"Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms" is the common title of a traditional song. The composer of the melody is unknown, but the tune is familiar worldwide. The song may have originated in England, Scotland, or Ireland.
In the late 17th century, the melody was set to William Davenant's poem "My Lodging is on the cold Ground". In 1808, Irish poet Thomas Moore wrote new lyrics for the song which endure as the most famous version.
History Prior to Thomas Moore's lyrics, the song was widely known as "My Lodging is on the cold Ground". The title derives from William Davenant's 1664 play The Rivals. In the fifth act, mad Celania sings a lament.D'Avenant, William. The dramatic works of Sir William D'Avenant, Vol. 5. Dramatists of the Restoration. Edited by James Maidment. Edingburgh: William Paterson, 1874. 282. Matthew Locke composed a melody for Davenant's poem. Somewhere around 1670, Locke's melody was discarded and Davenant's lyric was paired with a different tune.Chappell, William. Old English Popular Music, Volume II. London: Chappell & Co. and Macmillan & Co., 1893. 137–41.
The new tune for Davenant's lyric may have been a traditional Irish melody. W. H. Grattan Flood suggested the traditional melody was known as both "As fadda annso me" (Long am I here) and "The Gentle Maiden". The song circulated widely in Ireland. It appeared in a 1773 arrangement by Charles Thomas Carter and another in 1776 by Tommaso Giordani. In 1778, a Dublin newspaper advertisement called "My Lodging is on the cold Ground" an "Irish favorite".
In Aloys Fleischmann's massive catalogue of Irish traditional music, he documented the appearance of "My Lodging Is on the Cold Ground" (#2393, 2048, 2487, 3115, 3500, 4022, 4769, 5023, 6084, 6382) in several manuscripts and anthologies, such as The Edinburgh Musical Miscellany (1793), The Vocal Magazine (1799), and O'Farrell's Pocket Companion (1804–16). There are two closely related versions of the melody. Fleischmann also noted the tune's appearance under different titles: "I Lo’e Nae a Laddie but Ane" (#2303, 2990, 3114, 5569), "Irish Mad Song" (#2830), "Farewell Thou Fare Day" (#3099), "O' Tis Sweet When the Moon" (#5761), "Oh! I Am the Boy to Be Easy" (#6592). The version of "The Gentle Maiden" (Is fadda anso me - Long am I here) (#6066) that Fleischmann catalogues has a distantly related melody.Sources of Irish Traditional Music C. 1600-1855: An Annotated Catalogue of Prints and Manuscripts, 1583-1855. Edited by Aloys Fleischmann. Taylor & Francis, 2016. 395, 446, 462, 479, 528, 544, 562, 564, 642, 739, 861, 916, 1009, 1039, 1110, 1168, 1195.
In 1775, the song appeared in the English compilation Vocal Music, or the Songster's Companion. William Chappell included it in his 1855 survey of popular music, which cemented the common understanding that the melody was English.Chappell, William. The Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time: A History of the Ancient Songs, Ballads, and of the Dance Tunes of England, with Numerous Anecdotes and Entire Ballads: Also a Short Account of the Minstrels. Chappell and Company, 1855. 525–30.Grattan Flood, W. H., "Fair Harvard": Irish Origin of the Tune, The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 4. October, 1919. 463-468.Glen, John. Early Scottish Melodies. Edinburgh: J. & R. Glenn, 1900. The tune has been claimed by England, Scotland, and Ireland.Graham, George Farquhar. The Popular Songs of Scotland with Their Appropriate Melodies. Glasgo: J.M. Wood, 1887. 256f.
In the early 19th century, Galway publisher James Power commissioned the multi-volume A Selection of Irish Melodies. Part of the goal was to reclaim melodies that were growing famous abroad without attribution of their Irish origin. John Andrew Stevenson composed arrangements for the songs, and Thomas Moore was tasked with giving them words. Power's strategy was to rescue the tunes from obscurity by making them attractive to singers.Moore, Thomas and John Stevenson.A Selection of Irish Melodies. Vol. II. London: J. Power, 1808. Introduction, 112.
"Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms" is found in the second volume of the series. "My Lodging is on the cold Ground" is acknowledged as the traditional title.
Lyrics "Believe Me, If All those Endearing Young Charms" has been described as one of the world's great love songs.Stone, Kathryn Emilie. Lessons in Music Understanding for Use in Elementary Schools. Los Angeles City School District, 1928. 60. A common notion is that Moore's words are an expression of love to his wife who was scarred by smallpox.Weiser, Glenn. Celtic Harmonica Encyclopedia Volume 1: Airs, Waltzes & Mazurkas. Mel Bay Publications, 2024. 28.
Legacy The traditional melody of "My Lodging is on the cold Ground" and "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms" is a cultural touchstone found in a wide variety of genres and media.
In 1791, Robert Burns wrote "Farewell, Thou Fair Day" to a tune from the Isle of Skye called "Song of Death" (Oran an Aoig). When George Thomson anthologized Burns' poem a decade later in A Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs for the Voice, he had Ignaz Pleyel set it to "My Lodging is on the cold Ground".Whitelaw, Alexander. The Book of Scottish Song. London: Blackie and Son, 1844. 64.Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs, Volume II. Edinburgh: G. Thomson, 1801. 76f.
Arrangements of the song are included in Joseph Haydn's A Collection of Scottish Airs, Volume 2, Hob. XXXIa:262, Mauro Giuliani's 6 Irish National Airs, Op. 124; and Carl Czerny's Die Schule des Vortrags und der Verzierungen, Vol I no. 3, Op. 575.Hoboken, Anthony van. Joseph Haydn thematisch-bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis, Band II. Mainz: B. Schott's Söhne, 1972. 464, 562.Giuliani, Mauro. Six Airs Irlandois. Leipzig: Friedrich Hofmeister, . 12–13.Czerny, Carl. Die Schule des Vortrags und der Verzierungen, Op.575. Vienna: Tobias Haslinger, n.d.. 3.
At Fay House in 1838, Samuel Gilman set the melody to a new set of lyrics in celebration of Harvard University's 200th anniversary. Gilman's "Fair Harvard" became the college's alma mater.
Jemima Luke's 1841 hymn "I think when I read that sweet story of old" is set to the melody.Merriam, Edmumd P. "The Sunflower", The Watchman-Examiner, Volume 8, part 102. Watchman-Examiner Foundation. September 2, 1920. 1082.
During the American Civil War in 1862, drum major George B. Bruce collaborated with Daniel D. Emmett on The Drummer's and Fifer's Guide, which includes instructions on how to perform a military tattoo as a signal for bedtime. The tattoo includes several tunes like "New Tatter Jack", "Downfall of Paris", as well as "My Lodging's on the Cold Ground".Bruce, George B. The Drummer's and Fifer's Guide. New York: William A. Pond & Co., 1865. 43–46.
In the 19th century, "Endearing Young Charms" became a popular theme for variations by a wide range of composers.Smith, Jewel A. Transforming Women's Education: Liberal Arts and Music in Female Seminaries. University of Illinois Press, 2019. 135. Louis Drouet's "Introduction and Variations on an English Theme for Flute and Harp" is based on the tune.Grauwels, Mark and Catherine Michel. Romantic Music for Flute and Harp. Liner notes by Keith Anderson. Marco Polo, 1987. William Vincent Wallace composed a fantasy for piano on the melody.Wallace, William Vincent. Favorite Irish Melodies, Arr. In Brilliant Style with Introduction & Variations for the Piano Forte No. 6 My Lodging Is on the Cold Ground. New York: William Hall & Sopn, [185?].Wallace, William Vincent. The Star of Love. New York: William Hall & Son, 1851. 9. Simone Mantia's 1908 variations on the melody are a staple of the euphonium repertoire.Guide to the Euphonium Repertoire: The Euphonium Source Book. Edited by Lloyd E. Bone, Jr. and Eric Paull. Indiana University Press, 2007. 104.Catalogue of Title-entries of Books and Other Articles Entered in the Office of the Librarian of Congress. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1909. 17.
Victor Herbert quotes the tune in "Irish Rhapsody" (1910).Player, Cyril Arthur and W.K. Kelsey. Detroit Symphony Orchestra 1927–1928 Detroit: Richard Cohn, 1928. 933.Herbert, Victor. Irish Rhapsody. New York: G. Schirmer, 1910.
Little Virgie (Shirley Temple) sings the song to her father (John Boles) in the 1935 film The Littlest Rebel.Basinger, Jeanine. The Movie Musical! Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2019. 368. It is used in John Ford's The Informer (1935).Richards, Jeffrey. The Lost Worlds of John Ford: Beyond the Western. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020. 26. The first verse was sung by Alfalfa in a 1936 episode of MGM's The Little Rascals titled Bored of Education.Maltin, Leonard and Richard W. Bann. The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang. Crown, 1992. 169.
The song inspired the title of Edward Chodorov's 1943 Broadway play which was later filmed by Lewis Allen.Davis, Ronald L. Zachary Scott: Hollywood's Sophisticated Cad University Press of Mississippi, 2006. 80f. In Those Endearing Young Charms (1945), Larry Burke sings the title song.Warner, Alan. Who Sang What on the Wcreen. Austria: Angus & Robertson, 1984. 72. Walter Huston plays the melody on the harmonica in the film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.Wright, Julia M. Thomas Moore and the Transatlantic, 1800-1840: The Local, the Global and the Mobile. Edinburgh University Press, 2025. 2. Debbie Reynolds and Barbara Ruick sing the first stanza in the 1953 film The Affairs of Dobie Gillis.Aumack, Sheryl. Song & dance: an Encyclopedia of Musicals. Sea-Maid Press, 1990. 3.
"Endearing Young Charms" became a staple of Warner Bros. Cartoons, first appearing in the 1944 Private Snafu short Booby Traps. Snafu tries to peck out the melody with one finger on a piano but keeps ending on the wrong note. The key is attached to a stick of dynamite, and when Snafu finally gets the song right he blows himself up.Shull, Michael S. and David E. Wilt. Doing Their Bit: Wartime American Animated Short Films, 1939–1945. McFarland Incorporated, 2014. 191f. The booby trap became a recurring gag for Warner Bros. animation. In Friz Freleng's 1951 Merrie Melodies short Ballot Box Bunny, Yosemite Sam wires a piano in the same manner, and when Bugs Bunny repeatedly plays the wrong note, an infuriated Sam shows Bugs how to play the tune correctly and blows himself up. Freleng revisited the joke in his 1957 Looney Tunes short Show Biz Bugs, where Daffy Duck rigs a xylophone to blow up Bugs Bunny. In the 1965 Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoon Rushing Roulette, Coyote beckons Road Runner with a "Learn to play piano FREE" sign with the usual results.Huckvale, David. The Piano on Film. McFarland Incorporated, 2022. 137. The gag reappears in 1994's Chariots of Fur and in "Slappy Goes Walnuts", a 1993 episode of Animaniacs which introduces Slappy Squirrel.Cervantes, Mike. "Six Days a Week - An 'Animaniacs' Retro Recap: 'HMS Yakko'. Nerds that Geek. June 1, 2016. Accessed July 19, 2026. South Park paid homage to the joke in the 2010 episode "Crippled Summer".Erickson, Hal. Military Comedy Films: A Critical Survey and Filmography of Hollywood Releases Since 1918. McFarland Incorporated, 2012. 374.
Joni James covered the song on her album Joni Sings Irish Favorites (1959), and it appears in a medley on Bing Crosby's 101 Gang Songs (1961).James, Joni. Joni James sings Irish favorites. MGM Records, 1959.Crosby, Bing. 101 Gang Songs. Warner Bros., 1961.