Origins: The Saxon Shilling

Subject: Tune Req: The Saxon Shilling
From: Fergie
Date: 12 May 04 - 06:24 PM

I came across the lyrics to a song of this name, the first verse is as follows

Hark! a martial sound is heard
The march of soldiers, fifing, drumming
Eyes are staring, hearts are stirred
For bold recruits the brave are coming
Ribands flaunting, feathers gay
The sounds and sights are surely thrilling
Dazzled village youths today
Will crowd to take the saxon shilling.

Is anybody familiar with this song?
Does anybody have the tune?
The song is anti-recruiting and encourages "Irish youth" to reject the Saxon Shilling

If others are interested I will post all six verses in a week or so

Fergus

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Saxon Shilling
From: GUEST
Date: 13 May 04 - 03:33 AM

The rest of the song is here: The Saxon Shilling, and as far as I know the Dubliners recorded it, somewhere along the line, but I don't know the tune :-)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Saxon Shilling
From: IanC
Date: 13 May 04 - 04:02 AM

Frank Harte says it was "written by Kevin T Buggy and first appeared in print in 1842 (in the sonorously titled Belfast Vindicator)".

From the sleeve notes of Frank Harte and Dónal Lunny "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte: Traditional Songs on Napoleon Bonaparte" Hummingbird HBCD0027.

Note that, despite the title of the CD, the song has nothing to do with Bonaparte.

:-)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Saxon Shilling
From: Lighter
Date: 04 Jan 23 - 04:11 PM

The Traditional Ballad Index has no information on the poem's author, Kevin T. Buggy.

Justin McCarthy's multivolume anthology "Irish Literature" (1904) says this:

"KEVIN T. BUGGY [1826-1843] is chiefly known by the popular poem printed here, The Saxon Shilling,' which appeared in January, 1843. He was a son of Michael Buggy of Kilkenny, where he was born in 1816. He was called to the bar in London in 1841, and later succeeded Sir C. G. Duffy as editor of The Belfast Vindicator. He wrote some stories and poems for Irish newspapers, which were never collected or republished. He died in Belfast, Aug. 18, 1843, and a monument was erected over his grave by means of a public subscription.

"He is described as a “rough, unkempt, slovenly, hearty kind of man and of great ability.”

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Saxon Shilling
From: Lighter
Date: 04 Jan 23 - 04:15 PM

The air, btw, is taken from the comic stage song, "Paddy Carey's Fortunes" (1813) - about an Irish farm boy deceptively recruited who quickly becomes a captain.

An apt choice of tune.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Saxon Shilling
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 Jan 23 - 09:39 PM

I had forgotten all about this song! Thanks!

Subject: ADD: The Saxon Shilling
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Jan 23 - 03:38 AM

Here's my transcription of the Dubliners recording:

THE SAXON SHILLING

Hark a martial sound is heard
The march of soldiers fife and drumming
Eyes are start and hearts are stood
For bold recruits the brave are coming
Ribbons flaunting feathers gay
The sound and sights are surely thrilling
Dazzle village youths the day
Who're proud to take the Saxon Shilling

Peace of spirits will not bow
And peace to parish tyrants longer
Ye who wear the villian brow
And ye who pine and hope asunder
Fools without the brave man's face
Are slaves and starving who are willing
To sell themselves to shame and death
Except the fabled Saxon Shilling

Go to find the crime and toil
That doom to which such guilt is hurried
Go to leave on Indian soil your bones
To breach accursed and buried
Go to crush the just and brave
Whose wrongs with wrath the world are filling
Go to slay each by the slave or
Spurn the blasted Saxon Shilling

Irish hearts why should you bleed
To swell the tide of British glory
Aiding their spots in their needs
Whose chains are green so often gory
None say those who wish to see
The noblest killed the meanest killing
And the true hearts of the risen free
Will take again the Saxon Shilling

Irish youths reserve your strength
Until an hour of glorious duty
When freedom smile shall cheer at length
The land of bravery and beauty
Bribes and threats so heed no more
Let not but justice make you willing
To leave your own dear Ireland shore
For those to send us Saxon Shilling


Dubliners recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5V3RqxKuI4

Subject: ADD Version: The Saxon Shilling
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Jan 23 - 03:58 AM

THE SAXON SHILLING

Hark, the martial tramp is heard,
The sound of soldiers fife and drumming.
Eyes are staring, hearts are stirred,
For bold recruits the brave they're coming.
Ribbons flaunt and feathers gay;
The sights and sounds they're surely thrilling.
Dazzled village youths today
Will flock to take the Saxon shilling.

Ye whose spirits would not yield,
In peace to parish tyrants longer,
And ye, who wear the villain brow,
And ye, who pine in hopeless hunger,
Fools, without the brave man's faith,
All slaves and starvelings who are willing,
To sell themselves in shame and death,
Take now that blood-stained Saxon shilling.

Ere you from your mountains go,
To feel the scourge of foreign fever,
Swear to serve the faithless foe,
Who lures you from your home forever.
Swear henceforth his tool to be,
To slaughter, trained by ceaseless drilling,
Honour, home and liberty,
Abandoned for a blood-stained shilling.

Go to find, 'mid crime and toil,
The doom to which such guilt is hurried,
And go to leave on India's soil,
Your bones to bleach, accursed, unburied.
Go to slay the just and brave,
Whose wrongs with wrath the world are filling,
And go to slay each brother slave,
Or scorn that blood-stained Saxon shilling.

Irishmen, why should you bleed,
To fill the tide of British glory,
Aiding despots in their greed.
Who've changed our green so oft to gory?
None but those who wish to see,
The noblest killed and the meanest killing,
And true hearts severed from the free,
Would ever take a Saxon shilling.

Irishmen reserve your strength
Until the hour of glorious duty,
When freedom's light will shine again
On our land of bravery and beauty.
Bribes and threats we'll heed no more.
Let naught but justice make you willing,
To leave your own dear Irish shore,
And never again take a Saxon shilling.


Source: A Living Voice: The Frank Harte Song Collection, edited by Terry Moylan (Craft Recordings Dublin, 2020) pp 152-153

Recording by Frank Harte & Donal Lunny: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka0KG1e2TcU

I'll transcribe a MIDI on request.

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Traditional Ballad Index entry:

Saxon Shilling, The

DESCRIPTION: The martial parades "dazzled village youths to-day Will crowd to take the Saxon Shilling." Fools sell themselves "to shame and death," "crush the just and brave." "Irish hearts! why should you bleed, To swell the tide of British glory"?
AUTHOR: Kevin T. Buggy (Source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 ("The song was first printed in the _Belfast Vindicator_ in 1842," according to Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: army recruiting Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 49, "The Saxon Shilling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V29853
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(68), "The Saxion Shilling" [only misspelled in the title], unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.15(39), "The Saxion Shilling" [only misspelled in the title]
NOTES [163 words]: Broadsides Bodleian Harding B 19(68) and Bodleian 2806 c.15(39) are duplicates. The last two lines are identically mangled.
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "The man who enlisted as a soldier was given the 'King's shilling' by a recruiting officer."
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "The Saxon's Shilling" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
One suspects that author Buggy never missed any meals, which was the main reason Irish youth enlisted in the army. Though his source of income certainly wasn't his writing; I have been unable to find anything else he wrote, and he is not mentioned in Patrick C. Power's A Literary History of Ireland.
For the typical British recruiting method of The King's Shilling and getting potential soldiers drunk, see the notes to "The Recruited Collier." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Zimm049

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Subject: RE: Origins: The Saxon Shilling
From: Lighter
Date: 11 Jan 23 - 08:35 AM

Turns out "Paddy Carey's Fortune" was first published in 1811 (London "Morning Post," Apr. 4). It was advertised in the U.S. a year later.

And, of course, Kevin Buggy was born in 1816, not 1826. Must learn to type.

McCarthy's 1904 anthology, btw, doesn't indicate a tune to Buggy's lines or that the lyrics were anything more than a poem.

Subject: RE: Origins: The Saxon Shilling
From: GUEST,BB
Date: 13 Jan 23 - 02:38 PM

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Spirit_of_the_Nation/The_Saxon_Shilling is a version of it from the nationalist publication "The Spirit of the Nation", 1844. Joe, there are a few differences between your transcription and the Spirit of the Nation version, which the Dubliners seem to have followed.

Subject: RE: Origins: The Saxon Shilling
From: GUEST,Fiona Buggy
Date: 31 Oct 23 - 07:56 PM

Thank you for all that information.
Regards Fiona Buggy

Subject: RE: Origins: The Saxon Shilling
From: GUEST,Fiona Buggy
Date: 31 Oct 23 - 07:56 PM

Thank you for all that information.
Regards Fiona Buggy