Hibernia's Lovely Jane

Subject: RE: Hibernia's Lovely Jane
From: Fergie
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 02:19 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Hibernia's Lovely Jane
From: Fergie
Date: 20 Feb 08 - 08:57 AM

Thanks for all the contributions

Malcolm, thank you, you are an encyclopaedia in yourself. I went back to the Bodelian and found the older version (with the sadder ending, which I like even better), I transcribed it and it is pasted below.

Martin, I'll be at The Góilín on Friday and I'll ask Luke if he has the song.

Mick, thanks for your contribution. I'm wondering where I can get either a copy of the sheet music or a copy of a field recording.

Transcribed from Bodelian Library online catalogue
Printed by Carse of Glasgow (c1825)
Copy; Harding B 17(212a)

HIBERNIA'S LOVELY JANE.

Departing from fair Scotia's shore,
From the Highlands mossy banks,
To Germany I then set sail,
To join the hostile ranks,
At length in Ireland I arrived,
After a long Campaign;
Where a bonny maid my heart betrayed,
Hibernia's lovely Jane.

Her cheeks were of the rosy hue.
And the bright glance of her een,
Sparkled like pure drops of balmy dew,
That bespangled the meadows green.
Jane Cameron ne'er was half so fair,
Nor Jessie of Drumblane;
Nor Prosperine could e'er outshine,
Hibernia's lovely Jane.

Oft have I faced the daring foe,
When in the bloodstained field;
I oft have 'scaped death's fatal blow,
But now to love must yield.
Cupid's dart hath pierced my heart.
With love's tormenting pain,
Since first I saw that lassie braw,
Hibernia's lovely Jane.

My tartan plaid I will forsake,
My Commission I'll resign;
That very nymph my bride I'll make,
If the lassie would be mine.
In Hibernia's Isle, where graces smile,
For her I would remain;
In Hymen's band join heart and hand
With Hibernia's lovely Jane.

But the Bonnie Irish lassie fair,
She being of high degree.
Her parents say their daughter ne'er
A soldier's bride shall be
O'erwhelmed with grief, fear and despair
No hopes for me remain
It grieves my heart with you to part
Hibernia's lovely Jane.

Should Mars the trumpet sound again,
And call his sons to arms,
And Neptune waft me o'er the main,
Far from my Jenny's charms;
Should I be laid on honour's bed,
By a shot or scar be slain -
Death's pangs will cure the pain I endure
For Hibernia's lovely Jane.

You supreme deities, incline -
To tranquilise my breast
I'll wander to some distant clime
To obtain some peace and rest;
Thro woods and groves I mean to rove
Where none shall hear my strain
Since that nymph divine will not be mine
Farewell my lovely Jane.

Fergus

Subject: RE: Hibernia's Lovely Jane
From: MartinRyan
Date: 20 Feb 08 - 05:42 AM

Mind you..... It's quite likely that what I'm thinking of is "Erin's Lovely Plain"!

Regards

Subject: RE: Hibernia's Lovely Jane
From: MartinRyan
Date: 20 Feb 08 - 05:28 AM

Fergie

Have you asked Luke (Cheevers) about this one? As I read the text, I hear a faint echo of his voice...

Regards

Subject: RE: Hibernia's Lovely Jane
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 20 Feb 08 - 04:34 AM

Presumably the transcription above is of one of the later editions lacking the final three verses. The Bodleian has five editions in all : [A new song, called] Hibernia's lovely Jane.

The earliest seems to be the Carse sheet (Glasgow, c.1825): there may have been earlier prints, but I doubt if it's much older than that. Sam Henry stated confidently "The song dates from the time of the Peninsular Wars [1808-1814]" and it may well do; or from a little later. The tune in Joyce (and in Henry; see below) seems to be an adaptation of the tune Burns used for 'Of a' the airts the wind can blaw', which was William Marshall's 'Miss Admiral Gordon's Strathspey,' written around 1775. Marshall in turn seems to have based his tune on an earlier one which has been found associated with, among other songs, 'The Lowlands of Holland'.

Number 4385 in the Roud Folk Song Index, which lists few examples from tradition: one from Ontario, one from Maine, one from Co. Antrim (the last printed in Huntington and Herrmann, Sam Henry's Songs of the People (University of Georgia Press, 1990, 428 (text and tune) and 447 (notes).

Note that, though there are two references in Roud to Henry, both are actually to the same (single) song.

Subject: RE: Hibernia's Lovely Jane
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 20 Feb 08 - 04:05 AM

My copy of Roud's song database gives three entries for the song:

1. (As Hibernia's Lovely Jean) from the Edith Fowke Coll. (FO 51), from Gorge McCallum, Grafton Ontario, 1961

2. Two listed in Sam Henry's Songs Of The People (ed Huntington) p428 from Ballycastle, Antrim, 1932.


The broadside database has seven entries:

1. 3 broadsides in the Madden Collection

2. 4 Songsters: 1845 The American Songster; 1856 The Parlour Songster; 1884 The Universal Irish Songbook; The Musical Gem (nd)



Mick

Subject: Hibernia's Lovely Jane
From: Fergie
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 03:59 PM

Hi all, I transcribed these lyrics from the Bodleian Library site. Does anybody know anything about this song? Does anybody have the air (see info below) or know how I might get it?

HIBERNIA'S LOVELY JANE.

Departing from the Scottish shore,
And the Highlands mossy banks,
To Germany we first set sail,
To join the hostile ranks,
At length in Ireland we arrived,
After a long Campaign;
Where a bonny maid my heart betrayed,
Hibernia's lovely Jane.

Her cheeks were of the rosy hue.
And the bright glance of her een,
Sparkled like pure drops of dew,
That spangled the meadows green.
Jane Cameron was ne'er so fair,
Nor Jessie of Drumblane;
Nor Prosperine could e'er outshine,
Hibernia's lovely Jane.

I oft have faced the daring foe,
While in the bloodstained field;
I oft have 'scaped death's fatal blow,
But now to love must yield.
Cupid's dart hath pierced my heart.
With love's tormenting pain,
Since first I saw that false braw,
Hibernia's lovely Jane.

My tartan plaid I will forsake,
My Commission I'll resign;
That very nymph my bride I'll make,
If the false will be mine.
In Hibernia's Isle, where graces smile,
For life I will remain;
In Hymen's band join heart and hand
With Hibernia's lovely Jane.

From www.ibiblio.org I got this information

HIBERNIA'S LOVELY JANE. Irish, Air (4/4 time). G Major. Standard. AB. "From the Rev. Maxwell H. Close of Dublin: taken down by him in 1836 from the singing of Pat Walker, a Wicklow man" (Joyce). Joyce(Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 205, pg. 101.
X:1
T:Hibernia's Lovely Jane
M:C
L:1/8
R:Air
S:Joyce – Old Irish Folk Music and Songs   (1909)
Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion
K:G
D2|G3A G2D2|E2G2G2 AB|c2B2A2G2|E6 BA|G3A G2D2|E2G2G2 GB|
d3e d2B2|d6||d2|e2d2g2B2|c2B2 A3G|G3A B2G2|E6 BA|G3A G2D2|
E2G2G2 ge|d3B A3B|G6||

Fergus