Charles Dickens and Music eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 152 pages of information about Charles Dickens and Music.

Charles Dickens and Music eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 152 pages of information about Charles Dickens and Music.

This duet was founded upon the question little Paul Dombey asks his sister: 

    I want to know what it says—­the sea, Floy, what is
    it that it keeps on saying?

WHEN HE WHO ADORES THEE (O.C.S. 35)

Words by Moore.

In Irish Melodies to the air ‘The Fox’s Sleep.’

WHEN I WENT TO LUNNON TOWN, SIRS (G.E. 15)

Probably original.  The nearest I have found to it is—­

    THE ASTONISHED COUNTRYMAN, OR,
    A BUSTLING PICTURE OF LONDON.

    When first I came to London Town,
      How great was my surprise,
    Thought I, the world’s turned upside down,
      Such wonders met my eyes.

And in The Universal Songster—­

    When I arrived in London Town,
    I got my lesson pat, &c.

WHEN IN DEATH I SHALL CALM RECLINE

Moore’s Irish Melodies.

In 1833 Dickens wrote a travesty called O’ Thello, in which is a humorous solo of eight lines, to be sung to the air to which the above is set.

WHEN LOVELY WOMAN STOOPS TO FOLLY (O.C.S. 56)

‘Do my pretty Olivia,’ cried she, ’let us have that little melancholy air your papa was so fond of; your sister Sophy has already obliged us.  Do, child, it will please your old father.’  She complied in a manner so exquisitely pathetic, as moved me.

      When lovely woman stoops to folly,
        And finds, too late, that men betray,
      What charm can soothe her melancholy? 
        What art can wash her guilt away?

       (Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield, ch. xxiv.)

WHEN THE HEART OF A MAN (D.C. 24, O.M.F. iii. 14)

Words by Gay (Beggar’s Opera).  Set to a seventeenth-century air.

    If the heart of a man is depressed with care,
    The mist is dispelled when a woman appears,
    Like the notes of a fiddle she sweetly, sweetly
    Raises our spirits and charms our ears.

WHEN THE STORMY WINDS (D.C. 21, D. & S. 23)

Words by Campbell, who may have taken them from an earlier source.  See ‘You Gentlemen of England.’

WHITE SAND (L.D. i. 32)

An old glee.  See p. 106.

WHO PASSES BY THIS ROAD SO LATE (L.D. i. 1)

(Blandois’ Song.)

Words by C.  Dickens. H.R.S.  Dalton.

An old French children’s singing game.  Dickens’ words are a literal translation.  See Eighty Singing Games (Kidson and Moffat).

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Charles Dickens and Music from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.