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STORIES OF
To the above the stage direction is, " The mob sings the chorus."
Farquhar was born in Londonderry, and doubtless there heard the song, which is very ancient, as a child, for the melody seems very old indeed. It was this iteration of the sub-ject in a popular play—" Serjeant Kite" has passed into the language—that familiarized the public ear with " Over the hills and far away," and accounts for the fact of Swift and Gay knowing it so well, and hence its introduction into " The Beggar's Opera." Thackeray gives a verse in the text of " The Virginians." In "Time's Telescope" for the year 1828 a song is given in which occur the words frequently. The date assigned to this production is 1714.
This song must have been written just seven years after Farquhar's death, and though Far-quhar was perhaps not the inventor of the phrase, he certainly introduced it into the cur-rency of the language in England.
" Clarach's Lament," by John MacDonnell, supplies the air for the Scottish song, " M y gallant braw Highlandman," but "Clarach's Lament" was written to the " White Cockade." "The White Cockade" (Cnotahd Ban) means literally a bouquet, and has nothing to do with the military cockade, as some authorities state, |
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