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REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. |
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The nations not so blest as thee, Will but arouse thy generous flame;
Must in their turns to tyrants fall; But work their woe, and thy renown.
While thou shalt flourish great and free, Rule, Britannia, &c.
The dread and envy of them all.
Rule, Britannia, &c. To tllee belongs the rural reign ;
Thy cities shall with commerce shine ;
Still more majestic shalt thou rise, A11A th]ne shall be the subject main, More dreadful from each foreign stroke; And everv shorTf f clrcles thlne'
As the loud blast that tears the skies, Rule> Britannia, &c.
Serves but to root thy native oak. The Mu8es> stm w;th free(Jom found) Kule, Britannia, &c. shall to thy happy coaat repair.
Blest Isle ! with matchless beauty crown'd, Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame, And manly hearts to guide the fair.
All their attempts to bend thee down Rule, Britannia, &c.
BEGONE, DULL CARE. The late T. Dibdin informed me that the great popularity of Begone, dull Care, may be dated from its revival in a pantomime ballet called William Tell, performed at Sadler's Wells in 1793. His own first dramatic attempt, The Rival Loyalists, was produced on the same night.
The tune seems to have been derived from The Queen's Jigg, which is contained in The Dancing Master, in and after 1701, and was reprinted in National English Airs.
One verse of the words is in Playford's Pleasant Musical Companion, Part II., 1687, set as a catch by John Jackson, and two are to be found in The Syren, The Merry Companion, The Aviary, The Buck's Delight, and other collections of the last century.
The stanza in the Pleasant Musical Companion is as follows:β " Begone, old Care, and I prithee be gone from me, . For i'faith, old Care, thee and I shall never agree; 'Tis long thou hast liv'd with me, and fain thou wouldst me kill, But i'faith, old Care, thou never ehalt have thy will." The next version isβ
" Begone, old Care, I prithee be gone from me ; Begone, old Care, you and I shall never agree; Long time you have been vexing me, and fain yon would me kill, But i'faith, old Care, thou never shalt have thy will. Too much care will make a young man look grey, And too much care will turn an old man to clay : Come, you shall dance, and I will sing, so merrily we will play, For I hold it one of the wisest things to drive old Care away."
The words seem to have been suggested by a song of much earlier date; one f very popular in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I.:β " Care, away go thou from me, I am no fit mate for thee," &c. LThis is to be found, with music, in a manuscript of the sixteenth century, in ; Trinity College, Dublin (F. 5, 13, No. 5); and in another (dated 1639), which I passed through the hands of Cranston, Leyden, and Heber, and is now in the Advocate's Library, Edinburgh. I The first time I find "Begone, dull Care," instead "Begone, old Care," is in |
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