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his poetry, and a great deal of the music he composed was written for theatrical incidental music. However, under his own name and hand, he was a prolific songwriter and balladeer, and he wrote the lyrics for almost all of these songs. Further, he wrote numerous operas and plays. His life is illustrative of the professional author in the early 18th century. Without inheritance or title or governmental position, he wrote for all of the remunerative venues, and yet he also kept his own political point of view and was able to score significant points against the ministry of the day. Further, he was one of the leading lights of the new
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754:. At the same time, Carey's productions were noted in his own day for their political acuity and bravery (if not foolhardiness). He was willing to offend and suffer the consequences of his convictions, but he made his political statements in a diverting and apparently frivolous manner, thereby allowing his friends to respond to his politics and his enemies to dismiss his levity. In the
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have recognized, however, the subtle gifts necessary for Carey's music, and theater historians are beginning to recognize the context of his plays. He was the most prolific
English song composer of 1715–1740, and he wrote his own lyrics to all but twelve of his two hundred and fifty songs (Gillespie
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to the mother in the nursery, and the latter provided the occasion for Carey to exaggerate. Philips had employed a 2.5' iambic line, and Carey devastatingly claimed that the half-line matched
Philips's halfwitted conception. The poem was so successful that Carey himself began to be known as "Namby
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later in his life, in 1734, when he was best paid and most famous. Since he was writing for pay when he had theatrical successes, it seems reasonable that he had been hiring his pen for quite some time. In the 18th century, he did hack work for the periodicals of the day. His first accredited
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satirist and also as a patriot. Several of his melodies continue to be sung today, and he was widely praised in the generation after his death. Because he worked in anonymity, selling his own compositions to others to pass off as their own, contemporary scholarship can only be certain of some of
241:) at Drury Lane. From 1723 to 1733, Carey was the "unofficial composer in residence" for Drury Lane, and he wrote and performed much of the music between acts, preludes, and epilogue music, as well as the music called for by dances and other entertainments in the plays (Gillespie 127).
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The play debuted at the
Haymarket, where its coded attack on Walpole would have been clear, but its long run occurred after it moved to Covent Garden, which had a much greater capacity for staging. Part of its satire of opera was that it had all of the words sung, including the
64:. Carey did not make the claim himself, but he did use "Savile" as the name of three of his male children, and these corresponded to the births of Halifax's own three sons. Furthermore, he dedicated all of his major works to Halifax (Gillespie 127). His biography in
477:, of Bath, who says that Mr. Henry Carey... came to him with the words and melody of the song in question, desiring him to correct the bass, which Mr. Smith told him was not proper; and at Mr. Carey’s request, Mr. Smith wrote down another in correct harmony.
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also stated that Carey received a "generous annuity" from the Savile family, but that seems less likely and remains unconfirmed. The fact that, even when his most popular plays were on the boards, Carey would write for pay argues against such an annuity.
696:, a patriotic play about a sailor leaving his beloved to fight against the Spanish. As with other works, Carey's point was primarily patriotic. Patriotic plays at the time were often demurrals of official policy and England's foreign entanglements.
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in
January through March 1710. This work was aimed at a female readership and was written with a clear expectation of an intelligent, educated, and populous set of readers. He also appears as a singer of Italian and English entre-acte songs at
601:. The Queen was attacked for her alliance with Robert Walpole and her general caprice. It also had a generous amount of music by Carey. If contemporary allies understood the criticisms inherent in the play, it was also possible to see it as a
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Henry Carey never ceased to be a composer nor to work as a singer and musician. Even as he began to have greater success as a poet and playwright, he continued to work in music. He worked in a theatre that was associated with the Whig party.
758:-dominated view of literary history of the early 20th-century, Carey was represented as a balladeer whose fundamental moroseness was proven by his shameful suicide, and his plays, now devoid of topicality, were set as broad entertainments.
649:, punctured the vacuous operatic conventions and pointed a satirical barb at Robert Walpole and his taxation policies. The play was a huge success. Its initial run was sixty-nine performances in the first season, which exceeded even
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Pamby Carey" (while
Philips became known as "Namby Pamby"), and the poem even came to be used as children's literature. Furthermore, the term "namby pamby" came into widespread usage to describe any nonsensical frippery. "
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was set as well as written by Carey, and its main characters are a sailor, Nancy, and a Press Gang officer. The play broke new ground in explicitly treating a contemporary matter of social concern in song (Gillespie 128).
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On 13 July 1717, Carey lost both of his posts, at Drury Lane and at
Lincoln's Inn, for a singular political statement: Harley had just been freed from the Tower and had attended Lincoln's Inn Church, and Carey set
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in 1732. These two characteristics—a love of opera and frustration at its abuses and a love of patriotism and frustration at
Walpole's policies—would show up in all of Carey's professional works.
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Aside from rumor, it is impossible to be sure of Carey's parents. It is possible that a Henry and a Mary Carey, both school teachers, were his parents. Indeed, his first profession, according to
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say that he was despondent over financial difficulties. Grief over the death of his son is another possible explanation of his suicide, and
Suzanne Aspden speculates that Carey suffered from
728:, while others have suspected that he had depression or other maladies. His daughter Anne became an actress and bore an illegitimate son, Edmund Carey, who later was known as the actor
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for the middle gentry, a position he held while also working as an author, so these two Careys are the most likely candidates for at least his surrogate, if not his biological, parents.
680:, and in the 19th century opinion of Carey's clear, simple, and memorable ballad tunes went even higher. Also in 1738, he helped found the Fund for Decayed Musicians, and he produced
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Henry Carey's work has been tarred with allegations of triviality since his own day. He had an extraordinary gift with melody and wordplay, and later authors, such as
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says that Carey had an annuity, he left a pregnant second wife (Sarah, whom he married between 1729 and 1733) and three dependent children, and both
Hawkins and
665:(Gillespie 128). The play itself is very brief on the page, as it relied extensively on absurd theatrics, dances, and other non-textual entertainments.
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Even though Carey lost those two positions, he was soon back at Drury Lane, and he married
Elizabeth Pearks in September. He produced his second play,
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project. Their goal was to revive serious opera in English. Together, they formed the English Opera Company, and Carey wrote two librettos, for
403:, a well-known figure among those opposed to Robert Walpole, and the poem had been praised by Alexander Pope (as "Sally in our Alley" had been by
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to satirize the abandonment of drama for puppets), and Carey provided the music to some of these productions. In 1723, he wrote the music for
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and Alexander Pope, thought that the operatic stars were absurd. Therefore, he began to satirize opera in 1726 and in that year he produced
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Carey's son, Charles, died in 1743, and Carey hanged himself at his home in London later that year. He was buried in St James Churchyard,
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396:", one of Carey's songs, was also exceptionally successful, and it has been performed by many singers through to the modern era.
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The uncertainty concerning the author of the words and music of "God save the King", has been removed by the testimony of Mr.
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Having satirized the foreignness of opera, in 1734 Carey turned his attention to the poorly written, mass-produced tragedy.
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It concludes with "Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped."
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in two volumes. Although Carey complained that his enemies were calling him "Ballad-maker," the work was praised later by
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around 1710 (Gillespie 127). His first poetry publication came in 1713, the year of the height of the Tory ministry under
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A Library of Poetry and Song: Being Choice Selections from The Best Poets. With An Introduction by William Cullen Bryant
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141:. He performed there with his music students. The Tory ministry fell with the death of Anne, and Robert Walpole's
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Scholars have trouble identifying Carey's first works, because he was probably writing anonymously. According to
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and satire in opera did. He had previously satirized the exoticism and emptiness of the English public's love of
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meeting, and there is some reason to attribute the song to him. The Bath Chronicle of 13 August 1795 recounted:
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43:(c. 26 August 1687 – 5 October 1743) was an English poet, dramatist and composer. He is remembered as an anti-
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into a full mock-opera. This literary adaptation was a step beyond adapting literary plays into ballads (as
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to the later style of Arne by combining popular English folks song and tavern song with Italian flourishes.
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was a great popular success, but the opera company failed, and the project came to nought (Gillespie 128).
275:, he was aiming not at the musicians and composers, but rather at the replacement of drama with spectacle.
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The earliest published version of God Save the King (for two voices) seems to date from the early 1740s.
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and actually came to blows the next year during a performance of Handel. In the next year, he wrote
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and his circle, and yet Carey appears to have been an unambiguous supporter of the Tory ministry of
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had done), for it began with a folk ballad and transformed it into opera. The play, with music by
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Although Carey's attempt to revive serious, patriotic English opera did not work, his attempts at
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plays he had collaborated on at Drury Lane. The play was daring, for it was a satire of
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from 1739 contains engravings showing how the staging was performed (Gillespie 128).
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over the coming months, and, while St. John fled, Harley was imprisoned in the
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Aspden, Suzanne. "Henry Carey," in Matthew, H.C.G. and Brian Harrison, eds.
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Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us:
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work was a weekly publication of a serialized romance fictions entitled
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As a playwright, Carey was a significant figure in the re-emergence of
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Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul."
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to a jaunty, celebratory tune and sang it. The Psalm concerns the
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Henry Carey was born in London and was the illegitimate son of
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128). He was responsible for linking the vocal style of
564:(an opposition playhouse favored by Henry Fielding)) and
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In the same year, Carey may have been the first to sing "
407:). Carey was an admirer and subscriber to the operas of
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were on the rise. The leaders of the former government,
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423:. Faustina was at that time in a hissing fight with
205:'s satire of pantomime and puppet theatricals, 1724.
866:(scanned books original editions color illustrated)
674:The Musical Century in one Hundred English Ballads
83:
560:(set by Lampe and acted at the Little Theatre at
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871:The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
820:, New York, J.B. Ford and Company, 1871, p. 52.
627:singers and castrati, but in 1737, he adapted
893:. Vol. 9. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
511:Carey was favored by the older generation of
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690:He had another popular success in 1739 with
682:Margery, or, a Worse Plague than the Dragon,
253:, and Barton Booth were patronized first by
845:The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
383:'s wrath. Philips had written a series of
288: There's none like pretty Sally;
161:. In 1715, Carey wrote his first play, an
507:drama in the 1730s. After the success of
133:In 1714, Carey had a job as a psalmist at
973:International Music Score Library Project
792:"Henry Carey - National Portrait Gallery"
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589:and, particularly, the very hack-written
349:O, then we'll wed, and then we'll bed, -
929:Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)
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300: And she lives in our alley.
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19:For other people named Henry Carey, see
1032:English male dramatists and playwrights
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609:. He followed that up with the ballad
442:In 1730, he added music and introduced
339: Make game of me and Sally,
334: And she lives in our alley.
322: O, then I shall have money!
317: And she lives in our alley.
305: I dearly love but one day,
292: And she lives in our alley.
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869:Gillespie, Norman. "Henry Carey," in
347: O, then I'll marry Sally!
345:But when my seven long years are out,
343: A slave, and row a galley;
330: I'd give it all to Sally;
326: I'll give it to my honey;
313: To walk abroad with Sally;
307:And that's the day that comes betwixt
296: Is half so sweet as Sally;
265:and Harley and the literary circle of
62:George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax
16:English poet, dramatist and songwriter
328:O, would it were ten thousand pound!
309: The Saturday and Monday;
279:Namby Pamby and anti-Walpolean satire
324:I'll hoard it up, and, box and all,
181:of the Israelites, announcing that
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332:For she's the darling of my heart,
286:Of all the girls that are so smart
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1007:English dramatists and playwrights
533:, Carey turned to writing musical
417:Faustina, or, the Roman Songstress
379:, a frequent and famous target of
351: But not in our alley!
320:When Christmas comes about again,
311:For then I'm drest all in my best
303:Of all the days that's in the week
223:plays in London (inducing a young
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1052:English male classical composers
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890:Dictionary of National Biography
337:My master and the neighbors all
857:"Boz" (Ed.) (Charles Dickens),
716:While the anonymous account in
568:(set by Smith and performed at
456:Betty, or, The Country Bumpkins
315:She is the darling of my heart,
298:She is the darling of my heart,
290:She is the darling of my heart,
84:Early musical and literary work
1057:Suicides by hanging in England
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341:And but for her I'd better be
76:, was as a music teacher in a
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945:Works by or about Henry Carey
880:"Carey, Henry (d.1743)"
829:Grimaldi (Boz edition), p. 94
693:Nancy, or, The Parting Lovers
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983:Choral Public Domain Library
672:From 1737 to 1740, he wrote
294:There is no lady in the land
21:Henry Carey (disambiguation)
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1012:English classical composers
960:(public domain audiobooks)
552:and Henry Carey formed the
257:and his circle and then by
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979:Free scores by Henry Carey
969:Free scores by Henry Carey
859:Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi
599:George II of Great Britain
585:was a parody of bombastic
485:Carey as dramatic satirist
237:(text, such as it was, by
127:Poems on Several Occasions
18:
1017:English Baroque composers
849:vol. 10, 80–81. London:
615:The Honest Yorkshire-Man.
450:, and put the play on as
118:Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
100:wits, Carey worked as a "
877:Stephen, Leslie (1887).
718:The Gentleman's Magazine
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66:The Gentleman's Magazine
910:Encyclopædia Britannica
667:The Musical Entertainer
446:for his previous play,
387:to "all persons", from
773:References and sources
686:The Dragon of Wantley.
550:John Christopher Smith
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34:John Faber the Younger
1062:Suicides in Islington
736:Literary significance
630:The Dragon of Wantley
493:An 1818 playbill for
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452:The Clown's Stratagem
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954:Works by Henry Carey
936:Works by Henry Carey
904:"Carey, Henry"
751:Chrononhotonthologos
647:John Frederick Lampe
582:Chrononhotonthologos
570:Lincoln's Inn Fields
542:John Frederick Lampe
523:'s invention of the
496:Chrononhotonthologos
448:Hanging and Marriage
359:"Sally In Our Alley"
212:Hanging and Marriage
651:The Beggar's Opera.
595:Caroline of Ansbach
429:Mocking is Catching
137:church and also at
90:Laetitia Pilkington
52:movement in drama.
1047:English male poets
530:The Beggar's Opera
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394:Sally in Our Alley
375:(1725), satirized
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153:, were accused of
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940:Project Gutenberg
873:vol. 15, 127–128.
463:God Save the King
425:Francesca Cuzzoni
399:Carey was, after
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989:Free scores
925:Henry Carey
746:Namby Pamby
742:Edward Lear
730:Edmund Kean
711:Clerkenwell
656:recitatives
625:prima donna
546:Thomas Arne
401:Namby Pamby
372:Namby Pamby
272:The Dunciad
50:"Patriotic"
41:Henry Carey
1001:Categories
801:5 February
796:npg.org.uk
778:References
535:burlesques
369:His poem,
163:afterpiece
139:Drury Lane
122:Queen Anne
56:Early life
603:burlesque
591:spectacle
566:Teraminta
540:In 1732,
519:. After
505:satirical
357:From the
230:Harlequin
221:spectacle
217:pantomime
175:Psalm 124
165:entitled
102:subaltern
45:Walpolean
958:LibriVox
756:Macaulay
726:paranoia
643:John Gay
521:John Gay
437:castrati
433:Senesino
413:John Gay
981:in the
975:(IMSLP)
971:at the
947:at the
927:at the
887:(ed.).
862:, from
853:, 2004.
837:Sources
660:da capo
633:from a
587:tragedy
465:" at a
444:ballads
234:Faustus
155:treason
639:ballad
621:parody
574:Amelia
558:Amelia
409:Handel
179:Exodus
883:. In
705:Death
698:Nancy
663:arias
637:folk
611:farce
605:with
527:with
475:Smith
361:poem
143:Whigs
124:with
104:" to
803:2019
748:and
658:and
597:and
572:).
513:Tory
385:odes
232:Dr.
219:and
149:and
98:Tory
36:1729
956:at
938:at
851:OUP
613:of
1003::
907:.
794:.
732:.
713:.
548:,
544:,
249:,
847:.
805:.
498:.
170:.
129:.
23:.
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