Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Rule Britannia
Rule Britannia.
Thomson.—Masque of Alfred. A national song of England.
[The poet wrote the Masque conjointly with Mallet, and it contains this song. Mr. Bolton Corney ascribes it to Mallet; but Turle and Taylor, in the People’s Music Book, p. 253, and Dr. Johnson, think otherwise; and the generally received opinion is, that it is the production of Thomson.]