|
|
Article: Marlborough.
- Article from:
- The Historian
- Article date:
- June 22, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
In 1722 John Churchill, duke of Marlborough, died. His implacable opponent, Jonathan Swift, composed a satirical elegy for the occasion:
Come hither, all ye empty things, Ye bubbles rais'd by breath of kings; Who float upon the tide of state, Come hither and behold your fate. Let pride be taught by this rebuke, How very mean a thing's a duke; From all his ill-got honors flung, Turn'd to that dirt from whence he sprung.
This elegy and withering appraisal of the duke's policy in The Conduct of the Allies constitute the best examples of the damage done to the duke's reputation by the greatest satirist of the English tradition. To restore Marlborough's reputation ...