The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #81115   Message #4206400
Posted By: Jim Dixon
01-Aug-24 - 05:57 PM
Thread Name: Songs about Nelson or Wellington
Subject: Lyr Add: THE DEATH OF NELSON (T. Dibdin)
The sheet music for this song can be seen in Google Books:


THE DEATH OF NELSON,
on the
Twenty-first of October,
Sung by
Mr. Incledon, in the
Interlude of Nelson’s Glory, at the

Theatre Royal Covent Garden.
Written by T. DIBDIN. Price 1/-
London, Printed & sold by Preston at his Wholesale Warehouses, 97, Strand.


CEASE, vain France, ill-manner'd railer,
Fellow freemen, list' to me,
Britons, hear a British sailor
Sing the strains of victory!
Yet, what verse shall tell the story,
What bold tongue speak Nelson's praise!
Whose bright sun has set in glory,
Gilding Ocean with its rays!

Long our Tars had kept their station,
Long insulting foes defied,
Spite of all the Gallic nation,
Dutch bravado, Spanish pride:
To those who swore this land to plunder,
Those who dare our rights despise,
We've once more replied in thunder,
‘While you threaten, we chastise!'

France and Spain, with hopes scarce sober,
Stung with hate of Nelson's fame,
Chose the nineteenth of October,
To immortalize his name.
When he saw their colours flying,
When he saw their fleets combine,
Still methinks I hear him crying,
‘Follow, boys, they all are mine!'

Yet the foe, with hesitation,
Linger'd till the twenty-first,
As if, with dread anticipation,
These vaunting heroes fear'd the worst;
The twenty-first of March had told 'em,
What our boys on land can be:
Another twenty-first, behold 'em
Bending to our lads at sea!

Hush!—They've join'd—the battle rages,
Expectation holds her breath!
Britain for her right engages,
France for plunder, war, and death!
Thirty-three our Chief opposing,
Twenty-seven the British line;
‘They strike!' he cries, while life is closing,
‘Heaven! the praise is only thine.’

- - -
The text can also be found at Neil's Pocket Melodist, or Vocal Repository, No. 22 (London: A. Neil, 1805), page 96.

and in the Bodleian Ballad Collection, Curzon b.24(98).