ARNE, Thomas Augustine, musical composer, was born in London on the 28th May 1710, his father being an upholsterer. Intended for the legal profession, he was educated at Eton, and afterwards apprenticed to an attorney. His natural inclination for music, however, proved irresistible, and his father, finding from his performance at an amateur musical party that he was already a skilful violinist, furnished him with the means of educating himself in his favourite art. In 1733 he produced his first work,— a setting of Addison’s Rosamond, the heroine’s part being intended for his sister, who afterwards became celebrated as Mrs Cibber. This proving a success was immediately followed by a burletta, entitled The Opera of Operas, based on Fielding’s Tom Thumb. His individuality of style first distinctly asserted itself in the music to Milton’s Comus, which was performed at Drury Lane in 1738, and speedily established his reputation. In 1740 he wrote the music for Thomson and Mallet’s Masque of Alfred, which is noteworthy as containing the most popular of all his airs— Rule Britannia. In the same year he married Cecilia Young, who was considered the finest English singer of the day. Along with his wife he went, in 1742, to Ireland, where he remained two years. On his return to London he was engaged as leader of the band at Drury Lane Theatre (1744), and as composer at Vauxhall (1745). In 1759 he received the degree of Doctor of Music from Oxford. Three years later he produced, at Covent Garden, his opera of Artaxerxes, the popularity of which is attested by the fact that it continued to be performed at intervals for upwards of eighty years. The libretto was a translation by Arne himself, very poorly executed, of Metastasio’s Artaserse. In addition to his numerous ...