C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
David Mallet (c. 1705–1765)
Mallet, originally Malloch, David (mal’et or mal’löċh). A Scottish poet and dramatist; born at Crieff, Perthshire, about 1705; died in England, April 21, 1765. He was under-secretary to the Prince of Wales, and a friend of Pope, Bolingbroke, and other celebrities of the time. He wrote in verse: ‘The Excursion’ (1728); ‘The Hermit’ (1747); ‘Edwin and Emma’ (1760); the tragedies: ‘Eurydice’ (1731); ‘Mustapha’ (1739); etc. The famous English patriotic song ‘Rule Britannia’ appeared in ‘Alfred: a Masque’ (1740), written with James Thomson; its authorship has been claimed for each.