Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre

It tells how Marlborough's wife, awaiting his return from battle, is given the news of her husband's death.

Pierre Beaumarchais used the tune in his 1778 play The Marriage of Figaro for a despairing love song for Cherubino.

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".

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe came to hate Marlborough simply on account of the prevalence of the tune he encountered during travels in France.

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.

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.

The song has been translated into several languages, including an English version published by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in the 19th century.

Sur la plus haute branche Un rossignol chanta On vit voler son âme, Au travers des lauriers.

For Trinity Feast is over, And has brought no news from Dover, And Easter is pass'd moreover, And Marlborough still delays.

Milady in her watch-tower Spends many a pensive hour, Not knowing why or how her Dear lord from England stays.

While sitting quite forlorn in That tower, she spies returning A page clad in deep mourning, With fainting steps and slow.

[citation needed] 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.

[11] Ludwig van Beethoven used the tune to represent the French in his musical work Wellington's Victory.