How Stands the Glass Around

"How Stands the Glass Around", also referred to as "General Wolfe's Song", is an English folk song.[1] The lyrics express the suffering of soldiers, wherefore the song was primarily popular among people serving in the military.[2] It deals with the helplessness experienced during war and the boldness demanded in the military, but also about reducing fear and pain by consuming alcohol. One paper suggests that it was the favourite song of Alexander Hamilton.[3]

James Wolfe, posthumous portrait

Background

The oldest known reference to the song is an alternative text written for a ballad opera in the year 1729.[4][1][2] It became notorious after Wolfe was reported to have sung it before the Battle of the Plains of Abraham (1759), gaining thereby the alternative title of "General Wolfe's Song".[1][2][5]

Lyrics

How stands the glass around
For shame, ye take no care, me boys
How stands the glass around
Let mirth and wine abound
The trumpets sound
The colours, they are flying, boys
To fight, kill or wound
May we still be found
Content with our hard fare, me boys
On the cold ground

Why, soldiers, why
Should we be melancholy, boys
Why, soldiers, why
Whose business ’tis to die
What sighing fie
Damn fear, drink on, be jolly boys
’Tis he, you and I
Cold, hot, wet or dry
We’re always bound to follow, boys
And scorn to fly

’Tis but in vain
I mean not to upbraid you, boys
’Tis but in vain
For soldiers to complain
Should next campaign
Send us to Him that made us, boys
We’re free from pain
But should we remain
A bottle and kind landlady
Cures all again

Melody

Further use
  • The composer William Shield made use of the song for his opera Siege of Gibraltar (1780).[1][2]
  • The sonata Siege of Quebec by William de Krifft begins with the melody of How Stands the Glass Around.[6]
  • The band Wilderun conceived a metal arrangement of How Stands the Glass Around.[7]

Trivia

Recordings
  • Townley, John. "How Stands the Glass Around".
  • Walker, Ben. "How Stands the Glass Around".

Sources
  1. W. Chappell (1838), A Collection of National English Airs, Consisting of Ancient Song, Ballad, & Dance Tunes, Interspersed with Remarks and Anecdote, and Preceded by an Essay on English Minstrelsy, p. 48
  2. "The Country 'squire: together with How stands the glass". americanantiquarian.org. American Antiquarian Society. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  3. "What Was Hamilton's "Favorite Song"?", The William and Mary Quarterly, Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 298-307, April 1955, doi:10.2307/1920510
  4. Odell, Thomas (1729), The patron: or, the statesman's opera. As it is acted at the theatres in London. By Mr. Odell. Dedicated to the Right Honourable the Earl of Sunderland., p. 7
  5. Fisichella, Brandon (2017-10-12). "The Soldier's Lament: How Stands the Glass Around?". YouTube. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  6. "Siege of Quebec, a sonata for the harpsichord or piano-forte, with accompaniments for a violin, violoncello, & tympano ad libitum, composed by W. B. de Krifft". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  7. "Wilderun ― How Stands the Glass Around? (Live at The Middle East)". YouTube. 2013-05-20. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  8. Stephen Carl Arch: Writing a Federalist Self: Alexander Graydon's Memoirs of a Life . In: The William and Mary Quarterly . tape 52 , no. 3 . Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, July 1995, pp. 415-432 , doi : 10.2307 / 2947293 (English).
  9. Graydon, Alexander (1846). Littell, John Stockton (ed.). Memoirs of His Own Time. With Reminiscences of the Men and Events of the Revolution. Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston. p. 164.
  10. Francis S. Drake: Dictionary of American Biography. James R. Osgood and Company, Boston 1874, p. 377
  11. Alexander Graydon. In: Penn People. University Archives and Records Center
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