Ships in the Strait of Gibraltar, painted in 1814 by Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas William Ogilvie McNiven (1792-1870). Stirred by the sight of so many places where the peoples of the British Isles had given their lives to resist invasion by the states of the Continent, Browning reflected that there was still a noble work for a man like him to do — a feat not of arms, but of thankful prayer. See also St George and the Dragon.
NOBLY, nobly Cape Saint Vincent to the North-West died away;*
Sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into Cadiz Bay;
Bluish ’mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar lay;*
In the dimmest North-East distance, dawned Gibraltar grand and gray;*
‘Here and here did England help me: how can I help England?’ – say,
Whoso turns as I, this evening, turn to God to praise and pray,
While Jove’s planet rises yonder, silent over Africa.
* See Google Maps. Cape St Vincent in Portugal, where in 1797 Sir John Jervis defeated a Spanish fleet during the French Revolutionary Wars. Following the overthrow of the monarchy in 1789, the enthusiasm of the new French government was such that they sought to export republicanism to their neighbours by any means possible. Sometimes the threat seemed worse than it was. See Jemima Fawr and the Last Invasion of Britain.
* Cape Trafalgar in Spain, where Admiral Lord Nelson defeated a Franco-Spanish fleet in 1805. See The Battle of Trafalgar. Although the states of the European Continent suffered far worse under Napoleon’s bid for a united Empire, Britain was always under threat and several invasions of England were planned; on one occasion, only rough seas prevented the French fleet from sailing. On England’s happy protection by the seas, see Fairest Isle.
* Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory, was captured in 1704 during The War of the Spanish Succession, two years after defeat at Battle of Cadiz (hence the appropriateness of the blood-red Bay); it was ceded to Britain in perpetuity when the war ended in 1713. Throughout the conflict, the invasion of England had been a very real possibility. From 1779 to 1783, during the American War of Independence, the residents and garrison of Gibraltar endured a siege by French and Spanish ships. It was a sacrifice that tied down enemy forces that might otherwise have been used to damaging effect elsewhere. Gibraltarians have been full British subjects since 1981.
Précis
In 1838, Robert Browning was aboard a ship off Tangiers, near four places in Portugal and Spain where the fate of England had once been in the balance. He wondered what an Englishman today could do for his country, and concluded that he should do what Browning himself did at that moment: turn to God in praise, and pray. (58 / 60 words)
