The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-03-09

his exile in England on a man-of-Wal
under the Duke of Clarence's command
AT Calais the prince was invited to {
grand banquet by the French monarch
and at dessert God Save the King
was sung, with a new verse added il
compliment to the distinguished guest
The supplementary stanza is said tc
have been the work of Louis XVIII
himself, man of literary tastes, and
particularly proud of his knowledge OF
Horace. But If he had mastered all the
Horatian metres, he does not seem tC
have possessed the slightest acquaint-
ance with the rules of English prosody
The syntax, it will be observed, is cor
rect. So, too, are both metre and
rhyme, according to the French laws on
the subject; while the number of sylla-
bles in the words is exactly equal to
the number of notes in the music But
the accents are all wrong. Here how
ever, is the French kings additional
verse:
God save noble Clarence,
Who brought her King to France,
God save Clarence!
He maintains the glory
OF the British Navy.
0 God, make him happy
God save Clarence!'
The name Edward" would be just as
difficult to deal with in connection with
the music of God Save the Queen" as
either Clarence or William; and, unless
the words Gracious King be adopted
the only apparent alternative will be to
go back to the "Salvum fac dominun"
of the Latin hymn. to which, in James
Ills reign, the melody Of God Save the
King" was sung by the choir Of the
Chapel Royal. God Save Our Lord
the King" would be the equivalent
words in English. They suit the music
perfectly, and, were they once adopted,
our national anthem would at last have
received something like permanent form
to be varied only on the accession of a
queen. When Henry Carey introduced
and himself sang Ito a borrowed tune)
the words of God Save the King sub
stantialiy as we now have them he
wished to emphasize the fact that it
was Great George, our King"-in OPP
position to any pretender-that he pro-
posed to honor. All necessity for lay
ing particular stress on the kings name
has long since passed away; and there
can be no reason for not giving to him
in the anthem the designation which
already belongs to him in the Prayer
Book.
Neither in the Danish, the Prussian,
nor the Russian adaptation of our ma
tional anthem is the name Of the SOW
ereign mentioned. The version made for
the Danes toward the end Of the last
century begins r'Heil der dem lieben-
dem" the Prussian version Of the same
period, "Heil der i'm Siegerkranz."
When, in the early part of his reign.
the Emperor Nicholas resolved to cast
aside the borrowed ana imported "God
Save the King and to substitute for it
a genuine Russian anthem of native
composition he still would have no
name introduced The present we'll
known national hymn of Russia is
probably the only one that was ever
adopted as the result of an open COM
petion-like the legendary tournaments
of the bards at the Court Of Thuringia,
of the master singers at Nuremberg
and of the violin makers at Cremona.
The musical committee appointed to
do the first rough work of selection re-
Jected all the anthems sent in except
two, between which it was left for the
Emperor Nicholas himself to choose
His Majesty was equal to the task On
receiving a long and learned memoran-
dunn from the Holy Synod on the sub
ject of purgatory and the difficulty Of
reconciling a disbelief in the intermedi-
ate state with the custom of praying
for the dead, he read it through, and at
once wrote on the margin of the paper |
mo purgatory." A man of such deci- |
ded character could have no trouble in |
making UP his mind as to which of two
patriotic hymns was Of the most i'm |
pressive character One was by Glin-
ka, the renowned composer of Life for
the Gar" the other by Lvoff, a writer !
of fine pieces of religious music and of !
several works for the stage. Glinka's |
hymn was thoroughly Russian in char
acter and in the form of a march |
Lvoff's was more solemn, but much less
original-this latter point being one on
which the critic Of general intelligence |
who has not made a special study of |
music is likely enough to go wrong.
Lvoff too, knew well that highly mil
itary style of Instrumentation would APP
peal to the imperial ear, and his drums
and trumpets settled at once all claims
to recognition on the part of the more
artistic Glinka. The Emperor Nicholas
cannot, however, be said to have made
a bad choice. Both works were good;
and if he preferred the more demon
strative OF the two, lie probably did 50
we'll knowing the tastes of Russians in
general.
The Austrian imperial hymn was
by Haydn; whether of his
own initiative or by order seems uncer-
tain. 1t dates from the latter part of
the eighteenth century, and it is re-
fact that until the eighteenth
century no country possessed a national
anthem of any kind, England took the
lead in this direction with God Save
the King" to be followed after a long
interval by France with the 'Marseil-
laise." One has only to glance at the
words of the 'Marsellaise" to see that
it is in no sense a song of liberty, (as
it is generally supposed to be,) but
simply war song directed against the