Merrie England

Edward German (1862-1936) and Basil Hood (1864-1917) were famous British composers and lyricists. German wrote and played music as a child, eventually becoming a teacher at the Royal Academy of Music. Hood started in the British Army, where he initially wrote plays as a hobby. Both men created the bulk of their work during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Hood wrote Gentleman Joe, the Hansom Cabbie (1895), The French Maid (1896), and Little Hans Andersen (1903). German made a name for himself with The Two Poets (1886), The Rival Poets (1901) and Tom Jones (1907).