Henry Carey, born in 1685 (1692?), died in London, Oct. 4, 1743. Dramatic composer, said to have been a natural son of George Savile, Marquis of Halifax; pupil of Olaus Westeinson Linnert, of Roseingrave, and of Geminiani. His instruction was limited, and he was obliged to teach for a living. He wrote many musical dramas which were popular in their time, but he is now remembered chiefly by his ballad “Sally in our Alley,” and by the attempt to prove him to be the composer of “God save the King.” Carey may have arranged and perhaps altered this national air, and it is reasonably certain that he first sang it in public, but the melody is probably older than his time. His posthumous son, George Savile Carey (1743–1807), poet and dramatist, tried to substantiate his father’s claim to its authorship, but the question still remains undecided. Henry Carey is said to have committed suicide, but this is doubtful. Works—Musical dramas, etc.: “The Contrivances,” London, 1715; “Betty,” 1732; “Cephalus and Procris,” 1733; “The Honest Yorkshireman,” 1735; “Nancy,” 1739; Six cantatas (1732); “The Musical Century”—one hundred English ballads written and composed by himself (1739–40). He was the author also of plays and poems.
Personal
Was a man of facetious temper, resembling Leveridge in many respects. He was a musician by profession, and one of the lower order of poets; his first preceptor in music was Olaus Westeinson Linnert, a German; he received some farther instructions from Roseingrave; and, lastly, was in some sort a disciple of Geminiani. But with all the advantages he might be supposed to have derived from these instructors, the extent of his abilities seems to have been the composition of a ballad air, or at most a little cantata, to which he was just able to set a bass…. With all his mirth and good humour, Carey seems to have been at times deeply affected with malevolence of some of his own profession, who, for reasons that no one can guess at, were his enemies: It is true that in some of his poems he manifests a contempt for them, but it is easy to discover that it is dissembled…. As a musician Carey seems to have been one of the first of the lowest rank; and as a poet, the last of that class of which D’Urfey was the first, with this difference, that in all the songs and poems written by him on wine, love, and such kind of subjects, he seems to have manifested an inviolable regard for decency and good manners.
At the time that this poet could neither walk the streets nor be seated at the convivial board, without listening to his own songs and his own music—for, in truth, the whole nation was echoing his verse, and crowded theatres were applauding his wit and humour—while this very man himself, urged by his strong humanity, founded a “Fund for decayed Musicians”—he was so broken-hearted, and his own common comforts so utterly neglected, that in despair, not waiting for nature to relieve him from the burden of existence, he laid violent hands on himself; and when found dead, had only a half penny in his pocket! Such was the fate of the author of some of the most popular pieces in our language. He left a son, who inherited his misery, and a gleam of his genius.
God Save the King, 1740?
On Saturday night last, the audience at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, were agreeably surprised by the gentlemen belonging to that house performing the anthem of God save our noble King. The universal applause it met with,—being encored with repeated huzzas, sufficiently denoted in how just an abhorence they hold the arbitrary schemes of our insidious enemies, and detest the despotick attempts of Papal power.
The anecdote you mention, respecting your father’s being the author and composer of “God Save the King,” is certainly true. That most respectable gentleman, my worthy friend and patient, Mr. Smith, has often told me what follows, viz., “That your father came to him with the words and music, desiring him to correct the bass which was not proper; and at your father’s request Mr. Smith wrote another bass in harmony.” Mr. Smith (John Christopher Smith, Handel’s amanuensis), to whom I read your letter this day, repeated the same account, and on this authority I pledged myself for the truth of the statement.
Objections may be taken to Carey’s claim, because “God save the King” was published anonymously. I do not attach any importance to that fact, because I have before me several others of his songs so printed. The copies were, in all probability, obtained surreptitiously. He complains of this piracy in the preface to the first volume of “The Musical Century,” 1737, and states his losses on that account to have averaged nearly 300£ a year…. Carey’s last musical publication bears date Jan., 1740, and that is the year in which he is stated to have sung “God save the King” at a Tavern in Cornhill. The celebration of Admiral Vernon’s victory was certainly an appropriate time for its production. Carey died in October, 1743, and “God save the King” first became extensively popular in October, 1745. It was the rebellion of that year that called forth such repeated expressions of loyalty, and caused so much enthusiasm when the song was sung at all the theatres.
Its first public performance is said to have been at a dinner in 1740 to celebrate the taking of Portobello by Admiral Vernon (Nov. 20, 1739), when it is said to have been sung by Henry Carey as his own composition, both words and music. The nearest known copy to that date is that in the “Harmonia Anglicana” of 1742 or 43…. This is the nearest we can arrive at to the original form of the air and words, and both will be found somewhat different from those with which we are familiar. The fact that Henry Carey was the author of both, is testified to by J. Christopher Smith, Handel’s amanuensis, and by Dr. Harington…. The Pretender was proclaimed at Edinburgh Sept. 16, and the first appearance of “God save the King” was at Drury Lane, Sept. 28. For a month or so it was much sung at both Covent Garden and Drury Lane; Burney harmonised it for the former, and Arne for the latter. Both words and music were printed, the latter in their present form, in the Gentleman’s Magazine, Oct. 1745. How far “God save the King” was complied from older airs will probably never be known. Several exist with a certain resemblance to the modern tune.
Carey has been credited with the authorship of “God save the Queen.” The first known publication of this was in the “Harmonia Anglicana,” 1742, where it is anonymous. Carey did not include it in his “Century.” It first being popular after his death, during the rebellion of 1745. The actor Victor describes the performance in a contemporary letter to Garrick, and says that it was an old anthem sung in the chapel of James II. when William III. was expected. Arne arranged it for Drury Lane, and Burney for Covent Garden. Burney told Isaac D’Israeli that the authorship was unknown, and gives the same account of its origin as Victor. Fifty years later, Carey’s son, George Savile Carey, claimed it for his father in order to justify a request for a pension. His only authority was J. C. Smith, who told Dr. Harington of Bath, on 13 June, 1795, that Henry Carey had brought it to him in order to correct the bass. Smith was the friend of Handel, and had been a collaborator with Carey. A Mr. Townshend is said to have told John Ashley of Bath, who told W. L. Bowles, in 1828, that he had heard Carey sing the anthem at a tavern on occasion of Vernon’s capture of Portobello in 1740. Some internal evidence in favor of Carey is suggested in Bowles’s “Life of Ken,” but the improbability that Carey should have left the authorship unclaimed, that his family should not have claimed it when it became popular, and that Arne (to whom he must have been well known) and Burney should have been unable to discover the authorship at the time, seems to overbalance the small probability of the much later statements, which, moreover, if accepted, do not establish Carey’s authorship.
Will it ever be definitely known who wrote and composed our national anthem—an anthem that is familiar all the whole wide world over? During the Chicago Exhibition a body of World’s Fair representatives of twenty-seven different nationalities, speaking when at home fifteen different languages, crossed the Canadian frontier at Gretna in Manitoba on August 29th, 1893, for the purpose of heartily cheering Queen Victoria and singing “God Save the Queen.” Yet, particulars concerning the origin of the melody are so conflicting that we doubt if it will ever be absolutely proved whence it sprang. The vast majority of those who have gone into the subject incline to favour the claim put forward for Henry Carey.
Sally in Our Alley
A vulgar error having long prevailed among many persons, who imagine Sally Salisbury the subject of this ballad, the Author begs leave to undeceive and assure them it has not the least allusion to her, he being a stranger to her very name at the time this Song was composed. For as innocence and virtue were ever the boundaries to his Muse, so in this little poem he had no other view than to set forth the beauty of a chaste and disinterested passion, even in the lowest class of human life. The real occasion was this: a Shoemaker’s ’Prentice making holiday with his Sweetheart, treated her with a sight of Bedlam, the puppet-shows, the flying-chairs, and all the elegancies of Moorfields: from whence proceeding to the Farthing-pie-house, he gave her a collation of buns, cheese-cakes, gammon of bacon, stuff’d beef, and bottled ale; through all which scenes the Author dodged them (charmed with the simplicity of their courtship), from whence he drew his little sketch of nature; but being then young and obscure, he was very much ridiculed by some of his acquaintance for this performance; which nevertheless made its way into the polite world, and amply recompensed him by the applause of the divine Addison, who was pleased (more than once) to mention it with approbation.
Though he had but little skill in music, he had a prolific invention, and very early in his life distinguished himself by the composition of songs, being the author both of the words and the music: one of these, beginning “Of all the girls that are so smart,” he set to an air so very pretty, and withal so original, that it was sung by everybody.
Of all his compositions, the most popular, and that which will transmit his name to posterity, is his ballad of “Sally in our Alley,” one of the most striking and original melodies that ever emanated from the brain of a musician.
General
Carey was a true son of the Muses, and the most successful writer in our language. He is the author of several little national poems. In early life he successfully burlesqued the affected versification of Ambrose Philips, in his baby poems, to which he gave the fortunate appellation of “Namby Pamby, a panegyric on the new versification;” a term descriptive in sound of those chiming follies, and now become a technical term in modern criticism. Carey’s “Namby Pamby” was at first considered by Swift as the satirical effusion of Pope, and by Pope as the humorous ridicule of Swift. His ballad of “Sally in our Alley” was more than once commended for its nature by Addison, and is sung to this day. Of the national song, “God save the King,” it is supposed he was the author both of the words and of the music. He was very successful on the stage, and wrote admirable burlesques of the Italian Opera, in “The Dragon of Wantley,” and “The Dragoness;” and the mock tragedy of “Chrononhotonthologos” is not forgotten. Among his Poems lie still concealed several original pieces; those which have a political turn are particularly good, for the politics of Carey were those of a poet and a patriot.
