Defoe's Life of Marlborough serves as a kind of barometer for the age and for Defoe. A reliable if sketchy list of the Duke's military successes and the major charges raised against him at various times during his life may be matched to the struggles in the English government and on the continent. The time had nearly come for the Jacobites, whom Marlborough had offended by deserting James, and the Tories, who had long thought him a presumptuous general and a former Tory (or a lukewarm Tory as Marlborough might have thought himself) who had perverted a Tory Queen, brought the Bill of Occasional Conformity to defeat, and driven Tories out of office, to collect the debt that they felt Marlborough owed them. The biography, written in the interim between two foreign policies when so many momentous plans were proceeding backstage, mirrors the age. It is also a barometer by which Defoe's development can be measured; his journalistic involvement and employment, his non-fiction techniques as well as his progress toward the fiction are implied.
Rollins College
Winter Park, Florida
A SHORT NARRATIVE OF THE ACTIONS OF HIS GRACE JOHN, DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH
There is nothing new , saith Solomon, under the Sun ; the same Causes will always produce the same Effects; and while Mankind bear about them, the various Passions of Love and Joy, Hatred and Grief, the cunning Engineer, that stands behind the Curtain, will influence and work these Passions according to his Malice, to the destruction of Persons of highest Worth.
I shall therefore give a short Narrative of the Actions of the most Illustrious John Duke of Marlborough , with some Reflections on them, that People may not wonder how it comes to pass, that such a Great Captain, equal no doubt to any in all Ages, considering the Powers whom he has Oppos'd, after all his Victories, should be represented in the publick Writings of the Town, as over-Honoured and over-Paid for all his past Services, and neglected and almost forgotten in the midst of all his Triumphs, and his Name almost lost from the Mouths of those People, who
The custom of the ancients in writing fables is my very laudable pattern for this; and my firm resolution in all I write to exalt virtue, expose vice, promote truth, and help men to serious reflection, is my first moving cause and last directed end. (Preface to the Review)
Things seem to appear more lively to the Understanding, and to make a stronger Impression upon the Mind when they are insinuated under the cover of some Symbol or Allegory, especially where the moral is good, and the Application obvious and easy. (Collection of Miscellaney Letters , iv, 210)
not be in this Year that Dunkirk was to be given up to some party of the King's Forces; both his Majesty and my Lord Marlborough being absent from us, and we had no Marches towards that part of the Country, and good Reason for it, for we could not if we would.
I come now to our third Campaign, which was made in Flanders ; and if ever Dunkirk was to be betrayed in some secret manner to the late King; and if ever the Secret thereof was reveal'd by his Majesty to the Earl of Marlborough ; and if my Lord did reveal the same weighty Secret to his Wife; and if by her it was discovered to her Sister at St. Germans , and by her to the French King, it must be placed in this Year, or else it must be extra anni solisque Vias , the Lord knows when and where.
I am sure that the pretended Discovery of this same Secret hath lain hard on my Lord's Name for a great many Years; and upon most Discourses of the Affairs in Flanders , that business of Dunkirk is trump'd up against my Lord to this very Day.
For as soon as this Story was sent abroad, it flew like Lightening, and like the sham tragical Report which was put upon the Irish at the Revolution, it was scattered over all the Kingdom in an instant. The loss of Dunkirk is not to be forgotten, and 'tis fresh in the Minds of the common People, both in Town and Country; and not only the Farmers over a Pot of Ale at Market, will shake their Heads at Malbur , (for so they call him) for losing of Dunkirk ; but also Gentlemen of good Rank and Condition believe it to be true, and talk of it with a great deal of Regret to this very time. I don't pretend in this Narrative to Inform the great People at Court, concerning this thing; without doubt they very well know there was no great matter in this mighty Secret; but most of it a design to Disgrace my Lord Marlborough , that he might the more easily be turn'd out of his Places at Court and in the Army: I write this to the common People only; to vindicate the Innocent, and to undeceive a good part of the Nation, who have not had an Opportunity to be better Informed.
This Summer then being our Third Campaign, the King came to the Army, and with Him my Lord Marlborough , and several other Persons of Quality: Among the rest was Count Solmes , a nigh Relation to his Majesty, and Colonel of the great Regiment of Dutch Blue Guards; and then it was after two or three Marches that my Lord was observ'd to be somewhat neglected, and his Interest in the Army to decay and cool; and upon a certain Morning, as we were in full March, a Man might judge by what then happened that it was so: For it seems the Count had ordered his Baggage and Sumpters to take Place of my Lord's, and to cut them out of the Line; of which Affront my Lord being inform'd by his Servants, soon found him out, and having caus'd his Baggage to enter the Post which was his due, with his Cane lifted up, and some hard Words in French , 'twas thought by a great many that it would end in a single Combat; but the Count thought fit to shear off, and we heard no more of it.