1814.3
Bellman's Verses for 1814
Orange Boven[1]
[James Henry Leigh Hunt]
The Examiner (January 23, 1814), p. 57

Huzza, my boys! our friends the Dutch have risen,
Our good old friends, and burst the Tyrant's prison!
Aye, and have done it without bloodshed too,
Like men, to sense as well as freedom true.
The moment, I'll be sworn, that Ocean heard it,
With a new dance of waters it bestirr'd it;
And Trade, reviving from her trance of death,
Took a new lease of sunshine and of breath.
Let's aid them, my fine fellows, all we can:—
Where's finer business for an Englishman—
Who knows what 'tis to eat his own good bread,
And see his table-cloth securely spread—
Than helping to set free a neighbour's oven?
Huzza! The Dutch for ever! Orange Boven!

Notes

1. The poem has been attributed to Leigh Hunt [see Simon Nowell-Smith, 'Leigh Hunt as Bellman,' TLS (April 2, 1970), p. 367.] The title "Orange Boven" was used for a number of other works around this time. The Morning Chronicle of December 11, 1814 notes a divertissement by Mr. Dibden with that title, and The Scots Magazine included a poem entitled "Orange Boven!—Hurra! Hurra! Hurra!" in the December 1814 issue.