For old times sake

AKA For old time’s sake, don’t let our enmity live
First Published c1899
Writer/composer Charles Osborne Roud RN15476

Music Hall Performers Millie Lindon
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Rowe, Cliff; England : Somerset; 1984
Withers, George; England : Somerset; 1995		 

Down in a lane two men had quarrelled
Over a girl whom they both admired
Brothers in name but foes in feeling
Passion, alas, their hearts had fired
One said “You traitor, you stole her from me
Hence-forth a stranger to England I'll be”
”If we must part” said the other with pain
“Don't part like this, we may ne'er meet again

For old time's sake, don't let our enmity live
For old time's sake, say you'll forget and forgive
Life's too short to quarrel, hearts too precious to break
Shake hands and let us be friends, for old times' sake

Anger prevailed, as foes they parted
Parted as brothers have often done
Jack sailed away to drown his sorrow
And left Tom at home with the bride he'd won
Twelve months after, and then he was left
Left with a babe of its Mother bereft
How like she grew to her, when he revealed
The cause of the quarrel, and how he appealed

Time rolled away, then the brothers one day
Met face to face, and then turned away
But the little peacemaker, their rough hands she grasped
And whispered so softly as their fingers she clasped
“In her sainted name, who looks down from above
My own angel mother you both used to love"

In the late 1890s and early 190os this sentimental number was Millie Lindon’s most popular song – her brief biography is given below. The song was written for her by Charles Osborne.

A song collected twice by Bob and Jacqueline Patten and available on the British Library site: from the singing of Cliff Rowe in 1984 and from George Withers in 1995.

Not to be confused with an old-time/traditional American song of the same name: For old times sake, written and composed by Charles K Harris in 1900 (first line: “You ask me why upon my breast I wear this photograph”). This song was collected by Sidney Cowell from the singing of Californian singer Sam Blackburn in 1939.

Millie Lindon (1869-1940 ) was the stage name of Fanny Elizabeth Warriss, the daughter of a tailor whose Music Hall career lasted less than a decade. During her years in the halls she had a relatively short marriage to the comedian TE Dunville. She left her career in the Halls to marry the wealthy newspaper owner Sir Edward Holton, followed by later marriages to a wealthy British Major General and a Baron from Czechoslovakia. She appears to have been the archetypal beautiful Music Hall star who used her career to move “up in society”!

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