I wish mama was here

From a Broadsheet held  in the Lubano Broadside Ballad Collection, Memorial University of Newfoundland

THE BLUE-EYED BOY ; 
Or, I Wish Mamma was Here.
Written sung & composed by SAM BAGNALL.

A TINY little blue-eyed boy, 
Sat on his father's knee,
And looking up he feebly said, 
Dear father, do kiss me;
He gently press'd him to his breast, 
And smoothed his golden hair,
And Willie whisper'd with a sigh, 
"I wish Mamma was here.

I wish Mamma was here,
I wish Mamma was here,
And Willie whisper'd with a sigh,
I wish Mamma was here.


A tear rolled down the father's cheek, 
He kiss'd his pining boy.
For her he loved had gone to rest, 
And Willie's end was nigh;
He laid him in his little cot,
Don't weep, my darling dear,
And Willie murmur'd with a sigh, 
I wish Mamma was here.

With anxious eyes the father watched, 
Until the turn of tide,
The Angels they were near him there, 
At six o'clock he died;
The father shriek'd in wild despair,
Don't leave me, my darling boy,
And Willie breathed his last fond sigh,
I know Mamma is near.

A song that appears highly sentimental in print, but which seems to have also been performed to highly comic effect. It was written and composed by Sam Bagnall and was first published in 1872. It was promoted as a sentimental ballad: this review appeared in a highly respectable periodical aimed at middle-class women:

The sentimentality in the song was apparent in a performance of November 1872 in Wilton’s Music Hall, described in The Era as “a good song of the serious sort, which represents a motherless child as saying I wish my mama was here was nicely rendered by Miss Beatrice Bermond “ (The Era, 3 Nov)

In the same year the famous comic singer Harry Liston was performing it as part of his touring show Merry Moments. Apparently he performed it “in two distinct voices, bass and falsetto” in the character of Mr Belowline. It seems a reasonable to assume that the father was sung in bass tones and the child in falsetto and that this was done for comic effect. Liston was prone to perform “ventriloquial sketches” which suggests he may have performed it with a ventriloquist’s doll.