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  Duet (The Squire and Edmunds) Squire. Listen, though I do not fear you,
Listen to me, ere we part.

Edmunds. List to you! Yes, I will hear you.

Squire. Yours alone is Lucy’s heart,
I swear it, by that Heav’n above me.

Edmunds. What! can I believe my ears!
Could I hope that she still loves me?

Squire. Banish all these doubts and fears,
If a love were e’er worth gaining,
If love were ever fond and true,
No disguise or passion feigning,
Such is her young love for you.

Squire. Listen, though I do not fear you,
Listen to me, ere we part.

Edmunds. List to you! yes, I will hear you,
Mine alone is her young heart.

Lucy’s Song

How beautiful at eventide To see the twilight shadows pale, Steal o’er the landscape, far and wide, O’er stream and meadow, mound and dale. How soft is Nature’s calm repose When ev’ning skies their cool dews weep: The gentlest wind more gently blows, As if to soothe her in her sleep! The gay morn breaks, Mists roll away, All Nature awakes To glorious day. In my breast alone Dark shadows remain; The peace it has known It can never regain.

Chorus

Join the dance, with step as light As ev’ry heart should be to-night; Music, shake the lofty dome, In honour of our Harvest Home. Join the dance, and banish care, All are young, and gay, and fair; Even age has youthful grown, In honour of our Harvest Home. Join the dance, bright faces beam, Sweet lips smile, and dark eyes gleam; All these charms have hither come, In honour of our Harvest Home. Join the dance, with step as light, As ev’ry heart should be to-night; Music shake the lofty dome In honour of our Harvest Home.

Quintet

No light bound Of stag or timid hare, O’er the ground Where startled herds repair, Do we prize So high, or hold so dear, As the eyes That light our pleasures here. No cool breeze That gently plays by night, O’er calm seas, Whose waters glisten bright; No soft moan That sighs across the lea, Harvest Home, Is half so sweet as thee!

 

 

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LYRIC FROM
‘THE LAMPLIGHTER’
A FARCE
1838

 

THE LAMPLIGHTER

In 1838 Dickens agreed to prepare a little play for Macready, the famous actor, then the manager of Drury Lane Theatre. It was called The Lamplighter, and when completed the author read aloud the ‘unfortunate little farce’ (as he subsequently termed it) in the greenroom of the theatre. Although the play went through rehearsal, it was never presented before an audience, for the actors would not agree about it, and, at Macready’s suggestion, Dickens consented to withdraw it, declaring that he had ‘no other feeling of disappointment connected with this matter’ but that which arose from the failure in attempting to serve his friend. The manuscript of the play, not in Dickens’s handwriting, reposes in the Forster Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and in 1879 it was printed for the first time, in the form of a pamphlet, of which only two hundred and fifty copies were issued.

When rejected by Macready as unsuitable for stage presentation, The Lamplighter was adapted by Dickens to another purpose—that is to say, he converted it into a tale called The Lamplighter’s Story, for publication in The Pic-Nic Papers, issued in 1841 for the benefit of the widow of Macrone, Dickens’s first publisher, who died in great poverty. Between the farce and the story there are but slight differences. The duet of two verses, sung by Tom and Betsy to the air of ‘The Young May-moon,’ cannot of course be regarded as a remarkable composition, but it served its purpose sufficiently well, and for that reason deserves recognition.

 

DUET FROM ‘THE LAMPLIGHTER’
Air—‘The Young May-moon’

Tom. There comes a new moon twelve times a year. Betsy. And when there is none, all is dark and drear. Tom. In which I espy— Betsy. And so, too, do I— Both. A resemblance to womankind very clear— Both. There comes a new moon twelve times a year; And when there is none, all is dark and drear. Tom. In which I espy— Betsy. And so do I— Both. A resemblance to womankind very clear.

Second Verse.

Tom. She changes, she’s fickle, she drives men mad. Betsy. She comes to bring light, and leaves them sad. Tom. So restless wild— Betsy. But so sweetly wild— Both. That no better companion could be had. Both. There comes a new moon twelve times a year; And when there is none, all is dark and drear. Tom. In which I espy— Betsy. And so do I— Both. A resemblance to womankind very clear.

 

 

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SONGS FROM
‘THE PICKWICK PAPERS’
1837

I.—THE IVY GREEN