Thus it may have been the concept of the phrase that Major William Jackson had in mind when, forty-one years later, he invented the dialogue reporting on the Yorktown negotiations. The Footman apes the Manners of his Master,Īnd every Scribbler turns Poetaster. Gentry take Whip in Hand, and Coaches drive: The World’s turn’d up-side down throughout the Nation,
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At the beginning of the war a grown-up poem on the phrase appeared in a Connecticut newspaper. This widely published little garland was probably familiar to most Americans of the time. M’Dougall advertised books for children in Boston in 1780, including The World Turned Upside Down or, The Commical Metamorphoses: A Work Entirely Calculated to Excite Laughter in Grown Persons, and Promote Morality in Youth of Both Sexes-Decorated with 34 Curious Copperplates ( Boston Independent Chronicle, November 30, 1780). While there is no period documentation for British drums playing this tune, the phrase “the world turn’d upside down,” from the Bible (Acts 17:6) appeared with songs and in literature from the seventeenth century on, particularly associated with children’s stories of nonsense role reversals and topsy-turvy things. That story first appeared in 1828, was mostly ignored in the nineteenth century, was repeated without questioning in a few otherwise reliable history books between the 1890s and 1940s, and was widely accepted, still without critical examination, from then on. He substituted Major General Henry Dearborn (1751-1829), commander of the largest force of Americans under arms, for Washington (Morris 142).Īt first glance the indicated tune, “World Turn’d Upside Down,” seems to be a link in the currently popular but unsubstantiated story that the British drums beatthe cadence of a march of that title during the surrender at Yorktown in 1781.
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In this new, fire-eating, pro-war text Sewall does not deal with any of the war hawk issues-conquest of Canada, impressment, free trade-that led to the conflict with England, except the Indian dangers noted in verse 7. He adapted verses 2 through 4, 9 and 10, and half of verse 8 directly. Sewall’s model for the original text was the boastful patriotic song, “The British Grenadiers” (see American Taxation). The remainder of the text is a close parody of a song called “War and Washington,” written in 1776 by Jonathan Mitchell Sewall (1748-1808) and lauding Washington as the inspiration to victory ( Massachusetts Spy, FebruSewall’s Miscellaneous Poems 52-53 see also General Burgoyne’s Lamentation and Hail Columbia). The first four lines are from the first stanza of “America Triumphant or, Old England’s Downfall.” This text was first printed in London in 1766 with an additional line, “To the Tune of There was a jovial Beggar.” It is a light satirical piece suggesting that smart Englishmen will go to America, the land of milk and honey where “paper goes for money, and taxes they won’t pay.” It has none of the ferocity and posturing of the rest of the song on this broadside.
“A Song Composed in the Year Seventy Five” on this unique broadside is a composite parody of two different songs of the Revolutionary era, one British from 1766, the other American from 1776.
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