ABSTRACT
In an episode of the hit UK comedy series Little Britain, two characters in search of a play raid the offices of the Royal Shakespeare Company, a break-in that shadows the break-up of Britain in the shape of Scottish and Welsh devolution. 1 Rewind 400 years to a passage in Drayton’s Polyolbion (1612) that marks the make-up of Britain: A branch sprung out of Brute, th’imperiall top shall get, Which grafted in the stock of Great Plantaginet, The Stem shall strongly wax, as still the Trunk doth wither: That power which bare it thence, againe shall bringe it thither By Tudor, with faure windes from little Britaine driven; To whom the goodlie Bay of Milford shall be given. (Cited Jones 1961: 94)
