Rule, Britannia!
"Rule, Britannia!" is a British patriotic song, originating from the poem "Rule, Britannia" by James Thomson and set to music by Thomas Arne in 1740.[1] It is strongly associated with the Royal Navy, but also used by the British Army.[2]
Original masque
This popular British national air was originally included in Alfred, a masque about Alfred the Great co-written by Thomson and David Mallet and first performed at Cliveden, country home of Frederick, Prince of Wales (the eldest son of George II and father of the future George III, as well as the great-grandfather of Queen Victoria), on 1 August 1740, to commemorate the accession of George II and the third birthday of the Princess Augusta.[3]
Frederick, a German prince who arrived in England as an adult and was on very bad terms with his father, was making considerable efforts to ingratiate himself and build a following among his subjects-to-be (which came to naught, as he died before his father and never became king). A masque linking the prince with both the medieval hero-king Alfred the Great's victories over the Vikings and with the current building of British sea power - exemplified by the recent successful capture of Porto Bello from the Spanish by Admiral Vernon on 21 November 1739, avenging in the eyes of the British public Admiral Hosier's disastrous Blockade of Porto Bello of 1726–27 - went well with his political plans and aspirations.
Thomson was a Scottish poet and playwright, who spent most of his adult life in England and hoped to make his fortune at Court. He had an interest in helping foster a British identity, including and transcending the older English, Irish, Welsh and Scottish identities.
Thomson had written The Tragedy of Sophonisba (1730), based on the historical figure of Sophonisba - a proud princess of Carthage, a major sea-power of the ancient world, who had committed suicide rather than submit to slavery at the hands of the Romans. This might have some bearing on the song's famous refrain "Britons never, never, never will be slaves!".
In 1751, Mallet altered the lyrics, omitting three of the original six stanzas and adding three others, written by Lord Bolingbroke. This version known as "Married To A Mermaid" became extremely popular when Mallet produced his masque of Britannia at Drury Lane Theatre in 1755.
Independent history
The song soon developed an independent life of its own, separate from the masque of which it had formed a part. First heard in London in 1745, it achieved instant popularity. It quickly became so well known that Handel quoted it in his Occasional Oratorio in the following year. Handel used the first phrase as part of the Act II soprano aria, "Prophetic visions strike my eye", when the soprano sings it at the words "War shall cease, welcome peace!"[4] Similarly, "Rule, Britannia!" was seized upon by the Jacobites who altered Thomson's words to a pro-Jacobite version.[5]
However, Thomson's original words remained best-known. Their denunciation of "foreign tyrants" has some foundation as Britain's period of Parliamentary Commonwealth had decisively curbed royal prerogative, leading to the Bill of Rights of 1689 and it was on the way to developing its constitutional monarchy, in marked contrast to the Royal Absolutism still prevalent in Europe. Britain and France were at war for much of the century and hostile in between (see "Second Hundred Years' War") and the French Bourbons were undoubtedly the prime example of "haughty tyrants", whose "slaves" Britons should never be.
According to Armitage[6] "Rule, Britannia'" was the most lasting expression of the conception of Britain and the British Empire that emerged in the 1730s, "predicated on a mixture of adulterated mercantilism, nationalistic anxiety and libertarian fervour". He equates the song with Bolingbroke's On the Idea of a Patriot King (1738), also written for the private circle of Frederick, Prince of Wales, in which Bolingbroke had "raised the spectre of permanent standing armies that might be turned against the British people rather than their enemies." [7] Hence British naval power could be equated with civil liberty, since an island nation with a strong navy to defend it could afford to dispense with a standing army which, since the time of Cromwell, was seen as a threat and a source of tyranny.
At the time it appeared the song was not a celebration of an existing state of naval affairs, but an exhortation. Although the Dutch Republic, which in the 17th century presented a major challenge to English sea power, was obviously past its peak by 1745, Britain did not yet "rule the waves", although, since it was written during the War of Jenkins' Ear, it could be argued that the words referred to the alleged Spanish aggression against British merchant vessels that caused the war. The time was still to come when the Royal Navy would be an unchallenged dominant force on the oceans. The jesting lyrics of the mid-18th century would assume a material and patriotic significance by the end of the 19th century.
The melody was the theme for a set of variations for piano by Ludwig van Beethoven (WoO 79)[8] and he also used it in "Wellington's Victory", Op. 91.
Richard Wagner wrote a concert overture based on the theme in 1836.
Johann Strauss I quoted the song in full as the introduction to his 1838 waltz Huldigung der Königin Victoria von Grossbritannien (Homage to Queen Victoria of Great Britain), Op. 103, where he also quotes the British national anthem God Save the Queen at the end of the piece.
The French organist-composer Alexandre Guilmant included this tune in his Fantaisie sur deux mélodies anglaises for organ Op. 43, where he also makes use of the song Home! Sweet Home!.
Arthur Sullivan, Britain's leading composer during the reign of Queen Victoria, quoted from "Rule, Britannia!" on at least three occasions in music for his comic operas written with W. S. Gilbert and Bolton Rowe. In Utopia Limited, Sullivan used airs from "Rule, Britannia!" to highlight references to Great Britain. In The Zoo (written with Rowe) Sullivan applied the tune of "Rule, Britannia!" to an instance in which Rowe's libretto quotes directly from the patriotic march. Finally, to celebrate the jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887, Sullivan added a chorus of "Rule, Britannia!" to the finale of HMS Pinafore, which was playing in revival at the Savoy Theatre. Sullivan also quoted the tune in his 1897 ballet Victoria and Merrie England, which traced the "history" of England from the time of the Druids up to Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, an event the ballet was meant to celebrate.
The part of the tune's refrain that defiantly repeats "never, never, never", is among those claimed to have provided the theme on which Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations are based. Elgar also quotes the opening phrase of Rule, Britannia! in his choral work The Music Makers, based on Arthur O'Shaughnessy's Ode at the line "We fashion an empire's glory", where he also quotes La Marseillaise.
"Rule, Britannia!" (in an orchestral arrangement by Sir Malcolm Sargent) is traditionally performed at the BBC's Last Night of the Proms, normally with a guest soloist (past performers have included Jane Eaglen, Bryn Terfel, Thomas Hampson and Felicity Lott). It has always been the last part of Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs, except that for many years up until 2000, the Sargent arrangement has been used. However, in recent years the inclusion of the song and other patriotic tunes has been much criticised—notably by Leonard Slatkin—and the presentation has been occasionally amended.[9] For some years the performance at the Last Night of the Proms reverted back to Sir Henry Wood's original arrangement. When Bryn Terfel performed it at the Proms in 1994 and 2008 he sang the third verse in Welsh. The text is available at Rule Britannia (Welsh).
Rule, Britannia! is often written as simply Rule Britannia, erroneously omitting both the comma and the exclamation mark, which changes the interpretation of the lyric by altering the grammar. Richard Dawkins recounts in The Selfish Gene that the repeated exclamation "Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!" is often rendered as "Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rules the waves!", changing both the meaning and inflection of the verse. This addition of a terminal 's' to the lyrics is used as an example of a successful meme.[10]
Maurice Willson Disher notes that the change from "Britannia, rule the waves" to "Britannia rules the waves" occurred in the Victorian era, at a time when the British did rule the waves and no longer needed to be exhorted to rule them. Disher also notes that the Victorians changed "will" to "shall" in the line "Britons never shall be slaves."[11]
Original lyrics
This version is taken from The Works of James Thomson by James Thomson, Published 1763, Vol II, p. 191, which includes the entire original text of Alfred.
1
- When Britain first, at Heaven's command
- Arose from out the azure main;
- This was the charter of the land,
- And guardian angels sang this strain:
- "Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
- "Britons never will be slaves."
2
- The nations, not so blest as thee,
- Must, in their turns, to tyrants fall;
- While thou shalt flourish great and free,
- The dread and envy of them all.
- "Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
- "Britons never will be slaves."
3
- Still more majestic shalt thou rise,
- More dreadful, from each foreign stroke;
- As the loud blast that tears the skies,
- Serves but to root thy native oak.
- "Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
- "Britons never will be slaves."
4
- Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame:
- All their attempts to bend thee down,
- Will but arouse thy generous flame;
- But work their woe, and thy renown.
- "Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
- "Britons never will be slaves."
5
- To thee belongs the rural reign;
- Thy cities shall with commerce shine:
- All thine shall be the subject main,
- And every shore it circles thine.
- "Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
- "Britons never will be slaves."
6
- The Muses, still with freedom found,
- Shall to thy happy coast repair;
- Blest Isle! With matchless beauty crown'd,
- And manly hearts to guard the fair.
- "Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
- "Britons never will be slaves."
Lyrics as sung
Although the lyrics are usually set out as above, the lines as set to the music are sung in contemporary time according to either of the following variants:
Traditionally rendered,
- When Britain fi-i-irst, at heaven's command,
- Aro-o-o-ose from out the a-a-a-zure main,
- Arose, arose, arose from out the a-azure main,
- This was the charter, the charter of the land,
- And guardian a-a-angels sang this strain:
- Rule Britannia!
- Britannia rule the waves
- Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.
- Rule Britannia!
- Britannia rule the waves.
- Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.
- The nations, no-o-o-o-ot so blest as thee,
- Must i-i-i-i-in their turn, to ty-y--yrants fall,
- Must in their turn, to ty-y-rants fall,
- While thou shalt flourish, shalt flourish great and free,
- The dread and e-e-e-e-nvy of them all.
- Rule Britannia!
- Britannia rule the waves.
- Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.
- Rule Britannia!
- Britannia rule the waves.
- Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.
And now commonly rendered in alternate form:
- When Britain fi-i-irst, at heaven's command,
- Aro-o-o-o-ose from out the a-a-a-zure main,
- Arose, arose from out the azure main,
- This was the charter, the charter of the land,
- And guardian a-a-angels sang this strain:
- Rule Britannia!
- Britannia rule the waves
- Britons never, never, never will be slaves.
- Rule Britannia!
- Britannia rule the waves.
- Britons never, never, never will be slaves.
- Still more maje-e-estic shalt thou rise,
- More dre-e-e-e-eadful from each foreign stroke,
- More dreadful, dreadful from each foreign stroke,
- Loud blast above us, loud blast that tears the skies
- Serves but to ro-o-o-ot thy native oak.
- Rule Britannia!
- Britannia rule the waves.
- Britons never, never, never will be slaves.
- Rule Britannia!
- Britannia rule the waves.
- Britons never, never, never will be slaves.
Variations: Never, never, never is sometimes sung as a single "never" over the same melodic phrase (an example of a melisma); this being the original arrangement by Arne.
In popular culture
- Richard Wagner wrote an overture called "Rule Britannia" in 1837.
- Ron Goodwin incorporated the tune into his Miss Marple theme for the film Murder Ahoy! starring Margaret Rutherford.
- In Jules Verne's The Begum's Fortune, "Rule, Britannia!" is raucously sung by drunken British characters, representing what the writer (and other French people at the time) regarded as a grasping British greediness.
- The first bars of the chorus are commonly heard in American popular culture as a sort of leitmotif accompanying the appearance of a British icon, such as the Royal Navy, the Union Flag (or Union Jack), a member of the British Royal Family, or any United Kingdom representative of social or military rank. This force is sometimes parodied by changing the lyrics to "Rule Britannia, Britannia waives the rules[12] (or waves the rules. by juxtaposition, even in non-American parodies[13])"
- A punk rock version of the song is sung in Derek Jarman's film Jubilee.
- Rule Britannia is the ironic title of a novel by Daphne du Maurier, actually expressing the anger of Britons (specifically, of the Cornish) at being dominated by the United States.
- Ruled Britannia is an alternate history novel by Harry Turtledove, describing a Britain conquered by the Spanish Armada.
- An excerpt of the song was used as the ring entrance music for the tag team the British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and Tom "Dynamite Kid" Billington) in the 1980s, and again, when Davey Boy Smith returned in the 1990s, while in the World Wrestling Federation. Davey Boy's son D.H. Smith would also use it as his entrance music.
- "Rule, Britannia!" is sometimes mistaken for the British national anthem. This is probably because it is used so often in popular culture to represent Britain that it has become more associated with it than the actual national anthem.
- The chorus tune was deliberately misquoted in an episode of the 1960s Batman TV series, in which Batman and Robin visited Britain.
- John Lennon sings part of "Rule, Britannia!" in the film A Hard Day's Night
- "Rue Brittania" (note the missing l) is the title of a story arc in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show covering episodes 117 through 124, wherein Bullwinkle bears the inscription "Rue Brittania" on his foot.[14]
- It is used in Sid Meier's Civilization IV for Queen Victoria's and Winston Churchill Theme.
- Ruling Britannia: Failure and Future of British Democracy by the Scottish journalist and author Andrew Marr was published in 1996.
- The dystopian alternate history novelette "The Greatest Danger" by Lee Allred is set in The Domination of the Draka timeline, created by S. M. Stirling, in which the monstrous Drakas conquer the world and reduce everybody else to chattel slavery. In one episode of the story, the people of Guernsey defy their Draka captors by singing "Britons never, never will be slaves!", words quite literal in this context.[15]
- "Rule, Britannia!" is the theme song of Lord British, the avatar of Richard Garriott in the Ultima series of computer games. In Ultima 7, it is usually heard when the main hero of the game wanders near Lord British Castle.
- British folk metal band Skyclad has incorporated parts of the chorus as a wordplay in their song "Think Back and Lie of England", ("Cruel Britannia ruled the waves..."), which unlike "Rule, Britannia!" is anti-patriotic.
- In the Adult Swim show Sealab 2021 episode "Let them Eat Corn" two British arms dealers sing a song about their new teeth sung to a rock version of the song.
- In Paul Revere's Ride (2005) by David Del Tredici, "Rule, Britannia!" is set in counterpoint against "Yankee Doodle", representing the Battles of Lexington and Concord that began the American Revolution.
- Also used in Finnish, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish TV ads for Premiership Football on Canal+.
- The song is regularly sung by fans of English football clubs Millwall FC, Swindon FC and Chelsea F.C.It is also sung by fans of Linfield in Northern Ireland and Rangers in Scotland because of its unionist connotations.
- In the 1987 James Bond film The Living Daylights, "Rule, Britannia!" must be whistled to activate the stun gas feature of Bond's key ring.
- In the Keeping Up Appearances episode "A Barbecue at Violet's", "Rule, Britannia!" is one of the songs in Hyacinth's "party game"
- Featured in the film The Italian Job (1969).
- Robert Newton and Stanley Holloway's characters in David Lean's This Happy Breed sing this song several times in the film.
- The piece has appeared in two episodes of the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants. Squidward's watch plays the song in one episode, and Squidward sings a song to the tune of this song in "Dunces and Dragons".
- This song appeared as the title card music to an episode of The Fairly OddParents.
- Rule, Britannia! is played in the first Austin Powers film because Mike Myers believed it was a film cliche to play the song whenever any film changed its setting to Britain.
- It appears, in a strangulated form, in an exhibition of British artifacts in Flushed Away, along with a somewhat more musical version of Land of Hope and Glory.
- Since 1971, Arsenal fans have sung a song called Good old Arsenal, which is based on the tune of Rule, Britannia!.[16]
- A parody of "Rule, Britannia!" ("Britons, ever, ever, ever will be slaves") is chanted by Germans in Andrew Roberts's political satire The Aachen Memorandum, which depicts a future Europe in which Britain has been split into separate states and merged into a United States of Europe.
- "Rule Britannia!" is whistled by two RAF pilots in the French film La Grande Vadrouille.
- Used several times in Dan Simmons's book The Terror
- Michael Flanders & Donald Swann parodied both this song and British composer Benjamin Britten in "Guide to Britten", where the terminal line is "So rule Brittania, while Britten rules the staves, all the music-loving public are his slaves."
- In the television series Frasier, the episode "Whine Club" includes a parody entitled "Hail, Corkmaster!", sung as part of the inauguration of the wine club's new president.[17]
- In the book "Ice Station" written by Matthew Rielly one of the main antagonists Trevor Barnaby has a habit of saying "Rule,Britannia" to his enemies moments before their death
The music used for the Alma Mater of Winston Churchill High School in San Antonio, Texas
- In the DC Comics Flashpoint event, at the end of issue 3 of "Flashpoint: Lois Lane & The Resistance". As the battle against the conquering Amazons reached its climax, Resistance member Grifter asked UK heroine Britannia how "that song about her went again", referring to "Rule, Britannia!", to which she replied "I think the line you're looking for is... "Britons never, never, never shall be slaves", before charging into one last battle.
- On The Bill Handel Show radio program based in Los Angeles, CA when discusing stories regarding the British Royal Family, the "Queen" makes a guest appearance whose intro begins with a deep doorbell with resounding "Rule, Britannia!" in the background as the Queen provides her royal non-sequitor address.
Mentions in other songs
References
- ^ Scholes, Percy A (1970). The Oxford Companion to Music (tenth Edition). Oxford University Press. pp. 897.
- ^ http://www.norfolkbc.fsnet.co.uk/rule_britannia.htm
- ^ Scholes p. 897.
- ^ Scholes p.898
- ^ Pittock, Murray G. H (1994). Poetry and Jacobite Politics in Eighteenth-Century Britain and Ireland. Cambridge University Press. pp. 83. ISBN 0521410924. "when royal Charles by Heaven's command, arrived in Scotland's noble Plain, etc"
- ^ Armitage, David (2000). The Ideological Origins of the British Empire. Cambridge University Press. pp. 173.
- ^ Armitage, p.185
- ^ Scholes (p.898) says "Beethoven wrote piano variations on the tune (poor ones), and many composers who were no Beethovens have done the like".
- ^ "Proms Conductor Derides Britannia". BBC News. 1 July 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/2078500.stm. Retrieved 3 April 2007.
- ^ Dawkins, Richard (1989). The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press. pp. 324. ISBN 0192860925. http://books.google.ca/books?id=WkHO9HI7koEC&client=firefox-a.
- ^ Disher, Maurice Willson. Victorian Song, Phoenix House, 1955.
- ^ Sitter, John (Fall 2001). "Britannia Waives the Rules: Recent Studies of English Poetry in Principle and Practice". Eighteenth-Century Studies: pp. 131-134. doi:10.1353/ecs.2001.0068.
- ^ http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/news/Ming-maps-out-a-coalition.3351669.jp)
- ^ Louis Chunovic, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Book (New York: Bantam Books, 1996), 142–146.
- ^ Allred, Lee. "The Greatest Danger " in "Drakas!" (S. M. Stirling, ed.) New York: Baen (2000)
- ^ [1]
- ^ Episode Transcription, http://www.reocities.com/Hollywood/derby/3267/717.html
Bibliography
- Thomas Augustine Arne: Alfred. Musica Britannica vol. XLVII, editor: Alexander Scott, Stainer & Bell, London 1981, ISBN 0-85249-476-9 (full score, Urtext edition)
External links
- Renee Fleming sings "Rule, Britannia!" at Last Night of the Proms (2010).
- Married To A Mermaid
- Piano version (9KB, MIDI file)
- Band version (121KB, MP3 file)
- BBC Symphony Orchestra, Bryn Terfel, Last Night of the Proms, Live 1994 copyright BBC and Teldec Classics GmbH, (4:27 min, ca 4 MB, MP3 file, which has four verses, the third sung in Welsh)
- Beethoven Haus Bonn, Variationen über das englische Volkslied "Rule Britannia" für Klavier (D-Dur) WoO 79