The Recruiting Serjeant

The Recruiting Serjeant is a burletta[1] by composer Charles Dibdin and playwright Isaac Bickerstaff.

A countryman, Joe, living with his wife and mother, hears his stirring cry, and decides to enlist.

The mother fetches his children from the house, and appeals to Joe not to leave them, and thus risk all of them ending up in the workhouse.

The sergeant starts to sign the man on, but Joe hesitates, asking for information about army life.

[6] Joe begins to have second thoughts at this – he had wished to see a battle, but he has decided the sergeant's description of it is quite sufficient.