Britons, Strike Home! is a British patriotic song, originally an air written for a theatrical production by Henry Purcell in 1695. It was popular during the various wars of the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Britons, Strike Home! is a British patriotic song, originally an air written for a theatrical production by Henry Purcell in 1695. It was popular during the various wars of the 18th and early 19th centuries.
In the last year of Purcell's life, he wrote the music for an October 1695 adaptation of John Fletcher's tragedy, Bonduca , called Bonduca, or the British Heroine. Purcell's score has the "Z number" Z 574 and ranks amongst his finest music for the theatre, [1] In the play, the Ancient British general, Charatach is trying to rouse the army of Queen Bonduca against the Romans. He appeals to their god Divine Andate and finally commands, Now Sing, ye Druids . The Druids take up the theme with a duet, To Arms, To Arms! followed by a solo and Druid chorus, Britons, Strike Home! [2] In 1728, the tune was used as Air LIX in The Beggar's Opera by John Gay. [3]
(Solo by the Chief Druid, repeated by the chorus of Druids)
Britons, strike home!
Revenge, revenge your Country's wrong.
Fight! Fight and record. Fight!
Fight and record yourselves in Druid's Song.
Fight! Fight and record. Fight!
Fight and record yourselves in Druid's Song. [4]
Should Frenchmen e'er pollute Britannia's strand,
Or press with hostile hoof this sacred strand;
The daring deed should every Briton arm
To save his native land from dire alarm;
Her freeborn sons should instant take the field,
The Altar and the Throne to shield.
Chorus
Britons, strike home! avenge your country's cause,
Protect your King, your Liberties, and Laws!
There are a further five verses. [5]
Boudica or Boudicca was a queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe, who led a failed uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61. She is considered a British national heroine and a symbol of the struggle for justice and independence.
Henry Purcell was an English composer of Baroque music.
The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement that took place on 21 October 1805 between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815).
"Yankee Doodle" is a traditional song and nursery rhyme, the early versions of which predate the Seven Years' War and American Revolutionary War. It is often sung patriotically in the United States today. It is the state anthem of Connecticut. Its Roud Folk Song Index number is 4501.
"Rule, Britannia!" is a British patriotic song, originating from the 1740 poem "Rule, Britannia" by James Thomson and set to music by Thomas Arne in the same year. It is most strongly associated with the Royal Navy, but is also used by the British Army.
"Lillibullero" is a march attributed to Henry Purcell that became popular in England at the time of the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
General John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, also 2nd Viscount Pitt and 2nd Baron Chatham, was a British soldier and politician. He spent a lengthy period in the cabinet but is best known for commanding the disastrous Walcheren Campaign of 1809.
William Croft was an English composer and organist.
King Arthur, or The British Worthy, is a semi-opera in five acts with music by Henry Purcell and a libretto by John Dryden. It was first performed at the Queen's Theatre, Dorset Garden, London, in late May or early June 1691.
"The Absent-Minded Beggar" is an 1899 poem by Rudyard Kipling, set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan and often accompanied by an illustration of a wounded but defiant British soldier, "A Gentleman in Kharki", by Richard Caton Woodville. The song was written as part of an appeal by the Daily Mail to raise money for soldiers fighting in the Second Boer War and their families. The fund was the first such charitable effort for a war.
Admiral Sir Thomas Bladen Capel was an officer in the British Royal Navy whose distinguished service in the French Revolutionary War, the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 earned him rapid promotion and great acclaim both in and out of the Navy. He was also a great friend of Admiral Nelson and can be considered a full member of Nelson's "band of brothers".
Bonduca is a Jacobean tragi-comedy in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon, generally judged by scholars to be the work of John Fletcher alone. It was acted by the King's Men c. 1613, and published in 1647 in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio.
Events from the year 1805 in the United Kingdom. This is the year of the Battle of Trafalgar.
The Trafalgar Cemetery is a cemetery in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. Formerly known as the Southport Ditch Cemetery, it occupies a small area of land just to the south of the city walls, in what had been a defensive ditch during the period of Spanish rule of Gibraltar. Although it is named for the Battle of Trafalgar of 21 October 1805, only two victims of the battle are buried there. The remainder of the interments are mostly of those killed in other sea battles or casualties of the yellow fever epidemics that swept Gibraltar between 1804 and 1814. In addition, tombstones were transferred to the Trafalgar Cemetery from St. Jago's Cemetery and Alameda Gardens.
The Gibraltar Chronicle is a national newspaper published in Gibraltar since 1801. It became a daily in 1821. It is Gibraltar's oldest established daily newspaper and the world's second oldest English language newspaper to have been in print continuously. Its editorial offices are at Watergate House, and the print works are in the New Harbours industrial estate.
The Indian Queen is a largely unfinished semi-opera with music by Henry Purcell, first performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, in 1695. The exact date is unknown, but Peter Holman surmises it may have been in June.
Baroque music of the British Isles bridged the gap between the early music of the Medieval and Renaissance periods and the development of fully fledged and formalised orchestral classical music in the second half of the eighteenth century. It was characterised by more elaborate musical ornamentation, changes in musical notation, new instrumental playing techniques and the rise of new genres such as opera. Although the term Baroque is conventionally used for European music from about 1600, its full effects were not felt in Britain until after 1660, delayed by native trends and developments in music, religious and cultural differences from many European countries and the disruption to court music caused by the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and Interregnum. Under the restored Stuart monarchy the court became once again a centre of musical patronage, but royal interest in music tended to be less significant as the seventeenth century progressed, to be revived again under the House of Hanover. The Baroque era in British music can be seen as one of an interaction of national and international trends, sometimes absorbing continental fashions and practices and sometimes attempting, as in the creation of ballad opera, to produce an indigenous tradition. However, arguably the most significant British composer of the era, George Frideric Handel, was a naturalised German, who helped integrate British and continental music and define the future of music in the United Kingdom.
This Bibliography covers sources for Royal Navy history through the 18th and 19th centuries. Some sources may be duplicated in sections when appropriate. Among the contemporary and earlier historical accounts are primary sources, historical accounts, often derived from letters, dispatches, government and military records, captain's logs and diaries, etc., by people involved in or closely associated to the historical episode in question. Primary source material is either written by these people or often collected, compiled, and/or written and published by other editors also, sometimes many years after the historical subject has passed. Primary sources listed in this bibliography are denoted with an uppercase bold ' (P) before the book title. Publications that are in the public domain and available online for viewing in their entirety are denoted with E'Book.
The British is a 2012 British television series produced by Sky Atlantic. It comprises seven fifty-minute episodes. It covers several major events in the history of Britain throughout the years 43 AD to 1953. Including the Norman Conquest, Industrial Revolution and the Queen's Coronation. It stars Russell Brand, Jessie J, and Dame Helen Mirren, and is narrated by Jeremy Irons. It premiered 6 September 2012 on Sky Atlantic.
Welcome to all the pleasures, Z. 339, is a 1683 composition by Henry Purcell, the first of a series he wrote in honour of the patron saint of music, Saint Cecilia. It was commissioned by an organisation called "The Musical Society" for performance in London on 22 November 1683.
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