"Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre" ("Marlborough is going off to war"), also known as "Mort et convoi de l'invincible Malbrough" ("The death and burial of the invincible Marlborough"), is a folk song in French.
"Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre" ("Marlborough is going off to war"), also known as "Mort et convoi de l'invincible Malbrough" ("The death and burial of the invincible Marlborough"), is a folk song in French.
The burlesque lament on the death of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650–1722) was written on a false rumour of that event after the Battle of Malplaquet in 1709, the bloodiest battle of the War of the Spanish Succession. It tells how Marlborough's wife, awaiting his return from battle, is given the news of her husband's death. It also tells that he was buried and that a nightingale sang over his grave.
For years it was only known traditionally, and does not appear among the many anecdotic songs printed in France during the middle of the 18th century. Pierre Beaumarchais used the tune in his 1778 play The Marriage of Figaro for a despairing love song for Cherubino. [1] [2] In 1780 it became very popular. For instance, the tune concludes a sonata (in D-major) for viola d'amore and viola composed by Carl Stamitz in 1780 while in Paris. And it happened that when Prince Louis-Charles was born in 1785 (son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and heir to the French throne) he was wet-nursed by a peasant named Geneviève Poitrine. The nurse, whilst rocking the royal cradle, sang "Marlborough s'en va-t-en guerre". The name, the simplicity of the words, and the melodiousness of the tune, interested the queen, and she frequently sang it. Everybody repeated it after her, including the king. The song was sung in the state apartments of Versailles, in the kitchens and in the stables – it became immensely popular. [3] [4] Dalayrac quoted the melody in the first act of his opera Renaud d'Ast (1787). [5]
From the court it was adopted by the tradespeople of Paris, and it passed from town to town, and country to country. It became as popular in England as in France. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe came to hate Marlborough simply on account of the prevalence of the tune he encountered during travels in France. [6] It also became popular in Spain due to the Bourbon dynasty's influence on Spanish nobility. There the name Marlborough was modified to an easier to pronounce Mambrú. It was sung by children while playing Rayuela (Hopscotch). Jacinto Valledor's tonadilla "La cantada vida y muerte del general Malbrú" concludes with the tune, and the Spanish guitarist and composer Fernando Sor (1778–1839) created a series of variations for guitar on the theme. It then spread to Latin America.
The rage endured for many years, slowly fading after the French Revolution, although, it is said that Napoleon liked to hum the tune, for instance when crossing the Memel (June 1812) at the beginning of his fatal Russian campaign.[ citation needed ] The melody also became widely popular in the United Kingdom. [7] By the mid-19th century [8] it was being sung with the words "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow", often at all-male social gatherings. [9] By 1862, these lyrics were already familiar in America. [10] From this version, the melody also became the tune for a popular American campfire tune "The Bear Went Over the Mountain".
The song has been translated into several languages, including an English version published by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in the 19th century. [11]
| French Original | Literal English | Poetic Version |
|---|---|---|
Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre, | Marlborough is going to war | Marlborough the Prince of Commanders |
The song is one of several contemporary tunes that are played by the musical box of the Negress head clock, made in Paris in 1784. Rita Dove references the song and the clock in her 2009 poem "Ode on a Negress Head Clock, with Eight Tunes". [13]
Ludwig van Beethoven used the tune to represent the French in his musical work Wellington's Victory .
French Wikisource has original text related to this article: Le Mariage de Figaro/Acte II 
