Britons, Strike Home!

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.

An unusually vicious caricature print by James Gillray dated 1803 and entitled "BUONAPARTE, 48 Hours after Landing!". Napoleon's severed head is held aloft on a pitchfork by John Bull whose hat bears the legend "BRITONS STRIKE HOME", which was a popular slogan during the Napoleonic Wars.

Origin

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]

Lyrics

Purcell's original lyrics

(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]

Lyrics composed during the Invasion Scare of 1803–5

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]

Notable uses

• At the Battle of Dettingen on 16 June 1743, a trumpeter in the Earl of Crawford's Troop of Horse Guards stood up in his stirrups and played Britons, Strike Home! just before they made a charge.[6]
• During the American War of Independence, the noted Loyalist, Rebecca Franks, attended a society ball in New York, given by the British commander, Sir Henry Clinton. Her support for the British cause did not protect the general from her barbed wit; when he called out for the orchestra to play Britons, Strike Home!, she riposted; "The Commander-in-Chief has made a mistake, he meant to say 'Britons – go home!'".[7]
• At the Siege of Savendroog (Suvarnadurg) in December 1791, during the Third Anglo-Mysore War, the band of the 52nd Regiment of Foot played the tune as a party of specially selected troops climbed a rocky outcrop to capture the eastern citadel.[8]
• Following the collapse of the First Coalition, on 10 November 1797, the British Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, announced to the House of Commons that his efforts to make peace with Revolutionary France had failed and that he was now determined to fight the war to its conclusion. In response, the whole House rose to its feet and sang Britons, Strike Home!. The result was the War of the Second Coalition.[9]
• Before the Battle of the Gut of Gibraltar on 12 July 1801, the garrison band of Gibraltar played the tune while Rear-Admiral Sir James Saumarez's squadron sailed out of the harbour to meet the Franco-Spanish fleet.[10]
• At the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805, the band aboard HMS Tonnant played Britons, Strike Home! as she sailed into action, only ceasing to play when a round shot killed two bandsmen.[11]
• It was used to signal an uprising against Nazi occupiers in the last episode of the 1978 BBC alternate history miniseries, An Englishman's Castle, based on a play by Philip Mackie.[12]

References

1. Curtis Alexander Price, Henry Purcell and the London Stage, Cambridge University Press 1984, ISBN 0-521-23831-5 (p.117)
2. Martin Adams, Henry Purcell: The Origins and Development of His Musical Style, Cambridge University Press 1995 (pp.334–335)
3. The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Beggar's Opera, by John Gay (p.86)
4. ChoralWiki – Britons, strike home! (Henry Purcell) Archived 25 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
5. John Ashton, English caricature and satire on Napoleon I: Volume I, Chatto & Windus, London 1884 (p.164-6)
6. Richard Holmes, Soldiers: Army Lives and Loyalties from Redcoats to Dusty Warriors, Harper Press 2011 (p.476)
7. Elizabeth Ellet, Women of the American Revolution: Volume 1, Applewood Books, Bedford MA (p.179)
8. John Philippart, The East India Military Calendar: Containing the Services of the General and Field Officers of the Indian Army: Volume 3, Kingbury, Parbury and Allen, London 1826
9. William Hague, William Pitt the Younger: A Biography, Harper Collins Publishers 2005 ISBN 0-00-714720-1 (p.415)
10. Archibald Alison (Sir), History of Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution: Volume IV, Baudrey's European Library, Paris 1841 (p.19)
11. Blackmask Online – Frederick Hoffman, A Sailor of King George, John Murray, London 1901, (Chapter XVI: Battle of Trafalgar)
12. Rosenfeld, Gavriel D. (2005) The World Hitler Never Made: Alternate History and the Memory of Nazism, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-84706-0 (pp. 62-63)