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STORIES OF
of Brunswick on August ist, 1740. It was after-wards altered into an opera (by the same com-poser) and performed at Covent Garden in 1745 ; and, after the death of Thomson, which occurred in 1748, it was again entirely remodelled by Mallet, scarcely any part of the first being re-tained, and performed at Drury Lane, in 1751. The words of ' Rule Britannia' were, however, written by Thomson." It was already a cele-brated song in 1745, for during the Jacobite Rebellion in the north, of that year, the Jacob-ites, with consummate impudence, took the lay, and altered the words to suit their own cause, and termed it their " National Song I" Handel makes use of the air in his " Occasional Cra-torios," with slight variations, to words be-ginning,
" W a r shall cease, Welcome peace!"
in 1746.
When Mallet altered the opera, or masque of " Alfred," it proved a fearful fiasco, and it was not till Thomson was dead that he claimed the ode as his own composition—a composition which Southey (including the music, of course,) said would be " the political hymn of this country as long as she maintains her political power." Yet the song was actually published in Edinburgh
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