Historic Sheet Music Collection
Title
Document Type
Score
Publication Date
1848
Lyrics
Ask my not why my heart with fond emotion
Beats for the brave companions of my youth!
Had they not tended me with love's devotion
I had not liv'd, alas, to prove my truth:
A helpless babe upon the field I lay,
And but for them my life had pass'd away
My life had pass'd away:
Ere I forget, then, all their loving kindness
Bring o'er my heart oblivion of the past:
But when you win for me that fatal blindness,
In mercy let that moment, that moment be my last.
Chide me no more, were I devoid of feeling
Would my ingratitude not wake thy fears!
Worthless would be this moment's fond revealing,
If I could cast aside the ties of long long years.
Thou hast my love; thine is a mother's claim,
To them forget not that thou ow'st the name,
My mother, my mother dear,
Ere I can cease to think of all their kindness
Bring &c.
Recommended Citation
Donizetti, Gaetano, "Child of the Regiment" (1848). Historic Sheet Music Collection. 715.
https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/sheetmusic/715
The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author.
Comments
As sung in the opera of La Figlia del Reggimento
The Child of the Regiment
English words by Charles Jefferys
Music by Donizetti, Arranged by C.W. Glover
THE ARGUMENT. During the occupation of the Tyrol by the French and after a skirmish between the hostile ranks, an infant child was found alone in their camp by the 11th Regiment of the Grand Army of Napoleon: by that regiment she was fostered and beloved, and all were proud of the charming Vivandiere: Maria, the name give to the child, upon the attainment of her 18th year was discovered to be the daughter of the Marchioness de Berkenfield: and by her removed to a sphere more consonant to the dignity of her birth: still the affectionate girl found it impossible to shake off the attachment of her childhood, and being reproached by her mother with want of pride, defended herself in the words of this song, which is so exquisitely sung by the renowned Cantatrice, JENNY LIND, in the Opera of "LA FILLE DU REGIMENT," as to entitle it to be called the gem of the Opera.
Boston. Publisher not identified.
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