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STORIES OF
Covent Garden Theatre on May the 8th, 1823, and continued to hold the boards at intervals for some years. The music of this " musical drama"—there were only six numbers—was composed by Henry Bishop, and the melody of " Home, Sweet Home" was said to have been adapted from a Sicilian air, but this is erroneous. Miss Tree created quite 2. furore by her singing of the touching melody, and the words going straight to the hearts of the audience, it was not long before the song became marvellously popu-lar all over the country, soon to penetrate to the farthermost parts of the world. It is stated that more than 300,000 copies of the song were sold the first year of publication.
Now in regard to the words of " Home, Sweet Home," nearly twenty years after the author's death, when the subject of the music was being discussed, there appeared in the London " Daily Telegraph," a letter signed J. R. Planche, in which the writer asserted that with the full con-sent of the author, " I undertook the revision of it (the play). I cut nearly a third of the dialogue, which was of terrific length. The ballad in question (' Home, Sweet Home/) con-sisted originally of two verses of eight lines each. I reduced them to four : and at the sug-.-gestion of Mr. Bishop added the refrain of
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