Thomas Arne

Thomas Augustine Arne (; 12 March 17105 March 1778) was an English composer of the late Baroque and early Classical periods. He is known for his patriotic song “Rule, Britannia!” and the song “A-Hunting We Will Go”, the latter composed for a 1777 production of The Beggar’s Opera, which has since become popular as a folk song and a nursery rhyme. Arne was a leading British theatre composer of the 18th century, working at the West End’s Drury Lane and Covent Garden. He wrote many operatic entertainments for the London theatres and pleasure gardens, as well as concertos, sinfonias and sonatas. Early life Thomas Augustine Arne was born on 12 March 1710 in Covent Garden and baptised as a Roman Catholic. He came from a long line of Catholic recusants. Arne’s father and grandfather were both upholsterers and both held office in the Worshipful Company of Upholders of the City of London. His grandfather fell on hard times and died in the debtors’ prison of Marshalsea. His father earned enough money to rent 31 King Street, a large house in Covent Garden, and to have Arne educated at Eton College, but in later life he too lost most of his money and had to supplement his income by acting as a