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"Rule Britannia" appears to be a poem that has become an unofficial national anthem for Great Britain.
Let's try another phrase, "God Save the King." Here we find another reference to an eighteenth-century Britishlyric that also serves as an anthem of the British empire:
"God Save the King" was arranged and performed for the first time, after the Battle at Preston Pans. Originally it was merely an English patriotic anthem. Eventually, it became the de facto national amnthem of the British Empire." (Douglas G. Amber, "God Save the King." Cases&Materials on American Federalism, Online Edition. (External Link) Visited September 29, 2006.)
Let's try one more, "Heaven's light our guide." A web search pulls up this information:
"The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India is an order of chivalry founded by Victoria in 1861.... The motto of the Order is Heaven's light our guide. The "Star of India," the emblem of the Order, also appeared on the flag of the Viceroy of India. The Order is the senior order of chivalry associated with the Empire of India.. The Order was founded to honour Indian Princes and Chiefs, as well as British officers who served in India." ("Order of the Star of India." Wikipedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Star_of_India. Visited October 6, 2006.)Aha, it's the motto of the Order of the Star of India. Once again, we have a reference to the British Empire. We can safely say from our preliminary investigation that this text represents British imperial sentiments of some kind. We have found that the text does not, in fact, represent a poem as we first thought. Rather, it's a collection of phrases all related to Britain's imperial rule. Should we need more information about these citations we can return to them.
The first thing we notice about the results is that the great majority of the are in the Fine Arts Library and listed as Music, which suggests that "God Savethe King" is an important anthem. Listening to the song may give us a sense of its cultural significance--its tone, references, and purposes. If you would like to take alisten, click here .
Wikipedia's summary of souvenirs raises some interesting points that we might explore further. What kind of memories were meant to be invoked by thissouvenir? What might one have done with the silk? Given the British and Arabic texts, what does the silk suggest about the history ofthe relationship of Britain to Egypt, or more broadly, the relationship of any of the other nations represented by flags and portraits on this silk to oneanother? Who might have collected this souvenir, and why? Although we are dealing with texts, they are presented visually--specific fonts are used, and the textual sections are arranged in particular ways. What are we to make of the way that various textual elements are placed on the silk--why, for instance, are the Arabic motto and "God Save the King" placed in the top corners?
As we discover these relations and the questions they bring, it is important to investigate their research potential. It is equallyimportant, however, to resist making conclusions until we have as much information as we are able to collect. Remember to keep your mind open to all ofthe possibilities of everything you find, especially if it comes into conflict with other pieces of information or evidence. To begin to answer our questionswe must move on and decipher the identity of all of the images on the silk, which are discussed in the next modules in this course on the Souvenir of Egypt.
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