Mallet (originally Malloch), David

(?1705-1765)

   Scottish poet born near Crieff, the son of a tenant farmer on Lord Drummond's Perthshire estate. From 1720 to 1723, he was tutor to the sons of Mr. Home of Dreghorn, Ayrshire, while studying at the same time at Edinburgh University. From 1723 to 1731 he was tutor to the sons of the Duke of Montrose at Shawford, near Winchester, Hampshire. While at Edinburgh he formed a friendship with James Thompson (see entry) his co-writer of several poems and masques, including Alfred, written to celebrate both the birthday of the Princess Augusta and the anniversary of George the First's accession (1714). Samuel Johnson thought that Mallet's poetry would remain alive as long as Mallet lived, and that was all. There was a long-running dispute as to whether Mallet or Thomson wrote the national ode of "Rule Britannia." British Minstrelsie (?1900) attributes the words to Thompson and the music to Dr. W.H.H. Arne. Mallet was buried in St. George's cemetery, South Audley Street, London. Some of his poems: "Cupid and Hymen," "Edwin and Emma," "Epigram, Written at Tunbridge Wells," "Of Verbal Criticism," "The Funeral Hymn," "To the Siege of Damascus."

   Sources: British Minstrelsie. T.C. and E.C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh (?1900). Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. ChadwyckHealey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/ search/epoetry/author.html). English Poetry: A Poetic Record, from Chaucer to Yeats. David Hopkins, ed. Routledge, 1990. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Poetical Works of Edward Moore and David Mallet. Thomas Park, ed. J. Sharpe, 1808.