---
title: "A Tippling Ballad"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Poem"
year: "1792"
location: "Dumfries"
source: "Project Gutenberg #1279 — Poems and Songs of Robert Burns"
source_url: "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1279/pg1279.txt"
canonical_url: "https://robert-burns.com/poems/a-tippling-ballad/"
---

# A Tippling Ballad

## Preface
On the Duke of Brunswick’s Breaking up his Camp, and the defeat of the Austrians, by Dumourier, November 1792.

## Poem
When Princes and Prelates,  
And hot-headed zealots,  
A’Europe had set in a low, a low,  
The poor man lies down,  
Nor envies a crown,  
And comforts himself as he dow, as he dow,  
And comforts himself as he dow.

The black-headed eagle,  
As keen as a beagle,  
He hunted o’er height and o’er howe,  
In the braes o’ Gemappe,  
He fell in a trap,  
E’en let him come out as he dow, dow, dow,  
E’en let him come out as he dow.

But truce with commotions,  
And new-fangled notions,  
A bumper, I trust you’ll allow;  
Here’s George our good king,  
And Charlotte his queen,  
And lang may they ring as they dow, dow, dow,  
And lang may they ring as they dow.

---

Source: [Project Gutenberg #1279 — Poems and Songs of Robert Burns](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1279/pg1279.txt)  
Canonical HTML: https://robert-burns.com/poems/a-tippling-ballad/