Annotation:I was sleeping last night

Back to I was sleeping last night

---

I WAS SLEEPING LAST NIGHT. Irish, Air (3/4 time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Dr. Hudson's note to his "Di me codlad anein" goes:

"Was I in my sleeping state last night;" an air which tumbled out to us from our own miscellaneous collection one night just as we were leaping into bed. We lay down, marveling greatly what could have happened in his sleep to the man who wrote it, centuries ago, to make him celebrate his adventure in song! But though we strove to work up our imagination from generation to generation, through all ages of English, Danish, and other foreign dominations, as high as Heremon, Heber, and Ith, yet our senses were steeped in sleep, our thoughts returned to the miseries of our own times--at most, went no higher than "the last disgraceful century." Tithes and taxes, parsons and proctors, thronged around our pillow; and now you shall hear how the harrassed us even in the visions of the night!

"I WAS SLEEPING LAST NIGHT."

Last night as I slept all alone in my bed,
The full moon was shining just over my head;
Such a knocking and thumping I heard at the door,
That I jumped out of bed in a fright on the floor;
And what should I see to my dread and surprise,
But the Devil himself, when I opened my eyes!
I was sure it was he, by the horns and the tail,
His feet they were cloven, his beard like a flail.

Three more stanzas are printed in the periodical.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: The Dublin Magazine, August, 1842; No. 26.

Recorded sources:

---