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The Life and Times of the Dibdin - Aglio Family 
A summary setting the family in a historical context
1745 - 1925

Appendix - Four Songs

Return to The Life and Times of the Dibdin - Aglio Family 

Tom Bowling

Music often used at the last night of the Proms

Here a sheer hulk lies poor Tom Bowling,
The darling of our crew;
No more he'll hear the tempest howling,
For death has broach'd him to:
His form was of the manliest beauty,
His heart was kind and soft.
Faithful, below, he did his duty,
And now he's gone aloft,
And now he's gone aloft.

Tom never from his word departed,
His virtues were so rare,
His friends were many, and true-hearted,
His Poll was kind and fair:
And then he'd sing so blithe and jolly -
Ah! many's the Time and oft -
But mirth is turn'd to melancholy,
For Tom is gone aloft,
For Tom is gone aloft.


Yet shall poor Tom find pleasant weather,
When He, who all commands,
Shall give, to call life's crew together,
The word to pipe all hands:
Thus death, who Kings and tars dispatches,
In vain Tom's life has doff'd,
For though his body's under hatches,
His soul has gone aloft,
His soul has gone aloft.


The Lass That Loves A Sailor
1811

Dibdin’s last important song

1.

The moon on the ocean was dimmed by a ripple
Affording a chequered delight;
The gay jolly tars passed a word for the tipple,
And the toast — for 'twas Saturday night:
Some sweetheart or wife he loved as his life
Each drank, and wished he could hail her:

But the standing toast that pleased the most
Was "The wind that blows,
The Ship that goes,
And the lass that loves a sailor!"

 

 

2.

Some drank "The Queen," and some her brave ships,
And some "The Constitution";
Some "May our foes, and all such rips,
Yield to English resolution!"
That fate might bless some Poll or Bess,
And that they soon might hail her:

 

 

But the standing toast that pleased the most
Was "The wind that blows,
The Ship that goes,
And the lass that loves a sailor!"

 

 

3.

Some drank "The Prince," and some "Our Land,"
This glorious land of freedom!
Some that our tars may never stand
For heroes brave to lead them!
That she who's in distress may find,
Such friends as ne'er will fail her.

But the standing toast that pleased the most
Was "The wind that blows,
The Ship that goes,
And the lass that loves a sailor!"


Mungo’s song from the Paddock

Written, acted and sung by Charles Dibdin

“Dear heart, what a terrible life I am led!
A dog has a better that’s sheltered and fed.
Night and day ’tis the same;
My pain is deir game;
Me wish to de Lord me was dead!
Whate’er’s to be done
Poor black must run.
Mungo here, Mungo dere,
Mungo everywhere;
Above and below,
Sirrah, come, sirrah, go;
Do so, and do so.
Oh! oh!
Me wish to de Lord me was dead!”


Negro Slave. A Pathetic Ballad
Charles Mungo Dibdin(1796)

Ye children of Pleasure! come hither and see,
A sight that shall check your irreverent glee;

Ye children of Woe! hear a tale which awhile
A sense of your own various griefs shall beguile:

Thy tear, at the tale, divine Sympathy! shed;
Rejoice, sweet Compassion! at viewing this grave;
Here Wretchedness hides, unmolested, its head
For under this turf lies a poor Negro Slave!

Depriv’d of whatever endears us to life,
His country, his freedom, his children, and wife;
Grown mad with reflection, his spirit he freed
With pity, ye rigid, contemplate the deed!

His corpse, unregarded, disgrac’d the highway,
Till, blushing, Humanity’s credit to save,
With tenderness Charity hasten’d to pay
Mortality’s due to the poor Negro Slave!

Ye kind passers by, who this spot turn to view,
The tribute bequeath to his memory due
May Peace watch his pillow, whose breast can bestow
A generous tear o’er the annals of woe!
The sigh that you heave, and the tear that you shed,
Remembrance on Heaven’s blest records shall ’grave;
But vengeance shall heavily fall on each head,

That spurn’d and oppress’d him, a poor Negro Slave!