WALTER HAMILTON,

Fellow of the Royal Geographical and Royal Historical Societies; Author of “A History of National Anthems and Patriotic Songs,” “A Memoir of George Cruikshank” “The Poets Laureate of England,” “The Æsthetic Movement in England,” etc.

“I have here only made a Nosegay of culled Flowers, and have brought little more of my own than the band which ties them.”

VOLUME IV.

CONTAINING PARODIES OF

BALLADS, SONGS, and ODES.

T. HAYNES BAYLY. ALFRED BUNN. THOMAS CAMPBELL.

HENRY CAREY. LEWIS CARROLL. ELIZA COOK.

CHARLES DIBDIN. THOMAS DIBDIN.

W. S. GILBERT. ROBERT HERRICK.

CHARLES MACKAY. HON. MRS. NORTON.

LORD TENNYSON’S JUBILEE ODE.

SWINBURNE’S ODES.

ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTOR. BARRY CORNWALL.

J. H. PAYNE. R. B. SHERIDAN. JAMES THOMSON.

IRISH SONGS. SCOTCH SONGS. WELSH SONGS.

MISCELLANEOUS OLD ENGLISH SONGS AND BALLADS.

REEVES & TURNER, 196, STRAND, LONDON, W.C.

1887.

CONTENTS

VOLUMES I., II., III., and IV. PARODIES.

Each Part may be purchased separately.

AN

INTRODUCTION

TO THE

Parodies of Popular Songs.

cting on the suggestion of numerous friends and subscribers I have determined to devote the Fourth Volume of my Collection to Parodies of Popular Songs and Ballads, which are probably the most amusing and witty of all Parodies.

The Songs of Sheridan, Henry Carey, Dibdin, Thomas Haynes Bayly, Samuel Lover, Eliza Cook, Charles Mackay, Henry Russell, the Hon. Mrs. Norton, Lady Dufferin, Barry Cornwall, and W. S. Gilbert, have been frequently parodied, as well as separate songs, written by the minor poets, such as Rule Britannia; The Roast Beef of Old England; The Bay of Biscay; The British Grenadiers; The Vicar of Bray; The Fine Old English Gentleman; Home, Sweet Home; The Mistletoe Bough; The Ivy Green; In the Gloaming; My Queen; The Message; The Lost Chord; Some Day; Far, far away, etc.

Parodies of many of the best songs written by the earlier poets, such as Sir John Suckling, Sir Charles Sedley, Ben Jonson, Herrick, George Wither, Edmund Waller, and Richard Lovelace, will also be included.

In the previous volumes the songs of Shakespeare, Burns, Campbell, Sir Walter Scott, Byron, Moore, and Alfred Tennyson have already been dealt with in connection with their other poetical works.

Following this Volume of Songs, there will be another containing parodies of the poems of Thomas Gray, William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, William Cowper, Lord Macaulay, Dante G. Rossetti, Robert Browning, A. C. Swinburne, and of some of the minor English and American Poets, Nursery Rhymes, etc.

Another Volume will contain selections from the most amusing Parodies of the principal prose writers, Sterne, Dean Swift, Dr. Johnson, Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, W. M. Thackeray, Lord Macaulay, Thomas Carlyle, Captain Marryat, Benjamin Disraeli, John Ruskin, G. P. R. James, Ouida, and Miss Braddon.

The last Volume will give full details, historical, bibliographical, and anecdotal, of all the principal works in the English language consisting of, or containing, Parodies and Imitations. A list of all the most important Theatrical Burlesques will be included, with Authors’ names, the names of the principal actors and actresses, the date and place of first performance, and much other information useful to the dramatic critic or collector.

It will thus be seen that the scheme of the Work embraces a complete Collection and History of every kind of Parody and Burlesque, British and American, in a form admitting of easy reference, and particularly suitable for Public Entertainments, Readings, and Comic Recitations. The plan of the Collection is such that any one knowing the name of the author of any particular work, either in verse or in prose, or the title of the work itself, will be at once enabled to find all the best parodies or imitations of it, together with an enumeration of such others as are either too long to reprint, or not sufficiently interesting.

A work devoted to the history of English Parody is not so frivolous as it may appear at first sight. Thackeray wrote many parodies, so did Dickens, Sheridan, Fielding, and Dryden, yet, strange to say, no attempt has yet been made to classify and collect them. A few short occasional articles have appeared in the magazines, but these are of little value for purposes of reference.

It will be seen that the object of a Parody is very seldom to ridicule its original, more often, on the contrary, it does it honour, if only by taking it as worthy of imitation, or burlesque. Poets are parodied in proportion to their popularity, as was pointed out in an interesting article which appeared in The Daily News (London), October 16th, 1886, from which I venture to quote the following paragraphs:—

“Why should there be no parodies? The world has come to a pretty pass of virtue if we are to denounce them as a ‘debasing of the moral currency.’ Parody has two values. It is an admirably effective form of criticism; and it is often a harmless and legitimate source of amusement. Parody is valuable as criticism, because it is a placing in a bright light of the faults (exaggerated) of a work of art. Clearly some forms of art defy this mode of treatment. No fun could be got out of a parody of ‘Adam Bede.’ No legitimate fun can be got out of an honest parody of ‘Hamlet.’ Any fun that is got must be lugged in from without, in the shape of comic songs and music, and antics in general. But a great deal of mirth may be got out of a parody of the ‘Corsican Brothers,’ especially when the mannerisms of the actors are well hit off. To ridicule mannerisms by slightly exaggerating them is one of the chief functions of parody. Probably any artist might learn more from a good, and not ill-natured, parody of himself than from any other form of criticism. Parody is

sometimes so amusing that even the victims must laugh, and it is always more or less of a compliment. Nobody parodies an actor, or a novel, or a poem, or a picture that has not artistic qualities and a considerable share of success.”

“As to literary parody, that seldom gives offence. The vast flock of ravens which follow Edgar Poe’s are the bird’s courtiers, not his enemies. No man can parody with any effect, a poem which has not striking and original features. ‘Excelsior’ and the ‘Psalm of Life’ are examples: each of them has scores of parodies. Miss Fanshawe’s parody of Wordsworth is an astonishing example of skill in catching a measure only marked by a strained effort at simplicity. Perhaps this is the very best parody in the English language; better even than any in the ‘Rejected Addresses.’ There, too, the Wordsworth, Scott, and Byron are admirable, and Scott was justly pleased with the success of his imitator. Whether William Wordsworth was pleased is not so certain. But authors are not so touchy as actors, as the ancients knew, or they would not have feigned that Homer was his own parodist in the ‘Battle of the Frogs and Mice.’ Greek parody probably reached its height in Aristophanes, but there is not much fun in jokes that we have to elucidate with a dictionary and German notes.

Poets are parodied in proportion to their popularity; if a 2 bard wishes to know his exact standing in popular repute, let him ask himself ‘Am I parodied, and how much?’ Lord Tennyson is parodied far and wide, but who ever tries to parody Shelley? Mr. Swinburne’s ’Dolores’ is the parent of an innumerable flock of parodies. Yes; she is mother of parodies painful, by many a wandering pen; but she frowns on them, dark and disdainful, the mirth and the mockings of men! They alliterate boldly and blindly, but none to her music attain; and she turns from them, cold and unkindly, Our Lady of Pain. Mr. Browning also has been well beparodied, and a shot or two has been taken at Mr. William Morris; but the other contemporary poets have missed the crown, thorny yet desirable, of Parody.”

The classification of the Parodies of Songs presents some difficulties, but the following arrangement will be adopted as far as possible; Popular sentimental and amatory songs; National and Patriotic (English, Irish, Welsh and Scotch); Naval and Military; Sporting, Convivial, Social and Humorous Songs.

WALTER HAMILTON.

57, Gauden Road, Clapham, London, S.W. December, 1886.

——:o:——

SENT TO HEAVEN.

This poem first appeared in The Cornhill Magazine, November, 1860, in 13 four-lined verses, over the initials A. A. P. (Adelaide Anne Proctor). It is now better known as The Message, and has been frequently parodied.

——:o:——

“OH! DON’T YOU REMEMBER SWEET ALICE?”

[According to England, some of the Radicals were very annoyed that Mr. Gladstone should have written a letter of congratulation to Prince Albert Victor Edward on the attainment of his majority.]

——:o:——

THE LOST CHORD.

The Lost Ball.

(A Parody on The Lost Chord, by Miss Adelaide Anne Proctor. Music by Sir Arthur Sullivan.)

Written by the late Doctor G. F. Grace, the celebrated Cricketer.

IN THE GLOAMING.

THE OLD ARM CHAIR.

From A Town Garland, by Henry S. Leigh. (Chatto & Windus, London, 1878.)

Scene.—The House of Commons. The Ex-Speaker is discovered gazing sadly at the seat he has lately vacated. At length, satisfying himself that he is alone, he relieves his soul in song as follows;—

As the above is being softly sung, the Speaker Elect, attracted by the sound, returns to the House, and remains an unobserved listener till the conclusion of the song, when, remarking Mr. Peel’s presence, the Ex-Speaker thus addresses him:—

The Old Arm-Chair.

[“A German Professor has discovered that all the woodwork about our houses has power to absorb ‘noxious juices’ while still growing in its native forest, and that when a tree becomes part of the domestic furniture, and is cut up into chairs and tables and bookshelves, it immediately begins to pour its ‘noxious juices’ out into the air of the room.”—Daily Paper.]

——:o:——

——:o:——

WOODMAN, SPARE THAT TREE.

As several of the following parodies are rather out of date extracts only are given.

[While Lord Lincoln, son of the Duke of Newcastle, was First Commissioner of Woods and Forests, a proposal was made to cut down some of the old trees in the West-end of London, which were said to be in the way.]

“Spencer, Spare that Tree!”

[“It is beyond all measure the finest tree in London, and being of a kind that defies London smoke, it actually seems to enjoy and thrive upon it. It is sad to think that we have Vandals paid by the public to do such irreparable, wanton mischief.”—Mr. Nasmyth on the cutting down of the old South Kensington plane tree.]

“Childers, Spare that Coin.”

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed to abolish the old half-sovereign and issue a new one, which should be worth only nine shillings in gold.]

——:o:——

THE IVY GREEN.

This song first appeared in Chapter VI. of The Pickwick Papers, which were originally published in monthly parts, commencing in April, 1836. Ten years later Dickens started The Daily News, the first number of which was published in London on January 21, 1846. For many years the paper had but a struggling existence. Although Dickens only edited it for a few months, it was well known that he was interested in its success, so that the author of the following poem, whilst sneering at The Daily News, had a motive in choosing Dickens’s poem as the model for his parody.

——:o:——

LITTLE NELL.

This Song was founded upon the pathetic story in Dickens’s Old Curiosity Shop, the first line is:—

They told him gently she was dead.

And the refrain is—

“She’ll come again to-morrow.”

Contrast this refined jeu d’esprit with the following specimen of the kind of literature that is sold by street ballad singers. It was printed at Taylor’s Song Mart, Brick Lane, Bethnal Green, and sold for one half-penny:—

——:o:——

WINGS.

——:o:——

IT CAME WITH THE MERRY MAY, LOVE.

——:o:——

“MY MOTHER BIDS ME BIND MY HAIR.”

The Girl (Not) of the period.

(After the jolly Haydn.)

[Little Secrets.—Mouches pour bal. Eaux Noirs, Brun, et Chatain, Dyes the Hair any shade in one minute. Kohhl, for the Eyelids. Blanc de Perle, pâte et liquide. Rouge de Lubin, does not wash off. Eau de Violette, pour la bouche. Powder Bloom, pour blonde et brunette. Persian Antimony and Egyptian Henna. Bleu pour les veines. Rouge of Eight Shades. Sympathetic Blush, poudre pour polir les Ongles. Pistachio Nut Toilet Powder. Florimel of Palm. Opoponax Oil. All these, and many other little Secrets.—See Advertisement.]

The “Lancet” Bids Me Be a Peer.

[The Lancet urges, on medical grounds, that Mr. Gladstone should accept a peerage, and thus avoid the continued fatigue which leadership of the Commons necessarily involves.]

——:o:——

LOVE NOT.

——:o:——

SOME DAY.

——:o:——

——:o:——

Love and Science.

[The Sphygmophon is an apparatus connected with the telephone, by the help of which the movements of the pulse and heart may be rendered audible.]

“My Queen,” which appeared originally in London Society some time before the above imitation, consisted of four verses, but as arranged by Blumenthal the second verse is omitted:—

——:o:——

THE LAMENT OF THE IRISH EMIGRANT.

Our Miscellany, edited by E. H. Yates, and R, B. Brough, (London, Routledge & Co., 1856).

This amusing Parody had already been published in Albert Smith’s The Man in the Moon.

From Health and Pleasure, or Malvern Punch, by J. B, Oddfish. London: Simpkin Marshall & Co., 1865. The same amusing little work contains parodies of the following songs:—“Still so Gently;” “Kiss me quick, and go my Honey;” “The Storm” (Cease Rude Boreas); and a long one on “We’re a ’Noddin,” entitled “We’re all Pressing.” These Songs are explanatory of the treatment adopted at the various Hydropathic Establishments in Malvern.

THE LOW-BACKED CAR.

——:o:——

THE OLD BRIGADE.

This stirring song, set to a martial air by Odoardo Barri, was dedicated to the Royal Artillery Brigade, it is also a favourite march of the celebrated old corps, the London Rifle Brigade, whose band generally plays it on parade after the Regimental march “Ninety-five,” of which a parody is given on page 20.

——:o:——

Mrs. Kendal (of the St. James’s Theatre, London) read a paper on the modern stage at the Social Science Congress, held in Birmingham, in September, 1884. Some of the opinions she expressed gave great offence in theatrical circles.

——:o:——

FAR AWAY.

The Farnborough Sow.

During the Anti-Tithe Agitation in Kent, in 1885, the following Parody was sung by the Farmers, one verse only is omitted, on account of its coarseness. In other respects the song is an exact copy of one obtained at an Anti-Tithe Meeting in Farnborough, April, 1885:—

There was another parody of Far Away which was very popular in the Music Halls a short time ago. Several of the verses were coarse and slangy, the following were the best:—

——:o:——

SALLY IN OUR ALLEY.

A parody of this famous song, entitled The Rhino, appeared in The Spirit of the Public Journals, 1824. It was devoted to insulting Queen Caroline (the unfortunate wife of George IV). and her advisers, Lord Brougham and Alderman Wood, and is quite obsolete now.

In “The Bentley Ballads” (London. Richard Bentley) is a complete Latin version of Sally in our Alley, entitled In Saram. It will be found on page 406 of the 1862 edition, and is signed G. K. Gillespie, A.M.

Sally in our Alley.

[As corrected by the Rev. Howling Blazes, of Clapham, to meet the views of the Directors of Exeter Hall, who refused to allow the song to be sung with the “objectionable” verse describing the singer’s enjoyment of Sunday.]

——:o:——

ALICE GRAY.

Lord Grey.

“The poor Duke of Wellington has not yet got over his attempt to supplant Lord Grey’s ministry. The remembrance of his discomfiture still haunts him by day and night, and in the evenings, just before sun-set, he may be heard by the stranger passing underneath the windows of Apsley, to sing in pathetic tones, the following plaintive melody:—

——:o:——

I CANNOT SING THE OLD SONGS,

“I Cannot Sing the Old Songs.”

“Of course not; they’re hackneyed and out of fashion, and nobody knows what half of them mean. We will change them into new songs, adapted to the taste of the day.

——:o:——

OH! THE MISTLETOE BOUGH.

——:o:——

HOME, SWEET HOME.

By J. Howard Payne, in the opera of “Clari, the Maid of Milan.”

In the winter of 1833. John Howard Payne called upon an American lady, living in London, and presented to her a copy of “Home, Sweet Home,” set to music, with the two following additional verses addressed to her:—

Whilst the words are thus clearly of American origin, the melody was introduced by Sir Henry Bishop as a national Sicilian air, in his National Melodies. Sir Henry afterwards adapted it to the words “Home, Sweet Home,” in Howard Payne’s opera of Clari, 1823, from which time its popularity dates. It has subsequently been called a National Swiss air; but Sir Henry Bishop seems to have the right to it. Donizetti introduced it, with some alterations, in his Anna Bolena, not as his own, but as a representative English melody.

On the Duke of Wellington.

“The melody of Home, sweet home, must be impressed on the memory of all. The only sphere in which poor Wellington can feel himself at home is in ‘place, sweet place,’ and having once tasted of its pleasures it continues to haunt his memory. To him the splendour of palaces and the favour of his sovereign offer no longer a charm, ‘It is all very well,’ he sometimes frantically exclaims, but:—

The Unfinished Houses of Parliament.

When Lord Brougham said there was no more dependence to be placed on Barry’s promises than on a broken reed, he was not perhaps aware that it was really Reid, and not Barry, that acted as a barrier to the completion of the Houses of Parliament. Since it has been discovered that Reid is the culprit, the following melody has been expressly written for Lord Brougham, who has sung it twice at the Beef Steak Club, with considerable gusto.

In 1885 Truth had two competitions on the song “Home, Sweet Home,” the first (April 23, 1885), was for parodies, when twenty-five were printed; the second (June 4, 1885) was for original third verses, and twenty-eight replies were printed.

Selections from both these numbers are given below.

——:o:——

——there wasn’t a dry eye in the Tabernacle; but if the programme hadn’t said, in clear, unmistakable print, that she was going to sing “Home, Sweet Home,” a man might have thought his teeth loose without ever guessing it.”

American Paper.

——:o:——

DRINK TO ME ONLY WITH THINE EYES.

To Lydia’s Glass Eye.

“From particulars supplied to the reporter of a Chicago paper by a dealer in glass eyes in that city, it appears that there are as many as a thousand wearers of these eyes in Chicago…. Twenty years ago there were sold many more dark eyes than light … about twenty light eyes are now sold to one dark.”—Times.

Drinking Songs for the Men of the Period.

“What can you expect from a nation that lives chiefly upon tonics.”—Vide Saturday Review. 1866.

From A Town Garland. By Henry S. Leigh. (Chatto and Windus. London, 1878.)

——:o:——

PHILLIS IS MY ONLY JOY.

——:o:——

PARODIES OF ALFRED BUNN’S OPERATIC SONGS.

——:o:——

From George Cruikshank’s Table Book. Edited by Gilbert Abbot à Beckett.

Lord Brougham’s Dream.

“The foul, the false charge, that I have changed a single opinion.”—Vicar of Bray.

Dreams of Mabille Balls.

(The famous Moulin Rouge Restaurant and Mabille disappear together from the Champs Elysées this month.)

Marbled Beef.

(Ballad for the Modern Butcher, with acknowledgments to the Shade of Bunn.)

——:o:——

BEAUTIFUL STAR.

(Old Play-goers still remember, with a sigh, that in the palmy days of Buckstone’s management, the Haymarket Pit was the most comfortable in London.)