“The Grand Dissolving Views (I)”

Description

Singer, by a fireside, sees "a Grand Dissolving View" of poverty on one hand and of famous business men, authors, and monarchs. He hopes in the future rich may see the poor as brothers, and workhouses and prisons will be few.

Notes

The first verses of "The Grand Dissolving Views" (I) and (II) are identical; the second verses are almost identical in their portrayal of a poor family and they share one more verse comparing the fates of a swindler and poor thief. The question is "which is the original and which the derivative?" For a date, an 1875 broadside for another song lists "Grand Dissolving Views" as one of the newest songs (NLScotland, RB.m.143(144), "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls," The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1875).

The famous people cited include London investment banker George Peabody (1795-1869), writers Charles Dickens (1812-1870) and Robert Burns (1759-1796), heiress and philanthropist Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts (1814-1906), and Queen Victoria (1819-1901) - BS

Cross references

• cf. "The Grand Dissolving Views (II)" (subject and form)

Broadsides

• Bodleian, Harding B 11(1394), "The Grand Dissolving Views ("While thinking of some past events at home the other night"), unknown, n.d.