[PAINE THOMAS] A Song in Praise of General Woolfe

Sale 2432 - Lot 262

Price Realized: $ 1,250

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Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500

[PAINE, THOMAS.] A Song in Praise of General Woolfe. 2 manuscript pages, 14 1/2 x 9 inches, signed by "R'd Hebb, scripsit"; folds, minor wear, one-inch closed tear, a few doodles in lower blank area of second page. [England?], circa 1794

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Additional Details

This is a ballad on the death of General James Wolfe, who died heroically in Quebec during the French and Indian War in 1759. It is believed to have been composed circa 1770 in Lewes, England by Thomas Paine (better known as the author of Common Sense), and first published in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1775 (see Fruchtman, "Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom," page 32). This manuscript copy, purchased from a dealer in Lewes by the consignor, includes a final verse not included in the published versions: "With laurels and cypress they bound up his head / In darkness they closed his eyes / They convey'd him away in the dress of the dead / And transported him up to the skies." It's possible that the transcriber, Richard Hebb, was working from a longer unpublished version by Paine--or that he added the extra verse himself. The paper is watermarked by Durham & Co., 1794.