Hark now the drums beat up again
For all true soldier gentlemen
Then let us list and march I say
Over the hills and far away
………………………
Chorus:
Over the hills and o’er the main
To Flanders, Portugal and Spain
Queen Anne commands and we obey
Over the hills and far away
………………………
All gentlemen that have a mind
To serve a queen that’s good and kind
Come list and enter into pay
Over the hills and far away
………………………
There’s forty shillings on the drum
For those who volunteer to come
With shirts and clothes and present pay
When o’er the hills and far away
…………………………..
Hear that brave boys and let us go
Or else we shall be pressed you know
Then list and enter into pay
And o’er the hills and far away
………………………….
The constables they search about
To find such brisk young fellows out
Then let’s be volunteers I say
Over the hills and far away
………………………
Since now the French so low are brought
And wealth and honour’s to be got
Who then behind would skulking stay?
Let’s o’er the hills and far away
……………………………
No more from sound of drum retreat
When Marlborough and Galway beat
The French and Spaniards every day
Over the hills and far away
……………………….
He that is forced to go and fight
Will never get true honour by’t
Whilst volunteers shall win the day
When o’er the hills and far away
…………………………..
What tho’ our friends our absence mourn?
We all with honours shall return
And then we’ll sing both night and day
Over the hills and far away
………………………
Prentice Tom may well refuse
To clean his angry master’s shoes
For now he’s free to sing and play
Over the hills and far away
………………………
Over rivers, bogs and springs
We all shall live as great as kings
And plunder get both night and day
Over the hills and far away
………………………
For if we go ’tis one to ten
That we return all gentlemen
Our fortunes made but not from pay
Over the hills and far away
………………………
This song was published in Thomas D’Urfey’s Pills to Purge Melancholy in 1706. It appeared in The Recruiting Officer, a comedy by George Farquhar and in John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera (1728). The lyric refers to the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), the Duke of Marlborough and Queen Anne (1665-1714).
