Annotation:Sweet William's Farewell to Black-Ey'd Susan
X:1 T:Black Eyed Susan [2] T:Sweet Williams Farewell to Black-Ey’d Susan M:3/4 L:1/8 R:Air B:Elias Howe – Second Part of the Musician’s Companion (1843, p. 6) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Dmin A2d2e2|(f2e2)d2|(e2 ^cd)e2|A6|B2A2G2|F2E2D2|F>G A2G2| A6|A2d2e2|(f2e2)d2|(f>g) a2^g2|a6|a2g2f2|c4 f2| (g2f2)e2|f6|a2g2f2|(g2f2)e2|(f2e2)d2|^c2d2e2|A6| F2A2=B2|(c2=B2)A2|A2d2e2|(f2e2)a2|A4d2|e2d2^c2|d6||
SWEET WILLIAM'S FAREWELL (TO BLACK-EYE'D SUSAN). AKA and see "All in the Downs," "Thus when the swallow seeking prey," "Black Eyed Susan (2)." English, Air (3/4 time). C Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The music to this ballad is by Richard Leveridge while the words are by playwright John Gay, based on the popular story of the courtship of William Whitcraft and Susan Cole, of Plymouth, commonly known as "Sweet William" and "Black-Eyed Susan" (from a c. 1775 chapbook, perhaps from Newcastle, called A Western Garland where it gives the story in verse). A version of this ballad was frequently reprinted in the late 18th-century as “William and Susan's Garland.” The lyric was first published by Gay in 1720, but was set to music by Leveridge and appeared in Watts' Musical Miscellany (1730), then ballad operas and broadsides from 1730 and later. Chappell and Scott note that Leveridge was "a genial and popular personage, possessed of a fine (bass) voice..," who was in the habit of challenging people to singing contests. In general, however (and despite his popular tune "Roast Beef of Old England (The)"), he was thought a rather dull and mediocre composer; Chappel thinks the original tune for "Sweet William" was improved by time and the alterations of other performers. Gay also used the tune in his popular opera The Beggar's Opera (1729) under the title "Thus when the swallow, seeking prey."
When Vauxhall Gardens was re-opened to the public in 1736, Peter Monamy was one of the artists commissioned to paint scenes of the creations and recreations of English life. One of the subjects he chose to illustrate was Gay’s song “Sweet William’s Farewell to Black-Eyed Susan.” Rod Stradling and Mike Yates (in a 2000 Musical Traditions article on singer Walter Pardon) note that “the song became extremely popular for 100 years or more - so much so that a number of sequels sprang up to trade on the original's popularity. Sweet William's Return to his Dear Susan was followed by Sweet Susan's Constancy and The True Answer to Black-Ey'd Susan … there may have been others (vague rumours of Son of Black-Eyed Susan and Black-Eyed Susan Goes Line-Dancing have been heard …) Even a stage play resulted, Black-Eyed Susan or All in the Downs (1829), involving the imagined melodramatic consequences of Sweet William's return.” Frank McHugh, writing on the London theatre season of 1812-1813, records: “David Mayer notes that the character Black-Eyed Susan appeared in pantomime soon after Jerrold's melodrama of 1829, but that she had appeared much earlier--in fact in the Sans Pareil pantomime of 1812-13, Davy Jones's Locker; or, Black-Eyed Susan. Mayer says, "A summary of the pantomime in the playbill of the 1813 Davy Jones suggests how extensively the character of Black Ey'd Susan belonged to the theatre, equally suitable to pantomime arrangers and to such serious dramatists as Jerrold" (Harlequin in His Element, 82-3).”
Gay’s lyric begins:
All in the Downs the Fleet was moor'd
The streamers waving in the wind,
When Balck-eyed Susan came on board
"O where shall I my true love find?
Tell me, jovial sailoers, tell me true,
If my Sweet William sails among the crew?”
The song’s popularity waned greatly after the mid-19th century, although there were occasional survivals to modern times in tradition. Stradling and Yates cite its appearance in Bob Hart’s, of Snape, Suffolk, repertoire in the 1970’s, and Walter Pardon’s sound recording.
