When Bibo went dawn to the Regions below.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 45, 20 May 1875, Page 7

When Bibo went dawn to the Regions below.

A friend writes to the- * Easy Chair ' for the words of a song which is familiar by its first line — -

" Wliea.Bibo wont down tqthefegioris below.'* It was well known in the Century Club' in tbe Thackeray era, and many of the habitues who see the words will recall those evenings when Thackery himself trolled Martin Luther 'of Little Billte, and .Paul Duggan crooned the Widow Machree ; when, a young exile of Erin sang the Bells of. Shandon. .with a melodious , pathos " that " still' echoes in in memory, and .Mr : Sparrowgrass did justice to " St. Patrick was a gentleman." It was in the legendary andrepublican epoch 'of the club, before the magnificent imperial era in which it now basks ; in- the modest days of Clinton . Place, when -Mr Verplank used to talk of actors and the drama and the 'theatre, and the youngermembers dropped, in. after hearing Jenny Lind in Trippler Hall, and were told that they ought to have heard Malibran. Then Kane came back from the north pole, and the stories of the dapper little man were listened to as if he had been Robinson Crusbe just returned^ or even Captain Gulliver. Darley. was there j with quick nervous humour, arid graphic imitative gesture whifehmade the frog or the animal of which he spoke :move .before the eye. And once or twice, brought by some kindly admirer, bW Vanderlyn, to whom Napoleon .Bonaparte had.awarded a medal, which seemed- to consume him, as the apparition of Jove consumed Seiriele, for he: did afterward no more of note, and.lived upon thatgreat remembrance, It was pleasant to see the respect with which 1 the 1 younger -artists treated the old man— old and poor- and forlorn — and sad to think how swiitly his' name fades from mernbryv : The sentiment of the'song.of Bibo, if it has any, is at its own risk. Perhaps such strains are no longer 'heard * in the Century, and indeed it -belongs rather to the last than to this. It' imports a two-bottle era, and might have been heard .at Sir Jonah Barrington's banquets. 4 It is . preserved in the " Universal* Sbrigster"," of which a friend writes that it " was published in parts in London some thirty years^agp, ( with woodcuts designed and etched by Cruikshank, the whole .being ~riK#> embraced in. three volumes octavo, and being the fullest' collection I know of English 'songs.' -?X- '."■ '.'rXUl'jL

„ Air-:— " To Anacreon in. Heaven" ** When Bibo 'went down to .the regions below; ■■■X ,> ■"- '■'•■'■'"■'■■•■ Where Lethe and, Styx round eternity flow, He awoke, arid he bello wed, ahd "would be rowed baok- ' '. > ■•' • ' For hi8 t bouI; it w.aa thirsty, and, wanted ' some sack/" " Uj : ■' r - '-•'■' ■ :-y '•- " Your I ''"druiikj 1 ' Charon" cried ; " you were drums when yp.u died, t So you felt^ribt'the pain that 1 to ; death is allied." .-.'.. :-: ■ -a •..-.-. ,;; y " Take me back," roared out Bibo ; " I

mind not the pain,, .... For ifi was drunk, let me die bhcc again." " Forget," .replied ..Charon, "those regions of strife : Thitiklb'f Ilefhe divine— 'tis the fountain of

life, Where the soul is new-born, aud all past . r rira dfefitn,- : ■'--: •"' r-»

And the gods themselves sip- of the caredrowning Stream." " Let.,the...g<jds, then,';, he • Cried, "still -armk wate'rtmft J wlll y Tbe maxims ofmortals I al ways-fulfil. Prate, prate not/ to. me of your Lstbe ■ % ;r diviT|,e- J;' t-r (■., nr'. / 7/- rr. T t .-, -r Our i t6thFbVeatth:^9a ou4f^r*of wine."* ! roar, . . ... -y. And .•the^-^j'j^bj'Sk struck the Stygian; shore; When Bibo arose,,;; and he staggered to huxd y - - -yyXi&x y- \y ■■. y '.--■'}■ •'--.* But he jostled^the^dst^Peyiteoia on.