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FAMOUS SONGS
Dyer, and it was first sung at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields." Whoever wrote it had in mind the drinking song in Fletcher's " Bloody Brother/' from which he borrowed two lines,
" Best, while you have it, use your breath, There is no drinking after death."
The song seems to have been published early in the reign of George I. The composer of the music, a fine characteristic melody, is not known. " Begone dull Care" is at least as old as the year 1687, when it first appeared in " Playford's Musical Companion."
" Black Ey'd Susan, or Sweet William's Fare-well" was written by Gay, the author of the " Beggar's Opera," and is included among his published poems. The music was composed by Richard Leveridge, a genial, jovial individual, who published a collection of his songs in 1727. "Black Ey'd Susan" was not issued till 1730. Douglas Jerrold wrote his famous play of the same name in 1824 (revived 1896), it being first produced on Whit-Monday of that year at the Surrey Theatre, making all the principals connected with the production, except the author, passing rich. The song is introduced
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