“Marseillaise, La”
Description
French language: "Allons, enfants de la Patrie! Le jour gloire est arrive!" The listeners are urged to fight for France and freedom, and drive foreigners off French soil
Notes
Summarizing the notes in Fuld:
There are all sorts of ironies associated with this song. To begin with, it wasn't associated with Marseilles; it was published as "Chant de Guerre pour l'Armee du Rhin" (more or less at the far end of France). Even more ironically, the author (Rouget de Lisle, 1760-1836) is reported to have been a royalist, and even to have been imprisoned for his support for the crown.
The song was written in 1792, when France still had a king though it was doing its best to ignore him. France wound up at war with Austria and Prussia. It appears that the association with Marseilles came about because volunteers from Marseilles heard it sung, and then joined in storming the Tuileries (August 10, 1792). - RBW
Same tune
- The Texan Marseillaise (by James Haines; [H. M. Wharton], War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy, pp. 191-192)
- The Swineish Multitutde (1798 rebel song; cf. Thomas Pakenham, The Year of Liberty, p. 173)
References
- Silber-FSWB, p. 302, "La Marseillaise" (1 French text plus English version)
- Fuld-WFM, p. 354, "La Marseillaise"
- DT, LAMARSEI
- Roud #11238
- BI, FSWB302