Arne, Thomas Augustine

Arne, Thomas Augustine (ärn), 1710–78, English composer. Arne composed the song Rule, Britannia, based on an ode by James Thomson. He composed new music for an adaptation of Milton's masque Comus (1738) and for some of the songs in Shakespeare's plays. He also wrote operas, oratorios, including Judith (1761), instrumental music, and incidental music for plays.

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Arne, Thomas Augustine

(born March 12, 1710, London, Eng.—died March 5, 1778, London) British composer. Son of a London upholsterer, he secretly taught himself instrumental skills and composition with the help of an opera musician. Smitten by the opera, he had an early success with his own first opera, Rosamond (1733), and thereafter concentrated almost exclusively on the theatre. As composer to Drury Lane Theatre and London's great pleasure gardens, he became Britain's leading theatrical composer and, after George Frideric Handel, possibly the finest British composer of the century. Of his approximately 90 theatrical works, the best known are Comus (1738), The Judgment of Paris (1740), and Artaxerxes (1762). His song “Rule, Britannia” became an unofficial national anthem. His sister Susannah (1714–66) was the famous singer and actress known as Mrs. Cibber.