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The National Music of America. 145
A little later, when the camps were in the town of Boston, the British custom was to drum culprits out of camp to the tune of " Yankee Doodle," a decidedly jovial " Can-tio in exitu." Still later we find the soldiers making ribald verses to the melody and
singing:
" Yankee Doodle came to town For to buy a firelock; We will tar and feather him And so we will John Hancock."
But the musical prologue to the Revolution was played when Lord Percy marched out of Boston to the relief of Colonel Smith and Major Pitcairn, who were in great stress at Lexington.1 That surely was the overture to the great drama that was beginning. The Americans immediately appropriated the tune and for a long time it was called " The Lexington March." It may be of interest, in this connection, to know what music cheered
1 " History of Lexington," Hudson, pp. 197-98, and Fiske's " American Revolution," Vol. L, p. 124. |
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