Jonathan Swift. "Peace and Dunkirk."

Jonathan Swift

PEACE AND DUNKIRK.¹

BEING AN EXCELLENT NEW SONG UPON THE

SURRENDER OF DUNKIRK TO GENERAL HILL. 1712.

To the tune of "The King shall enjoy his own again."

I
SPITE of Dutch friends and English foes,
    Poor Britain shall have peace at last:
Holland got towns, and we got blows;
    But Dunkirk's ours, we'll hold it fast.
        We have got it in a string,
        And the whigs may all go swing,
For among good friends I love to be plain;
        All their false deluded hopes
        Will, or ought to end in ropes;
"But the Queen shall enjoy her own again."

II
Sunderland's run out of his wits,
    And Dismal double Dismal looks;
Wharton can only swear by fits,
    And strutting Hal is off the hooks;
        Old Godolphin full of spleen,
        Made false moves, and lost his queen:
Harry look'd fierce, and shook his ragged mane:
        But a prince of high renown
        Swore he'd rather lose a crown,
"Than the Queen should enjoy her own again."

III
Our merchant ships may cut the Line,
    And not be snapt by privateers,
And commoners who love good wine
    Will drink it now as well as peers:
        Landed men shall have their rent,
    Yet our stocks rise cent per cent.
The Dutch from hence shall no more millions drain:
        We'll bring on us no more debts,
        Nor with bankrupts fill gazettes;
"And the queen shall enjoy her own again."

IV
The towns we took ne'er did us good:
    What signified the French to beat?
We spent our money and our blood,
    To make the Dutchmen proud and great:
        But the lord of Oxford swears,
        Dunkirk never shall be theirs.
The Dutch-hearted whigs may rail and complain;
        But true Englishmen may fill
        A good health to general Hill;
"For the queen now enjoys her own again."

      Excerpted from:

      The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D.. Vol VII.
      John Nichols, ed.
      London: J. Johnson, et al., 1801. 80-1.

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