“Home, sweet home”
“Home, Sweet Home” is the title of a song by John Howard Payne (1791-1852) in his 1823 comic opera, Clari, or the Maid of Milan (first presented at the Dramatic Repository at 214 Broadway in Manhattan). The song is famous for the line “Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home,” but the title is not original with Payne.
“Home, sweet Home” was part of a poem called “Home” in a 1749 collection of poetry. “Home, sweet home” appeared in The Gentleman’s Magazine in 1796 and 1797. American newspapers published a poem titled “Sweet Home” in October 1816 and a poem titled “Home, Sweet Home!” in October 1819.
Wikipedia: Home! Sweet Home!
“Home! Sweet Home!” (also known as “Home, Sweet Home”) is a song that has remained well known for over 150 years. Adapted from American actor and dramatist John Howard Payne’s 1823 opera Clari, Maid of Milan, the song’s melody was composed by Englishman Sir Henry Bishop with lyrics by Payne. The opening lines
“Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home;”
have become famous.
Google Books
Original poems in English and Latin, with an appendix. Containing a dissertation, &c. and some remarks on the epistle to the Colossians.
Edited by Joseph Beaumont
Cambridge: Printed by J. Bentham; sold by W. Thurlbourn
1749
Pg. 51:
But Home, sweet Home, releaseth me
(The poem “Home”—ed.)
Google Books
July 1796, The Gentleman’s Magazine, pg. 570, col. 1:
It appears to me, that the lines, untituled, Dulce Domum, could never have been written by a person labouring under a melancholy deprivation of his long-expected return to his “home, sweet home;” ...
Google Books
September 1797, The Gentleman’s Magazine, pg. 762, col. 1:
“HOME. To…...
(...)
“Let HOME, sweet HOME, thy presence claim
And those enjoy thy smiles who love thee most.”
2 October 1816, The American (Hanover, NH), “Original Poetry,” pg. 4, col. 1:
SWEET HOME.
BELOV’D companions, let us sing;
Ah! why does silence chain our tongue?
Arouse, and let this concave ring
With home, sweet home, that sweetest song.
CHORUS.
Home—home—sweet. sweet home,
Companions, let us sing;—
With home—home—sweet home,
Let this high concave ring.
19 October 1819, Rhode-Island American and General Advertiser (Providence, RI), pg. 1, col. 2:
HOME, SWEET HOME!
Some love to range the world’s wide round,
Some court the city’s giddy charms,
Some list the tgrumpet’s clanging sound,
Joy’d at the thoughts of war’s alarms;
Ambition’s arts and Pleasure’s smiles
With deep distrust I cautious flee,
And Glory’s vain deceitful wiles,
For home, sweet home, is all to me!
17 November 1823, New-York (NY) Evening Post, pg. 2, col. 6:
THEATRE.
Second Night of the Opera of Clari, or The Maid
of Milan; and Last Night but One of
Mr. Pearlman’s Engagement.
THIS EVENING, Nov. 17, will be presented
the Comic Opera of
CLARI, or The Maid of Milan.
27 November 1823, New-York (NY) Daily Advertiser, pg. 2, col. 6:
NEW PLAYS.
(...)
Clari, or the Maid of Milan, an opera in 3 acts, by John Howard Payne, author of Therese, Adeline, &c
(...)
DRAMATIC REPOSITORY
214 Broadway, opposite St. Pauls’.