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SONG-CYCLE AND SHORT SONG 297
and the song was published. Later, however, came a letter from, I think, Van Diemen's Land, where the author ' professes' something in a university, remarking that he noticed his poetry had been set to music for about the thirty-fourth time, and asking for a cheque ! "
Something of a very similar kind happened in the case of " Bonjour, Pierrot," one of Lambert's longer songs. He found the words in an old American magazine, unsigned. It was not until the song had been popular for some time that they were recognised by Weatherly as being his own.
The author of "A Barque at Midnight," too, was untraceable for years, and the song ran through many editions before an unknown correspondent informed the publishers that it was no tyro's peripatetic attempt, but the work of one Tom Moore. This song, by the way, enjoys the distinction of having been the subject of numberless parodies in the way of cartoons and caricatures, bulldogs baying sharps and flats at the moon, and other things of that kind.
Of Lambert's longer songs none has enjoyed a greater popularity than his setting of Moore's " She is far from the land." And yet it was years before he could get it published. I cannot do better than give the story in his own words.
"The occasional difficulty in getting composi- |
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