Each of the foregoing verses was sung as a solo with the choral refrain “Rule, Britannia.” The venerable bard was represented by Mr. Thomas Lowe,[35] a favourite singer who was engaged at Cliefden, and sang the tenor solos on that occasion in the “Judgement of Paris.” We know from the report in the Daily Post that there were “other performers from both theatres,”[36] doubtless a good and efficient chorus. The Ode would have made a splendid climax to the Masque,[37] but the libretto shows that the Hermit followed with a speech which is worthy of reproduction; the last four lines are particularly deserving of attention:
Alfred, go forth! lead on the radiant years,
To thee reveal’d in vision.——Lo! they rise!
Lo! patriots, heroes, sages, crowd to birth:
And bards to sing them in immortal verse!
I see thy commerce, Britain, grasp the world:
All nations serve thee; every foreign flood,
Subjected, pays its tribute to the Thames.
Thither the golden South obedient pours
His sunny treasures: thither the soft East
Her spices, delicacies, gentle gifts;
And thither his rough trade the stormy North.
See, where beyond the vast Atlantic surge,
By boldest keels untouch’d, a dreadful space!
Shores, yet unfound, arise! in youthful prime,
With towering forests, mighty rivers crown’d!
These stoop to Britain’s thunder. This new world,
Shook to the centre, trembles at her name:
And there, her sons with aim exalted, sow
The seeds of rising empire, arts, and arms.
Britons proceed, the subject Deep command,
Awe with your navies every hostile land.
In vain their threats; their armies all in vain:
They rule the balanc’d world, who rule the main.
Although the libretto of “Alfred” was published a few days after the performance at Cliefden, the music remained in manuscript; possibly Arne did not consider the number of pieces, only five, sufficient to warrant the expense of publication; it is certain however that the “Rule, Britannia” Ode caught the public ear, and became celebrated. When therefore the “Judgement of Paris” Masque was published, about 1741, the opportunity was taken of printing the score of “Rule, Britannia.” The volume consists of sixty-one pages, and the title-page reads: “The music in the Judgement of Paris, consisting of All the Songs, Duettos and Trio, with the Overture in Score, as perform’d by Mr. Beard, Mr. Lowe, Mrs. Arne, Mrs. Clive, Miss Edwards and others at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. To which (by particular Desire of Several Encouragers of the Work) are added the Celebrated Ode, in Honour of Great-Britain call’d Rule, Britannia, and Sawney and Jenney, a favourite Dialogue, in the Scotch Stile. The whole compos’d by Thomas Augustine Arne. Opera Sesta. London. Printed for Henry Waylett, at the Black Lyon in Exeter Change in the Strand, and sold by him, and at all the music shops in London and Westminster, where may be had five other volumes of the Author’s Works.”
It was not before 1751 that the other music of “Alfred” was published. The title-page reads: “The Masque of Alfred compos’d by Mr. Arne. London. Printed for I. Walsh in Catherine Street in the Strand.” The volume consists of eighty-three pages; but the “celebrated Ode” is conspicuous by its absence. No doubt Waylett, the publisher of the “Judgement of Paris,” was unwilling to permit its insertion without some adequate recompense. In what way the matter was adjusted we do not know; but an arrangement was made, and a second edition of “Alfred” issued which included the “Celebrated Ode.” The plates used were those from which the music was printed in the “Judgement of Paris”; this is evident from the double-paging visible on the pages of “Alfred”: 62-84, 63-85, 64-86. The first set of numbers belong to the “Judgement of Paris,” and the second set to “Alfred.”
