James Thomson and David Mallet, Rule Britannia (1740)

Rule Britannia was originally from the masque Alfred, which was first performed for Prince Frederick in 1740 and opened on Drury Lane the following year. The masque was a collaboration between Thomson and fellow Scot, David Mallet (?1705–65). The play celebrates the heroic resistance of Alfred the Great — king of the West Saxons from 871 until his death in 899 — to the Danes (alluding to the contemporary tensions between the English and the Spanish). Alfred was often represented in Patriot Opposition writings in the 1730s as a law-giver hero who exemplified Saxon liberty and Christian benevolence (in contrast to the prime minister Robert Walpole). The masque’s climax occurs when the figure of the Hermit prophesies the future glory of England, and the Bard sings ‘An ODE’ which we now know as Rule Britannia.1