'Squire Norton's Song (II)'

Description

From The Village Coquettes, An Operatic Burletta in Two Acts (1836). Music by John Hullah, p.9.

Creator

Dickens, Charles

Source

The Village Coquettes, An Operatic Burletta in Two Acts (1836). London: John Dicks. 

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Rights

Internet Archive: Access to the Archive’s Collections is provided at no cost and is granted for scholarship and research purposes only (https://archive.org/about/terms.php).

Type

Bibliographic Citation

Dickens, Charles. 'Round.' The Village Coquettes (1836): p. 9. Dickens Search. Eds. Emily Bell and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-The_Village_Coquettes_Squire_Nortons_SongII.

Transcription

The child and the old man sat alone

In the quiet, peaceful shade

Of the old green boughs, that had richly grown

In the deep, thick forest glade.

It was a soft and pleasant sound,

That rustling of the oak;

And the gentle breeze played lightly round,

As thus the fair boy spoke: – 


‘Dear father, what can honour be,

Of which I hear men rave?

Field, cell and cloister, laud and sea,

The tempest and the grave:  – 

It lives in all, ‘tis sought in each,

‘Tis never heard or seen:

Now tell me, father, I beseech,

What can this honour mean?’


‘It is a name – a name, my child, - 

It lived in other days,

When men were rude, their passions wild,

Their sport, thick battle-frays.

When, in armour bright, the warrior bold

Knelt to his lady’s eyes:

Beneath the abbey pavement old

That warrior’s dust now lies.


‘The iron hearts of that old day

Have mouldered in the grave;

And chivalry has passed away,

With knights so true and brave;

The honour, which to them was life,

Throbs in no bosom now;

It only gilds the gambler’s strife,

Or decks the worthless vow.’

Files

1836-The_Village_Coquettes_Squire_Nortons_SongII.pdf

Collection

Citation

Dickens, Charles, “'Squire Norton's Song (II)',” Dickens Search, accessed March 28, 2024, https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-The_Village_Coquettes_Squire_Nortons_SongII.

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