Their Marriage,' * Death of
Dermot' were published by that firm. These
songs have been sung and appropriated by all
the leading cantatrices, from Caradori, Hobbs,
Hawes, Hayes, Stephens (the Countess of Es
sex), Malibran, Titiens, and Adelina Patti. The
series of songs has been published by thirty
different music stores in America, each one
making heaps of money. But not one of these
brain-stealers has had sufficient principle to
bestow a single dime on the composer !" It is
fitting that the words of " Kathleen Mavour
neen" should appear here :
" Kathleen Mavourneen ! the gray dawn is breaking,
The horn of the hunter is heaid on the hill,
The lark from her light wing the bright dew is shaking
Kathleen Mavourneen ! -what, slumbering still ?
Oh I hast thou forgotten how soon we must sever ?
Oh ! hast thou forgotten how soon we must part ?
It may be for years and it may be for ever,
Oh ! why art thou silent, thou voice of my heart ?
164
FAMOUS SONGS
" Kathleen Mavourneen ! awake from thy slumbers,
The blue mountains glow in the sun's golden light ;
Ah 1 where is the spell that once hung on thy numbers ?
Arise in thy beauty, thou star of the night '
Mavourneen ! Mavoumeen 1 my sad tears are falling,
To think that from Enn and thee I must part :
It may be for years, and it may be for ever,
Then why art thou silent, thou voice of my heart ?' '
A very graceful imitation, or rather tribute,
to the excellence of the song has appeared from
the pen of J. Whitcomb Riley, an American
poet of much delicacy of feeling and expression
and is well worth preserving- :
" Kathleen Mavoumeen ! thy song is still ringing,
As fresh and as clear as the trill of the birds ;
In world-weary hearts it is sobbing and singing,
In pathos too sweet for tenderest words.
Oh ' have we forgotten the one who first breathed it ?
Oh ! have we forgotten his rapturous art ?
Our meed to the Master whose genius bequeathed it ?
Oh ! why art thou silent, thou voice of the heart?
" Kathleen Mavoumeen 1 thy lover still lingers,
The long night is waning, the stars pale and few ;
Thy sad serenader, with tremulous fingers,
Is bowed with his tears as the lily with dew.
The old harp-strings quaver, the old voice is shaking,
In sighs and in sobs moans the yearning refrain :
The old vision duns, and the old heart is breaking
Kathleen Mavoumeen, inspire us again 1"
165
STORIES OF
A domestic drama entitled "Kathleen Ma-
vourneen, or St. Patrick's Eve" was produced in
New York in 1865, and seems to have been
very successful, and has been played in London
and through the provinces. "Kathleen Ma-
vourneen" is introduced into the piece, also "Wilt
thou be my bride, Kathleen ?' 1 and " Kathleen,
are you goin' to lave me ?"
Professor Frederick Nicholls Crouch, F R.S.,
died at Portland, U. S., on August i8th, 1896,
aged eighty-nine, having been born in 1808.
He married four times, and though partially
blind, he worked till the last moment almost of
his life. A sympathetic account of his career
appeared in "The Era" newspaper, which is
worth quoting.
Although he was not without honour in the
land of his adoption, which has conferred upon
him the distinctions of Doctor of Music, Master
of Arts, and Bardic President for the State of
Maryland, the old composer occasionally re
gretted the " false step" he made in leaving his
motherland in 1849, and in one of his last let
ters to his nephew wrote : " When I made the
false step of leaving England for America I
literally buried myself, and have been lost to
the world ever since. England gave me a
reputation and a name ; America cremated me."
166
FAMOUS SONGS
Later he wrote more cheerfully : " The old Bard
is prepared for his final journey. At peace with
himself, his God, and the world. My last Christ
mas was the fulfilment of rejoicing. Although
a failing man I had plenty of respect and abund
ance of cheer. Three of my children were ab
sent professionally engaged in other States.
My two eldest girls are on the stage. My wife
has wholly recovered. I have no debts, and not
a single obligation to meet In honour of the
Irish nation I have composed an anthem. The
weather here is clear and bracing, but 20 degrees
below zero, nipping cold for a patriarch verging
ninety. God bless you and yours. May we
meet in the unknown sphere." The anthem
mentioned in this letter, the words of which
are by Mrs. M. A. Ford, known in the Amer
ican literary world as " Una/' is entitled " Green
and Gold."
In another letter Crouch said: "I went to
hear my ' Green and Gold' played by a military
orchestra yesterday. I am to conduct it on
Monday night, and also to sing, at eighty-nine,
* Kathleen Mavourneen' in public. Proof posi
tive this that your uncle lives. How I shall
acquit myself the result will show. In mental
spirits I am as bright as ever, but physically I
am worn out. My two daughters appear in the
167
STORIES OF
same performance for the whole week." After
alluding to his restoration to health from a
recent illness, he added: "It has left me a
wreck, but not a dead man. Pugnaciously would
I contest that statement with the newspaper
reporters. [A reference to many premature
obituary notices.] I have been writing day
and night for a Miss Harper, who is preparing
a book on the ' Song- writers of the Century,'
in which I appear conspicuously. When pub
lished will remit a copy endorsed with our
autographs. Through all my sickness I have
always adhered to my practice of daily writing
or perfecting a specific article : music, prose, or
poetry. The amount of my accumulated MSS.
is enormous. When the Old Bard really dies
he will write his own obituary. So rest con
tent. I am alive and kicking. Life exists in
the old dog yet." The Old Bard's last poetic
contribution to the poets' corner of the " Mary
land Journal" was called " Lament of the Last
Bard," and was in the nature of a valedictory
address. A specimen of his muse in his eighty-
ninth year is the following the last verse of
this poem :
" His harp, silent hanging, shrined by the willows,
His lyrical strains in affection addressed,
By night winds are wafted over the billows,
As sorrowing tears bedew the moon's crest,
168
FAMOUS SONGS
On his laurels he'll sleep, where Carolan slumbers,
His melodies ringing through ages unborn ;
Out the soul of a bard are measured his numbers,
And sung they will be when his spirit has gone."
The eldest son of Frederick William Crouch,
violoncello player, composer and music tutor
to William IV., the composer of "Kathleen
Mavourneen" was born at Devizes, Wiltshire.
On the paternal side he inherited his musical
talent. As in acting, so in music heredity plays
an important part. When nine years old he
played bass at the Royal Coburg Theatre,
erected in honour of the marriage of Princess
Charlotte, daughter of George IV. He grad
ually won his way to His Majesty's Theatre,
and once played a violoncello solo before
Rossini. Bochsi, then at the height of his
fame, and conductor of the opera, made Crouch
his pupil. When the latter reached the age of
twenty his tutor, impressed with his unusual
vocal ability, transferred him to William Hawes,
master of Westminster Abbey, of St. Paul's
Cathedral, and of the Chapel Royal boys.
When in 1822 the Royal Academy of Music,
Hanover Square, was established, young Crouch
became a student there, together with Sterndale
Bennett and George Macfarren. At the death
169
STORIES OF
of George IV. he and the other senior students
were commanded to attend the coronation of
William IV. and Adelaide, and after this event
Crouch was appointed gentleman of her Maj
esty Queen Adelaide's band. He now became
principal violoncellist at Drury Lane Theatre,
under the management of Stephen Price, of
American fame, and here he wrote his first
ballad, " Zephyrs of Love," for Miss Anna Tree,
and " The Swiss Song of Meeting" for Madame
Malibran. At this time he met John Howard
Payne, the American actor and dramatist, whose
memory is cherished for his authorship of
" Home, Sweet Home." It was while visiting
fair Devonshire that he received from Mrs.
Crawford the poem of " Kathleen Mavourneen,"
which appeared anonymously in the " Metro
politan Magazine," for which she wrote. He
then composed his exquisite music, a worthy
setting to pathetic and graceful verse, his
melody at once raising him to fame. Alas !
" Kathleen Mavourneen," which should have
brought its composer fortune as well as fame,
was sold to a London music publisher for 10.
Crouch's other work which still lives and is
perennially popular, includes " O'Donnell's
Farewell," " The Emigrant's Lament," " Sing
to Me, Nora," " The Exile of Erin," " Sheila,
170
FAMOUS SONGS
My Darling Colleen," and " Dermot Astore."
He also composed several operas.
When William IV. died, Crouch was com
manded to attend the coronation of Queen
Victoria. Subsequently he became musical
t editor for the firm of D'Almaine and Company,
Soho Square, who contracted for all his songs
for the ensuing seven years. Next he was
offered and accepted the post of musical re
viewer on the " Metropolitan Magazine," edited
by Captain Marryat, R.N., the immortal teller
of sea stories. In his new capacity Crouch
came to know intimately most of the literary
celebrities of the period, and in a letter to his
nephew at Liverpool he said, regarding a copy
of Dickens's " Chimes," which had not reached
him, " The ' Chimes' not arrived, though much
desired for old association's sake with my fellow
scribe Charles Dickens. We wrote together
with Mrs. Abdy, Mrs. Crawford, Countess
Blessington, Douglas Jerrold, Thackeray, Mar
ryat, Poole, and others in the pages of the
' Metropolitan Magazine,' published by Chap
man and Hall, who were publishing Dickens's
' Sketches by Boz. 1 "
In 1849 Crouch left England for America,
and he never returned. He was first associated
with Max Maretzek in New York. Afterwards
171
STORIES OF
he sang in church choirs, taught, and lectured,
until the great rush for the gold of California
bore him with the human tide westward. Re
verses overtook him, however ; his wife fell ill,
and he had to stop far short of California. His
money dwindled away he had previously con
verted his property into gold and sent his library
and manuscripts to Baltimore. Through the
influence of friends he was appointed choir
master of a church at Washington, and became
a teacher in the first circles in the city. He
migrated to Richmond, Virginia, where he was
doing well when the American Civil War broke
out. Without hesitation Crouch joined the
Confederate forces, sacrificing a salary of 4,000
dollars per annum for the private soldier's
twelve dollars per month, which twelve dollars,
he drily says, " he never got." He enlisted in
the first Regiment Richmond Greys, quartered
at Norfolk. From the day on which he entered
the army until the surrender of General Lee, at
Appomattox Courthouse, Crouch was always
at his post; never sick nor absent, and even
unflinching in his refusal to accept the furlough
that was offered him. From the last battlefield
he made his way, with three broken ribs and
his right hand badly smashed, to Buckingham
Courthouse. Here he entered into service as a
172
FAMOUS SONGS
gardener and farm hand an occupation he fol
lowed until the hostilities of the terrible civil
struggle died down. Then he went to Rich
mond, and ultimately to Baltimore, where, at
the age of seventy-five, he found his home,
books, and manuscripts, reduced to ashes.
About fifteen years ago the people of Balti
more interested themselves in the cause of their
poet-citizen, and he was established once more
as a teacher of music in that city, in which he
resided until he died.
In all the wide range of Crouch's varied
career, perhaps the most remarkable certainly
the most touching of his experiences was re
served for his later years. It seems that a boy
named James Marion Roche, born at New Ross,
Kilkenny, grew up with the music of " Kathleen
Mavourneen" ever on his lips. His love for
the song was unspeakable, and, although of a
roving disposition, he remained true to that of
music. He went to America, joined the navy,
and fought, all unconsciously, against the author
of his favourite song. In 1883 he visited Balti
more, and learned accidentally that Frederick
Nicholls Crouch resided there, finding it a hard
task to make both ends meet. Roche's love of
" Kathleen Mavourneen" was as great as ever,
and his one desire was to aid its composer,
173
STORIES OF
To attain this end he, with rare delicacy and
tact, persuaded the old gentleman to adopt him
as a son. As James Roche Crouch he lived in
Florida, and nobly did what he could to make
life a little easier for his " father."
Another very favourite song 1 composed by
Crouch, of a more frolicsome turn, was " Katty,
Avourneen," written by the late Desmond Ryan:
" 'Twas a cowld winter night, and the tempest was snarhn',
The snow, like a sheet, cover' d cabin and stye,
When Barney flew over the hills to his darlm',
And tapp'd at the window where Katty did he.
'Arrah, jewel,' says he, 'are you slaipin' or wakin' ?
It's a bitther cowld night, and my coat it is thin ;
The storm it is brewin', and the frost it is bakin',
Oh, Katty, avourneen, you must let me in. '
" * Ah, then, Barney,' says Kate, and she spoke through the
window,
' How could you be takin' us out of our beds ?
To come at this time, it's a shame and a sin, too,
It's whiskey, not love, has got into your head.
If your heart it was true, of my fame you' d be tender,
Consider the tune, and there's nobody in.
What has a poor girl but her name to defend her ?
No, Barney, avourneen, I won' t let you in. '
" 'A cushla,' says he, 'it's my heart is a fountain,
That weeps for the wrong I might lay at your door ;
Your name is more white than the snow on the mountain, ,
And Barney would die to preserve it as pure.
I'll go to my home, tho' the winter winds face me,
I'll whistle them off, for I'm happy within ;
And the words of my Katty will comfort and bless me :
"No, Barney, avourneen, I won't let you in." ' "
174
FAMOUS SONGS
CHAPTER XI
"THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER," "THE BELLS OF
SHANDON," AND "THE EXILE OF ERIN"
THAT curiously -compounded, old-fashioned
opera, "Martha," owes its continuous popularity,
as is tolerably well known, to the introduction
therein of the ancient Irish melody known to
the world generally as "The Last Rose of
Summer." Now, at first sight it may appear
rather incongruous to assign the song in the
opera to a lady who is supposed to have lived
in the reign of Queen Anne ; but, as a matter
of history, this incident is not quite so out
rageous as critics, with a scant knowledge of
Irish music apparently, would have us believe.
Count Frederick von Flotow's opera, " Martha/'
founded on a ballet, was first performed at
Vienna, in 1847. It was given at the Theatre
Lyrique, Paris, later with Mme. Christine Nilsson
as the heroine, with so much success, that it ran
for three hundred nights a most unusual run
for a piece of any kind half a century ago. It
was brought to London in 1858, and achieved
175
STORIES OF
a phenomenal reception, though marry authori
ties condemned it as mere tinsel. Berlioz, the
French composer, who detested Flotow, said
" the beauty of the Irish melody served to dis
infect the rottenness of the 'Martha' music,"
which was spiteful, silly, and weak. But this
brings us to the original of the introduced
number. Thomas Moore, than whom there has
never been a more un-Irish Irish writer, evi
dently came upon the melody to which he wrote
the words commencing, " Tis the last Rose of
Summer," in a third-hand manner, for he in
genuously calls it " The Groves of Blarney,"
which was quite a modern production, as far as
title and words are concerned, written by Richard
Alfred Milliken, who was born at Castle Martyr,
Co. Cork, only twenty-three years before Thomas
Moore saw the light in Dublin, which does not
say much for that deep acquaintance with ancient
music which Moore always professed. Now,
the " Groves of Blarney" was avowedly a bur
lesque on " Castle Hyde," the fulsome and
trashy production of a " literary" weaver named
Barrett, in 1790. Barrett, who was what we
should term a crank in these days, filled up his
spare time as an itinerant bard, and with the
view of being paid for his trouble, composed a
song in praise (as he doubtless intended it) of
176
FAMOUS SONGS
Castle Hyde, the beautiful seat of the Hyde
family, on the river B lack water ; but, as the
writer of the memoir of Milliken says, " instead
of the expected remuneration, the poor poet
was driven from the gate, by order of the then
proprietor, who, from the absurdity of the thing,
conceived that it could be only meant as a
mockery ; and, in fact, a more nonsensical com
position could scarcely escape the pen of a
maniac. The author, however, well satisfied of
its merits, and stung with indignation and dis
appointment, vented his rage in an additional
verse against the owner, and sung it wherever
he had an opportunity of raising his angry voice.
As satire, however gross, is but too generally
well received, the song first became a favourite
with the lower orders ; then found its way into
ballads, and at length into the convivial meetings
of gentlemen." It was through hearing " Castle
Hyde" at one of these social gatherings that
Milliken determined to make a genuine farcical
song on the lines of the original, so choosing
Blarney, a fine old castle within three miles of
Cork, for his subject, and retaining the rhythm
and adopting the tune of Barrett's effusion the
tune which Barrett himself took possession of,
it being a street melody and public property
and turned out a ludicrous parody of the ridicu-
12 177
STORIES OF
lous songs that were once so prevalent in every
Irish village, when every stripling would be a
bardeen, and sing his foolish rhymes to a foolish
audience. Rhyme in Ireland has too often been
more effective than reason, and this weakness
of the peasantry, of composing verses of an
extravagant and comically high faluting order,
engaged the pens of the satirists for hundreds
of years. Stanihurst, in 1583, published an
imitation of the Anglo-Irish style attached to
his translation of " The First Four Books of
Virgil's ./^Eneis," which he called " An Epitaph,
entitled Commune Defunctorum, such as our
unlearned Rithmours accustomably make upon
the death of every Tom Tyler, as if it were a
last for eveiy one his foote, in which the quan
tities of sillables are not to be heeded." The
burlesque is full of points. Milliken never
dreamed that his chaffing ballad would attain
such distinction and celebrity, and though it
went out anonymously to the rest of the world,
in Co. Cork its origin and authorship were well
known. It reached London in due course, and
was called in one of the weekly prints, " The
National Irish Poem." Lockhart, in his " Life
of Sir Walter Scott," attributed it to "the
poetical Dean of Cork." It was so famous in
London that everybody was singing and quoting
178
FAMOUS SONGS
it, and Lord Brougham refers to it in one of his
great Parliamentary speeches. Milliken, in all
probability, wrote " The Groves of Blarney" in
1796. Thomas Moore must have heard the
melody when he was at Trinity College, Dublin,
where he took his degree in 1798, and almost im
mediately after left for England, where he event
ually settled. He may never have known that
Milliken was the author of the " Groves of Blar
ney," though Richard Jones, an accomplished
Metropolitan comedian, records that he obtained
copies of the song in Cork, in the summer of
1800, and that he and Mathews, the great actor
and mimic, carried it back to London, where
they sang it at concerts, and in their entertain
ments. The first instalment of the " Irish Melo
dies," with Moore's very un-Irish words, was
issued in 1813, and the rest at varying inter
vals. Milliken died, by the way, in 1815.
It has been computed that Moore received
for the " Melodies" remuneration averaging
one hundred and twenty-one pounds per song,
or six pounds per line. Very comforting re
muneration, too !
But to return to "The Last Rose of Sum
mer." Wherever Moore obtained the melody
it is certain he could not have known it in its
original form as played by the travelling bards
179
STORIES OF
and harpers of Jreland, for he has considerably
altered the character of the music, and has not
in any way improved upon even the " Groves
of Blarney" version as a national melody. Al
though the composer and author are unknown,
the title of the tune may be ascribed to about
1660, so that from a musical point of view
Flotow was well within the calendar in using it
for his " Martha," as the basis of the well-known
air existed long prior to the reign of Queen
Anne.
Lovers of Ireland and its national songs and
music have always regretted that Thomas
Moore, in undertaking to rescue the Irish
melodies, did not preserve the spirit and nature
of the country whence they sprang in the lyrics
that he fitted and dovetailed to them. For the
chief characteristic of Moore's Irish melodies,
that is to say the lyrics, is their lack of Irish
characteristics. To be candid, though here and
there an Irish town, or vale, or waterfall, or lake
is mentioned, all the Irish songs are absolutely
English in form, metre and sentiment. Erin
comes in nowhere; and Hibernia is only
scantily and half shamefully referred to as a
sort of apology for the music which is so es
sentially Irish. Again, the words are not always
wedded to the music, they are only joined to it,
180
FAMOUS SONGS
fitted and fixed to it the music plays the
second part and not the first. Though Thomas
Moore, " who dearly loved a lord/'as his friend
Lord Byron said, was a poet of Ireland, he was
in nowise an Irish poet in sentiment, sympathy
or sensibility. Still we are not ungrateful to
him for his labour in saving to us these classic
pieces. Moore's other " Melodies" are fully-
dealt with in a later chapter.
" Shandon Bells," once a great favourite, was
written by Francis Mahoney, who chose as his
nom de plume " Father Prout," by which name
he is mostly known. The " Bells" in question
refer to Shandon, where,
*' The spreading Lee that, like an island fair,
Encloseth Cork with his divided flood."
The history of the Bells and the origin of the
song are of more than passing interest. Crofton
Croker, in his " Popular Songs of Ireland," tells
us that the steeple of the church of St. Anne, or
Upper Shandon, in which hung the bells cele
brated in the song, is one hundred and twenty
feet high, and being built upon a considerable
eminence, appears a remarkable object in every
point of view of the city ; but especially from
what Moore has termed " its noble sea avenue,"
181
STORIES OF
the river Lee. The building of the church
commenced in 1722, and its steeple was con
structed of the hewn stone from the Franciscan
Abbey, where James II. heard mass, and from
the ruins of Lord Barry's castle, which had been
the official residence of the lords president of
Munster and whence this quarter of the city
takes its name Shandon signifying in Irish the
old fort or castle. But as the demolished abbey
had been built of limestone, and the castle of
redstone, the taste of the architect of Shandon
steeple led him to combine the discordant
materials, which ecclesiastic and civic revolution
had placed at his disposal, by constructing three
sides of his work white, and the remaining side
of red stone ; a circumstance which has occa
sioned many local jokes and observations, the
most memorable of which is embodied in some
rhymes commencing :
" Party-coloured, like the people,
Red and white stands Shandon steeple,"
said to have been addressed to Dr. Wood
ward, Bishop of Cloyne, by the famous Father
O'Leary.
Fitz-Gerald in his "Cork Remembrancer"
says that Shandon bells were put up during the
summer of 1752.
182
FAMOUS SONGS
The Reverend Francis Sylvester Mahoney,
the author of " Shandon Bells," was born in
Cork, 1805, and died in a monastery in Paris
(to which he had retired two years previously)
in May, 1866. He took Holy Orders after
studying in a Jesuit College at Paris ; but eventu
ally he became a litterateur and journalist. He
was a constant contributor to " Eraser's Maga
zine," " Bentley's Miscellany," the "Athenaeum"
and other papers. He later became corre
spondent at Rome for the " Daily News," and
still later acted as Paris correspondent for the
" Globe." Under his adopted name of Father
Prout he achieved much celebrity by writing
prose and Irish verse in " Fraser's Maga
zine." These writings have been collected and
republished and have become classics. He
was not of a very clerical nature that is as
far as his priestly calling goes but was greatly
loved and respected by all who knew him. He
was Bohemian to the backbone, and as full of
fun as an Irish Leprachaun careless in his
dress but careful of his witty company. He
wrote his celebrated verses when he was a
student at an Irish college in Rome. It is said
that the opening lines are still to be seen in a
room there, scratched on a wall just above
where his bed used to be. He was doubtless a
183
STORIES OF
little homesick at the time, and listening maybe
to the tolling of the many church bells in the
Eternal City. I give two verses only as the
poem is so well known :
" With deep affection
And recollection,
I often think of
Those Shandon Bells,
Whose sounds so wild would,
In the days of childhood,
Fling round my cradle
Their magic spells.
" I've heard bells chiming,
Full many a clime in,
Tolling sublime in
Cathedral shrine ;
While at a glibe rate
Brass tongues would vibrate,
But all their music
Spoke naught like thine."
In after years, in discussing the subject of the
melody of bells, he says : " But there is nothing,
after all, like the associations which early in
fancy attaches to the well-known and long
remembered chimes of our own parish steeple :
and no music can equal the effect upon our ear
when returning after long absence in foreign
and perhaps happier countries." There are no
184
FAMOUS SONGS
bells actually at Shandon now, though there
were in Prout's time, of course. The song has
been set several times, but the only two of value
are, first, the setting by J. L. Hatton, and
second, by Mrs. H. Morgan. John Liphot
Hatton, whose setting is generally considered
the best, was born in 1809 and died in 1877.
He composed music for a vast quantity of
pieces, songs, operettas, dramas, and so on, and
was the musical director at the Princess's
Theatre under Charles Kean, and composed
the music for the Shakespearean productions.
" Good-bye, Sweetheart, Good-bye" is his most
enduring work.
A very touching Irish song, " The Exile of
Erin," was written by a Scotchman Thomas
Campbell the poet, to wit although it has often
been attributed to the Irish verse-writer, George
Nugent Reynolds, though there is no evidence
to show that Reynolds ever claimed it himself.
Unfortunately after his death his friends caused
a great bother about it, saying that it was
written by him as a second part of his lyric
commencing :
" Green -were the fields where my forefathers dwelt O,
Erin, ma voureen ! slan leat go bragh !
Though our farm was small yet comforts we felt 0,
Erin, ma voureen ! slan leat go bragh 1
STORIES OF
At length came the day when our lease did expire,
And fain would I live where before lived my sire ;
But, ah ' well-a-day, I was forced to retire,
Erin, ma voureen ! slan leat go bragh !"
Compare this sorry stuff with Campbell's touch
ing poem, addressed to Anthony McCann,
exiled for being implicated in the Irish rebellion
of 1/98. Campbell met him when staying in
Hamburg :
" There came to the beach a poor Exile of Erin,
The dew on his thin robes was heavy and chill ;
For his country he sighed, when at twilight repairing
To wander alone by the wind-beaten hill.
But the day-star ata acted his eyes' sad devotion,
For it rose o' er his own native isle of the ocean,
Where once, in the fire of his youthful emotion,
He sang the bold anthem of Erin-go-bragh !"
All the same, it would not be fair to say that
Reynolds did not write the " Exile of Erin"
because he could not, because as a matter of
fact he wrote many very tolerable though not
super-excellent lyrics.
At one time, after the death of Reynolds, and
while Campbell was still living, his friend Her
cules Ellis took up the cudgels, and did his
utmost to prove that the Scotch poet had
plagiarized, or rather stolen, the Irishman's
work. Ellis himself was a voluminous rhymer
186
FAMOUS SONGS
of very little pretension and of a very quarrel
some nature. Letters were written to the
"Times" from both sides, and in one of his
articles he says : " Our friend desires us to say
that, in the event of Mr. Campbell's contradict
ing this statement, he will produce several living
witnesses to prove that Mr. Reynolds had shown
to and sung for them as his own composition the
identical lines several years prior to his death,
and prior to Mr. Campbell's publication of
them." In answer to this Campbell stated in
the "Times" of June l/th, 1830, that he com
posed the song, "The Exile of Erin," at
Altona, and sent it off immediately from that
place to London, where it was published in the
" Morning Chronicle," and so on. It is not my
intention to open up this matter, as it has long
since been known that Campbell was the author,
and no one else. Sir Charles Gavan Duffy's
words, however, prefixed to Reynolds's " Mary
Le More," in the " Ballad Poetry of Ireland"
(1845), are worth giving: "Mr. Reynolds was
a Leitrim gentleman of moderate property,
earnest patriotism, and respectable ability. Be
tween the era of Independence and the Union
he wrote several rough, strong, popular songs
in the national interest, one or two of which
still hold their ground in the collections. Lat-
187
STORIES OF
terly a claim has been made on his behalf
to the 'Exile of Erin,' so strongly sustained
by sworn evidence, that nothing but the char
acter of Campbell could resist it. It is, how
ever, weakened by the fact that none of his
acknowledged writings are in the same style, or
of the same ability." Which may end the mat
ter once and for all. Campbell, by the way,
wrote other Irish poems of considerable native
feeling, "O'Connor's Child," and "The Irish
Harper and his Dog Tray," for he always had
a surprising affection for the Irish, and a sym
pathy with the sentiment of her songs. It
should not be forgotten, by the way, that
Thomas Campbell was the author of what is
perhaps the finest sea song ever written, to wit,
" Ye Mariners of England." The " Exile of
Erin" is frequently called in music and song-
books " Erin-go-Bragh," which is quite a differ
ent song. It was usually sung to " Savourneen
Deelish."
George Nugent Reynolds, by the way, wrote
a smart operetta called " Bantry Bay," which
was performed at Covent Garden, with music
by W. Reeve, in 1797. Reynolds died at
Stowe, the seat of his relative, the Marquis of
Buckingham, in 1802.
There is an ancient Irish melody which is not
188
FAMOUS SONGS
often met with now, though Robert Burns wrote
a stanza for the same in 1787, and two more
stanzas in 1796, and called it, " O Whistle an*
I'll come to you, my lad," which has not a very
Scottish ring. The air is unmistakably Irish
in method and construction, and Bunting gives
it as an example of a very early style, with the
defective fourth and seventh. A claim was put
in for one Bruce, a performer on the violin, but
John Maine, the author of " Logan Water" and
the " Siller Gun," declared that although Bruce
was a good performer, he had never been known
to compose anything. It was made startlingly
popular in London, and then throughout Eng
land, by O'Keefe, who introduced it into his
musical farce, "The Poor Soldier," at Covent
Garden, in 1782, with other Irish melodies.
The original Irish was a comic song, " Go de
sin den te sin," "What is that to him?" In
the opera the melody was sung by the character
Kathlane, to words beginning, "Since love is
the plan." Indeed O'Keefe, who wrote such
standard lyrics as "I am a Friar of Orders
Grey," "The Ploughboy," " The Wolf," "The
Thorn," and others, was in the habit of con
verting the songs of his own country to practical
uses in his operas and plays, of which he is said
to have written about two hundred.
STORIES OF
CHAPTER XII
CONCERNING SOME FAVOURITE SONGS
"BLONDEL," "ANNABEL LEE," "MY PRETTY
JANE/' "THE LASS OF RICHMOND HILL,"
"SALLY IN OUR ALLEY," "THE ROAST BEEF
OF OLD ENGLAND," " HEARTS OF OAK," AND
"RULE BRITANNIA"
" GIVE," said Queen Elizabeth to Lord Bur
leigh, while Spenser knelt, poems in hand, " Give
the youth one hundred pounds." " What," ex
claimed Burleigh, "all this for a song?" "Then
give him what 's reason," said the queen, thus
leaving him in the hands of Burleigh, who ended
by making the bard indeed poet-laureate, but
never bestowed the promised guerdon. Spen
ser's patience wearing out, he wrote these lines
to the queen, which had the desired effect :
" I -was promised on a time,
To have Reason for my Rhyme ;
From that tame until this season
I've got neither Rhyme nor Reason."
But it has been the way of the world to keep
the song and forget the singer, yet the greatest
190
FAMOUS SONGS
and wisest men of all ages have chosen song
as the best means of reaching the heart of
the people. For song was the earliest indication
of the evolution of man from barbarism into
civilization. Naturally, a large number of our
popular songs have arisen from some personal
experience or memory of the writer, and if so
many bards have written in a melancholy key, it
should be recollected that, as Goethe happily
says, " The hope of bringing back old happy
days burns up again in us as if it could never be
extinguished." For most poets " learn in suffer
ing what they teach in song." Remember what
Heine said of himself: " Aus meinen grossen
Schmezen, mach' ich die Klienen Lieder." If
the worldly reward to our song w'riters is but
small, they enjoy such compensations in their
talents that none outside the charmed circle
.could ever understand. Troubadour and min
strel days are dead.
One of the earliest songs with a history is the
piece sung by Blondel to his master, King
Richard I., when his majesty was in prison. In
1190 Richard of the Lion Heart joined the
Crusade with Philip Augustus of France, but, a
division taking place between the two princes,
the latter returned to Europe. Richard remained
in the East, where he displayed uncommon
191
STORIES OF
vigour against Saladin, whom he defeated near
Csesarea, and, having made a truce, he embarked
in a vessel which was wrecked on the coast of
Italy. He then travelled in disguise through
part of Germany, but being discovered by
Leopold, Duke of Austria, he was made pris
oner and sent to the Emperor Henry II., who
had him confined in a castle, until discovered
by his favourite minstrel as related below. I
give the original diction :
" The Englishmen were more than a whole
yeare without hearing any tydings of their king,
or in what place he was kept prisoner. He had
trained up in his service a Rimer or Minstrill
called Blondel de Nesle, who (so saith the
manuscript of Old Poesies, and one Auncient
Manuscript French Chronicle), being so long
without the sight of his lord, his life seemed
wearisome to him, and he became confounded
with melancholy. Knowne it was that he came
backe from the Holy Land but none could tell
in what country he arrived. Whereupon this
Blondel resolving to make search for him in
many countries but he would hear some newes
of him. After experience of divers dayes in
travaille, he came to a towne (by good hap)
neere to the Castell where his maister King-
Richard was kept. Of his host he demanded
192
FAMOUS SONGS
to whom the Castell appertained and the host
told him it belonged to the Duke of Austria.
Then he enquired whether there were any pris
oners therein detained or no, for always he
made such scant questionings wheresoever he
came. And the hoste gave answer, there was
only one prisoner, but he knew not what he
was, and yet he had been detained there more
than the space of a yeare. When Blondel
heard this he wrought such meanes that he be
came acquainted with them of the castell, as
minstrills doe easily win acquaintance any
where. But see the King he could not, neither
understand that it was he. One day he sat
directly before a window of the castell where
King Richard was kept prisoner, and began to
sing a song in French which King Richard and
Blondel had some time composed together.
When King Richard heard the song, he knew
it was Blondel that sung it ; and when Bondel
paused at halfe of the song, the King began the
other halfe and completed it. Thus Blondel
won knowledge of the king his maister and
returning home into England made the barons
of the countrie acquainted where the king
was."
This happened about the year 1193. I ap
pend a translation of the old Provencal lines
13 193
STORIES OF
sung by the Troubadour Blondel and Richard
Cceur de Lion :
" BLONDEL.
" Your beauty, lady fair,
None view without delight,
But still so cold an air
No passion can excite ;
Yet this I patient see
While all are shunned like me.
"RICHARD.
" No nymph my heart can wound
If favour she divide,
And smiles on all around,
Unwilling to decide ;
I'd rather hatred bear
Than love with others share."
There are many memorable records of the
bravery and gallantry of troubadours and min
strels, especially the English and French, to be
found in our histories. The story of " Richard
Cceur de Lion" has been dramatized as a
romance, with ballads and songs. The original
was by M. Sedaine, and produced in operatic
form at the Comedie Italienne in 1786. It was
adapted to the English stage first by Leonard
McNally (Covent Garden, October i6th, 1786),
the second by General Burgoyne (Drury Lane,
October 24th, 1786).
Chronology and order can scarcely be fol
lowed with any degree of success in a popular
194
FAMOUS SONGS
work of this kind, so I shall proceed with the
different histories as they come convenient to
hand. The supremely touching words of " An
nabel Lee" were wrested from the torn heart of
the melancholy, morbid Edgar Allan Poe, by
the early death of the girl who so swiftly cap
tured and tamed, for a time, the wild spirit of
the misguided and misjudged poet " Annabel
Lee" was the poetic name bestowed by Poe on
his cousin, Virginia Clemm, who became his
wife in 1836. She was a beautiful girl, for
whom he possessed and always cherished the
sweetest and tenderest feelings. He strained
every nerve to provide a home for her and for her
mother, who continued with him and Virginia,
and to care for them and to assist them all
through the few years of their married life, and
who, even after the death of the idolized wife
and daughter she died in 1847 acted the part
of a mother in the noblest sense of the word to
the bereaved poet. If Virginia had lived, there
is no doubt that Poe would have been a far dif
ferent man ; as it was, the greater portion of his
life was a mistake, intensified by a highly ner
vous temperament and weak impulses ; but his
name will never die, for " Annabel Lee," one of
the least of his poems, is alone sufficient to
secure the applause of all posterity. The poem
195
STORIES OF
is too well-known to require quoting here ; one
verse, however, will not be out of place :
" But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we
Of many far wiser than we
And neither the Angels in Heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee."
Many composers have set the words to music.
I have seen the statement somewhere that
" My Pretty Jane" has proved the most profit
able song ever issued ; and yet it was almost by
accident that it was given to the world at all.
Edward Fitz-Ball, the author of the lyric, and
of something like a hundred plays, when a
youth, lived at Burwell, an old-fashioned village
about three miles from Newmarket, on the road
to Cambridge. It was his custom to pass along
one of the numerous lanes round the village, in
the early morning, for the purpose of looking
after his father's property. In his route there
happened to be in this particular lane the house
of a farmer, who had a pretty daughter called
Jane. And often, as young Fitz-Ball wended
his merry way, this girl would peep round the
corner of the blind of her window, showing
only her eyes, forehead, nose, hair and ears,
196
FAMOUS SONGS
and with charming simplicity nod to him as he
passed along. One day in the bright summer
time, when " the bloom is on the rye," the future
librettist sat down on a convenient stile, and
wrote in less than ten minutes the words of the
excellent song, " My Pretty Jane." When he
left his native place for London, and obtained an
engagement to write songs for the management
of Vauxhall Gardens, he discovered " My Pretty
Jane" amongst his other almost forgotten MSS.,
and gave it to Sir Henry Bishop to set. Sir
Henry Bishop, however, was not always satis
fied with his own compositions, and discarded
the song after he had composed the music.
When applied to for a new lyric, Fitz-Ball said,
" If ' Pretty Jane' won't do, I shall write no
other." So they proceeded to Sir Henry
Bishop's house, but found that gentleman out.
Poking about his room Fitz-Ball lighted upon
the song, which had been thrown in the waste-
paper basket. The manager accepted it on the
author's responsibility, and that night it was
sung by George Robinson, the great tenor of
the day, and at once created an enormous
success. Then it was sung by Alexander Lee,
and now for over thirty years it has, of course,
been associated with the name of Sims Reeves.
The original " Pretty Jane" is believed to have
197
STORIES OF
died of consumption; her portrait, painted by
Fitz-Ball, is now in the possession of the drama
tist's daughter.
In the original version of " My Pretty Jane,"
as printed in " Thirty-five Years of a Dramatic
Author's Life/ 3 and as it is sung to this day,
the second verse begins :
" Oh, name the day, the wedding day,
And I will buy the ring ;
The Bridal Maids in garlands gay,
And village bells shall ring."
The false rhyme in the second and fourth
lines being pointed out to him by George
Linley, Fitz-Ball altered the same when he re-
published the lyric in his work, " The House
to Let: With other Poems," in 1857, as under:
" But name the day, the wedding day,
And I will buy the rag ;
The bells shall peal love's roundelay,
And village maids shall sing "
Edward Fitz-Ball was a curious man, but a most
indefatigable worker. He died October 2/th,
1873, aged eighty years.
Besides " My Pretty Jane," which was origin
ally published as "When the Bloom is on
the Rye," with a portrait of George Robinson
on the cover, Fitz-Ball wrote at least three
198
From the painting by \V. Magrath
"OH, NAMK THE DAY, THE WEDDING DAY'
FAMOUS SONGS
notable songs, "When I beheld the Anchor
Weighed," " There is a Flower that Bloometh,"
and " Let me like a Soldier Fall." Generally
speaking, Fitz-Ball's words were very mediocre,
though in his day it was actually said of one of
his efforts, " Bhanavar," that it was equal to, if
it did " not surpass Tennyson's and Long
fellow's best work, and was second only to
' Childe Harold.' "
Numberless tales have been recited respecting
the origin of that delightful old song, " The Lass
of Richmond Hill." One is to the effect that
it was written by a young lady rejoicing in the
name of Rosa Smith, who resided at Richmond,
Surrey, and conceitedly termed herself the
" Lass of Richmond Hill," but her claims are
without grounds, notwithstanding that she wrote
verses. Another story goes that it was written
by Mr. Upton, who was the author of many
Vauxhall pieces and many lyrics, amongst the
latter being, " Remember, Love, Remember,"
and " The Garden Gate ;" but there is no evi
dence in support of this statement whatever.
The fact is, as stated by Sir Jonah Barrington,
in his " Personal Sketches," that the song was
written by Leonard McNally, a young Irish
barrister. The Richmond referred to is un
questionably the place of that name in York-
199
STORIES OF
shire, and the lass was Miss I'Anson or Janson
(spelt both ways), and the " Hill" was the house
her family occupied. McNally's grand-daughter
and Janson's descendants all testify to his
authorship. Miss I'Anson was the daughter
of William I'Anson, of Hill House, Richmond,
Yorks, and McNally wooed and married her on
January i6th, 1787, at St. George's, Hanover
Square. Mr. I'Anson was a solicitor, and there
fore likely to meet with Leonard McNally, per
haps through his son, who was a barrister.
McNally's daughter afterwards married a gen
tleman of the name of Simpson, at Richmond.
Mr. I'Anson practised as a solicitor in Bedford
Row, London. There can be no possible doubt
about McNally's marriage with Miss I'Anson,
nor of his being the author of the song, the
music of which was written by James Hook,
the father of Theodore Hook, though for a
long time it was attributed to the Prince of
Wales (afterwards George IV). It was also
said to have been a great favourite with George
III. The " Lass of Richmond Hill" was written
and composed some time before it was publicly
given, which occurred in 1789, when Incledon
sang it at Vauxhall Gardens. The words ap
pear to have been first printed in the " Morning
Herald," of August ist, 1789, but it was circu-
200
FAMOUS SONGS
lated privately by McNally among his friends
long prior to this.
"A piece of negative evidence," says the
editor of the " Poets of Ireland" " not hitherto
mentioned in favour of McNally's authorship is,
that in ' Myrtle and Vine/ a collection of songs
edited by C. H. Wilson (where there are about
a dozen songs by Upton, the reputed author of
the ' Lass of Richmond Hill/ whom Wilson
probably knew, for he seems to have got the
songs from the author direct), the lyric about
which there has been so much dispute is given
anonymously. If Upton had written it his name
would presumably have been put to it as to the
others by him." It is a curious fact that the
song does not appear inUpton's collected poems.
It seems odd, truly, that I'Anson should have
lived so far away as Richmond, in Yorkshire,
but over and over again it has been proved that
such was the case, as he had a town house as
well. There is a public house called " The Lass
of Richmond Hill," on Richmond Hill, in Sur
rey, due to a natural misconception by the orig
inal owner, and this has misled many people.
McNally, who wrote a number of songs and
operettas for Covent Garden and other theatres,
was born in Dublin, in 1/52, and died in the
same city, February I3th, 1820.
201
STORIES OF
That delightful old ballad, "Sally in our
Alley," was written and composed, as every
body knows, by that erratic genius Henry
Carey, whose grand-daughter was the mother
of the great Edmund Kean. Carey was a most
prolific verse-maker and composer, and is said
to have been a natural son of George Savile,
Marquis of Halifax. He was very popular both
as dramatist and musician. Indeed, he was a
most extraordinary worker, and was constantly
producing new operas and operettas from his
fertile brain. Besides a number of plays, too
numerous to be given, he wrote that never-to-
be-forgotten burlesque, " Chrononhotontho-
logos," which he happily described as "The
most Tragical Tragedy that ever was Trage-
dized by any Company of Tragedians." It was
produced with enormous success at the Hay-
market Theatre, February 22nd, 1734. In
1713, Carey published a volume of his poems,
and later his Songs, Cantatas, Catches, etc.
But of all his compositions " Sally in our Alley,"
will be ever the most popular (many of his other
pieces would well bear resuscitating), and will
transmit his fame to all posterity. It is " one of
the most striking and original melodies ever
written." Carey's account of its origin is as
follows : " A shoemaker's apprentice making a
202
FAMOUS SONGS
holiday with his sweetheart, treated her with a
sight of Bedlam, the puppet shows, the flying
chairs, and all the elegancies of Moorfields,
whence, proceeding to the Farthing Pie House,
he gave her a collation of buns, cheese cakes,
gammon of bacon, stuffed beer and bottled ale,
through all which scenes the author dodged
them." Charmed with the simplicity of their
courtship he drew from what he had witnessed
this little sketch of nature. He adds, with
pardonable pride, that Addison had more than
once expressed his approbation of his produc
tion. " Strange to say, he was much ridiculed
by some of his acquaintance for the perform
ance, which nevertheless made its way into the
polite world." It was utilized in the " Beggar's
Opera" by Gay in 1728, and sung by Macheath
in the " Medley," in scene 2, act iii. It was also
introduced into several other plays and parodied
and imitated right and left. Carey's music was
superseded in 1760 by an older tune (about
1620) called, " What though I am a Country
Lasse," which it curiously resembled, and to
which it is now always given.
Carey, who was created Mus. Doc., died
October 4th, 1743, though how old he was it is
not easy to say. Some say he was eighty,
others that he was under fifty. His posthumous
203
STORIES OF
son, George Savile Carey, inherited much of his
father's talents and also his characteristics. He
was an actor and an entertainer, and appeared
to succeed better in the latter line. He always
claimed that his father wrote both words and
music of " God Save the King." Chappell sup
ports this, and says it was written for a birthday
of George II. Dr. Finck is of the same opinion.
It was G. S. Carey's daughter Anne who was
the mother of Edmund Kean, the father was
a Jew.
It is a wonderful coincidence, that to the year
1740 we are indebted for the first appearance
in public of three of our most popular and most
national songs, " God Save the King," " The
Roast Beef of Old England," by Henry Fielding,
and" Rule Britannia," by James Thomson ; while
just nineteen years later appeared the magni
ficent patriotic song, " Hearts of Oak," written
by David Garrick, who had a pretty wit for
turning a ballad, and composed by Dr. Boyce.
" Hearts of Oak" was first sung by Mr. Champ-
nes in public at Drury Lane Theatre, De
cember, 1759, in a Christmas entertainment,
entitled, " Harlequin's Invasion," prepared by
Roscius himself. It was written under the in
spiration of the year (1759) of Pitt's greatest
triumphs, the year of Minden and Quiberon and
204
FAMOUS SONGS
Quebec, the " wonderful year" of the lyric, a
year in which the British arms were covered
with glory by the Marquis of Granby, Lord
Hawke, and General Wolfe :
" Come cheer up, my lads, 'tis to glory we steer,
To add something more to this wonderful year ;
To honour we call you, not press you like slaves,
For who are so free as the sons of the waves?"
It is a truly grand patriotic production.
" Roast Beef" was adapted to a tune composed
by Richard Leveridge, about 1/28, who also
wrote part of the words at the time. The song,
with Fielding's improved lyric, was published in
Walsh's " British Miscellany," about 1 740. The
authorship of " Rule Britannia" has been dis
puted, some authorities at one time inclining to
the belief that as David Mallet was concerned
with Thomson in writing the masque "Alfred,"
in which the Ode was originally sung, he was the
writer. I will first give a quotation from W.
Chappell's "National English Airs:" "'Rule
Britannia/ from the masque of ' Alfred/ com
posed by Dr. Arne. This masque was written
by James Thomson and David Mallet, and was
performed in the gardens of Cliefden House in
commemoration of the accession of George I.,
and in honour of the birthday of the Princess
205
STORIES OF
of Brunswick on August ist, 1740. It was after
wards altered into an opera (by the same com
poser) and performed at Covent Garden in 1745 ;
and, after the death of Thomson, which occurred
in 1748, it was again entirely remodelled by
Mallet, scarcely any part of the first being re
tained, and performed at Drury Lane, in 1751.
The words of ' Rule Britannia' were, however,
written by Thomson." It was already a cele
brated song in 1745, for during the Jacobite
Rebellion in the north, of that year, the Jacob
ites, with consummate impudence, took the lay,
and altered the words to suit their own cause,
and termed it their " National Song !" Handel
makes use of the air in his " Occasional Cra-
torios," with slight variations, to words be
ginning,
"War shall cease,
Welcome peace !"
in 1746.
When Mallet altered the opera, or masque of
" Alfred," it proved a fearful fiasco, and it was not
till Thomson was dead that he claimed the ode
as his own composition a composition which
Southey (including the music, of course,) said
would be " the political hymn of this country as
long as she maintains her political power." Yet
the song was actually published in Edinburgh
206
FAMOUS SONGS
in the second edition of a well-known song
book during Mallet's life-time with Thomson's
initials, and apparently Mallet made no stir.
David Mallet earned much notoriety as a
purloiner of other people's wares, and his im
posture with regard to " Margaret's Ghost" is
-ancient history to students of old ballads and
Percy's "Reliques." I will give an extract
from a contribution by the talented author of
" Popular Music of the Olden Time" to " Notes
and Queries," November 2Oth, 1886. "I will
now refer to 'Alfred.' It was performed a
a second time at Cliefden House, with great
success, and soon ' Rule Britannia' became a
national song. In 1745 'Alfred' was altered
into an opera by Dr. Arne, the principal vocal
parts being taken by Mrs. Arne, Miss Young,
Mrs. Sybilla, and Mr. Lowe, at Covent Garden
(this was for the benefit of Mrs. Arne), and
turned into a musical drama at Drury Lane, both
in the same year. In 1748 James Thomson,
the poet, died from fever, and that suggested to
Mallet the idea of robbing his friend and fellow-
countryman (they were both Scottish) of his
share of the credit he had gained by the triple
production of 'Alfred/ and especially by the
ode ; but Dr. Arne, who outlived Thomson and
Mallet till 1788, stood always in Mallet's way.
207
STORIES OF
It was his music to ' Rule Britannia' that had
been one great cause of the success, and every
body knew that the ode had been written by
Thomson, who gave the words to Arne to set to
music, and many thousands of copies had been
printed within the ten or eleven years that had
elapsed. In the meantime Mallet had received
a commission to write the life of the great Duke
of Marlborough, for which he had received
;i,ooo from the Duchess, and an annuity from
the Duke to expedite his labours. How he
carried out his contract is thus told in the ' Bio-
graphia Dramatica,' 1812, and elsewhere.
"No. 143, 'Alfred,' a masque by David
Mallet, acted at Drury Lane, 8vo, 1751. This
is the play of Messrs. Thomson and Mallet,
entirely new modelled by the latter ; no part of
the first being retained except a few lines.
Though excellently performed, it was not very
successful. The prologue was written by the
Earl of Cork. It has been said that Mallet
procured 'Alfred' to be performed at Drury
Lane by insinuating to Garrick that in his
intended life of the Duke of Marlborough he
should, by an ingenious device, find a niche for
the Roscius of the age. ' My dear friend,' said
Garrick, 'have you left off writing for the
stage ?' The hint was taken, and ' Alfred' was
208
FAMOUS SONGS
produced. Garrick himself afterwards tried to
turn Mallet's failure as a masque into a tragedy,
in 17/3, to recover some of the money he had
lost upon it, but he was not more successful
than before. Mallet's ' Life of the Duke of
Marlborough' was paid for but never written.
Mallet employed Lord Bolingbroke to write
three additional verses for ' Rule Britannia' to
replace three of Thomson's (which he would
never have done if they had been his own) but
the public would not have the new verses, and
insisted upon Thomson's which they knew."
To add further proof to the fact that Thomson
was the genuine author of " Rule Britannia," I
may state that in all the public advertisements
when Arne's opera was played, Thomson's name
alone was announced as the author of the ode.
The rest of David Mallet's shameful life will be
found in any English biography. He enjoyed
a considerable pension, which had been bestowed
on him for his success in turning the public ven
geance upon Admiral Byng by means of a letter
of accusation under the character of " A Plain
Man." That pension was Mallet's blood money.
He had also a legacy of the copyright of Lord
Bolingbroke's "Works," Bolingbroke having
employed him to " blast the memory of Pope/'
"an office which he executed with all the
14 209
STORIES OF
malignity that his employer could wish." Mallet
had been a thorough parasite to Pope before,
and Bolingbroke was the wretched hypocrite
whom Pope, by leaving all his MSS. to him,
had made the guardian of his character. No
Scotchman would attend Mallet's funeral ; but a
monument was raised by public subscription to
the memory of James Thomson in Westminster
Abbey. Mallet's real name was Malloch, and
he died in 1765, aged sixty.
210
FAMOUS SONGS
CHAPTER XIII
HENRY RUSSELL'S SONGS AND OTHERS
" WOODMAN SPARE THAT TREE/' " CHEER, BOYS,
CHEER," "A GOOD TIME COMING," "THE OLD
ARM CHAIR," "A LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE,"
" COME WHERE MY LOVE LIES DREAMING,"
" REST, TROUBLED HEART," " THE GYPSY
COUNTESS," AND " THE BEATING OF MY OWN
HEART"
IN October, 1895, Henry Russell, who is eighty-
six years old, published his memoirs under the
taking title of "Cheer, Boys, Cheer," from
which we gather the following particulars.
Evincing early a taste for music, and reveal
ing as a child the possession of an excellent
voice, Mr. Russell was taken, when eight years
old, to Elliston, who engaged him for the
" children's operas" he was giving at the Surrey
Theatre. From the elder Kean, who heard
him sing at Richmond, he received the assur
ance that " You will never become a great actor
or a great singer unless you learn to speak
211
STORIES OF
every word you utter distinctly and clearly.
Unintelligibility and slovenliness in speech are
the curse of the profession." By-and-by Mr.
Russell went to Italy to study, and was so
lucky as to obtain some gratis lessons in counter
point, harmony, and orchestration from Bellini,
the composer. He afterwards found employ
ment as a pianist and chorus-master, and
travelled a good deal in company with Balfe,
who was then singing in opera. Returning to
England he was for a time chorus-master at
Her Majesty's under Lumley; then, his pro
spects appearing to be vague, if not cloudy, he
decided to seek his fortunes in the New World.
He went to Canada, opening at Toronto, where
his first concert resulted in a pecuniary loss.
At Rochester, N. Y., he was offered, and ac
cepted, an organistship at 60 a year. At this
place he happened to hear the famous Henry
Clay deliver an oration, and the incident proved
to be the turning-point of his life.
" If Henry Clay could create such an impres
sion by his distinct enunciation of every word,
should it not be possible for me to make music
the vehicle for grand thoughts and noble senti
ments, to speak to the world through the power
of poetry and song ? The idea gained upon
me. I became more and more fascinated by the
212
FAMOUS SONGS
thought, not only of trying my fortune as a
vocalist, but also of composing my own songs.
With me at that time to devise was to act I
commenced there and then to set to music
Mackay's beautiful poem, ' Wind of the winter
night, whence comest thou ?' A few days later
I had my musical rendering of Mackay's fine
verses all ready, and I took the first opportunity
of playing it over to some friends. They
applauded it, and their praise was emphatic
enough to be sincere. This success decided
me. From that day song composing became
the serious object of my life. " Oh, Woodman,
spare that tree,' ' A Life on the Ocean Wave,'
' The Gambler's Wife/ and ' The Maniac/ were
the songs which leapt quickest into popu
larity."
Though not often sung nowadays, most
people are familiar with " Woodman, Spare that
Tree." How it came to be written is explained
in the following letter from the author of the
lyric, General G. P. Morris, to his friend, the
veteran singer, Henry Russell.
" Riding out of town a few days since in
company with a friend who was once the ex
pectant heir of the largest estate in America,
but over whose worldly prospects a blight had
recently come, he invited me to turn down a
213
STORIES OF
little romantic woodland pass not far from
Bloomingdale. 'Your object? 5 inquired I.
'Merely to look once more at an old tree
planted by my grandfather, near a cottage that
was once my father's.' 'The place is yours,
then/ said I. ' No, my poor mother sold it ;'
and I observed a slight quiver of the lip at the
recollection. ' Dear mother/ resumed my com
panion, ' we passed many happy, happy days in
that old cottage ; but it is nothing to me now
father, mother, sisters, cottage, all are gone !' and
a paleness overspread his countenance, and a
moisture came to his eyes as he spoke. After
a moment's pause, he added, ' Don't think me
foolish. I don't know how it is, but I never
ride out but I turn down this lane to look at the
old tree. I have a thousand recollections about
it, and I always greet it as a familiar and well-
remembered friend. In the bygone summer
time it was a friend indeed. Under its branches
I often listened to the good counsel of my
parents, and had such gambols with my sisters !
Its leaves are all off now, so you won't see it to
advantage, for it is a glorious old fellow in
summer; but I like it just as well in winter.
There it is !'
" Near the tree stood an old man with his
coat off, sharpening an axe. He was the occu-
214
FAMOUS SONGS
pant of the cottage. ' What are you going to
do ?' asked my friend. ' What is that to you ?'
was the reply. ' You are not going to cut that
tree down, surely?' 'Yes, but I am, though/
said the woodman. ' What for ?' inquired my
companion, almost choked with emotion.
' What for ! I like that ! Well, I'll tell you
what for. This tree makes my dwelling un
healthy ; it stands too near the house ; prevents
the moisture from exhaling and renders us
liable to fever and ague!' 'Have you any
other reason for cutting it down ?' ' Yes : I am
getting old; the woods are a great way off, and
this tree is of value to me to burn.' He was
soon convinced that the story about the fever and
the ague was a mere fiction, and then asked what
the tree was worth as firewood. ' Why, when
it is down, about ten dollars.' ' Suppose I should
give you that sum, would you let it stand?'
'Yes.' 'You are sure of that?' 'Positive.'
' Then give me a bond to that effect/ I drew it
up ; it was witnessed by his daughter ; the money
was paid, and we left the place with an assur
ance from the young girl, who looked as smiling
and beautiful as Hebe, that the tree should
stand as long as she lived. We returned to the
road and pursued our ride. The circumstances
made a strong impression on my mind, and
215
STORIES OF
furnished me with materials for the song I sent
you."
I give the above as I took it from an American
paper. The truth is that Henry Russell was
the friend, and Morris himself the man who
had lived in the old cottage and had played
under the tree as a child.
General G. P. Morris, who was the writer of
many other lyrics, died in America in 1865.
Speaking of Henry Russell I am reminded that
he, like most singers who have risen to emi
nence, had his early struggles. That veteran
song writer who composed the music to and
sang the once universally popular song " Cheer,
Boys, Cheer," only received three pounds for
the copyright. He asked the publisher once
how the song sold, and was told that nineteen
presses could not keep pace with the demand.
Afterwards, the publishers sent him ^10 to ease
their consciences. How easy it must be to
relieve some publishers' consciences! I was
told some few years ago of a certain firm of
publishers who secured the music and words of
a song that was sung everywhere at the time,
for which they gave in all 30, but which
brought them in sufficient to buy them an
establishment in the West End (they were in a
very small way of business previously) and set
216
FAMOUS SONGS
them up as leading publishers. The composer
is still writing songs. It seems the fate of
some writers to make everybody's fortune but
their own.
Dr. Charles Mackay, who died on Christmas
Eve, 1889, supplied Henry Russell with a vast
number of lyrics, the majority of which will
never die. " Cheer, Boys, Cheer," " There's a
Good Time Coming," " Baby Mine," and " Eng
land, Dear England," may be mentioned as
some of his happiest efforts. Sir Henry Bishop
set no less than a hundred and twenty songs
from his pen, many of which were written
specially for the " Illustrated London News,"
to which the doctor contributed all kinds of
literary matter. For Dr. Mackay, besides being
a lyric writer, was a literary man of consider
able knowledge and ability, and acted at one
time as sub-editor of the " Morning Chronicle."
Indeed he secured the post when Thackeray
was one of the applicants for the berth. Dr.
Mackay also wrote for the "Daily News"
under Charles Dickens and subsequent editors,
and it was in the columns of that paper that
" There's a Good Time Coming, Boys," was first
printed. It was while Henry Russell was sing
ing this song with its string of wonderful things
to happen in the good time coming, that an
217
STORIES OF
excited listener asked Russell if it would be
convenient for him to fix the date of that " good
time."
Henry Russell thus relates the the origin of
" A Life on the Ocean Wave :" " One bright
spring morning as Epps Sargent strolled on the
Battery, New York, watching the ships in the
harbour, the scene before him gave him an idea
which he proceeded to develop. His walk and
song were completed together, and Sargent
went to the office of our mutual friend, George
P. Morris, and wrote out the words.
" ' This is not a song at all,' said Morris after
reading it ( It will not do for music.'
" A few days after I met Sargent and asked
him for the song. He told me very dolefully
what Morris had said, but I insisted on seeing
the manuscript. We then went into a Broad
way music store kept by a good friend, and were
invited into a back room where there was a
capital piano. I hummed an air or two, ran
my fingers over the keys, then stopped feeling
baffled ; suddenly an idea struck me, I began
to hum a melody that seemed floating through
my brain, and presently touching the keys with
a confident exclamation, that bright little air
rang out which is now so well known as 'A
Life on the Ocean Wave.' " Speaking on
218
FAMOUS SONGS
another subject the veteran author of " Cheer,
Boys, Cheer" says : " One summer afternoon
when I was playing at the Presbyterian church,
Rochester, I made a discovery. It was that
sacred music played quickly makes the best kind
of secular music. It was quite by accident that
playing the ' Old Hundredth' very fast I pro
duced the air of ' Get out o' de way Old Dan
Tucker;' this was the first of a good many
minstrel songs that I composed or rather
adapted from hymn tunes played quickly.
Among them are ' Lucy Long/ ' Ober de
Mountain/ and ' Buffalo Gals.' "
Leaving Henry Russell, we turn to one of
England's great national songs, "The death
of Nelson/' the music of which was composed
by Braham. This was first sung in an opera
called "The Americans/' produced in 1806.
The words of the opera and the lyrics were by
Samuel James Arnold, the son of Dr. Arnold,
composer of the " Maid of the Mill" and over
forty other operas, who died in 1802. S. J.
Arnold's first venture was a stage version of
" Auld Robin Gray" in 1794, when only a little
over twenty years of age. This was followed,
in 1795, by "Who Pays the Reckoning," "The
Shipwreck" in 1796, "The Irish Legacy" in
1797, " The Veteran Tar" in 1801, " Foul Deeds
219
STORIES OF
Will Rise" in 1804, and " The Americans" in
1806, after the death of the great Nelson, which,
as every schoolboy knows, occurred in October,
1805, on board the " Victory." S. J. Arnold,
who also wrote " Speed on my Bark," " The
Parent Oak," and other lyrics, seemed to be
very fond of sea subjects. He also appears to
have been a very clever writer and portrait
painter as well. He furnished surprising speci
mens (of portrait painting) at the Royal Acad
emy; he afterwards undertook a panorama of
the battle of Alexandria, exhibited in i8or.
" He seems, indeed, to possess an universal
genius," says a writer in 1807. He married
Miss Pye, daughter of H. J. Pye the unpoetic
poet laureate.
It would not be difficult to cite a number of
instances of a song that has been sold for " a
mere song," as the phrase is, that has after
wards brought m thousands of pounds. For
example, in 1859 Mr. Stephen C. Foster was in
a piano store-room in Broadway, New York,
where, in the presence of a few gentlemen, he
played his charming song, "Come where my
love lies dreaming." At the conclusion he sold
the song for five dollars or say a guinea. Mr.
J. C. Cussans, who told this story at a city ban
quet in 1892, was present when the song was
220
FAMOUS SONGS
sold. Its subsequent value was enormous. As
an instance of the price obtained for favourite
songs even after they may reasonably be sup
posed to have had their day, I may mention
that the copyright of " Kathleen Mavourneen"
not long ago was sold for 109, and "In the
Gloaming" for 286. But there are some songs
that are always in demand, and especially is this
the case with those old time ballads which cele
brated singers of the day very wisely include in
their repertoire.
The prolific Mrs. Crawford, who wrote so
many popular lyrics in the forties and fifties,
and gave us the words of the never-to-be-for
gotten " Kathleen Mavourneen," and the charm
ing "Ellen Astore; or The Flower of Kil
kenny," was also the authoress of both " Rest,
Troubled Heart," and " The Gipsy Countess,"
once so extraordinarily popular, especially the
duet, " The Gipsy Countess," which all senti
mental young couples used to sing two or three
decades ago. " Rest, Troubled Heart," or, as
it was frequently called, the " Song of Pestal,"
owed its origin to the fact that Colonel Pestal,
at one time an officer in the Russian army, who
was doomed to death for turning traitor to his
country, wrote the beautiful melody to which
the words were subsequently written, on the
221
STORIES OF
wall of his dungeon the night before his execu
tion. This Colonel P. I. Festal was one of the
leading Dekabrists, so called from the historical
episodes of I4th (26th) December, 1825, when
Pestal and a number of confederates conspired
against Nicholas I. An insurrection of the
troops followed in Moscow, but this was soon
suppressed. Pestal, with five others, paid the
last penalty of the law at daybreak on I3th
(2$th) July, 1826, having been sentenced to
death for high treason. One of the five executed
was Ryleyeff, a Russian minor poet of some
ability, whose poems are still extant and in
print. Soon after the accession of Alexander
II., in 1855, the surviving Dekabrists, who
had been cast in prison, where pardoned and
liberated.
Mrs. Crawford prefaces the song with a short
piece of ordinary verse. The lyric itself I give.
It must be confessed that it does not possess that
literary merit which usually marks Mrs. Craw
ford's performances, but we must not forget that
she lived in an age of much artificiality :
" Rest thou troubled heart ! within this captive bosom
swelling,
Rest thou troubled heart ! no more of love or glory
telling :
222
FAMOUS SONGS
Now no more by wrongs or tyrant power oppressed.
From a thousand -woes, Ah ! sweet repose,
Soon will seal these eyes in everlasting rest.
Soon the martyr's grave will close.
" Death approaches near ! the herald of eternal glory,
Friends and comrades dear ! Ye long shall mourn my hap
less story.
Oh ! 'tis hard to part from all life's loving ties
Hark, the midnight bell 1 'tis the soldier's knell :
Soon to-morrow's sun, the last for me, shall rise ;
Glory, home, and friends, farewell." . . .
At the end of each verse the first two lines
are repeated with the plaintive music, which
was arranged by E. Flood.
By the way, the melody of " Festal" was, in
a measure, no doubt unconsciously, revived re
cently in that ridiculous rubbish called " Ta-ra-
ra boom-de-ay."
" The Gypsy Countess," with music by the
once celebrated Stephen Glover, was founded
on an incident not without a certain amount of
romance. The kidnapping of children was a
regular profession amongst the gipsies at one
time, and many a parent lived to mourn the loss
of a favourite child stolen away by these nomads
and alien wanderers. The story upon which the
" Gipsy Countess" was founded and utilized in
Mrs. Crawford's lyric is as follows : A tradition
223
STORIES OF
was current in the north of England that a young
earl of one of the Border counties, in the course
of his rambles, met with a beautiful gipsy girl
whose charms made a deep and lasting im
pression on his heart. Upon entering into con
versation with her, he found to his surprise that
the artless grace of her manners, and the intelli
gence and purity of her mind, were quite equal
to the beauty of her face and person ; and, in
spite of the great disparity of rank, he soon
became deeply enamoured of her. It may be
supposed that the struggle between affection
and p'ride was long and severe before the earl
could make up his mind to ally himself to the
humble object of his disinterested regard; but
love finally triumphed. To increase, however,
the romance of the story, it is added that the
gipsy girl had been stolen in her infancy by one
of the roving band with which she thus became
associated, and that she was afterwards dis
covered to be the daughter of a wealthy baronet.
The pride of her lover was thus spared the
intended sacrifice in raising the beautiful gipsy
to the rank of a countess.
Another, one time very popular, composition
which was sung by all the prominent singers of
the musical world, is " The Beating of my own
Heart," written by the late Lord Houghton
224
FAMOUS SONGS
when he was merely Mr. R. Monckton Milnes.
At the time of writing this lyric, Monckton
Milnes, who had a well-deserved reputation
as a maker of light, tuneful verse, was the guest
of some friends in the country, and while a party
of them went out riding and driving, the clever
young poet elected to wander about by himself
in the beautiful solitude of a summer day. The
silence was intense, and only broken, as he said,
by the beating of his own heart and the gentle
murmur of a running stream near which he
strayed. The phrase " the beating of my own
heart" kept singing in his ear, and there and
then he wrote the simple song which was
destined, by the aid of Sir (then Professor)
.George A. Macfarren's melody, to become so
famous. On his return to the house he told his
hostess what he had written, and at her request
he read his poem to the assembled guests at the
dinner table. Strange to say, nobody thought
anything of the piece, and they mostly criticised
it rather severely. However, Monckton Milnes
had faith in his own effort, and though his friends
declared that the lines " The beating of my own
heart was all the sound I heard" were nonsense,
as no man could hear his own heart beat (which,
of course, he can, under certain conditions), he
was able to prove his own contention right, for
15 225
STORIES OF
some months afterwards it was the favourite
song of the day. It was one of the greatest
triumphs of the celebrated Clara Novello, who
became the Countess Gigliucci in 1843, an ^ re ~
tired from the stage in 1 860. She died in the
seventy-ninth year of her age, in the summer
of 1896.
226
FAMOUS SONGS
CHAPTER XIV
ABOUT SOME MORE FAVOURITE SONGS
"THE POSTMAN'S KNOCK," ''ROUSSEAU'S DREAM,"
"THE OLD HUNDREDTH," "THE SAVOY," "THERE
IS A HAPPY LAND/' " LITTLE DROPS OF WATER,"
" THE VICAR OF BRAY," " LILLIBURLERO," " YE
MARINERS OF ENGLAND," "YE GENTLEMEN OF
ENGLAND," " EXCELSIOR," " THE OLD CLOCK ON
THE STAIRS," AND "THE VILLAGE BLACK
SMITH"
A SIMPLE, homely song that is rarely heard
now-a-days, for its novelty has long worn off,
is " The Postman's Knock," written by L. M.
Thornton, and composed by W. T. Wrighton,
of drawing-room ballad composing and singing
celebrity. "The Postman's Knock," when it
was first published, about forty years ago, spread
into favour at once, and was sung all over Eng
land, because it appeared at a period when the
" New Penny Post" of Rowland Hill had had
time to become understanded of the people and
to be utilized by them. And because it appealed
227
STORIES OF
to the sympathies of the majority, it remained
quite a favourite in some parts of the country
for more than twenty years. The words were
written by a humble individual of small literary
ability, who died in the Bath Workhouse, May
8th, 1888, after a hard fight against poverty.
It must be confessed at once there is no art
whatever in the irregular stanzas of the song,
but there is plenty of human nature of a kind :
" What a wonderful man the postman is,
As he hastens from door to door !
What a medley of news his hands contain,
For high, low, rich, and poor !
In many a face he joy doth trace,
In as many he gnefs can see,
As the door is ope' d to his loud rat-tat,
And his quack delivery.
Every mom, as true as the clock,
Somebody hears the postman's knock.
" Number One he presents with the news of birth,
With tidings of death, Number Four,
At Thirteen a bill of a terrible length
He drops through the hole in the door.
A cheque or an order at Fifteen he leaves,
And Sixteen his presence doth prove,
While Seventeen does an acknowledgment get,
And Eighteen a letter of love."
Properly speaking, the love-letter should have
been left at Seventeen, but perhaps Mr._Thornton
228
FAMOUS SONGS
was above punning. It should be remembered
that a letter in those days was quite an event,
for before the introduction of Sir Rowland Hill's
"Penny Post/' letters were very expensive
luxuries indeed. For one to receive a letter, in
country parts, was to be converted into a kind
of hero for the time being, and to be worshipped
accordingly. Letters from oversea were almost
unknown except amongst the well to do, and
friends and relations who lived at a distance
rarely heard of each other from one year's end
to another. Now for the last verse :
" May his visits be frequent to those who expect
A line from the friends they hold dear ;
But rarely, we hope, compelled he will be
Disastrous tidings to bear.
Far, far be the day when the envelope shows
The dark border shading it o' er ;
Then long life to Her Majesty's servant, we say,
And oft may he knock at the door 1"
Let us not be too captious over the poverty
of idea here exposed, nor criticise too harshly
the falseness of the metre and the weakness of
the rhyme. L. M. Thornton knew his audience,
and wrote level to them, and being of a homely
nature himself, he knew exactly the chords he
could play upon with the best results. Thornton
wrote many other lyrics that were more or less
229
STORIES OF
popular as, for instance, " Pleasure," " Smiles
and Tears," " Sing on, Sweet Bird," " Look Up,"
and the sacred songs, "As One by One our
Friends Depart," and "Rest for the Weary,"
the music being composed by W. T. Wrighton.
" The Postman's Knock" was so widely known
and sung, that John Baldwin Buckstone had a
piece written on the subject for the Haymarket
Theatre. On April loth, 1856, he produced a
musical farce, concocted by L. M. Thornton,
of which the " Illustrated London News," of
April 1 9th of the same year, says: "A new
farce, called ' The Postman's Knock,' somewhat
rudely constructed, for the apparent purpose of
introducing the song so named, has been pro
duced at this (Haymarket) Theatre. The song
itself is well sung by Mr. Farren ; and the piece
aided by his talent, and that of Miss Lavine and
Miss Schott, who also sing a ballad or two each,
has been favourably received." The programme
for the week at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket,
is worth giving : " Monday, April 7, and during
the week, the new and successful comedy, ' The
Evil Genius ,' after which the renowned Spanish
Dancer, Perea Nena, who, with Manuel Perez
and a New Company, will appear in the New
Ballet-Pantomime of ' El Gambusino ; or, The
Mexican Gold-Digger,' after which, on Monday,
230
FAMOUS SONGS
Tuesday, and Wednesday, for the Last Three
Nights, ' Lend Me Five Shillings' (Buckstone
as Golightly) ; on Thursday a New Farce called
' The Postman's Knock.' " But the piece was
first tried at the Surrey Theatre on the 7th of
the same month with Phelps and Vollaire in
the cast.
Lewis Maunsell Thornton was born at Ox
ford, 1822. He was a simple versifier all his
life, and in later times lived largely on the
reputation of his one song. He used to tramp
about the country selling a volume of his own
lyrics, and by this means and by occasionally
getting a guinea or so for a ballad, he managed
to exist. His book was called "The Poetic
Gift of Friendship." His last successful song
was " Sing, Birdie, Sing." Thornton died in
the infirmary of the Bath Union, whence he had
been conveyed from the hospital after a painful
operation. He had few friends, but certainly a
good one in Mr Jones-Hunt (generally known
as the Bath poet), who did much to assist
Thornton in many ways. It is interesting to
add that the author of " The Postman's Knock"
was carried to the grave by four postmen in
uniform, while four others acted as pall-bearers,
out of pure sympathy and kindness of heart. Mr.
Jones-Hunt generously attended to the funeral
231
STORIES OF
expenses. Thornton's remains lie in the quiet
God's Acre of Walcot Wesleyan Chapel, Bath.
The' song known as "Rousseau's Dream" is
extracted, as far as the air goes, from Jean
Jacques Rousseau's opera, " Le Devin du
Village," which was produced in 1752. In the
original it is a pantomime tune, without words,
and the name of " Rousseau's Dream" was first
given to it in print by J. B. Cramer. The
English words, " Now, while eve's soft shadows
blending" were written to the melody by
William Ball. Some organists of the Church
of England (acting upon the old Puritan prin
ciple of "not letting the devil have all the
pretty tunes") occasionally employ it as a psalm
or hymn tune. In this connection of thought a
quotation from Chappell's " Popular Music of
the Olden Time" will come in apropos. " Some
writers have asserted that the popular tunes of
different countries sprang from the church ; but
this is mere assertion, without one atom of
proof. The better feelings of man have ever
revolted at such appropriations. To sing them
would have been thought the extreme of ribaldry.
On the contrary, in all countries, the case has
been reversed. In the Vatican Library at
Rome there are now eighty volumes of masses
constructed upon popular tunes by composers of
232
FAMOUS SONGS
various nations. Our Scottish, brethren have
their 'Compendious Book of Godly and Spiritual
Songs, turned out of Profane Ballads,' and
curiously enough, these are chiefly parodies
upon English songs, such as ' John, come kiss
me now/ and sung to English tunes. The
custom of singing ' psalms to hornpipes' has not
died away even yet, for we may still point to
instances whichever way we turn, and whether
at home or abroad." Mr. Chappell was not
quite right in his assertions. A goodly number
of hymn tunes have been converted to the uses
of secular words and entertainments. The
Salvation Army almost invariably sing their
hymns to good old English secular melodies.
In the Protestant church the "Old Hun
dredth" possesses more than a historical interest.
Originally it was composed to the I34th Psalm
in the Geneva Psalter, and afterwards used by
English Protestants to the icoth about 1562.
o
The name of the composer has never been
satisfactorily decided. It has, on the word of
Handel, been ascribed to Luther and then to
Claude Gondimel, "a fine composer, assas
sinated at Lyons during the massacres of
St. Bartholomew ;" but now it seems to have
been ascertained with tolerable certainty that
Guillaume le Franc, a musician of Rouen, either
233
STORIES OF
composed the melody or compiled it from the
Roman chants. I fancy, however, that before
Le Franc's time the melody was sung to some
very amorous words ; and it is notorious that
the queen of Henry II. used to divert her royal
consort by singing her favourite psalm, "Rebuke
me not in Thine indignation" to a fashionable
jig ! Though this psalm does not possess the
fervour of "A mighty fortress is our God," it
breathes an air of majestic animation that
accounts for its popularity in the church ser
vice. Haydn heard it in London sung by a
chorus of many thousand voices, and was
greatly affected. Berlioz, after hearing it per
formed at St. Paul's Cathedral by some six
thousand charity children, wrote : " It would be
useless to attempt to give any idea of such a
musical effect. It was more powerful, more
beautiful, than all the exultant vocal masses
you ever heard, in the same proportion that St.
Paul's is larger than a village church, and even
a hundred times more than that. I may add
that this choral, of long notes and of noble
character, is sustained by superb harmony,
which the organ inundated, without submerging
it." For some time it was known as the
"Savoy."
It has happened time and again that many an
234
FAMOUS SONGS
old hymn has been saved from utter oblivion by
the fortunate circumstance of inspiring some
modern writer to compose a fresh lyric in place
of the crude and often coarse original words.
But the oddest part about these rescued and
world-wide popular pieces is that in the large
majority of cases the authors have written one
good piece and nothing more. There is, for
instance, that Sunday-school hymn, " There is a
Happy Land." Who has ever heard anything
of the author, Andrew Young? You may
search for his name amongst books of minor
verse in vain, and yet for quite half a century
Mr. Andrew Young has exercised a far wider
influence upon his race than many whom the
world considers its benefactors and greatest
men. According to a newspaper account in
1889 (when Mr. Young was alive and over
eighty years old) the origin of the hymn was
occasioned by Mr. Young's hearing a tune
played in a drawing-room. It is said that the
melody in question was " an old Indian air,
which has blended with the music of the woods
of the primeval forest." It is just possible that
the air had nothing to do with Indians at all.
But what matters ? It haunted the future
author of the children's hymn and possibly, in
sheer desperation, Mr. Young sat down and
235
STORIES OF
clothed the melody with words which resolved
themselves into the lines,
" There is a happy land,
Far, far away,
Where saints in glory stand,
Bright, bright as day 1"
For long the sacred song was only sung in Mr.
Young's family, but the chance visit of a music
publisher soon made it known to all and every
through the medium of the engraver. The
growth and popularity of these simple airs with
their simple words are beyond the ken of mortal
man to discover. We have it on the authority
of Professor Mason that Thackeray was " walk
ing one day in a ' slum' district of London when
he suddenly came upon a band of gutter children
sitting on the pavement. They were singing.
Drawing nearer he heard the words, ' There is a
happy land, Far far away.' As he looked at the
ragged choristers and their squalid surround
ings, and saw that their pale faces were lit up with
a thought that brought both forgetfulness and
hope, the tender-hearted cynic burst into tears."
This is a very pretty story as it stands, but why
always call the author of" Vanity Fair" a cynic ?
A cynic is a man who puts himself outside the
world and then tries to mingle in it. Thackeray
236
FAMOUS SONGS
was a genius, and of course one must call him
something; what right has a man to possess
what you don't ?
Fame seems a very capricious sort of thing
to achieve, and while many strive with the
weightiest works for the benefit of their kind, a
small thing like Mrs. Brewer's
" Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean
And the beautious land."
secures at once to its incubator a popularity and
audience amongst all the world's millions of
English speaking people ! And the best of it
is that it does not boast one spark of originality,
Shakespeare having long ago given us the same
idea in beautiful language, which has been imi
tated by hundreds of poets since. As a child's
song, however, it is not easily matched. The
authoress, Mrs. Brewer, does not appear to have
written anything else.
That "pious" song, "The Vicar of Bray,"
written about 1720, to an older air, called " The
Country Garden" (1690), was occasioned by the
following circumstances. The Vicar of Bray, in
Berkshire, was a papist under the reign of
Henry VIII., and a protestant under Edward
237
STORIES OF
VI. ; he was a papist again under Mary, and
once more became a protestant in the reign of
Elizabeth, When this scandal to the cloth was
reproached for his versatility of religious creeds,
and taxed for being a turncoat (he had seen
some martyrs burned at Windsor and doubtless
found the fire too hot for his tender temper) and
an inconstant changeling, as worthy old Fuller
expresses it, he replied, " Not so, neither ; for
if I changed my religion, I am sure I kept true
to my principle : which is, to live and die the
Vicar of Bray !" This vivacious and reverend
hero gave birth to a sort of proverb peculiar to
the county of Berkshire, " The Vicar of Bray
will be Vicar of Bray still." But how has it
happened, demands D'Israeli in his " Curiosi
ties of Literature," that this vicar should be so
notorious, and one in much higher rank, acting
the same part, should have escaped notice ?
Dr. Kitchen, Bishop of LandafT, an idle abbot
under Henry VIIL, was made a busy bishop ;
protestant under Edward, he returned to his old
master under Mary ; and at last took the oath
of supremacy under Elizabeth, and finished as
a parliament protestant. A pun spread the
odium of his name ; for they said that he had
always loved the Kitchen better than the Church^
The song was doubtless a general satire on the
238
FAMOUS SONGS
numerous church renegades, and especially of
one who lived in the reigns of Charles II.,
James II., William III., and George I. The
words were by an officer in Colonel Fuller's
regiment. The original vicar is believed to
have been Simon Aleyn; though Ray gives
the honour to an " independent" named Simon
Symonds.
Of that absure song, " Lilliburlero," Dr. Percy
says, in his " Reliques of Ancient Poetry :" " The
following rhymes, slight and insignificant as they
may now seem, had once a most powerful effect
and contributed not a little towards the great
revolution in 1688." " Burnet says," he con
tinues, " a foolish ballad was made at that time
treating the papists, and chiefly the Irish, in a
very ridiculous manner, which had a burden
said to be Irish words, ' Lero, lero, lilliburlero'
that made an impression on the (King's) army
that cannot be imagined by those that saw it not.
The whole army, and at last the people, both in
city and country, were singing it perpetually.
And perhaps never had so slight a thing so
great an effect."
It was written, or at least published, on the
Earl of Tyrconnel's going a second time to
Ireland, in October, 1688. The ridiculous bur
den is said to date from 1641. The words are
239
STORIES OF
simply trash, but it was Lord Wharton's boast
that he drove James II. from the throne with
a few verses and a tune. Though the words
were by Lord Wharton, the melody was com
posed by Henry Purcell, and it was almost
entirely owing to the catching refrain that the
song was sung at all. This quaint march and
quick step was originally printed in " The De
lightful Conpanion: or, Choice New Lessons
for the Recorder or Flute," 1686, a very rare and
scarce work indeed. " Perhaps," says Percy, " it
is unnecessary to mention that General Richard
Talbot, newly created Earl of Tyrconnel, had
been nominated by King James II. to the lieu
tenancy of Ireland, in 1686, on account of his
being a furious papist, who had recommended
himself to his master by his arbitrary treatment
of the protestants in the preceding year, when
only lieutenant-general, and whose subsequent
conduct fully justified his expectations and their
fears."
I give the first verse as a curiosity, notwith
standing its lack of merit.
" Ho, broder Teague, dost hear de decree?
Lilli burlero bullen a la '
Dat we shall have a new deputie,
Lilli burlero bullen a la !
Lero ' lero ! lilli burlero, lero lero, bullen a la,
Lero ! lero ! lilli burlero, lero lero, bullen a la !"
240
FAMOUS SONGS
The wild Lilliburlero chorus comes in at the
end of each verse as indicated in the first. It
would be curious to know what language Lord
Wharton thought he was imitating when he
wrote this gibberish. It achieved its aim,
anyhow, says a chronicler of the period. " A
late Viceroy, who has so often boasted himself
upon his talent for mischief, invention and lying,
and for making a certain Lilliburlero song ; with
which, if you will believe himself, he sung a de
luded prince out of three kingdoms." Through
the storm of this doggerel as an expression of
popular dislike and distrust fell the Stuart dy
nasty notwithstanding their strenuous efforts to
suppress printer's ink and frantic wit. But poli
tically speaking, a mere song has proved the
ruin of empires and the slaughter of opposing
millions time and again. And it can only be
accounted for by the fact that the populace and
the army will feed on anything that tickles their
humour and fires their imagination.
Thenceforward " Lilliburlero" became a party
tune in Ireland, " especially after * Dublin's de
liverance ; or the Surrender of Drogheda/ and
' Undaunted Londonderry,' " appropriate words
being written to the jingle and sung throughout
the land. It has now fallen into disuse. Shad-
well and Vanbrugh and other dramatists fre-
16 241
STORIES OF
quently refer to the tune in their plays ; Sterne
also mentions it in "Tristam Shandy." Purcel
makes use of it again in his " Gordian Knot
Unty'd," but it only lives now in the old nur
sery rhyme :
" There was an old woman toss'd up in a blanket
Ninety-nine times as high as the moon."
and in the convivial chorus :
" A very good song, and very well sung,
Jolly companions every one."
which seems to be the inevitable fate of many
martial strains !
Though Lord Wharton is generally believed
to have written " Lilliburlero" this is not certain,
it never having been conclusively proved. Dr.
Charles Mackay identified the refrain as part of
a solar hymn, astronomical and druidical, reading
it thus: "Li! li! Beur! lear-a! Buillenala!"
i.e., " Light ! light on the sea beyond the pro
montory! Tis the stroke (or dawn) of the
morning." The author of the "Irish Hudi-
bras" is said to have had something to do with
the composition of the words.
But let us turn our attention to other wares.
Thomas Campbell's " Ye Mariners of England,"
which I briefly referred to in a previous chapter,
242
FAMOUS SONGS
was partly inspired by the melody of Martyn
Parker's "Ye Gentlemen of England" (date
about 1630). Mrs. Ireland, who saw much of
Campbell at this time (1799) says, that it
was in the musical evenings at her mother's
house, that he appeared to derive the greatest
enjoyment. At these soirees his favourite song-
was "Ye Gentlemen of England," with the
music of which he was particularly struck, and
determined to write new words to it. Hence
this noble and stirring lyric, " Ye Mariners of
England," part of which, if not all, he is believed
to have composed after one of these family
parties. It was not, however, until after he
had retired to Ratisbon, and. felt his patriotism
kindled by the announcement of war with Den
mark, that he finished the original sketch and
sent it home to Mr. Perry of the " Morning
Chronicle" (see Dr. Beattie's " Life of Thomas
Campbell").
So much esoteric fun has been made out of
Longfellow's allegorical lyric " Excelsior," that I
think a word or two on its upspringing may be
appropriate. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes terms
it " a trumpet call to the energies of youth."
Longfellow, it appears, one day came across
part of the heading of a New York newspaper,
bearing the seal of the State of New York, a
243
STORIES OF
shield with a rising sun and the motto in heraldic
Latin, "Excelsior." His imagination was at
once fired with the picture of the youth climbing
up the Alps, and bearing in his hand the magic
banner " with the strange device" of Upward
Hope. This the poet decided upon as the
symbol of youth ever anxious to press forward
to attain higher and nobler things, and though
he succeed not in this world, he is rewarded for
the attempt in the next.
The Latin title was the subject of criticism
both before and after publication, many thinking
that it should be Excelsius, or Ad Excelsiors.
Longfellow explained that he took the word
from " Scopus meus excelsior est," " my goal is
higher."
Unfortunately when the poem appeared it was
execrably illustrated and brought down much
ridicule upon the poet and set the parodists to
work. For it is easier to parody an allegory
with some folk than to understand it. One
of the most successful musical settings of
"Excelsior" was by Stephen Glover (1812-
1870).
The following letters fully explain Long
fellow's own meaning in regard to the poem.
The first was written long ago to the Hon. C.
K. Tuckerman, the second is dated 1874.
244
FAMOUS SONGS
" MY DEAR SIR, I have had the pleasure of
receiving your note in regard to the poem ' Ex
celsior/ and very willingly give you my inten
tion in writing it. This was no more than to
display, in a series of pictures, the life of a man
of genius, resisting all temptations, laying aside
all fears, heedless of all warnings, and pressing
right on to accomplish his purpose. His motto
is, Excelsior ' Higher.' He passes through
the Alpine village through the rough, cold
paths of the world where the peasants cannot
understand him, and where his watchword is
an ' unknown tongue.' He disregards the hap
piness of domestic peace, and sees the glaciers
his fate before him. He disregards the
warnings of the old man's wisdom and the
fascinations of woman's love. He answers to
all, ' Higher yet 1' The monks of St. Bernard are
the representatives of religious forms and cere
monies, and with their oft-repeated prayer min
gles the sound of his voice, telling them there
is something higher than forms and ceremonies.
Filled with these aspirations, he perishes ; and
the voice heard in the air is the promise of
immortality and progress ever upward. You
will perceive that 'Excelsior,' an^j^ljective of
the comparative degree, is used adverbially ; a
use justified by the best Latin writers."
245
STORIES OF
His next epistle explains the use of the word
" Excelsior," which critics said ought to have
been " Excelsius." It was addressed to Signor
Cesati,
" CAMBRIDGE, Feb. 5, 1874.
" MY DEAR Sm, I have had the pleasure of
receiving your card with your friendly criticism
on the word ' Excelsior.' In reply I would say,
by way of explanation, that the device on the
banner is not to be interpreted ' Ascende Su-
perius,' but ' Scopus meus excelsior est'
" This will make evident why I say ' Excel
sior/ and not ' Excelsius.' With great regard,
yours truly,
" HENRY LONGFELLOW."
" The original time-piece immortalized in the
" Old Clock on the Stairs," stood in the hall of
an old-fashioned country seat surrounded by
poplars, and belonging to some of Mrs. Long
fellow's relatives. The following entry appears
in the poet's journal, in November, 1845 :
" Began a poem on a clock, with the words,
' For ever, never/ as the burden, suggested by
the words of Bridaine, the old French mis
sionary, who said of eternity : ' Cest une pen-
dule dont le balancier dit et redit sans cesse ces
deux mots seulement dans le silence des tom-
246
FAMOUS SONGS
beaux Toujours, jamais! Jamais, toujours!
Et pendant ces effroyables revolutions, un re-
prouve s'ecrie, Quelle heure est-il ? et la voix
d'un autre miserable lui repond, "L'Eter-
nite!'""
^, The " Village Blacksmith" was written when
he was at Cambridge, where the particular black
smith's smithy and spreading chestnut tree stood.
1 879 the children of Cambridge presented the
et with an easy chair made out of the wood of
-1 is tree. Longfellow's great-grandfather, by
ihj way, was a blacksmith, and opposite the
house at Gorham stood a blacksmith's shop
where the horses were shod, and where the
future poet as a child often played. In writing
to his father about the lyric, he alludes to it " as
a kind of ballad on a blacksmith which you
may consider, if you please, as a song in praise
of your ancestor at Newbury." The song was
set to music by W. H. Weiss the great singer,
find made an instantaneous success. W. H.
Weiss, who held a high position in the English
operatic world, was born 1820, and died 1867.
A musical play by E. C. D unbar, called " The
Merry Blacksmith," founded on the song, was
produced at the Vaudeville Theatre, September
23rd, 1893.
247
