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Chapter 21 - Empire

from Part III - Contexts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Sharon Harrow
Edited by
Jack Lynch
Jack Lynch
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
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Summary

E′MPIRE. n.s. [empire, French; imperium, Latin.]

2. The region over which dominion is extended.

A nation extended over vast tracts of land, and numbers of people, arrives in time at the ancient name of kingdom, or modern of empire. Temple.

During Samuel Johnson’s life England became a global colonial power. Just three years after Johnson arrived in London with his former pupil, David Garrick, James Thomson wrote his famous nationalistic poem “Rule Britannia” (1740). It was a patriotic poem extraordinaire, set to music and performed in celebration of George II. The refrain is a perversely ironic rhyme:

  1. Blest isle! with matchless beauty crown’d

  2. And manly hearts to guard the fair.

  3. Rule, Britannia, rule the waves:

  4. Britons never will be slaves!

The lines boast of Britain’s navy, a prowling force that had, in 1739, embroiled them in the War of Jenkins’s Ear, a campaign over rights to the exclusive sea tentacles of the slave trade.

Type
Chapter
Information
Samuel Johnson in Context , pp. 182 - 190
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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References

The Writings and Speeches of Edmund BurkeLangford, PaulOxfordClarendon Press 1981
Addison, JosephSteele, Sir RichardThe SpectatorOxfordClarendon Press 1965
Pope, AlexanderAn Essay on ManButt, JohnNew Haven, CTYale University Press 1939
Long, EdwardThe History of Jamaica; or, General Survey of the Antient and Modern State of That IslandLondon 1774
Popkin, RichardThe Philosophical Basis of Eighteenth-Century RacismStudies in Eighteenth-Century Culture 3 1973 245Google Scholar
Berkeley, GeorgeA Word to the Wise; or, An Exhortation to the Roman Catholic Clergy of IrelandDublin 1749
Goldsmith, OliverCollected WorksOxfordClarendon Press 1966

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  • Empire
  • Edited by Jack Lynch, Rutgers University, New Jersey
  • Book: Samuel Johnson in Context
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139047852.027
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  • Empire
  • Edited by Jack Lynch, Rutgers University, New Jersey
  • Book: Samuel Johnson in Context
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139047852.027
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Empire
  • Edited by Jack Lynch, Rutgers University, New Jersey
  • Book: Samuel Johnson in Context
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139047852.027
Available formats
×