Dr Thomas Arne An even distribution of honours

Sometimes we take our classical music a wee bit seriously. Here is a fine anecdote about the composer of Rule Britannia that ought to make us smile! Naturally it is now impossible to discover who these two ladies were, and in what circumstances the occasion arose, but it certainly must have been worth witnessing!

Dr. Arne (1710-1778) was once placed in a somewhat similar situation to that of Solomon when the two women each claimed the child. His disposition of the case was as fair as that of the king, only the distribution was more even, as even as Solomon threatened to make the division of the child in question.
Dr. Arne was a very prominent English composer who lived in the first half of the eighteenth century. He had been called upon to decide on the merits of two singers. Their merits, by the way, were based largely on their own appreciation of their powers, rather than on that of other people. After hearing them, Dr. Arne cried out to one of them, “You are the worst singer I ever heard in my life!" "Then," exclaimed the other, "I win." "No," answered the just judge, "you can't sing at all.”