[Magdalen] Rule Britannia.

[Cantor03 at aol.com]

I watched a You Tube video clip of the Last Night at the Proms  from
London's Royal Albert Hall this week.  This is always a fun spectacle  and
it concludes with some British patriotic favorites.
 
There was the always performed, "Rule Britannia" heartily sung by the
audience on the chorus with the sentence, "Britons never, never,  never
shall be slaves."
 
This song, written in 1740 would not ordinarily be sung in the USA
(though maybe Canada?), but if it was sung, the audience would most
certainly tend to say, "Britons never, never, never will be slaves.
 
I dredged up a dim memory of my grammar teacher allowing that
the rule is:  I and we matched with "shall" for simple future,  and
"will" for insistent future.
 
Then you, he, she, it, & they matched with "will" for simple future,  and
matched with "shall" for insistent future.
 
Hence the "Britons (they) never, never, never, shall be slaves.
 
But reading the history of the usage of these words, I see that these
rules were never chiseled in granite, and the majority, even in  Britain,
are currently not making these distinctions.
 
Anyway, would that the USA had such a fun summer series in such a
location.  Somehow "Mostly Mozart" in Central Park, nice as it is,  doesn't
quite measure up.
 
 
David Strang.