![]() A massed military band of Australian, British and American forces played as Supreme Allied Commander Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma arrived. The song assumed extra significance in 1945 at the conclusion of World War II when it was played at the ceremonial surrender of the Japanese imperial army in Singapore. Disher also notes that the Victorians changed "will" to "shall" in the line "Britons never shall be slaves". 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. This addition of a terminal 's' to the lyrics is used as an example of a successful meme. Richard Dawkins recounts in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene that the repeated exclamation "Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!" is often rendered as "Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule s the waves!", changing the meaning of the verse. "Rule, Britannia!" is often written as simply "Rule Britannia", omitting both the comma and the exclamation mark, which changes the interpretation of the lyric by altering the punctuation. The jesting lyrics of the mid-18th century would assume a material and patriotic significance by the end of the 19th century.īritannia rule the waves: decorated plate made in Liverpool circa 1793–1794 ( Musée de la Révolution française). The time was still to come when the Royal Navy would be an unchallenged dominant force on the oceans. 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. 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.Īt the time it appeared, the song was not a celebration of an existing state of naval affairs, but an exhortation. 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". Īccording to Armitage "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". 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!" The song was seized upon by the Jacobites, who altered Thomson's words to a pro-Jacobite version. It quickly became so well known that Handel quoted it in his Occasional Oratorio in the following year. First heard in London in 1745, it achieved instant popularity. ![]() "Rule, Britannia!" soon developed an independent life of its own, separate from the masque of which it had formed a part. This became extremely popular when Mallet produced his masque Britannia at Drury Lane Theatre in 1755. In 1751 Mallet re-used the text of "Rule, Britannia!", omitting three of the original six stanzas and adding three new ones by Lord Bolingbroke, to form the repeated chorus of a comic song "Married to a Mermaid". While thou shalt flourish great and free,īlest Isle! With matchless beauty crown'd,
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