Familiar Songs - Their Authors & Histories

300 traditional songs, inc sheet music with full piano accompaniment & lyrics.

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	4-> ■	OUR FAMILIAR SONGS.
	He that drinketh small beer, And goes to bed sober, — Falls as the leaves do fall. That die in dull October, Come, landlord, etc. Punch cures the gout, The colic and phthisic; So it is to all men The best of physic. Come, landlord, etc.		He that courts a pretty girl, And courts her for his pleasure, Is a knave unless he marries her Without store or treasure. Come, landlord, etc. So now let us dance and sing, And drive away all sorrow, — For perhaps we may not Meet again to-morrow. Come, landlord, etc.
	HOW STANDS THE GLASS AROUND? The writer and composer of this song are unknown. It appeared as a broadside in 1710. In 1729 it was produced at a little theatre in the Hay Market, London, under the title " Why, Soldiers, why ? " in " The Patron, or the Statesman's Opera." Collections made in 1775 have both words and music, and Shield introduced the song into "The Siege of Gib­raltar." It is usually called " General Wolfe's song," and is said to have been sung by him on the eve of the battle of Quebec. There is a story, which seems to be authentic, that as his night expedition against the city was floating down the St. Lawrence, he repeated several stanzas from Gray's " Elegy," and remarked that he " would rather have written that poem than take Quebec to-morrow." It is not unhkely that this anecdote, together with the fact that he had sometimes sung " How stands the glass around ? " was what gave rise to the story which makes it his death-song.