God Save Our King 1745
Channel: Stephen Griffith
Date: 10/02/2021

Sandburg starts off his New American Songbag with a mini history of a tune we all know. Notice the second verse of this early version—extremely nationalistic.

The tune for God Save the Queen is said to go back to the early 1600s. The earliest lyric dedicated to the Sovereign of Great Britain followed when Bonnie Prince Charlie landed in 1745. The music and lyric was published titled: "A Song for Two Voices. As sung at Both Playhouses," as an homage to King George II (not Mad King George III who did not gain the throne until 1760).

Reginald Nettel, Seven Centuries of Popular Song, says it was taken up at that time by companies at Drury Lane and Covent Garden, and hence became popular with the public.

This early version has an extremely nationalistic verse which was included for two centuries and later changed in 1946.:

O Lord, our God arise,
Scatter our enemies
And make them fall.
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks;
On Thee our hopes we fix;
God save us all.

Prior to its adoption in Georgian times, the English used "The Roast Beef of Old England" as their anthem.

"When mighty roast beef was the Englishman's food,
It ennobled our hearts and strengthened our blood."

(Julian: John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907)