Great Britain -- History, Naval -- Poetry; Sea songs -- Great Britain
P. 177. =English Courage Displayed.= From the Madden collection
(_Slipsongs_, i. 252, No. 531). For the tune, see Chappell’s _Old
English Popular Music_, p. 109. Vernon’s popularity is further attested
by two little songbooks--_Vernon’s Glory, containing 15 New Songs
occasioned by the taking of Porto-Bello and Fort Chagre_. London:
printed by W. Webb, 1740, price sixpence. _Vernon’s Glory_, Part II.,
sold by the same publisher, contains not only new songs on the exploits
mentioned, but also others on the admiral’s birthday. As, for instance:
‘Freeborn Britons, fill your glasses,
Give this day to generous mirth;
For the circling bumper passes
To your Vernon’s happy birth.’
P. 179. =Hosier’s Ghost.= The version of _Hosier’s Ghost_ given on
p. 179 is the usual text, viz. that which is reprinted in Percy’s
_Reliques_. It no doubt represents the final version of Glover’s poem.
A version published in 1740, ‘printed for Mr. Webb, near St. Paul’s
(price sixpence),’ states that it was to be sung to the tune of ‘Come
and Listen to my Ditty.’ It supplies some various readings. Stanza 1,
line 1, instead of ‘our,’ ‘my’; stanza 4, line 7, ‘yet to hear of my
undoing’; stanza 5, line 7, instead of ‘tale,’ ‘fate’; stanza 6, lines
5-8,
‘Oh that, with my wrath complying,
I had cast them in the main,
Then, no more unactive lying,
I had lowered the pride of Spain.’
Stanza 7, line 4, instead of ‘hast achieved,’ ‘didst achieve’; stanza
7, line 8, ‘of these gallant men had been,’; stanza 9 runs as follows:
‘Unrepining at thy glory,
Thy successful arms we hail,
But remember our sad story,
When to Britain back you sail!
All your country’s foes subduing,
When your Patriot friends you see,
Think on vengeance for my ruin,
And for England sham’d in me.’
Stanzas 10 and 11 are omitted, and the form of stanza 9 seems to show
that the original version of the ballad did not contain these two.
For the tune, see Chappell, _Old English Popular Music_, ii. 165.
P. 181. =Vernon’s Glory.= _Roxburghe Ballads_, vii. 280. This ballad
was probably written in 1741, about May, before the failure to storm
Fort San Lazar on April 9 had become known. Vernon’s despatch, dated
April 1, had just come to hand, giving an account of his forcing
the passage through the Bocca Chica, and of having the whole fleet
inside the harbour. The capture of Cartagena was a natural, but
incorrect, inference. See Clowes, _The Royal Navy_, iii. 67-75. Another
contemporary ballad anticipates the capture in the same way--_English
Courage Displayed: or Admiral Vernon’s taking of Cartagena_. To the
tune of Glorious Charles of Sweden (Madden collection, _Slipsongs_, i.
252). It is an imitation of the ballad printed on p. 177.
P. 184. =The Saphirah in Triumph.= From the Madden collection
(_Garlands_, iii. 107, No. 699).
P. 186. =Admiral Matthews’ Engagement.= _Roxburghe Ballads_, viii. 289.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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