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A poem by Jonathan Swift |
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Jack Frenchman's Lamentation |
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Title: Jack Frenchman's Lamentation Author: Jonathan Swift [More Titles by Swift] Jack Frenchman's Lamentation[1] An Excellent new song To the Tune of "I tell thee, Dick, where I have been."[2] How his army so great, To a steeple on high, Then on horseback they got While this he did say, Not so did behave Full firmly he stood, What a racket was here, Though _Bruges_ and Ghent From this dream of success, O _Lewis[5]_ perplex'd, We'll let _Tallard_ out, But as losers at play, [Footnote 1: This ballad, upon the battle of Oudenarde, was very popular, and the tune is often referred to as that of "Ye Commons and Peers."--_Scott_.] [Footnote 2: "A Ballad upon a Wedding," by Sir John Suckling, occasioned by the marriage of Roger Boyle, first Lord Orrery, with Lady Margaret Howard, daughter to the Earl of Suffolk. Suckling's Works, edit. Hazlitt, vol. i, p. 42.--_W. E. B._] [Footnote 3: In the Dutch accounts of the battle of Oudenarde, it is said that the Dukes of Burgundy and Berry, with the Chevalier de St. George, viewed the action at a distance from the top of a steeple, and fled, when the fate of the day turned against the French. Vendosme commanded the French upon that occasion.--_Scott_.] [Footnote 4: The Electoral Prince of Hanover, afterwards George II, behaved with great spirit in the engagement, and charged, at the head of Bulau's dragoons, with great intrepidity. His horse was shot under him, and he then fought as stated in the text. Smollett's "History of England," ii, _125.--W. E. B._] [Footnote 5: Louis XIV.] [Footnote 6: A cant word for false dice.--_Scott_.] [The end] GO TO TOP OF SCREEN |