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58 Music of the Waters. |
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Solo.—12. Then back your main top-sail—rise your main tack also, Bound away in the Dreadnought, to the westward we'll go.
13. It's now we've arrived at New York once more, Where I'll see my dear Polly, the girl I adore.
14. I'll call for strong liquors, and merry will be, Here's a health to the Dreadnought, where'er
she may be.
15. Here's a health to the captain and all his brave
crew, Here's a health to the Dreadnought and officers too.
16. And this song was composed when the watch
went below, Bound away in the Dreadnought, to the westward we'll go.
A collection of English sailors' songs could scarcely be complete without some reference to those which are to be found in Shakespeare's " Tempest." Dr. Johnson says of the first scene in the first act that " This naval dialogue is perhaps the earliest example of sailors' language exhibited on the stage." The second Lord Mulgrave declared that Shakespeare's technical knowledge of seamanship must have been " the result of the most accurate personal observation." The boatswain in "The Tempest" delivers himself in the true vernacular style of the "forecastle." Says Captain Glascock, R.N.: " Heigh, my hearts ; cheerily, cheerily, my hearts ; yare, yare 1 Take in the topsail." "Yare," meaning quick, ready, is several times used by Shakespeare as a sea-term.
Ariel's beautiful song, " Full Fathom Five," which Ferdinand describes so graphically—" This music crept by me upon the waters ; allaying both their fury, and my passion, with its sweet air "—is too well known for me to do more than allude to it. |
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