Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre

Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre

melody

Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre ("Malbrough goes to war") is a French soldier , folk and children's song from the 18th century. The song of derision about the (alleged) death of the British general John Duke of Marlborough was also very well known outside of France.

history

With "Malbrough" - various other spellings are also used - is meant the Duke of Marlborough, who became known to broad sections of the population in France as the leading British military in the War of the Spanish Succession . When, after the Battle of Malplaquet in France in 1709, the news spread that Marlborough had fallen - in reality he did not die in his own bed until 1722 - the derisive song Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre with its witty, but , was written based on older models poetically undemanding text and its catchy melody. Apart from the name of the general, it has no points of contact with his biography. Harness and shield are accessories from the age of knights . The closing stanzas are a frivolous joke.

There is no evidence of a particular popularity of the song until the 1770s. His sudden rise to the ubiquitous hit song is associated with the birth of Crown Prince Louis de Bourbon in 1781. His nurse , Madame Poitrine , liked to sing it to him while he was being weighed , and so it became known to the Queen , the King , the court, the Parisians, and finally the whole nation. Indeed, in the years before and after the revolution, there was a real Malbrough mania that u. a. Goethe reported with reluctance in the 1790s. In his famous comedy Figaros Hochzeit 1784, Beaumarchais lets Cherubino sing his love affair to the Malbrough melody (“Que mon coeur, que mon coeur a de peine” instead of “Mironton, mironton, mirontaine”). In Beethoven's battle music Wellington's Victory (1813), the Malbrough melody represents the French army. At that time she knew all of Europe, and she was also sung in North America and the Arab world. In the English-speaking world, the melody was accompanied by the congratulatory text For He's a Jolly Good Fellow .

text

Malbrough goes to war (illustration by Lorenz Frølich , 1878)

Madame sees the page

The message

The funeral procession (I)

The funeral procession (II)

Malbrough's (drinking) victories are celebrated

Text in Weckerlin (1870)

translation

Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre,      Mironton ton ton, mirontaine, Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre, Ne sait quand reviendra, |: Ne sait quand reviendra: | Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre,      Mironton ton ton, mirontaine, Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre, Ne sait quand reviendra. Il reviendra-z-à Pâques,… Ou à la Trinité. La Trinité se passe,… Malbrough ne revient pas. Madame à sa tour monte,… Si haut qu'ell 'peut monter. Elle aperçoit son page,… Tout de noir habillé. «Beau page, ah! mon beau page,… Quell 'nouvelle apportez? » - Aux nouvell's que j'apporte,… Vos beaux yeux vont pleurer. Quittez vos habits roses,… Et vos satins brochés. Monsieur d'Malbrough est more,… Est mort et enterré. J'lai vu porter-z-en terre,… Par quatre-z-officiers. L'un portait sa cuirasse,… L'autre son bouclier. L'un portait son grand saber,… Et l'aut 'ne portait rien. A l'entour de sa tombe,… Romarin's l'on planta. Sur la plus haute branch,… Le rossignol chanta. On vit voler son âme,… Au travers des lauriers. Chacun with ventre à terre,… Et puis se releva. Pour chanter les victoires,… Que Malbrough remporta. La cérémonie faite,… Chacun s'en fut coucher. Les uns avec leurs femmes,… Et les autres tout seuls. Ce n'est pas qu'il en manque,… Car j'en connais beaucoup. Des blondes et des brunes,… Et des châtaign's aussi. Je n'en dis davantage,… Car en voilà-z-assez.

Malbrough goes to war,     mironton ton ton, mirontaine, Malbrough goes to war, he doesn't know when he's coming back, |: he doesn't know when he's coming back,: | Malbrough goes to war,     mironton ton ton, mirontaine, Malbrough goes to war, he doesn't know when he'll be back. He will come again at Easter or at Trinity . Trinity passes, Malbrough won't come back. Madame, his wife, go up as high as she can go. She sees his page, all dressed in black. "Beautiful page, oh, my beautiful page, what news do you bring ?" - Your beautiful eyes will cry over the news that I bring . Take off your red clothes and your precious robes. Monsieur de Malbrough is dead, dead and buried. I saw him being carried to the grave by four officers. One wore his armor , the other his shield . One wore his large saber and the other wore nothing. Rosemary bushes were planted around his grave . The nightingale sang on the highest branch . One saw his soul floating through the laurel trees. Everyone threw themselves to the ground and then stood up to sing about the victories that Malbrough won. After the ceremony everyone rushed to bed, some with their wives and the others alone. Not because there is a lack of it, because I know a lot, blond and brown and also chestnut colored. I won't say more about it, because this is enough.

literature

• MDC: The French Marlborough Song . In: Yearbooks of the German National Association for Music and its Science , 4th year, No. 27, Karlsruhe 1842, p. 216

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin: Chansons et rondes enfantines , Paris 1870, p. 42ff.
2. ↑ French pronunciation Malbrúk
3. ^ Romance de Chérubin (first edition)
4. Jump up ↑ nonsense chorus in a word that means "beef dish"; see. Boeuf Mironton .

Web links

Commons : Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre  - collection of images, videos and audio files