Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms: A Song History

← Back to Browse By Song

Thomas Moore's "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms" appeared in A Selection of Irish Melodies, a series issued in numbers by the music sellers W. Power of Dublin and J. Power of London, with symphonies and accompaniments by Sir John Stevenson.^[1]^[2] The Morgan Library catalogues the series as 1808-1834 and dates its own copy of the first two numbers to 1808; the Irish Song Project at Queen's University Belfast places this song in the second volume, which the Morgan identifies as numbers three and four, and gives that volume as Dublin, around 1808.^[1]^[3] Drawing on Granger's Index to Poetry, the Traditional Ballad Index calls it Moore's most popular song, appearing in at least eighteen of the anthologies indexed there, though its compiler knows of no versions collected from tradition.^[4] A story, best treated as legend, holds that Moore wrote it to console a woman, perhaps his wife, whose looks had been spoiled by smallpox; the Ballad Index takes it from Robert Gogan's 2004 songbook 130 Great Irish Ballads and cautions that Gogan's book contains claims that are plainly false.^[4]

Transfer-printed plate showing Harvard Hall framed by a border of flowers

Job & John Jackson, plate with a view of Harvard Hall, transfer-printed earthenware, ca. 1831–35. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown for the air’s later life as “Fair Harvard.”

The melody is older than Moore's words: the Ballad Index dates a printing of the tune to 1775.^[4] The Irish Song Project names Moore's air as "My Lodging Is on the Cold Ground," and the Traditional Tune Archive says a version under that title (which it gives as "My Lodging Is on the Cold Cold Ground") was printed on broadsides and song sheets in the mid-eighteenth century.^[3]^[5] Before Moore took it up, according to the Irish Song Project, the air had been fitted with several texts in England over the 1700s, and a few of those songs, including the one that named the tune, were sung in Ireland as well.^[3] Sources differ on where the air comes from: the Tune Archive classes it as both Irish and English, while Harvard says the traditional music of its alma mater comes from an Irish folk song.^[5]^[6]

That alma mater is "Fair Harvard," which the Ballad Index, citing James Fuld's Book of World Famous Music, links to Moore's song.^[6]^[4] The Reverend Samuel Gilman, a Harvard graduate of 1811, wrote it for the college's bicentennial in 1836.^[7] His four stanzas were printed on a broadside in the order of services for the celebration on September 8, 1836, and in 1913 the Harvard Crimson reported that this was the day it was first sung.^[8]^[9] Moore's song also reached records early: the tenor James McCool recorded it with orchestra for Victor on October 6, 1905, and the single-faced disc, Victor 4594, was released in March 1906.^[10]

Find books with Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms for sale →