Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines. Written & Sung By T. Maclagan [cover title]

by T. Maclagan

$250 · Offered by Biblio

Philadelphia: Lee & Walker, 722 Chestnut Street, [ca. 1868]. Folio (14 x 10¾ inches). [1-2], 3-7, [8] pp. An as-issued example, not removed from a bound volume. First and final leaves separating along the spine fold; foxing, toning, and old stains confined to the margins. This postbellum American comic ballad was likely written and performed by Scottish entertainer Tom Maclagan, active since the mid-1860s. The piece gained fame in the United States through performances by English actor and female impersonator William Horace Lingard, an émigré who adopted and adapted the song for the American stage by 1868. That year marked its first American sheet music publication. Issued in Brooklyn, New York, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia, these editions reproduced the lyrics and music that would enter the American folk repertoire for the next century. The present Philadelphia edition is the most visually compelling and desirable of the group. The character of “Captain Jinks”—a vain, hapless soldier—became a widely circulated figure of satire. His bumbling incompetence, fashionable excess, and comical mishaps (“I am Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines, / I often live beyond my means, / I sport young ladies in their teens, / To cut a swell in the army / I teach the ladies how to dance,”) made the song a favorite in vaudeville and among amateur performers. Widely published on both sides of the Atlantic, in various editions of sheet music, and in broadsides and songsters, “Captain Jinks” has be

• Binding: unknown

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