Note 119 — UNCLE SAM. BY ALBERT MATTHEWS.
Reading edition
The Contrast, Act III, Scene i, p. 45. For purposes of comparison, I give the first stanza. Tyler has it:
"Father and I went up to camp, Along with Captain Goodwin; And there we saw the men and boys, As thick as hasty-pudding."
The version owned by this Society reads:
"Father and I went down to camp, Along with Captain Gooding, And there we see the men and boys, As thick as hastypudding."
The Farmer and Moore version is as follows:
"Father and I went down to camp, Along with Captain Goodwin, Where we see the men and boys As thick as Hasty-puddin."
It is of course possible that my blue print is earlier than 1789, but its date is purely conjectural.
Dr. Hale writes: "An autograph note of Judge Dawes, of the Harvard class of 1777, addressed to my father, says that the author of the well-known lines was Edward Bangs, who graduated with him." It is curious that some (but not all) of the lines should have first been printed in a play written by a member of the Harvard class of 1776.