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Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745

"The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume 2"


But as losers at play,
Their dice throw away,
While the winners do still win on;
Let who will command,
Thou hadst better disband,
For, old Bully, thy doctors[6] are gone.

[Footnote 1: This ballad, upon the battle of Oudenarde, was very popular,
and the tune is often referred to as that of "Ye Commons and
Peers."--_Scott_.]
[Footnote 2: "A Ballad upon a Wedding," by Sir John Suckling, occasioned
by the marriage of Roger Boyle, first Lord Orrery, with Lady Margaret
Howard, daughter to the Earl of Suffolk. Suckling's Works, edit. Hazlitt,
vol. i, p. 42.--_W. E. B._]
[Footnote 3: In the Dutch accounts of the battle of Oudenarde, it is said
that the Dukes of Burgundy and Berry, with the Chevalier de St. George,
viewed the action at a distance from the top of a steeple, and fled, when
the fate of the day turned against the French. Vendosme commanded the
French upon that occasion.--_Scott_.]
[Footnote 4: The Electoral Prince of Hanover, afterwards George II,
behaved with great spirit in the engagement, and charged, at the head of
Bulau's dragoons, with great intrepidity. His horse was shot under him,
and he then fought as stated in the text. Smollett's "History of
England," ii, _125.


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