Charles Dickens and Music Part 12

Monk showed this gentleman the notes, being the actual arrangement he had made from this once popular song, back in the fifties. This certainly coincides with its appearance in Severn's _Islington Collection_, 1854.'--See _Hymn-Tunes and their Story_, p. 354.

[18] The Marshalsea was a debtors' prison formerly situated in Southwark. It was closed about the middle of the last century, and demolished in 1856.

CHAPTER VII

SOME NOTED SINGERS

_The Micawbers_

d.i.c.kens presents us with such an array of characters who reckon singing amongst their various accomplishments that it is difficult to know where to begin. Perhaps the marvellous talents of the Micawber family ent.i.tle them to first place. Mrs. Micawber was famous for her interpretation of 'The Dashing White Sergeant' and 'Little Taffline' when she lived at home with her papa and mamma, and it was her rendering of these songs that gained her a spouse, for, as Mr. Micawber told Copperfield,

when he heard her sing the first one, on the first occasion of his seeing her beneath the parental roof, she had attracted his attention in an extraordinary degree, but that when it came to 'Little Tafflin,' he had resolved to win that woman or perish in the attempt.

It will be remembered that Mr. Bucket (_B.H._) gained a wife by a similar display of vocal talent. After singing 'Believe me, if all those endearing young charms,' he informs his friend Mrs. Bagnet that this ballad was

his most powerful ally in moving the heart of Mrs. Bucket when a maiden, and inducing her to approach the altar. Mr. Bucket's own words are 'to come up to the scratch.'

Mrs. Micawber's 'Little Taffline' was a song in Storace's ballad opera _Three and the Deuce_, words by Prince h.o.a.re. It will be interesting to see what the song which helped to mould Micawber's fate was like.

LITTLE TAFFLINE.

[Figure 5]

Should e'er the fortune be my lot To be made a wealthy bride, I'll glad my parents' lowly cot, All their pleasure and their pride:

And when I'm drest all in my best, I'll trip away like lady gay, I'll trip, I'll trip away.

And the lads will say, Dear heart, what a flash!

Look at little Taffline with a silken sash, And the lads will say, Dear heart, what a flash!

And the lads will say, Dear heart, what a flash!

Look at little Taffline, Look at little Taffline, Oh, look at little Taffline with the silken sash!

There was also a character called Little Taffline in T. Dibdin's _St. David's Day_, the music for which was compiled and composed by Thomas Attwood, organist of St. Paul's Cathedral.

Her other song, 'The Dashing White Sergeant,' was a martial and very popular setting of some words by General Burgoyne.

Micawber could both sing and hum, and when music failed him he fell back on quotations. As he was subject to extremes of depression and elevation it was nothing unusual for him to commence a Sat.u.r.day evening in tears and finish up with singing 'about Jack's delight being his lovely Nan' towards the end of it. Here we gather that one of his favourite songs was C. Dibdin's 'Lovely Nan,' containing these two lines:

But oh, much sweeter than all these Is Jack's delight, his lovely Nan.

His musical powers made him useful at the club-room in the King's Bench, where David discovered him leading the chorus of 'Gee up, Dobbin.' This would be 'Mr. Doggett's Comicall Song'

in the farce _The Stage Coach_, containing the lines--

With a hey gee up, gee up, hay ho; With a hay gee, Dobbin, hey ho!

'Auld Lang Syne' was another of Mr. Micawber's favourites, and when David joined the worthy pair in their lodgings at Canterbury they sang it with much energy. To use Micawber's words--

When we came to 'Here's a hand, my trusty frere' we all joined hands round the table; and when we declared we would 'take a right gude willie waught,' and hadn't the least idea what it meant, we were really affected.

The memory of this joyous evening recurred to Mr. M. at a later date, after the feast in David's rooms, and he calls to mind how they had sung

We twa had run about the braes And pu'd the gowans fine.

He confesses his ignorance as to what gowans are,

but I have no doubt that Copperfield and myself would frequently have taken a pull at them, if it had been feasible.

In the last letter he writes he makes a further quotation from the song. On another occasion, however, under the stress of adverse circ.u.mstances he finds consolation in a verse from 'Scots, wha hae',' while at the end of the long epistle in which he disclosed the infamy of Uriah Heep, he claims to have it said of him, 'as of a gallant and eminent naval Hero,'

that what he has done, he did

For England, home, and beauty.

'The Death of Nelson,' from which this line comes, had a long run of popularity. Braham, the composer, was one of the leading tenors of the day, and thus had the advantage of being able to introduce his own songs to the public. The novelist's dictum that 'composers can very seldom sing their own music or anybody else's either' (_P.P._ 15) may be true in the main, but scarcely applies to Braham, who holds very high rank amongst English tenors. Another song which he wrote with the t.i.tle 'The Victory and Death of Lord Viscount Nelson' met with no success. The one quoted by Micawber was naturally one of Captain Cuttle's favourites, and it is also made use of by Silas Wegg.

The musical gifts of Mr. and Mrs. Micawber descended to their son Wilkins, who had 'a remarkable head voice,' but having failed to get into the cathedral choir at Canterbury, he had to take to singing in public-houses instead of in sacred edifices. His great song appears to have been 'The Woodp.e.c.k.e.r Tapping.' When the family emigrated Mr. M. expressed the hope that 'the melody of my son will be acceptable at the galley fire' on board ship. The final glimpse we get of him is at Port Middlebay, where he delights a large a.s.sembly by his rendering of 'Non n.o.bis' (see p. 149), and by his dancing with the fourth daughter of Mr. Mell.

The 'Woodp.e.c.k.e.r' song is referred to in an ill.u.s.trative way by Mrs. Finching (_L.D._), who says that her papa

is sitting prosily breaking his new-laid egg in the back parlour like the woodp.e.c.k.e.r tapping.

_Captain Cuttle_

Captain Cuttle is almost as full of melody as Micawber, though his repertoire is chiefly confined to naval ditties. His great song is 'Lovely Peg,' and his admiration for Florence Dombey induces him to subst.i.tute her name in the song, though the best he can accomplish is 'Lovely Fleg.'

There are at least three eighteenth-century ballads with Peg, or Lovely Peg, for the subject, and it is not certain which of these the Captain favoured. This is one of them:

Once more I'll tune the vocal sh.e.l.l, To Hills and Dales my pa.s.sion tell, A flame which time can never quell, That burns for lovely Peggy.

Then comes this tuneful refrain:

[Figure 6]

Lovely Peggy, lovely Peggy, Lovely, lovely, lovely Peggy; The heav'ns should sound with echoes rung In praise of lovely Peggy.

The two others of this period that I have seen are called 'Peggy' and 'Lovely Peggy, an imitation.' However, it is most probable that the one that the Captain favoured--in spite of the mixture of names--was C. Dibdin's 'Lovely Polly.'

LOVELY POLLY

[Figure 7]

A seaman's love is void of art, Plain sailing to his port the heart; He knows no jealous folly, He knows no jealous folly.

'Tis hard enough at sea to war With boist'rous elements that jar-- All's peace with lovely Polly, All's peace with lovely Polly, with lovely Polly, lovely Polly, All's peace with lovely Polly.