Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 583
at Union College, his prospects were suddenly disturbed by the elder
Payne's failure in business. John Howard then decided to go upon the
stage. His debut as an actor was made at the Park Theater in New
York, on February 24, 1809, as Young Norval in the Douglass; and
the success of his initial performance, both from a pecuniary and from
an artistic standpoint, was such that he afterwards toured the New Eng
land and Middle States.
In 1813 he sailed for England; and from this time dates his pro
tracted sojourn abroad. As an actor he was well received by the
public; but, anxious to increase his earnings, he essayed theatrical
management, with disastrous results. Due to his lack of business abil
ity, he found himself frequently in financial straits. Fortune did not
seem to favor him. In 1815, he published a volume of verse entitled,
"Lispings of the Muse," from which his returns were only meagre.
Better success attended him as a playwright. He produced a number
of musical dramas, for one of which, an opera, entitled "Clari, or the
Maid of Milan," he composed the world-renowned stanzas of "Home,
Sweet Home."
This opera was first produced at the Covent Garden Theater, in
May, 1823. The music was adapted by Henry R. Bishop, from an old
melody which caught Payne's fancy while visiting one of the Italian
cities.* It is said that the song itself came to him, when, oppressed
by debt, he wandered one day, in great heaviness of spirit, along the
banks of the Thames River. During the first year it netted his pub
lishers over 2,000 guineas. Payne himself derived little pecuniary profit
from the song which was destined to make him immortal; but he lived to
see it put a girdle of music around the globe, to charm alike the king
and the peasant, and to become in literal truth the song of the millions.
The original draft of "Home, Sweet Home," ran as follows:
'Mid pleasures and palaces, though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
Like the love of a mother
Surpassing all other,
"Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.
There's a spell in the shade
Where our infancy played,
Even stronger than time and more deep than despair.
An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain,
O, give me my lonely thatched cottage again!
The birds and the lampkins that came at my call—
Those who named me with pride—
Those who played at my side—
Give me them, with the innocence dearer than all.
The joys of the palaces through which I roam
Only swell my heart's anguish—there's no place like home.
'New International Encyclopedia," article on Payne.