ABSTRACT
Written by Charles Dibdin (1745–1814), Soldier’s Adieu was reprinted many times in Britain and America, with eight copies surviving in the Bodleian collection alone. The versions were markedly similar, and very slight wording variation did little to change the meaning of each line. Dibdin had directly experienced the terrors of war, being on a ship that was captured by the French in the Seven Years War, before his rise in renown as an actor and composer. Decades later, in 1803, the popular songwriter was given a contract to produce music and lyrics to promote support for the troops. The honest admiration of the military expressed in these creations helped to fuel their success. The Soldier’s Adieu, first performed in 1790 in Dibdin’s opera called The Wags, helped to build the songwriter’s reputation as a friend of the military and a valuable ally for its public relations. This song imparted an image of the appropriate behaviour of a soldier’s wife on the eve of his embarkation. While his duty dictated that he bravely face “thundering cannons”, hers required that she maintain a stalwart smile to send him off, preserve herself while he was gone, and pray fervently for his safety. Where other ballads tended to depict passionate women as following their soldier into war, this sort of imagery allowed women a different role to play. At the same time, however, it glorified both the warrior and his bride who stayed behind.
