make a note.
Elsewhere he mentions Fairburn's 'Comic Songster' and the
'Little Warbler' as his song authorities.
The song referred to here is classed by Dr. Vaughan Williams
amongst Essex folk-songs, but it is by no means confined to
that county. It tells of a mother who wants her daughter to
marry a tailor, and not wait for her sailor bold.
My mother wants me to wed with a tailor
And not give me my heart's delight;
But give me the man with the tarry trousers,
That shines to me like diamonds bright.
After the firm of Dombey has decided to send Walter to Barbados,
the boy discusses his prospects with his friend the Captain,
and finally bursts into song--
How does that tune go that the sailors sing?
For the port of Barbados, Boys!
Cheerily!
Leaving old England behind us, boys!
Cheerily!
Here the Captain roared in chorus,
Oh cheerily, cheerily!
Oh cheer-i-ly!
All efforts to trace this song have failed, and for various
reasons I am inclined to think that Dickens made up the lines
to fit the occasion; while the words 'Oh cheerily, cheerily'
are a variant of a refrain common in sea songs, and the Captain
teaches Rob the Grinder to sing it at a later period of the
story. The arguments against the existence of such a song are:
first, that the Dombey firm have already decided to send the
boy to Barbados, and as there is no song suitable, the novelist
invents one; and in the second place there has never been a
time in the history of Barbados to give rise to such a song
as this, and no naval expedition of any consequence has ever
been sent there. It is perhaps unnecessary to urge that there
is no such place as the 'Port of Barbados.'
_Dick Swiveller_
None of Dickens' characters has such a wealth of poetical
illustration at command as Mr. Richard Swiveller. He lights
up the Brass office 'with scraps of song and merriment,' and
when he is taking Kit's mother home in a depressed state after
the trial he does his best to entertain her with 'astonishing
absurdities in the way of quotation from song and poem.' From
the time of his introduction, when he 'obliged the company with
a few bars of an intensely dismal air,' to when he expresses
his gratitude to the Marchioness--
And she shall walk in silk attire,
And siller have to spare--
there is scarcely a scene in which he is present when he does
not
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