FAMOUS SONG

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2138, 2 May 1914, Page 11

FAMOUS SONG

' ITS GREAT TRADITIONS. There cannot.be the least doubt whatever that the most famous song in the world, judged by its being known in the most lands and by tlio most varied nations, and by its being one of tho oldest and most widely sung ditties ever known, is that which has for its first line, "Malbrough s'en.va-t-en guerre"; which, if wo were to give the English version of it, instead of the older French words, would be, "Marlborough goes away to tho war." But nobody, not a single man out of all the hundred, unless he were a specially knowing person, would over venture to suggest that "Malbrough" was the most famous,'the most widely known, the most often sung and had by far the most glorious tradi-

tions amongst all the songs of the world'B many and varied countries. "For He's a Jolly Cootl Fellow." Yet it unquestionably is so, and yoil yourself have agreed io this often and often wlien you have sung so enthusiastically aud heartily the song's splendid ,refrain:— For he's a jolly good fellow, lor a jolly good fellow, ior he's a jolly good fellow, And so say all of us! Tho Crusaders, wh<jn they returned 110111 their wars for the Holy Sepulchre in tho thirteenth century, brought back with tliem to Franco a tunc which they had learned afar. They sang it and hummed it as they marched, till it caught the nation'^'fancy, and became at last one of tha songs of France, whence it soon crossed the Channel, and delighted tho English. Where tho Crusaders actually got the song is a matter of much doubt. But, as tho Arabs of Palestine know the song'well", and were often heard singing it by Chateaubriand • and others, it is not Improbable tb.atl the Crusaders actually learned iiOfrom their enemies when, fighting- the Saracens. This story is negatived, however, by many high authorities, who suggest that the true air and the best-known words of the soiig, as we have it today, unquestionably come form tho period when Louis tho Fifteenth sat on tlie throne of Franco.

Of the Great Crusaders. In any ease, wo are entirely on safe ground when wo come to the days which, saw our own' Duke of Marlborough going to fight the French in Flanders during tho reign of Queen Anne. For then the French, who had for centuries, as we have seen, sung this song beginning "Mabrook s'en/ ' va-t-en fiuoiTe,'' made an easy change of a word inthe first lino, and so hit off the situation to a nicety. Lot us explain here that tho originaj word "Mabrook" did not refer to the Duke of Marlborough at all; it was the name used in the song for generations previously. Now "Mabrook" itself is an Arab name, and this would seem to afford _ strong proof that the famous song originally came from the men who during the great Crusades fought (under the name of Saracens) against our own kings, and who to-day travel over the wide deserts.