Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/522

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [i 8 .iii.

La ceremonie faite, Chacun s'en fut coucher.

Les uns avec leurs fcmmes, Et les autres tout seuls.

Ce n'esfc pas qu'il en manque, Car j'en connais beau coup.

Des blondes et des brunes, Et des chataign's aussi.

J' n'en dis pas davantage, Mironton, mironton, mirontaine, J' n'en dis pas davantage, Car en voila, z-assez.

A comparison of Father Prout's English --version, as far as it goes, with the French shows that it can scarcely be called even a " free translation." There is a great deal of Father Prout added to the original song.

In ' Chants et Chansons ' the title of the song is ' Mort et convoi de 1' invincible Malbrough ' (not Malbrouk, Marlbrook, Malbrook, or Malbroock). In the ' Notice ' which precedes the song, when the song is mentioned the spelling is " Malbrough," when the duke is mentioned it is " Marl- borough." The only exception is in the latter case, viz., a quotation from " the ancient legend in prose which accompanies the song" : " que Malbrough fut tue a la bataille de Malplaquet . . . . le 11 septembre 1709." This notice was written by P. L. Jacob, Bibliophile (Paul Lacroix). He says that the song was certainly composed after the battle of Malplaquet, and that he is able to believe, with Chateaubriand, that the tune was the same as that which Godfrey de Bouillon's crusaders sang under the walls of Jerusalem. Jacob gives as the refrain

Mironton ton ton, mirontaine. In" Poets' Wit and Humour. Selected by W.H.Wills," 1861, the Father Prout version, headed ' Malbroock,' is attributed to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ! Wills attaches the refrain " Mironton, mironton, mirontaine," to the first, second, and twelfth (i.e., last) stanzas, therefore presumably to every one. Brewer's ' Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ' is referred to at 10 S. viii. 435. In the third edition there is this remarkable passage : " Certainly the song has nothing to do with the Duke of Marlborough, as it is all about feudal castles and Eastern wars." Neither in Father Prout's version of the French song, nor in his English " translation," nor in the song in ' Chants et Chansons,' is there any reference to either Eastern wars or feudal castles, unless one feudal castle appears in the stanza in which Madame goes up her itower.

As an example of the difference between Father Prout's English rendering and

he original French, I give his first stanza :

Malbrouck, the prince of commanders, Is gone to the war in Flanders ; His fame is like Alexander's, But when will he come home?

This represents " Malbrough is going to the war, we do not know when he will come back."

Wills in his ' Poets' Wit and Humour ' gives (p. 283) a note on ' Malbroock,' which is an abbreviated, but almost literal transla- tion of Jacob's notice. He says nothing about the omitted ten, or rather eleven stanzas (see below). Perhaps he adopted the note from some book in which the song was not given.

As to an alleged Oriental origin of both the words and the tune, a letter signed Louis Creswicke appeared in The Sunday Times of July 1, 1894, in which the writer gives the " original Arabic words, written for me by an Arab," or rather the first stanza thereof :

Mabrook saffur lei harbi

Ya lail-ya lail ya laila Mabrook saffur lei harbi

Woo-ela metta yerjaa Woo-ela metta yerja-ya lail

Woo-ela metta yerjaa.

In The Sunday Times of Aug. 5, 1894, is a letter, signed H. Droop Richmond, giving a translation of "the above :

Mabrook journeys to the war,

Ya lail-ya lailya laila ; Mabrook journeys to the war, Who knows when he will return ? &c., &c.

As to the second line, Mr. Richmond says that it " does not appear to have any definite meaning." The same may be said of " Mironton, mironton, mirontaine." The " Arabic words written for me by an Arab " prove nothing about an Oriental origin, as they were supplied to Mr. Creswicke some time in the nineteenth century.

At 1 S. ix. 56 a correspondent inquires in vain about a book, a copy of which he had seen in Paris, which was a dissertation in French on the origin and history of the song. He thinks that the author's name was Blanchard. There has been much written in ' N. & Q.' about the song ; see 3 S. vii. ; 8 S. i., ii., iv. ,vi. For other references see ante, p. 358.

At 8 S. ii. 86 is given the complete text of the ' Chanson de Malbrough,' minus the refrain " Mironton," &c., and the repetitions, making twenty-two stanzas.

At 8 S. vi. 153 a reply appears, saying that a translation of the song is in John Oxenford's ' Book of French Songs,' published by