Mallet, David

Mallet or Malloch, David

(măl`ĭt, –əkh), c.1705–1765, English poet and dramatist, b. Scotland. His best-known work is the ballad William and Margaret (1720). Although he wrote several tragedies, he is usually remembered as the author (with James Thomson) of the masque Alfred (1740), which contained the song Rule Britannia.