See from ocean rising
    Bright flame, the orb of day;
    From yon grove the varied song
    Shall slumber from Virginia chase, chase away,
    Slumber from Virginia chase, chase away.

Dickens is not quite correct in this description, as the part of Paul was created by Incledon, the celebrated tenor, but there are still to be found basses who insist on singing tenor when they think that part wants their assistance.

III.—­Contemporary Comic Songs

When Dickens visited Vauxhall (S.B.S. 14) in 1836, he heard a variety entertainment, to which some reference has already been made.  Amongst the performers was a comic singer who bore the name of one of the English counties, and who

    sang a very good song about the seven ages, the first
    half hour of which afforded the assembly the purest
    delight.

The name of this singer was Mr. Bedford, though there was also a Mr. Buckingham in the Vauxhall programmes of those days.  There are at least four songs, all of them lengthy, though not to the extent Dickens suggests, which bear on the subject.  They are: 

  1.—­’All the World’s a Stage,’ a popular medley written by
      Mr. L. Rede, and sung by Mrs. Kelley in the Frolic
      of the Fairies.

  2.—­’Paddy McShane’s Seven Ages,’ sung by Mr. Johnstone at
      Drury Lane.

  3.—­’The Seven Ages,’ as sung by Mr. Fuller (eight very
      long verses).

  4.—­’The Seven Ages of Woman,’ as sung by Mr. Harley.

        You’ve heard the seven ages of great Mister Man,
        And now Mistress Woman’s I’ll chaunt, if I can.

This was also a very long song, each verse being sung to a different tune.

Some of these songs are found in a scarce book called London Oddities (1822), which also contains ‘Time of Day,’ probably the comic duet referred to in The Mistaken Milliner (S.B.).  This sketch was written in 1835 for Bell’s Life in London, the original title being The Vocal Dressmaker, and contains an account of a concert (real or imaginary) at the White Conduit House.  This place of entertainment was situated in Penton Street, Islington, near the top of Pentonville Road, and when Dickens wrote his sketch the place had been in existence nearly a hundred years.  Early in the nineteenth century it became a place of varied amusements, from balloon ascents to comic songs.  Dickens visited the place about 1835.  The titles of some of the pieces he mentions as having been sung there are real, while others (such as ‘Red Ruffian, retire’) appear to be invented.

Of a different kind is the one sung by the giant Pickleson, known in the profession as Rinaldo di Vasco, a character introduced to us by Dr. Marigold.