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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


/        _^x^ 

-/^^*^A 


/Xx4    XV*" 


DR.  JOHN    BULL, 

From  a  picture  painted  in  Antwerp.     Circa  1625. 


Frontispiece. 


GOD  SAVE  THE  KING 


THE    ORIGIN    AND    HISTORY 


OF    THE 


OF 


THE    NATIONAL    ANTHEM 


BY 


WILLIAM    H.   CUMMINGS, 

Mus.  Doc.,  Dub.,  F.S.A.,  Hon.  R.A.M. 


LONDON:   NOVELLO  AND  COMPANY,  LIMITED 

AND 

NOVELLO,  EWER  AND  CO.,  NEW  YORK. 
1902. 


LONDON: 

NOVELLO  AMD  COMPANY,  LIMITED, 
PRINTERS. 


MUSIC 
LIBRARY 

ML 


PREFACE. 


SCARCELY  a  month  passes  without  some  paragraph 
appearing  in  the  public  journals  concerning  the  origin 
of  the  music  of  our  National  Anthem.  Untenable 
theories,  which  have  often  been  refuted,  are  paraded 
as  new  discoveries;  discussions  more  or  less  relevant 
ensue,  are  read  with  avidity,  and  then,  becoming 
forgotten,  are  allowed  to  repose  in  obscurity  for  a 
time,  but  with  a  certainty  that  in  due  course  the 
whole  matter  will  be  re-opened.  I  propose,  therefore, 
in  the  following  pages,  to  state  and  consider  various 
theories  which  have  been  advanced,  and  to  publish 
some  documents  by  Dr.  Burney  and  others  which  are 
of  great  weight  and  value,  and  which  have  never 
before  been  made  public. 

Our  National  Anthem,  from  long  association,  has 
become  a  sacred  part  of  our  national  life.  The 
Journal  des  Debats  has  pithily  remarked  :  "  It  is 
a  melancholy  fact  that  France  does  not  possess  a 
song  which  can  be  really  called  national.  In  a 
national  song  the  first  and  most  indispensable 
element  is  religious  sentiment.  ...  As  for  England, 
we  need  not  mention  the  air  at  the  sound  of  which 
all  Englishmen  rise  and  uncover  their  heads,  and 
which  is  played  at  the  farthest  extremities  of  the 
world." 

Two  striking  instances  of  the  sacred  use  of  our 
National  Anthem  are  worthy  of  record — the  first 
(  iii  )  A  2 


1C67052 


PREFACE. 

belongs  to  a  peaceful  and  happy  celebration,  and  the 
second  to  a  sad  and  heart-breaking  tragedy. 

In  1879,  Queen  Victoria  presented  a  church 
organ  to  the  inhabitants  of  Pitcairn  Island,  who,  it 
will  be  remembered,  were  descendants  of  the  old 
mutineers  of  "  The  Bounty."  The  instrument  was 
conveyed  to  the  island  in  Her  Majesty's  ship  "Opal," 
and  on  arrival  at  the  island  the  organ  was  promptly 
transferred  to  the  shore  and  placed  in  position.  The 
inauguration  was  attended  by  the  whole  population, 
men,  women  and  children,  ninety-three  in  number. 
"  Then,  by  one  of  those  picturesquely  appropriate 
touches  that  strike  so  happily  the  mind  of  a  com- 
munity affected  by  a  single  impulse  of  feeling,  the 
scene  became  at  once  as  pathetic  as  beautiful,  for 
hardly  had  the  instrument  been  opened,  than  it  and 
the  people  burst  into  the  music  of  the  National 
Anthem.  The  effect  was  touching  in  the  extreme,  as, 
verse  by  verse,  the  grand  harmony  of  '  God  save  the 
Queen '  rolled  from  the  little  church-house  on  the 
cliff,  and  was  taken  up  by  the  ship's  crew  on  the 
shore.  It  was  no  rehearsed  scene,  but  a  spontaneous 
and  uncontrollable  outburst  of  loyal  gratitude : 
Her  Majesty's  gracious  kindness,  and  such  an 
unexpected  and  substantial  proof  of  it,  transported 
the  Islanders  with  delight,  and  in  the  strains  of  the 
National  Anthem  they  celebrated  the  glad  renewal 
of  their  allegiance  which  they  had  feared  was 
despised." 

This  narration  of  the  joyous  occasion  of  which 
the  National  Anthem  formed  so  conspicuous  and 
appropriate  a  part,  may  be  contrasted  with  another 


PREFACE. 

historic  but  tragic  event,  when  its  strains  were 
adopted  by  a  few  heroes  as  their  triumphant  death- 
song.  During  the  Matabele  war,  in  1894,  thirty-four 
Englishmen  found  themselves,  after  three  hours' 
fighting,  absolutely  surrounded  and  hemmed  in  by 
the  natives.  The  little  band,  commanded  by  Major 
Wilson,  were  all  wounded  and  their  ammunition  was 
well-nigh  expended ;  the  Major,  covered  with  blood 
from  his  many  wounds,  stood  erect  and  continued  to 
fire  at  the  foe,  assisted  by  a  wounded  comrade  who 
stood  by  his  side  and  loaded  the  rifles  for  him.  The 
natives  crawled  along  the  ground  and  by  degrees 
drew  nearer  the  few  surviving  'English,  till  at  last 
the  supreme  and  inevitable  moment  arrived  when,  in 
overwhelming  numbers,  they  rushed  in  upon  the 
devoted  band  who,  of  one  accord,  stood  up,  uncovered 
their  heads,  and  joined  in  singing  "  God  save  the 
Queen,"  and  whilst  so  engaged  were  ruthlessly 
assegaied. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  refer  to  the  numerous 
interesting  and  historic  occasions  of  the  past, 
wherein  the  performance  of  our  National  Anthem 
has  formed  an  important  feature ;  it  can,  however, 
be  confidently  asserted  that  its  hallowed  strains  will 
continue  to  be  fervently  echoed  and  re-echoed  by  the 
many  millions  of  peoples,  throughout  the  world,  who 
are  proud  of  their  allegiance  to  our  beloved  King 
and  Emperor,  Edward  the  Seventh. 

W.  H.  C. 

March  1902. 


THE    NATIONAL   ANTHEM. 


"GOD    SAVE    THE    KING." 

Ich  muss  den  Rnglandern  ein  wenig  zeigen,  was 
in  dem  "  God  Save  the  King  "  fur  ein  Segen  ist. 

(I  must  show  the  English  a  little  what  a 
blessing  they  have  in  their  "  God  save  the 
King.") — BEETHOVEN'S  Diary,  1813. 

The  muddle  and  almost  hopeless  confusion  which 
has  grown  up  in  connection  with  the  inquiry  as  to 
the  origin  of  the  music  of  "God  save  the  King" 
is  largely  due  to  the  patriotic  and  well-meant 
endeavours  of  Richard  Clark,  a  bass  singer  in 
the  Chapels  Royal,  Westminster  Abbey,  and  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral,  who  died  in  the  year  1856.* 

In  1814  Clark  published  a  work,  which  now  lies 
before  me,  entitled  "  The  Words  of  the  Most 
Popular  Pieces  performed  at  the  Glee  Club,"  &c. 
In  the  preface  to  this  book  he  says,  "  Difference 
of  opinion  has  prevailed  in  the  musical  world 
respecting  the  composition  of  the  popular  air  and 
words  of  '  God  save  the  King ' ;  some  account  of 
both  may  not  be  uninteresting.  Such  as  strikes 
the  editor  as  worthy  of  consideration  is  submitted, 
and  in  the  language  of  George  Saville  Carey,  by 

*  The  Rev.  Baring  Gould,  in  "  English  Minstrelsie,"  says :  "  Clark  was  deputy- 
organist  at  Westminster  Abbey,  and  then  at  the  Chapels  Royal";  a  mistake — I 
knew  him  well,  he  could  not  play  the  organ.  He  commenced  his  music-career 
as  a  singing  boy  in  St.  George's  Chapel,  Windsor  and  Eton  College,  and  at 
his  death  was  a  Gentleman  of  Her  Majesty's  Chapels  Royal,  Vicar  Choral  of 
St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  and  Lay  Vicar  of  St.  Peter's,  Westminster. 

(      I      ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


whom  it  is  given,  in  vindication  of  his  father,  for 
whom  he  claims  the  honour  of  this  national  song, 
and  to  which  it  would  seem  that  he  is  justly  entitled." 
Clark  then  narrates  a  biography  of  Henry  Carey, 
and  the  son's  presentation  of  his  father's  claims, 
in  which  all  the  evidence  it  was  possible  to  adduce 
is  brought  forward  to  prove  that  Henry  Carey  wrote 
the  music  and  words  of  "  God  save  the  King." 
Clark  concludes  the  special  pleading  on  behalf  of 
Carey  with  the  following  statement  of  his  own : 
"  John  Ward  speaks  of  '  God  save  the  King '  in 
his  account  of  the  Professors  of  Gresham  College, 
published  1740,  where  he  gives  a  catalogue  of 
Dr.  Pepusch's  music  as  follows :  '  No.  xviii.  2  vols. 
4to.  Vol.  I.  folio  56.  "  God  save  the  King,"  '  which 
is  all  that  is  there  mentioned  of  it.  It  has  been 
thought  to  be  a  variation  of  that  gentleman's 
composed  on  the  above  tune,  but  the  editor  has 
not  been  able,  at  present,  to  meet  with  it." 

The  above,  as  I  have  already  stated,  was 
published  in  1814.  Eight  years  afterwards,  in  1822, 
Clark  issued  another  book,  called  "  An  account  of 
the  National  Anthem  entitled  'God  save  the  King!' 
with  authorities  taken  from  Sion  College  Library, 
the  ancient  records  of  the  Merchant  Taylors' 
Company,  the  old  Checque*-book  of  His  Majesty's 
Chapel,  &c.  &c.  &c.  Selected,  edited,  and  arranged 
by  Richard  Clark."  In  this  book,  which  he  dedi- 
cated to  the  "  Master,  Wardens,  and  Court  of 
Assistants  to  the  Worshipful  Company  of  Merchant 
Tailors,"  he  entirely  discards  his  previous  theory 


Sic. 

2  ; 


GOD   SAVE   THE   KING. 


that  Carey  was  the  author  of  "God  save  the  King," 
and  boldly  asserts  that  it  was  specially  composed 
by  Dr.  John  Bull  for  an  entertainment  given  by 
the  Company  to  King  James  I.  on  July  16,  1607. 
Clark  proceeds  to  give  various  interesting  extracts, 
one  of  them  fully  proving  that  Dr.  John  Bull  per- 
formed on  a  "very  rich  pair  of  organs"  before 
the  King  at  that  feast. 

The  account  is  taken  from  the  ancient  records 
of  the  Merchant  Taylors'  Company,  and  runs  as 
follows  :  "  On  Thursday,  July  16,  1607,  His 
Majesty  King  James  the  First,  Prince  Henry, 
and  many  honourable  persons  dined  at  the 
Merchant  Tailors'  Hall.  ...  At  the  upper  end  of 
the  Hall  there  was  set  a  chair  of  estate,  where 
his  Majesty  sat  and  viewed  the  Hall ;  and  a  very 
proper  childe,  well  spoken,  being  clothed  like  an 
angel  of  gladness,  with  a  taper  of  frankincense 
burning  in  his  hand,  delivered  a  short  speech,  con- 
taining xviii.  verses,  devised  by  Mr.  Ben  Johnson,* 
which  pleased  his  Majesty  marvellously  well :  and 
upon  either  side  of  the  hall,  in  the  windows  near  the 
upper  end,  were  galleries,  or  seats  made  for  music,  in 
either  of  which  were  seven  singular  choice  musicians, 
playing  on  their  lutes,  and  in  the  ship,  which  did 
hang  aloft  in  the  hall,  three  rare  men  and  very 
skilful,  who  song  to  his  Majesty,  and  over  the  King, 
sonnetts,  and  loud  musique,  wherein  it  is  to  be 
remembered,  that  the  multitude  and  noyse  was  so 
great  that  the  lutes  nor  songs  could  hardly  be  heard 
or  understood,  and  then  his  Majesty  went  up  into  the 

*  Spelt  thus  in  the  Merchant  Taylors'  records. 
(     3     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE    KING. 


King's  chamber,  where  he  dined  alone  at  a  table 
which  was  provided  only  for  his  Majesty  and  the 
Queen  (but  the  Queen  came  not),  in  which  chamber 
were  placed  a  very  rich  pair  of  organs,  whereupon 
Mr.  John  Bull,  Doctor  of  Music,  and  a  brother  of 
this  company,  did  play  all  the  dinnertime ;  and 
Mr.  Nathaniel  Gyles,  Master  of  the  Children  of  the 
King's  Chapel,  together  with  Dr.  Montague,  Bishop 
of  Bath  and  Wells,  and  Dean  of  his  Majesty's 
Chapels,  Lenard  Davis,  Sub-Dean,  and  divers 
synging  men,  Robert  Stone,  William  Byrde,  Richard 
Granwell,  Crie.  Sharpe,  Edmund  Browne,  Thos. 
Woodson,  Henrie  Eveseede,  Robert  Allison,  Jo. 
Hewlett,  Richard  Plumley,  Thos.  Goold,  William 
Laws,  Elway  Bevin  and  Orlando  Gibbons,  Gen. 
extraordinary,  and  the  children  of  the  said  chapel, 
did  sing  melodious  songs  at  the  said  dinner;  after 
all  which,  his  Majesty  came  down  to  the  great  hall, 
and  sitting  in  his  chair  of  estate,  did  heear  a 
melodious  song  of  farewell  by  the  three  rare  men  in 
the  shippe,  being  apparelled  in  watchet  silk,  like 
seamen;  which  song  so  pleased  his  Majesty,  that  he 
caused  the  same  to  be  sung  three  times  over." 

"Dr.  Bull,  and  Mr.  Nathaniel  Gyles  admitted  into 
the  lyvery  of  this  company.  Also  at  this  court  the 
company  have  accepted  and  taken  Mr.  John  Bull, 
Doctor  of  Musique,  and  a  brother  of  this  company, 
into  the  clothing  and  livery  of  the  company.  Also, 
they  have  accepted  and  taken  Mr.  Nathaniel  Gyles, 
who  hath  his  grace  to  be  Doctor  of  Musique,  and  is 
Master  of  the  Children  of  the  King's  Chapell,  into 
the  freedom  of  this  society,  and  into  the  clothing  and 

(     4     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE  KING. 


lyvery  of  the  same  ;  and  it  is  ordered  that  they  shall 
be  placed  in  the  lyvery  next  unto  the  Assistant ;  and 
note,  that  the  lyvery-hoods  were  put  upon  their 
shoulders,  but  neither  of  them  sworn ;  and  the 
Company  are  contented  to  shew  their  favour  unto 
them  for  their  paynes  when  the  King  and  Prince 
dined  at  their  Hall,  and  their  love  and  kindness  in 
bestowing  the  musique  which  was  performed  by 
them,  their  associates,  and  children,  in  the  King's 
chamber  gratis  :  whereas  the  musicians  in  the  great 
hall  exacted  unreasonable  sums  of  the  Company  for 
the  same,  and  therefore  the  Company  mean  not  that 
this  calling  of  Mr.  Dr.  Bull  and  Mr.  Nathaniel  Gyles 
into  the  lyvery  hath  any  burthen  or  charge  unto 
them  further  than  shall  stand  with  their  own  good 
liking." 

The  foregoing  account  is  taken  from  the  Archives 
of  the  Merchant  Taylors'  Company,  and  Clark  supple- 
ments it  with  the  following  from  Howes'  Continuation 
of  Stow's  "  Annals  "  :*  "  The  King,  during  this  and 
the  election  of  the  new  Maisterand  Wardens,  stoode 
in  a  newe  window  made  for  that  purpose ;  and  with 
a  gracious  kingly  aspect,  behelde  all  their  cerimonies, 
and  being  descended  into  the  hall  to  depart,  his 
majestie  and  the  Prince  were  then  again  presented 
with  like  musique  of  voyces  and  instruments,  and 
speeches,  as  at  the  first  entrance.  The  musique 
consisted  of  twelve  lutes,  equally  divided,  6  and  6  in 
a  window  on  either  side  the  hall,  and  in  the  ayre 
between  them  were  a  gallant  shippe  triumphant, 

*  "Annals;  or,  a  general  Chronicle  of  England,  begun  by  John  Stow;  continued 
and  augmented,  unto  the  end  of  the  year  1631,  by  Edmund  Howes,  gent."  (Stow 
died  two  years  before  the  banquet  took  place.) 

(     5     ) 


GOD   SAVE   THE   KING. 


wherein  were  three  rare  menne  like  saylors,  being 
eminent  for  voice  and  skill,  who  in  their  several 
songs  were  assisted  and  seconded  by  the  cunning 
lutanist.  There  was  also  in  the  hall,  the  musique  of 
the  city ;  and  in  the  upper  chamber,  the  children  of 
his  Majesties  Chappell  song  a  grace  at  the  King's 
table,  and  whilest  the  King  sat  at  dinner,  John  Bull, 
Doctor  of  Musique,  one  of  the  organists  of  his 
Maiesties  Chappel  Royal,  and  free  of  the  Merchant 
Tailors,  being  in  a  citizen's  gown,  cappe,  and  hood, 
plaied  most  excellent  melody  upon  a  small  pair  of 
organs  placed  there  for  that  purpose  onely,  concerning 
the  bountie  of  the  feast,  and  plentie  of  all  things  as 
well  for  pleasant  princely  entertainments  of  the  King, 
the  prince,  the  nobility,  and  the  rest,  where  were 
very  many  braue  courtiers  and  other  gallants,  as  were 
most  rare  and  excellent.  The  Company  of  Merchant 
Tailors  also  after  that  gaue  very  kind  respect, 
with  full  and  honourable  reward  unto  every  man, 
according  to  their  highest  measure  of  desert,  that 
did  them  any  service  or  kindness,  either  by  voice  or 
instruments,  making  of  speeches,  or  setting  of  songs 
or  otherwise."* 

Clark's  comment  on  this  is  :  "  Not  one  of  the 
speeches,  songs,  sonnets,  or  music,  that  was  per- 
formed at  that  great  entertainment,  is  to  be  met 
with ;  "  and  yet  he  was  the  first  to  make  the 
statement  that  "  God  save  the  King"  was  composed 
for  that  particular  occasion,  and  was  then  sung  in 
Merchant  Taylors'  Hall.  Clark's  bold  assertion  was 

*  The  rewards   and  payments  made  by  the  Company  will  be  found  in  the 
Appendix,  page  89. 

(     6     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


quoted  as  a  fact,  on  the  occasion  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales  dining  with  the  Merchant  Taylors'  Company, 
April  6,  1875,  when  the  master  said,  "  Permit  me  to 
remind  you  that  in  1607  Ben  Jonson  wrote,  and 
Dr.  John  Bull  added  music  to,  '  God  save  the 
King.'  " 

In  the  above  extract  from  the  "  Annals,"  the  only 
approach  to  a  particularisation  of  the  music  per- 
formed on  the  occasion  of  the  banquet  to  King 
James,  is  to  be  found  in  the  Grace  which  was  sung 
by  "the  children  of  his  Majesties  Chappell."  The 
identification  even  of  this  piece  is  not  possible ; 
although  Clark  argues  that  as  Byrde  was  one  of  the 
singers,  and  also  the  composer  of  "  Non  nobis, 
Domine,"  it  must  have  been  his  music  which  was 
performed.  It  is  sufficient  to  regard  this  as  highly 
probable. 

On  page  67  of  his  book,  Clark  says,  "  I  shall  now 
proceed  to  prove  that  Dr.  Bull  composed  the  music 
of  '  God  save  the  King '  before  the  year  1613,  by  the 
following  extract  from  the  old  Cheque-book  now  at 
the  King's  Chapel,  which  states : — 

In  1613  John  Bull,  Doctor  of  Musique,  went  beyond 
the  seas  without  licence,  and  was  admitted  into  the  Arch- 
Duke's  service,  and  entered  upon  pay  there  about  Mich. ; 
and  Peter  Hopkins,  a  base,  from  Paul's,  was  sworne  into 
his  place  the  27  of  December  following  ;  his  wages  from 
Mich,  unto  the  day  of  swearing-in  of  the  said  Peter 
Hopkins,  was  disposed  of  by  the  Deane  of  his  Majesty's 
Chapel." 

Clark  adds  :  "  It  is  not  at  all  probable  that  he  (Bull) 
should  have  written  any  music  in   honour   of  the 
(    7    ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


King  of  England,  after  having  been  discharged  from 
his  Chapel ;  he  therefore  must  have  composed  it 
previously."  Admitting  that  Bull  composed  an  air 
with  variations  which  he  entitled  "  God  save  the 
King,"  but  which  particular  piece  had  nothing  in 
common  with  our  National  Anthem,  as  I  shall 
presently  show,  I  fail  to  see  why  he  should  not  have 
written  it  after  he  had  quitted  the  King  of  England's 
service,  and  become  one  of  the  musicians  in  the  court 
of  a  friendly  prince.  Bull  had  a  son  whom  he  was 
anxious  to  get  admitted  in  the  King's  chapel,  as  is 
proved  by  a  letter  of  his,  which  is  still  extant  ;* 
he  therefore  had  every  reason  for  endeavouring  to 
secure  the  favour  of  James  I.,  a  monarch  generally 
credited  with  a  great  liking  for  flattery  and 
adulation.  Clark's  crowning  proof  now  comes  before 
us.  He  says,  "the  following  extract  from  the 
manuscript  music  of  Dr.  Bull  will  prove  beyond  a 
doubt  that  he  did  compose  the  music  of  '  God  save 
the  King.' "  In  Ward's  lives  of  the  Professors  ot 
Gresham  College,  published  in  London,  1740,  we 
read  as  follows :  "  There  is  extant  a  large  number 
and  variety  of  Dr.  Bull's  pieces  in  manuscript  that 
make  up  a  part  of  the  curious  and  valuable  collection 
of  music,  now  reposited  in  the  library  of  Dr.  Pepusch  ; 
of  which  I  shall  here  add  the  following  account,  as 
communicated  to  me  by  the  Doctor."  Clark  then 
copies  from  Ward's  account  the  index  to  a  large 
folio  of  music  "  for  the  organ  or  harpsichord,"  also 
of  a  second  volume,  large  quarto,  but  as  these 
contain  nothing  to  the  point,  I  shall  pass  them  over 

*  See  Appendix,  page  94. 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


and  come  to  the  third  volume  quarto,  of  which  the 
index  stands  as  follows  : — * 

Folio. 

i.  Praeludium  to  the  fantasia,  Felix  namque  offertorium. 

i.  Fantasia,  Felix  namque  offertorium. 

8.  Galliard,  Madamoyselle  Charlotte  de  la  Haye. 
15.  Tres  voces  in  unum,  Salvator  mundi. 
56.  GOD  SAVE  THE  KING. 
63.  Gloria  tibi,  Trinitas. 
77.  Fantasia  on  a  chromatic  subject,  a  4v. 
86.  Door  Dr.  Bull  gemaekt,  ter  eeren  Van  Goduart  Van  Kappell. 
88.  Dr.  Bull  voor  my  gemaekt,  En  revenant. 
92.  Levez  vous,  cceur. 
98.  Air. 

101.  Ballet,  die  partyen  door  Dr.  Bull  op  superius  gemaekt. 

102.  Philis  heeft  myn  hert  gestoolen,  voor  my  gemaekt. 

103.  Gemaekt  op  *  * 

105.  Courante  de  chapelle  primi  toni,  ann.  1619. 

105.  Courante  de  chapelle. 

106.  Galliard  op  die  eerste  courante. 

107.  Almand  de  chapelle  primi  toni. 
109.  Galliard  de  chapelle  primi  toni. 
no.  Galliard. 

in.  Allmand  op  die  voorgaende  galliard. 

113.  Fantasia. 

114.  Fantasia. 

116.  Den  lustelycken  Mey.     Imperfect. 

Clark  proceeds  to  say,  "  Here  then  (on  folio  56) 
is  a  positive,  incontrovertible,  and  undeniable  claim 
by  Dr.  Bull  to  the  tune  of  '  God  save  the  King,'  as 
composed  by  him  in  honour  of  King  James  the  First. 
It  must  be  the  same  tune  which  is  sung  at  the  present 
time.'"  This  was  a  strong  assertion  to  make,  and  an 
unfortunate  one,  Clark  never  having  seen  the 
volume  to  ascertain  what  the  music  on  folio  56  really 

The  Lives  of  the  Professors  of  Gresham  College."  By  John  Ward.   Page  205 
(     9 


GOD   SAVE   THE   KING. 


was  like.  Fortunately  the  identical  book  was  then 
in  the  possession  of  Dr.  Kitchener,  a  medical  man 
by  profession,  also  an  enthusiastic  musical  amateur 
of  moderate  musical  ability  ;  excited  by  Clark's 
account,  he  examined  folio  56  of  Bull's  MS.,  and 
finding  the  statement  wholly  untrue,  Dr.  Kitchener 
employed  Edward  Jones,  the  well-known  musical 
antiquary  and  harpist,  to  make  a  copy  of  the  music, 
which  the  doctor  published  in  1823  with  the  following 
note  :  "  This  is  an  accurate  copy  of  the  '  God  save 
the  Kinge '  mentioned  in  the  above  index,  which  Mr. 
Edward  Jones,  Bard  to  the  King,  was  so  obliging  as 
to  transcribe,  putting  it  at  the  same  time  into  our 
modern  notation.  Dr.  Bull's,  being  on  six-line 
staves  with  a  multiplicity  of  clefs,  in  its  original 
form  was  illegible,  except  by  a  musical  antiquary, 
and  too  complicated  to  be  playable  without  such  an 
arrangement.  The  editor  briefly  remarks  that 
Dr.  John  Bull's  composition  is  a  sort  of  ground  or 
voluntary  for  the  organ,  of  the  four  notes  C,  G,  E,  F, 
with  twenty-six  different  basses  !  and  is  no 
more  like  the  anthem  now  sung  than  a  frog  is  like 
to  an  ox." 

Bull's  composition,  with  the  title  he  gave  it,  "God 
save  the  Kinge,"  is  printed  at  length  in  the  Appendix, 
(page  73).  It  will  be  seen  that  the  theme 


exactly  fits  the  words  God  save  the  King. 

By  a  curious  coincidence  it  is  an  anticipation  of 
(    10    ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


the  theme  of  a  fugue  by  Sebastian  Bach,  No.  7  in 
the  second  book  of  the  Wohltemperite  Klavier  — 


It  is  important  to  notice  the  date  of  the  composi- 
tion is  given  in  the  manuscript,  1616,  for  although 
this  is  not  appended  to  folio  56  in  Ward's  index,  the 
omission,  for  which  Dr.  Pepusch  was  responsible, 
must  have  been  purely  accidental  ;  certainly  such 
was  the  case  with  one  of  the  Bull  volumes  referred 
to  and  described  in  Ward's  list,  which  having  per- 
sonally examined,  I  have  noted  the  omission  of  no  less 
than  twelve  dates.*  If,  then,  the  date  of  the  composi- 
tion be  1616,  three  years  after  Bull  left  England, 
it  could  not  possibly  have  been  performed  at  the 
Merchant  Taylors'  Hall  in  1607.  One  would  have 
supposed  that  the  publication  of  Dr.  Kitchener's 
evidence  would  have  convinced  Clark  of  the  blunder 
he  had  made,  and  have  kept  him  silent  ;  he,  however, 
seems  to  have  accepted  the  fact  that  the  tune  was 
not  what  he  had  described,  but  at  the  same  time  he 
endeavoured  to  cover  his  retreat  by  venturing  on  the 
following  assertion  :  "  The  ground  lately  produced 
by  Dr.  Kitchener,  composed  by  Dr.  Bull,  bearing 
the  title  of  '  God  save  the  King,'  proves  what  I  have 
before  stated,  that  the  first  naming  a  tune  or  piece  of 
music  in  honour  of  the  king  was  by  Dr.  Bull."  It 
has  been  already  stated  that  the  tune  composed  by 
Dr.  Bull  with  the  title  of  "God  save  the  Kinge," 

'  This  book  is  now  in  the  British  Museum. 

(       II      )  B 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


may  be  taken  to  represent  either  a  chant  to  the  four 
words  or  a  musical  embodiment  to  the  cry  of  the 
populace.  The  short  phrase  "  God  save  the  King" 
must  have  been  in  frequent  use  in  the  house  of  God, 
in  the  Palace,  and  in  the  streets,  from  the  time  of 
King  Solomon  downward.* 

In  the  year  1823  the  question  of  the  authorship  of 
"  God  save  the  King  "  frequently  cropped  up  in  the 
public  journals,  and  at  length  the  "  Gentleman's 
Magazine"  of  1836  devoted  several  articles  to  its  con- 
sideration, and  finally  closed  with  the  following 
sentence  :  "  We  are  therefore  arrived  at  the  close 
of  our  inquiry,  and  the  result  appears  to  be  that 
the  original  music  of  '  God  save  the  King '  was  an 
anthem  prepared  by  Purcell  or  Blow  for  the  Chapel 
of  James  the  Second." 

This  brought  Clark  again  into  the  forefront  of  the 
fight,  and  in  August,  1837,  he  published  a  short 
pamphlet  addressed  "  To  the  lovers  of  research,  the 
historian,  and  the  impartial  critic."  It  will  be 
unnecessary  to  say  much  of  this  extraordinary  pro- 
duction, excepting  that  Clark  roundly  asserts  "  no 
doubt  the  melody  was  as  popular  then  (in  Purcell's 
day)  as  it  is  as  this  time,"  and  that  Purcell  had 
avowedly  imitated  Bull's  melody.  He  adds,  "A 
continuation  on  this  subject  nevertheless  will  shortly 
appear.  In  the  meantime,  R.  Clark  respectfully 
assures  his  Royal,  Noble,  and  Honourable  Sub- 
scribers, and  especially  the  Master,  Wardens,  and 

*  Norton  (Thos.).  "Warning  agaynst  the  Dangerous  Practices  of  Papists  of  the 
late  Rebellion  (Popish  Rebellion  in  Yorkshire).  Published  by  John  Daye,  1569." 
On  the  last  leaf  we  read  "God  save  our  Queene  Elizabeth  and  confound  hir 
enemies." 

(       12       ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


Court  of  Assistants,  of  the  Worshipful  Company  of 
Merchant  Tailors,  that  his  former  account  is  correct, 
and  that  the  National  Anthem  and  National  Grace, 
'  Non  nobis,  Domine,'  were  written  in  Latin  by  Ben 
Jonson  to  please  King  James  the  First,  he  being 
considered  a  good  Latin  scholar,  and  were  first  sung 
in  their  Hall."  I  have  already  examined  the  truth 
of  most  of  the  foregoing  myth,  and  do  not  think  it 
worth  while  wasting  many  words  over  the  ignorant 
assumption  that  Ben  Jonson  wrote  the  words  "  Non 
nobis,  Domine  !  non  nobis,  sed  nomini  Tuo  da 
gloriam,"  the  ninth  verse  of  the  Psalm  "  In  exitu 
Israel  "  (in  our  English  version  the  first  verse  of 
the  H4th  Psalm).  After  this  publication  of  Clark's 
(1837)  there  ensued  a  short  truce,  but  the  subject 
was  re-opened  by  a  letter  of  inquiry  addressed  to 
The  Musical  World,  September,  1839.*  Whether 
written  from  a  spirit  of  mischievous  fun,  or  really 
from  a  desire  for  more  accurate  knowledge  it 
is  now  impossible  to  decide,  but  certain  it  is, 
there  soon  followed  letters  from  John  Parry 
and  others,  notably  Dr.  Rimbault,  who  dealt 
mercilessly  with  Clark's  unwarranted  assertions. 
Matters  became  more  complicated  by  the  appear- 
ance, in  the  same  periodical  (November  21,  1839), 
of  a  remarkable  letter  signed  James  Henry 
Saville,  of  Bishopsgate  Street  Within ;  it  detailed 
the  discovery  of  certain  curious  old  hymns  or  songs 
of  the  time  of  Henry  VII.,  on  the  subject  of 
"  Long  lyve  ye  Kinge "  and  "  Godde  preserve  ye 
Kinge,"  and  on  the  following  December  12  the 

*  Published  in  the  number  dated  October  10. 

(      13      )  B  2 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


excitement   was    intensified   by   the   publication   of 
the  following: — 

Sir, — I  beg  to  trouble  you  with  the  following  account  of  a 
very  curious  manuscript  I  have  lately  come  into  the  possession 
of.  In  my  preambles  about  town  I  had  occasion  (feeling 
hungry)  to  go  into  a  cheesemonger's  shop  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Clerkenwell  to  purchase  a  piece  of  cheese ;  perceiving  that 
the  shopman  had  served  the  little  girl  with  some  butter 
wrapped  up  in  a  piece  of  music  in  manuscript,  I  asked  him  if 
he  had  any  more  music  of  that  kind ;  he  stated  that  he  had 
had  a  great  quantity  that  he  purchased  for  waste-paper,  some 
written  and  some  printed,  and  produced  the  one  I  am  now 
about  to  describe,  which  was  the  last  he  had  left,  which  he  said 
if  it  was  of  any  use  to  me  I  might  have  ;  the  paper  is  very  old, 
about  the  time  of  James  or  Charles  I.,  one  side  is  blank,  with 
the  following  number  at  the  corner,  141.  On  the  side  which 
is  not  paged  is  the  music,  the  staves  have  five  lines,  but  on  the 
music  side  a  sixth  had  been  added  with  the  pen  ;  at  top  is 
written  the  "  King's  Anthem,"  "  Dr.  Bull."  For  a  long  time 
I  was  not  able  to  make  these  words  out,  except  the  words 
"  King's  "  and  "  Dr.  Bull,"  which  are  plain  enough ;  but  on 
account  of  the  k,  in  the  other  words  being  carried  down  like  a 
yt  it  puzzled  me  for  some  time  ;  at  the  beginning  of  the  stave 
is  the  sign  for  common  time,  with  a  dot  and  a  figure  of  three 
underneath  it :  the  music  is  barred  with  six  minims  in  a  bar 
for  the  first  seven  bars  only,  which  seven  bars  contain  the 
tune  of  our  present  "  God  save  the  King,"  only  the  tune 
appears  to  be  different  to  that  which  is  played  now  ;  the  tune 
has  harmony  to  it,  either  for  the  organ,  or  as  I  suppose 
another  keyed  instrument  (perhaps  the  virginal,  as  I  have 
heard  of  such  an  instrument),  but  as  I  only  play  the  fiddle  a 
little  I  am  not  sufficiently  able  to  judge.  Underneath  the  first 
bar  (with  the  aid  of  a  glass,  for  the  writing  is  so  small  it  can 
scarcely  be  traced  with  the  naked  eye),  is  the  following  words : 
"  God  save  oure  mightye  Kinge."  After  the  first  seven  bars, 
which  contains  the  whole  of  the  tune,  there  is  other  music, 
apparently  in  a  different  time,  beginning  with  the  words,  "  In 
the  O  Lorde."  There  is  not  the  whole  of  the  anthem,  but  in 
the  whole  page,  containing  twelve  staves,  there  are  thirty-four 
bars  very  closely  written,  and  very  full  (I  mean  of  harmony). 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


The  tune  of  "  God  save  the  King  "  is  in  the  key  of  G,  with 
the  sharps  placed  before  the  notes.  Should  anybody  wish  to 
see  it  I  shall  be  happy  to  forward  it  to  your  office,  if  you  will 
put  a  notice  to  that  effect  in  your  answer  to  correspondents. — 
Yours, 

THOMAS  HUNTER. 
Gray's  Inn  Lane. 

The  pretended  discovery  by  Mr.  Thomas  Hunter 
of  "  The  King's  Anthem,  Dr.  Bull  "  was  readily 
believed  in  by  some,  although  there  were  others 
who  doubted  its  genuineness.  The  MS.  was 
sent  to  Richard  Clark  for  his  inspection,  who 
wrote  to  the  Musical  World  another  long  letter 
re-asserting  all  his  previous  statements  respecting 
Bull,  Ben  Jonson,  and  the  Merchant  Taylors' 
Company,  but  he  closed  it  with  the  following 
cautious  paragraph  : — 

If  the  MS.  [tent  by  Mr.  Hunter]  headed  "The  King's 
Anthem,  Dr.  Bull,"  which  has  been  forwarded  to  me  for  my 
inspection,  be  genuine,  it  is  a  further  confirmation  of  what  I 
have  already  stated  of  Dr.  Bull.  By  the  watermark  in  the 
sheet  of  music-paper  containing  the  tune  in  question,  the  paper 
was  made  by  P.  Ballard  about  1607,  of  which  make  I  have 
much  in  my  possession.  If  this  said  MS.  be  not  genuine 
(which  I  much  suspect),  we  shall  learn  something  more 
respecting  it  anon." — (Musical  World,  February  13,  1840.) 

It  appears  that  the  MS.  was  shown  to  Sir  Francis 
Madden,  the  Keeper  of  the  Manuscripts  in  the 
British  Museum,  and  he  expressed  his  opinion  that 
it  was  "  undoubtedly  a  forgery,  written  within  these 
twenty  years,  and  that  the  paper  was  anterior  to  the 
time." 

I  should  not  have  referred  to  the  letters  of  James 
Henry  Saville  and  Thomas  Hunter  had  I  not  feared 
that  some  enthusiastic  student  might  hereafter  dis- 
cover and  reproduce  them  as  reliable  statements  of 
(  15  ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


veritable  facts.  In  order  to  prevent  any  such  use 
being  made  of  them,  I  am  able  to  state  that  they 
were  both  the  concoction  of  the  late  Joseph  Warren, 
a  well-known  and  accomplished  musician  and 
antiquary.  Originally  intended  as  an  amusing  hoax, 
these  letters  doubtless  added  to  the  mystery  and 
confusion  which  surrounded  the  subject  of  the 
authorship  of  "  God  save  the  King."  Mr.  Warren 
subsequently  endeavoured  to  make  amends  by 
informing  Mr.  Richard  Clark  of  the  true  state  of 
the  case ;  but,  so  far  as  I  know,  the  latter  never 
publicly  referred  to  the  matter.  The  following  letter, 
addressed  to  Mr.  Warren,  was  given  me  by  him, 
with  permission  to  publish  it : — 

Litlington  Tower, 

Cloisters,  Westminster, 

February  12,  1846. 

Dear  Sir, — When  you  were  at  my  house  looking  through  my 
own  book  with  the  accounts  of  persons  in  the  Musical  World 
on  the  long-disputed  subject  of  "God  save  the  King,"  you 
mentioned  various  funny  circumstances  which  had  been 
pursued  by  yourself,  Dr.  Rimbault,  Mr.  Chapelle,  and  Mr. 
Davidson  only  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  out  before  the 
public  all  that  could  possibly  be  written  on  that  subject  you 
stated  also  that  whilst  you  were  at  the  Museum  one  day  you 
concocted  the  piece  of  music  said  to  have  been  found  at  a 
Cheesemonger's  Shop,  Islington  this  was  taken  by  Mr. 
Chapelle  to  (I  forget  who) — he  pronounced  the  same  a 
forgery  all  this  you  wished  me  to  transcribe  in  my  own 
book  stating  that  you  had  authorised  me  to  do  so.  Now  you 
will  oblige  me  by  drawing  up  the  above  particulars  in  a  letter 
and  put  the  same  in  the  post  because  there  were  several  other 
amusing  facts  which  I  do  not  recollect.  I  should  like  to  place 
yours  to  me  on  the  subject  beside  Dr.  Rimbauts',  Mr.  Nichol's, 
and  Mr.  Chapell's.  Your  early  reply  will  oblige, 
Dear  Sir,  yours  truly, 

To  Joseph  Warren,  Esq.  RICHD.  CLARK.* 

*  The  spelling  and  punctuation  are  printed  literatim  from  Clark's  manuscript. 

(     16     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


Mr.  Warren  told  me  he  adopted  the  nom  de  plume 
of  Saville,  thinking  of  Saville  House,  Leicester 
Square,  and  that  Hunter  is  one  of  his  family  names. 

The  controversy  respecting  the  authorship  of 
"God  save  the  King"  remained  in  this  unsatis- 
factory state  until  1840,  when,  by  a  stroke  of  good 
fortune,  Clark  purchased  the  book  containing 
Bull's  "God  save  the  King."  Dr.  Kitchener  died 
in  February,  1827,  leaving  "  particular  injunctions 
respecting  the  non-disposal  of  a  certain  MS.  music- 
book" — the  volume  containing  Bull's  compositions — 
consequently  this  book  was  not  included  in  the  sale 
of  the  doctor's  library.  Mr.  Clark  bought  it  for 
£20,  and  shortly  afterwards  announced  it  to  be  a 
"  Collection  of  Pieces  for  the  Virginals  in  the 
veritable  autograph  of  Dr.  John  Bull,"  which  he  had 
carefully  gone  through,  and  "found  that  precisely 
at  the  bar  where  Dr.  Kitchener's  published  extract 
concludes,  the  correct  melody  of  the  National 
Anthem  begins."  Here  again  Clark  made  two 
foolish  blunders,  for  we  shall  presently  find  that 
the  MS.  could  not  by  any  possibility  have  been  in 
Bull's  autograph,  and  a  reference  to  the  index 
previously  given  fully  proves  that  the  "  God  save 
the  King"  which  Kitchener  had  quoted  was  followed 
by  several  pieces  bearing  neither  reference  nor 
resemblance  to  the  air  we  call  the  National  Anthem. 
In  November,  1841,  Clark  addressed  a  printed 
circular  to  the  "  Masters,  Wardens,"  &c.,  of  the 
City  Companies,  in  which  he  says  :— 

I  continued  my  inquiries  until  eventually  I  was  enabled  to 
obtain  a  sight  of,  and  finally  to  purchase  (in  the  handwriting 
of  the  composer,  Dr.  John  Bull),  this  long  lost  manuscript. 

(     17     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


That  the  manuscript  was  not  in  the  composer's 
own  hand  may  be  ascertained  by  reference  to  the 
list  and  indices  of  the  Bull  volumes,  published  in 
Ward's  "  Lives  of  the  Gresham  Professors,"  where 
the  name  of  the  Flemish  scribe  is  quoted  as  part 
of  the  "Large  quarto,  number  16  in  the  Catalogue." 
At  the  end  of  this  book  is  written  the  following 
note:  " Incepit  6  Apr.  1628,  >finivit  20  Oct.  1628. 
Scribebat  Gulielmus  a  Messaus*  Divae  Walburgis 
Antverpiensis  phonascus."  These  dates  are  an 
additional  proof  that  the  writings  were  not  in 
the  autograph  of  Dr.  Bull,  for  he  died  on  the  i2th 
or  I3th  of  March,  1628,  and  was  buried  in  the 
Church  of  Notre  Dame,  in  Antwerp.  I  have 
already  mentioned  the  fact  that  I  have  carefully 
examined  one  of  the  Bull  volumes — that  described 
on  page  206  of  Ward's  "  Lives " — and  I  am 
therefore  able  confidently  to  assert  that  it  also  is 
in  the  hand  of  a  Flemish  scribe,  and  further,  that 
several  of  the  pieces  bear  dates  showing  that  they 
were  copied  after  Bull  was  dead  and  buried.  In 
1860,  Sir  Francis  Madden  examined  the  particular 
volume  which  had  belonged  to  Kitchener  and  Clark, 
the  one  in  which  all  our  interest  is  now  centred, 
and  he  wrote  respecting  the  contents :  "  Of  course 
they  cannot  be  in  the  handwriting  of  Dr.  John  Bull, 
but  of  some  Dutchman."  We  may  therefore,  I 
think,  very  fairly  assume  that  all  the  Bull  MSS. 
spoken  of  by  Ward  were  copies  made  by  the  same 
scribe. 

It  is  singular  that,  after  having  published  so  many 

*  For  an  account  of  Gulielmus  a  Messaus,  see  Appendix,  page  99. 
(     18     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


untenable  statements  respecting  "  God  save  the 
King,"  Clark  should  have  really  discovered  in  his 
recent  purchase  an  "Ayre"  bearing  a  remarkable 
resemblance  to  the  true  melody; — that  the  re- 
semblance was  very  apparent  may  be  gathered  from 
the  writings  of  Dr.  Rimbault,*  Dr.  Gauntlett,  Sir 
George  Smart,  and  Mr.  William  Chappell.  The 
last-named  recorded  his  opinion  in  "  Popular  Music 
of  the  Olden  Time."  He  says : — 

It  is  a  curious  fact  (of  which  Clark  could  not  have  been  aware 
when  he  published  his  account)  that  an  "  Ayre  "  at  page  98  of 
the  manuscript  is  very  like  our  ' '  God  save  the  King."  The  piece 
which  is  therein  entitled  "  God  save  the  King  "  is  at  page  66,  and 
the  same  which  Kitchener  published.  When  Clark  played  the 
"Ayre  "  to  me,  with  the  book  before  him,  I  thought  it  to  be 
the  original  of  the  National  Anthem ;  but  afterwards,  taking 
the  manuscript  into  my  own  hands,  I  was  convinced  that  it  had 
been  tampered  with  and  the  resemblance  strengthened,  the 
sharps  being  in  ink  of  a  much  darker  colour  than  other  parts. 
The  additions  are  very  perceptible,  in  spite  of  Clark's  having 
covered  the  face  of  that  portion  with  varnish.  In  its  original 
state  the  '  Ayre  '  commenced  with  these  notes : — 


The  G  being  natural,  the  resemblance  to  "  God  save  the  King  " 
does  not  strike  the  ear,  but  by  making  the  G  sharp,  and 
changing  the  whole  from  an  old  scale  without  sharps  or  flats 
into  the  modern  scale  of  A  major  (three  sharps),  the  tune 
becomes  essentially  like  "  God  save  the  King."  When  I 
reflected  further  upon  the  matter,  it  appeared  very  improbable 
that  Dr.  Bull  should  have  composed  a  piece  for  the  organ  in 
the  modern  key  of  A  major.  The  most  curious  part  of  the 

*  The  late  Dr.  Rimbault  has  been  quoted  as  a  determined  opponent  to  the 
authorship  of  Bull.  He  doubtless  was  so  up  to  1841,  but  on  examining  the  "  Ayre  " 
he  changed  his  opinion,  and  in  1855  published  a  short  account  of  the  National 
Anthem,  in  which  he  strongly  expressed  his  belief  that  Dr.  Bull  composed  "  God 
save  the  King."  (See  Fly  Leaves,  by  Edward  F.  Rimbault.  1855.) 

(     19     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


resemblance  between  Dr.  Bull's  "  Ayre  "  and  "  God  save  the 
King"  is  that  the  first  phrase  consists  of  six  bars  and  the  second 
of  eight,  which  similarity  does  not  exist  in  any  other  of  the  airs 
from  which  it  is  supposed  to  have  been  taken.  It  is  true  that 
the  eight  bars  of  the  second  phrase  are  made  out  by  holding  on 
the  final  notes  of  the  melody  through  two  bars,  therefore  it 
differs  decidedly  from  all  copies  of  our  modern  tune ;  but  the 
words  may  be  sung  to  Bull's  "  Ayre  "  by  dividing  the  time  of 
the  long  notes — in  fact,  it  has  been  so  performed  in  public,  before 
the  late  King  of  Hanover,  at  the  Concerts  of  Ancient  Music, 
and  at  other  public  concerts.  The  late  R.  Clark  lent  the  voice- 
parts,  which  had  been  used  on  these  occasions,  to  Dr.  Rimbault 
for  performance  at  his  Lectures  on  Music  in  Liverpool.  Dr. 
Rimbault  copied  them  in  score  for  his  own  use,  and  has 
favoured  me  with  the  following  transcript : — 


J- 


r 


From  what  I  have  said  above  it  will  be  understood  that  in  this 
copy  the  "  Ayre  "  has  been  transposed  and  changed  into  the 
key  of  G  major.  The  first  note  of  the  tune  should  (in  this  key) 
be  D,  and  instead  of  four  G's  at  the  end,  the  first  G  in  the 

(       20       ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE  KING. 


thirteenth  bar  should  be  held  through  that  and  the  fourteenth 
to  the  termination  of  the  tune.  I  have  other  doubts  about  the 
accuracy  of  the  copy,  but  cannot  resolve  them  from  memory, 
and  the  permission  to  compare  it  with  the  original  has  been 
refused. 

Unfortunately  the  book  containing  Bull's  "  Ayre  " 
has  disappeared,  and  whether  it  will  ever  again  see 
the  light  is  somewhat  doubtful ;  but  I  am  enabled  to 
supply  a  very  efficient  substitute.  In  my  library  is  a 
volume  of  miscellaneous  music  from  the  collection  of 
Sir  George  Smart ;  its  contents  are  oddly  thrown 
together,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  following  list : — 

(1)  "  Mendelssohn's  Midsummer  Night's  Dream  Music." 

(2)  An  address  "  To  the  lovers  of  research,  the  historian  and 
the  impartial  critic,"  by  Richard  Clark.     (This  was  prepared 
for  a  meeting  of  the  Purcell  Society,  and  endeavoured  to  prove 
that  "  God  save  the  King"  was  a  popular  melody  in   PurcelPs 
time.) 

(3)  Sir  George  Smart's  transcript  of  "  God  save  the  King  " 
from  the  Bull  MS. 

(4)  "  Reminiscences  of  Handel,"  by  Richard  Clark. 

(5)  "  The  Soldier's  Dream,"  by  Attwood,  with  manuscript 
additions  in  the  autograph  of  the  composer. 

(6)  "  The  Soldier's  Dream,"  printed  copy  incorporating  the 
additions  previously  mentioned. 

(7)  "The  Incantation  Scene"   from   Der  Freischutz,  with 
MS.  notes  by  Smart. 

(8)  "  Kutusoff  s  Victory,"  by  Cramer. 

(9)  Goss's  "  Collection  of  Chants." 

(10)  Mendelssohn's  "  Te  Deum  and  Jubilate." 

The  third  piece  in  this  volume  is  "  God  save  the 
King,"  copied  direct  from  the  manuscript  book  of 
Bull's  compositions  by  Sir  George  Smart,  who  was 
a  most  precise  and  careful  man ;  the  accuracy  of  the 
transcript  may  therefore  be  accepted  as  absolute. 
See  page  82  in  the  Appendix. 
(  21  ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE  KING. 


I  would  invite  a  careful  comparison  of  the  "  Ayre," 
as  faithfully  copied  for  his  own  study  and  use  by  Sir 
George  Smart,  with  that  which  was  prepared  for  the 
hearing  of  the  late  King  of  Hanover  "at  the  Concerts 
of  Ancient  Music,  and  other  public  concerts."  Doubt- 
less the  persistent  endeavours  to  make  up  strong 
evidence  in  favour  of  Bull  engendered  suspicion,  and 
must  be  considered  most  reprehensible.  It  is,  more- 
over, probable  that  Mr.  Chappell  is  correct  in  his 
surmise  that  Bull's  "  Ayre  "  had  originally  few  or 
no  sharps.  The  insertion  of  these  was  somewhat 
overdone,  as  may  be  seen  by  referring  to  bars  3,  4,  6, 
7,  10,  ir,  12,  13,  14  of  Sir  George  Smart's  transcript, 
and  as  in  the  original  index  the  piece  is  simply  called 
an  "Air,"  the  words  "God  save  the  King"  were 
probably  added  with  the  sharps.  The  like  must  be 
said  of  the  words  "2  more  verses." 

In  a  long  letter  addressed  by  the  late  William 
Chappell  to  myself,  dated  May  27,  1878,  he 
says : — 

Let  it  be  borne  in  mind  that  I  had  Bull's  MS.  to  try  over 
and  to  value  to  Richard  Clark,  and  to  decide  whether  his  offer 
of  £20  should  be  accepted  or  not.  I  saw  Bull's  MS.  after 
Clark  had  varnished  it,  as  well  as  before.  The  few  who  saw  it 
after  me  confirm  my  testimony  that  it  had  been  garbled.  Pray 
mark  that  the  four  bars  of  resemblance  created  by  Dr. 
Gauntlett,  are  in  the  older  carol  (Remember,  O  thou  man). 
I  am  sure  it  was  Gauntlett,  from  his  visits  to  me,  and  his 
attempts  at  cross-questioning  me.  Richard  Clark  was  a  poor 
thing  in  music,  and  could  not  have  had  nous  enough.  Clark 
could  sing  from  the  Bass  clef,  but  although  he  must  have  had 
months  of  practice  at  Bull's  "Ayre,"  transmuted,  before  he 
attempted  to  play  it  to  me,  he  had  to  look  at  his  fingers  and 
then  at  the  book  in  every  chord,  and  could  not  even  then  play 
it  correctly. 

(      22      ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


Mr.  Chappell's  suggestion  that  Dr.  Gauntlett  was 
Clark's  adviser  is  borne  out  by  the  following  circular 
or  prospectus  issued  in  October,  1841 : — 

NEVER    BEFORE    PUBLISHED. 

The  manuscript  compositions  of  John  Bull,  Doctor  of  Music, 
Organist  to  the  Chapels  Royal  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth; 
Organist  and  Chamber  Musician  to  James  the  first,  and 
Professor  of  Music  to  the  Gresham  College.  Born  1565.  Died 
1622.* 

Mr.  Richard  Clark,  of  her  Majesty's  Chapels  Royal,  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral,  and  Westminster  Abbey,  has  the  honour  to 
announce  to  the  lovers  of  classical  music,  a  proposal  for 
publishing  by  subscription  the  compositions  of  Dr.  John  Bull, 
contained  in  that  valuable  manuscript  formerly  in  the  posses- 
sion of  Dr.  Pepusch  (an  account  of  which  is  given  in  Ward's 
History  of  the  Professors  of  Gresham  College,  1740),  and 
which  has  successively  formed  a  great  object  of  attraction  and 
curiosity  in  the  Libraries  of  Mr.  Edward  Jones,  Bard  to  His 
Majesty  King  George  the  third,  Mr.  James  Bartleman,  and 
Dr.  Kitchener,  of  whose  son  Mr.  Clark  has  purchased  the 
entire  interest. 

Dr.  Bull's  reputation  as  a  composer  and  as  an  organist 
extended  during  his  lifetime  to  the  capitals  of  Holland,  France 
and  Germany,  and  he  may  justly  be  considered  the  Henry 
Purcel  of  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century.*  It  is 
presumed  the  publication  of  this  interesting  manuscript  will 
tend  to  throw  a  new  light  on  the  extraordinary  genius  and 
acquirements  of  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  celebrated 
musicians  of  which  this  country  can  boast;  and  it  will 
materially  assist  in  demonstrating  that  in  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth  there  first  appeared  those  great  harmonies  and 
combinations  of  notes,  which  it  has  been  the  habit  of  many 
Professors  to  attribute  to  the  later  period  of  Henry  Purcel,  and 
the  still  later  one  of  Sebastian  Bach.  To  the  musical  antiquary, 
to  the  historian  of  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  science,  and  to 
the  lover  of  pure  classical  compositions  for  the  organ,  it  is 
anticipated  this  work  will  be  an  object  of  peculiar  regard  and 
veneration. 

*  A  curious  error.    Bull  died  in  1628,  the  beginning  of  the  i;th  century. 
(     23     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


It  also  exhibits  another  and  if  possible  still  more  interesting 
claim  on  the  attention  and  patronage  of  the  musical  public, 
as  it  contains  the  National  Air  of  God  save  the  King,  composed 
for  Four  Parts.  This  is  written  in  3  time,  and  the  melody  is, 
with  one  or  two  exceptions,  precisely  the  same  as  is  now  in 
use;  and  it  is  but  justice  to  the  memory  of  Dr.  Bull,  its 
composer,  to  state  that  his  reputation  may  be  considered  to 
have  suffered  from  the  claims  which  have  unjustly  been  made 
for  various  persons  as  the  Composer,  and  from  the  slight 
alteration  which  has  arisen  from  the  lapse  of  time,  and  the 
want  of  an  authentic  copy  as  a  reference. 

It  is  necessary  to  observe  that  the  movement  extracted  from 
this  MS.  and  published  by  Dr.  Kitchener,  in  what  he  calls  his 
"  Loyal  and  National  Songs  of  England,"  as  God  save  the 
King  is  not  the  melody  referred  to,  and  that  the  Doctor's 
extract  is  merely  certain  variations  on  a  few  notes,  probably 
used  as  the  introductory  Music  to  the  King  and  vast  company 
invited  to  Merchant  Tailors'  Hall,  1607,  and  only  as  a  flourish 
for  the  Cornets  or  Trumpets  in  the  State  and  City  Bands.  In 
addition  to  this  great  curiosity,  there  are  twenty-seven  other 
compositions,  including  many  fugues,  canons  and  variations 
for  the  fine  old  Gregorian  Hymns,  "  Gloria  tibi  Trinitas,"— 
"  Sal  vat  or  Mundi  Domini," — "Felise  namque  Offertorium," 
&c. 

Mr.  Clark  pledges  himself  to  adhere  closely  to  the  manu- 
script, which  is  in  every  respect  a  very  beautiful  one ;  to 
transpose  the  different  clefs  (of  which  there  are  eleven)  into  the 
two  clefs  now  in  general  use ;  to  have  the  work  engraved  in  a 
handsome  and  bold  manner,  and  to  accompany  it  with  engraved 
portraits  of  Dr.  Bull,  from  the  painting  in  the  music-school, 
Oxford,  King  James  the  first,  and  Ben  Jonson.  An  intro- 
ductory Preface  will  precede  the  Music  from  the  pen  of 
Mr.  Henry  John  Gauntlett. 

Price  to  subscribers,  one  guinea,  to  non-subscribers  two 
guineas.  The  work  will  be  published  by  Mr.  Chappell,  50, 
New  Bond  Street,  Publishers  to  the  Musical  Antiquarian 
Society.  Subscriptions  in  advance  will  be  received  only  by 
Mr.  Clark,  Litlington  Tower,  Cloisters,  Westminster  Abbey, 
and  Mr.  Chappell.  Subscribers'  names  will  be  given. 

This  proposed  publication  was  never  issued,  pos- 
sibly for  want  of  sufficient  subscribers. 

(    24    ) 


GOD  SAVE   THE  KING. 


Looking  at  the  copy  of  Bull's  "Air"  on  page  82, 
we  may  admit  that  the  "sharps,"  "title,"  and  the 
words,  "  2  more  verses,"  were  modern  additions, 
and  still  believe  that,  whether  read  in  the  minor 
or  major  mode,  we  have  in  Bull's  composition 
the  first  suggestion  of  the  music  of  our  National 
Anthem.  There  is  an  identity  in  rhythm  and 
melody;  the  mode,  major  or  minor,  is  of  little 
importance.* 

The  first  part  of  the  tune  or  melody  is  made  up  of 
six  bars  or  measures,  phrased  in  groups  of  two ;  the 
second  part  of  the  tune,  also  grouped  in  twos, 
consists  of  eight  bars.  This  is  a  variation  of  the  old 
form  of  the  dance  known  as  the  "  Galliard,"  which 
originally  consisted  of  two  parts,  each  made  up  of 
eight  bars  in  triple  time.  About  the  year  1600, 
composers  began  to  permit  themselves  liberties  in 
the  number  of  bars.  Some  Galliards  by  Bull, 
containing  six  and  eight  bars,  as  in  "God  save  the 
King,"  are  still  extant. f 

A  change  of  the  mode  from  minor  to  major  is,  as 
already  stated,  a  matter  of  little  consequence ;  all 
Cathedral  musicians  are  familiar  with  what  are 
termed  "  changeable  chants,"  that  is  to  say,  chants 
so  composed  that  they  may  be  played  major  or  minor 
at  pleasure,  without  alteration  of  the  letter-notes, 
requiring  only  the  addition  or  omission  of  sharps, 

*  I  possess  a  large  number  of  variations  composed  on  God  save  the  King, 
written  by  musicians  from  the  time  of  J.  C.  Bach  to  Thalberg,  and  I  find  that 
nearly  all  these  composers  give  one  variation  in  the  minor  mode. 

t  The  name  Galliard  seems  to  have  fallen  into  disuse  before  the  i8th  century, 
but  the  spirit  and  peculiar  two-bar  phrase  in  triple  time  survived.  An  excellent 
specimen  is  the  "  Sarabande  in  E  minor,  in  Handel's  "  Suite  de  Pieces," 
published  in  1720. 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


flats,  and  naturals.  Some  of  our  popular  folk-songs 
are  sung  in  like  manner,  both  in  major  and  minor, 
notably  "  The  bailiff's  daughter  of  Islington  "  and 
"  Huntingtower." 

In  April,  1860,  Sir  Francis  Madden  sent  a  letter  to 
Mr.  Chappell,  from  which  I  extract  the  following  : — 

The  MS.  formerly  belonging  to  Mr.  Richard  Clark,  and 
which  you  have  mentioned  at  some  length  in  your  work,  has 
been  offered  to  me  for  purchase.  I  have  looked  at  it  again 
carefully,  and  am  of  opinion  (as  I  formerly  was)  that  the  lower 
part  of  page  98  is  in  a  much  later  hand  than  the  rest  of  the 
volume,  and  also  that  the  pretended  reference  to  page  98  on 
another  page  is  a  recent  addition  to  the  original  flourish. 

Sir  Francis  Madden  speaks  of  a  "pretended 
reference  to  page  98  on  another  page."  It  is  just 
possible  this  may  have  been  added  when  the  pro- 
gramme of  Bull's  music  for  performance,  before  the 
King  of  Hanover,  was  in  preparation. 

It  will  be  interesting  here  to  present  a  complete 
copy  of  the  programme  referred  to  : — 

By  command  of 

His  MAJESTY  THE  KING  OF  HANOVER, 

At  Christ  Church,  Newgate  Street, 

August  3,  1843. 

Selections  from  the 
ORGAN   AND   VOCAL   MUSIC. 

Composed  by 
DR.  JOHN    BULL, 

Professor  of  Music  in  Gresham  College,  Organist  of  the  Chapels 
Royal  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  Organist  and 
Chamber  Musician  to  his  Majesty  King  James  the  First. 

Born  1563.         Died  1622.* 

*  An  error.     Dr.  Bull  died  in  1628. 
(     26     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


No.  I.  Vorspiele,  or  Prelude  in  Four  Parts,  composed  by 
Dr.  Bull,  on  the  Lutheran  Choral  Hymn,  "  Vater  unser  im 
Himmelreich."  The  Melody  is  placed  in  the  Tenor  or  Third 
Part,  and  is  performed  by  the  Obligate*  Pedal.  It  is  composed 
in  the  Doric  Key  of  the  Ancient  Church  Tones.  The  MSS.  in 
the  possession  of  Mr.  Richard  Clark. 

No.  II.  The  same  Choral — taken  from  the  original  Choral 
Book  of  Dr.  Martin  Luther,  1540 ;  and  harmonised  in  Four 
Parts,  by  John  Sebastian  Bach,  1750. 

No.  III.  Four  Movements  selected  from  the  original  MSS. 
of  Dr.  Bull,  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Richard  Clark,  of  Her 
Majesty's  Chapels  Royal,  and  of  St.  Paul's  and  Westminster 
Abbey  ;  and  in  the  original  Virginal  Book  of  Queen  Elizabeth 
in  the  FitzwilHam  Museum,  Cambridge. 

1.  Ayre  in  the  Key  C ;  in  f  time. 

2.  Air  varied  in  C  ;  in  Common  time. 

3.  Ayre  in  C  ;  in  £  time. 

4.  Andante  in  F  ;  in  Common  time. 

No.  IV.  Prayer  for  the  King,  from  the  original  MSS.  of  Dr. 
Bull,  on  a  Gregorian  Melody,  with  Obligate*  Organ  Accom- 
paniment. "  O  Lord  Almighty  God,  whose  righteousness  is 
like  the  strong  mountains,  and  Thy  judgments  like  the  great 
deep  :  after  the  multitude  of  Thy  mercies  save  the  King  who 
puts  his  trust  in  Thee,  and  evermore  mightily  defend  him  for 
Jesus  Christ  His  sake  ;  to  whom  with  Thee  and  the  Holy 
Ghost  be  all  honour  and  glory.  Amen." 

No.  V.  Prelude  and  Ayre  in  G  Major,  composed  by  Dr.  Bull, 
from  the  Virginal  Book  in  the  FitzwilHam  Museum,  Cambridge. 

No.  VI.  The  original  Music  of  the  National  Anthem,  "God 
save  th«  King,"  composed  and  performed  by  Dr.  Bull  on  the 
occasion  of  His  Majesty  King  James's  visit  to  Merchant 
Taylors'  Hall,  1607,  in  commemoration  of  his  escape  from  the 
Powder  Plot. 

1.  The  Prelude,  or  Introduction  to  the  National  Anthem  for 
the  Organ,  with  an  Obligate*  Trumpet  Accompaniment. 

2.  The  National  Anthem  in  its  original  form,  note  for  note, 
from  the  MSS.  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Richard  Clark. 

The  Vocal  Music  will  be  sung  by  Miss  Rainforth  ;  Masters 
Stevens  and  Sullivan;  Messrs.  Young,  Bayley,  Howe,  Lockey, 
Bradbury,  Allen,  and  R.  Clark. 

Organ — DR.  GAUNTLETT. 
[Manning  &  Mason,  Printers,  Ivy  Lane.] 

*  Sic. 
(      27      )  C 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


The  sixth  number  in  the  above  programme  con- 
sisted of  (i)  the  Prelude  or  Introduction  to  the 
National  Anthem  for  the  organ,  with  an  obbligato 
trumpet  accompaniment. 

A  reference  to  the  music  of  Bull's  "  God  save  the 
Kinge"  (page  73)  will  show  that  it  would  be  a  matter 
of  difficulty  for  a  solo  player  to  perform  it  on  the 
organ  as  written.  The  addition  of  a  trumpet 
obbligato,  to  play  the  notes  of  the  plain-song 
C,  G,  F,  E,  would  therefore  be  most  judicious  and 
effective,  and  leave  the  organist  free  to  deal  with  the 
elaborate  variations.  It  should  also  be  noted  that, 
although  Bull's  "  God  save  the  Kinge  "  commences 
in  the  key  of  C  major,  and  is  for  the  most  part 
written  in  that  mode,  yet  the  closing  variations  are 
in  A,  and  the  final  chord,  of  A  major,  would  fittingly 
introduce  "the  National  Anthem  in  its  original  form, 
note  for  note,  from  the  MSS.  in  the  possession  of 
Mr.  Richard  Clark  "  (page  82). 

On  June  16,  1876,  I  called  on  Mrs.  Clark,  the 
widow  of  Richard  Clark,  at  the  house  where  she 
was  then  residing  (Dr.  Ray's  Collegiate  School, 
Queen's  Road,  Peckham),  with  the  hope  of  obtaining 
some  information  from  her,  and  on  the  possibility 
of  being  permitted  to  examine  the  book  containing 
Bull's  music.  Mrs.  Clark  told  me  the  MS.  had 
been  offered  to  the  Queen,  the  British  Museum, 
and  also  to  Miss  Charlotte  Dolby,  the  well-known 
contralto  vocalist,  for  the  sum  of  £100,  but  they 
having  declined  to  purchase,  the  book  had  been 
disposed  of.  In  the  following  September,  I  wrote  to 
Mrs.  Clark,  offering  to  purchase  the  volume,  and 
(  28  ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


asking  for  help  in  collecting  memoranda  respecting 
"  God  save  the  King,"  the  only  result  being  the 
following  note : — 

Dear  Sir, — At  your  interview  with  me  I  told  you  the  book 
in  question  was  disposed  of,  and  as  regards  your  other  request 
I  cannot  assist  you  ;  my  great  age  prevents  it. 

Yours  respectfully, 
Sept.  14,  1874.  H.  CLARK. 

Mrs.  Clark,  in  the  letter,  speaks  of  her  great  age. 
One  of  the  evidences  of  her  failing  powers  is  the  date 
she  gave,  1874,  whereas  it  should  have  been  1876 — 
this  is  shown  by  the  post-office  stamp  on  the  cover, 
still  in  my  possession. 

Mrs.  Clark  died  at  46,  Queen's  Road,  Peckham, 
on  March  12,  1885,  and  was  buried  in  the  grave  of 
her  husband  in  Brompton  Cemetery.  The  book  in 
question  has  not  since  been  heard  of. 

It  is  impossible  to  fix  accurately  the  time  of  the 
first  print  and  publication  of  the  music  and  words  of 
"  God  save  the  King."  We  find  in  the  Gentleman's 
Magazine,  October,  1745,  a  version  with  three  verses 
commencing  "God  save  great  George  our  King";  but 
an  older  version,  "  God  save  our  Lord  the  King,"  is  to 
be  found  in  the  first  edition,  undated,  of— 

THESAURUS  Musicus.  A  collection  of  two,  three  and 
four-part  songs ;  several  of  them  never  before  printed.  To 
which  are  added  some  Choice  Dialogues,  set  to  music  by  the 
most  eminent  masters  viz.,  Dr.  Blow,  H.  Purcell,  Handel, 
Dr.  Green,  Dl  Purcell,  Eccles,  Weldon,  Leveridge,  Lampe,. 
Carey,  &c.  The  whole  revis'd,  carefully  corrected  and  figur'd 
by  a  judicious  master.  London,  Printed  for,  and  sold  by  John 
Simpson,  at  the  Bass  Viol  and  Flute  in  Sweeting's  Alley, 
Opposite  the  East  door  of  the  Royal  Exchange. 

Printed  probably  in  1740.    The  first  line,  "  God  save 

(      29      )  C2 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


our  Lord  the  King,"  shows  that  it  preceded  the 
version  sung  at  Drury  Lane  Theatre  in  1745,  when 
the  first  lines  were  "  God  save  our  noble  King,  God 
save  great  George  our  King." 

The  music  as  printed  in  the  first  edition  of 
"  Thesaurus  Musicus"  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix, 
page  83.  The  Flute  part  is  arranged  in  the  key 
of  F  (showing  that  it  was  intended  for  the  Old 
English  flute).  The  only  heading  to  the  above 
is  "  For  two  voices."  In  the  second  edition  of 
"  Thesaurus  Musicus  "  the  piece  is  again  printed  on 
page  22,  but  from  a  plate  entirely  re-engraved,  with 
the  added  title,  "A  Loyal  Song,  sung  at  the  Theatres 
Royal."  This  must  therefore  have  been  published 
after  the  performances  at  Drury  Lane  and  Covent 
Garden  Theatres  in  1745.  We  may  reasonably 
conclude  that  the  copy  in  the  first  edition  was 
published  before  it  had  been  given  at  the  Theatres. 
This  second  edition  differs,  both  in  music  and  words, 
from  the  first  edition  (see  Appendix,  page  84).  The 
third  edition  of  "  Thesaurus  Musicus  "  contains  the 
words  and  music  printed  on  page  22,  again  newly 
engraved,  with  an  alteration  in  the  second  line  of  the 
second  verse,  which  reads  "  Scatter  our  Enemies." 
A  fourth  edition  of  "Thesaurus  Musicus  "  was  pub- 
lished by  "  R.  Bremner,  at  the  Harp  and  Hautboy, 
opposite  Somerset  House  in  the  Strand,"  but  no 
further  change  is  made  in  "  God  save  the  King." 

In  Chappell's  "Old  English  Popular  Music,"  edited 

by  Professor  H.  Ellis  Wooldridge  (1893),  the  copy 

there  given  of  "  God  save  our  Lord  the  King  "  is  said 

to  be  taken  from  the  "  Harmonia  Anglicana,"  1742  (?), 

(    30    ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE  KING. 


with  the  editorial  note  :  "  The  Harmonia  Anglicana 
is  printed  without  date,  but  a  clue  to  the  time  of 
publication  is  obtained  in  the  following  way.  There 
are  several  works  advertised  by  the  publishers  on 
the  title  page,  and  three  or  four  more  seem  to  have 
been  added  subsequently  to  fill  up  vacant  space  on 
the  index  plate.  The  last  of  these  are  '  Two  col- 
lections of  favourite  Scotch  tunes,  set  for  a  violin, 
German  flute,  or  harpsichord  ;  by  Mr.  Oswald.' 
These  two  collections  were  advertised  in  November, 
1742." 

This  evidence  is  of  no  value.  The  first,  second, 
and  third  editions  of  "  Thesaurus  Musicus  "  have 
precisely  the  same  titles  and  advertisements.* 

In  the  "  Thesaurus  "  I  also  find,  on  page  65,  "  A 
two-part  song  on  the  approaching  nuptials  of  the 
Prince  of  Orange  and  the  Princess  Royal  of  Great 
Britain."  The  marriage  referred  to  took  place  in 
the  Lutheran  Chapel,  adjoining  St.  James's  Palace, 
March  14,  173!,  when  Anne,  eldest  daughter  of 
George  II.,  was  united  to  William  Charles  Henry, 
Prince  of  Nassau  and  Orange.  (Memorials  of  St. 
James's  Palace.  By  the  Rev.  Edgar  Sheppard.  1894.) 

If  we  were  to  accept  this  reference  to  "  approach- 
ing nuptials  "  (an  event  which  took  place  in  1734) 
as  proof  that  the  book  was  published  before  that 
date,  we  should  be  greatly  misled.  The  truth  is, 
"  Thesaurus  Musicus  "  was  printed  from  plates 
which  had  been  engraved  and  published  at  various 
periods.  Of  the  existence  of  the  "  Harmonia 

*  These  three  editions  have  the  words  "  Musick,  just  published "  by 
J.  Simpson,  preceding  the  list,  which  is  precisely  the  same  in  all;  a  sure 
proof  that  the  advertisements  are  of  no  value  in  fixing  the  date  of  publication. 

(     31      ) 


GOD  SAVE    THE   KING. 


Anglicana,"  described  by  Mr.  Chappell  and  Professor 
Wooldridge,  I  have  great  doubt.  The  only  work 
with  this  title  known  to  me,  is  an  oblong  folio,  of 
which  I  possess  a  copy.  The  title  is  as  follows  : — 

HARMONIA  ANGLICANA  or  the  Musick  of  the  English  Stage, 
Containing  Six  sets  of  Ayres  and  Tunes  in  4  Parts,  made  for 
the  Operas  Tragedys  and  Comedyes  of  the  Theater  Royal. 
The  first  collection  which  will  be  continued  with  the  sets  of 
Tunes  made  for  the  Play  Houses  and  other  Occasions. 
Engraven  in  a  fair  Character.  London.  Printed  and  sold 
by  J.  Walsh,  Musicall  Instrument  Maker  in  Ordinary  to  his 
Majesty  at  ye  Golden  Harp  &  Hoboy  in  Catherine  Street  near 
Sumerset  House  in  ye  Strand  and  J.  Hare  Musicall  Instru- 
ment Maker  at  the  Golden  Viol  in  St  Pauls  Church  yard  &  at 
his  Shop  in  Freeman's  yard  near  ye  Exchange  in  Cornhill.* 

There  is  no  tune  of  "God  save  the  King"  in 
this  book,  nor  has  it  anything  in  common  with 
the  upright  folio  volumes  known  as  "  Thesaurus 
Musicus." 

The  first  recorded  public  performance  of  "God 
save  the  King  "  appears  in  the  Daily  Advertiser  of 
Monday,  September  30,  1745  :  "  On  Saturday  night 
last,  the  audience  at  the  Theatre  Royal,  Drury 
Lane,  were  agreeably  surprized  by  the  Gentlemen 
belonging  to  that  House  performing  the  Anthem 
of  God  save  our  noble  King.  The  universal 
Applause  it  met  with,  being  encored  with  repeated 
Huzzas,  sufficiently  denoted  in  how  just  an 
Abhorrence  they  hold  the  arbitrary  Schemes  of 
our  insidious  Enemies,  and  detest  the  despotick 
Attempts  of  Papal  power."  The  immense  popularity 
the  words  and  music  immediately  obtained  induced 

*  I  wrote  to  Mr.  Chappell  in  1886,  asking  where  he  had  seen  the  "  Harmonia 
Anglicana."    He  was  only  able  to  refer  me  to  the  work  here  described. 

(      32      ) 


GOD   SAVE   THE  KING. 


the  managers  of  other  theatres  to  follow  the  example 
set  by  Drury  Lane,  and  we  find  an  advertisement 
in  the  General  Advertiser,  October  2,  1745  :  "  At 
the  Theatre  in  Goodman's  Fields,  by  desire,  God 
save  the  King,  as  it  was  performed  at  the  Theatre 
Royal,  Drury  Lane,  with  great  applause."  At  this 
house  the  Anthem  seems  to  have  been  performed 
nightly  up  to  November  14.  The  Theatre  Royal, 
Covent  Garden,  followed  suit,  and  we  read  in  the 
General  Advertiser,  December  24,  25,  and  26,  1745, 
an  advertisement  of  the  performances  at  that  house, 
which  concludes  with  the  following  words :  "  And 
at  the  play,  God  save  the  King." 

The  arrangement  of  the  National  Anthem  sung 
at  Drury  Lane  was  made  by  Dr.  Arne,  and  that  for 
Covent  Garden  by  his  pupil,  Dr.  Burney.  The 
manuscript  of  the  former  exists  in  Arne's  autograph, 
and  is  interesting  and  admirable  ;  it  was  sung  as  a 
trio  by  Mrs.  Gibber,  Mr.  Beard,  and  Mr.  Reinhold,* 
each  part  repeated  in  chorus.  (For  Arne's  arrange- 
ment, see  Appendix,  p.  85.) 

Of  the  enthusiasm  of  the  public  at  these  per- 
formances we  have  a  graphic  account  in  the 
published  letters  of  Benjamin  Victor,  in  one  of  which, 
addressed  to  David  Garrick,  October  10,  1745, 

*  Mrs.  Gibber,  sister  of  Dr.  Arne,  and  wife  of  Theophilus  Cibber,  was  the 
contralto  singer  for  whom  Handel  composed  the  airs  in  the  "Messiah"  and 
"  Samson."  Born  in  1714,  she  died  in  1766,  and  was  buried  in  the  north  cloister 
of  Westminster  Abbey. 

John  Beard,  an  eminent  tenor  singer,  engaged  by  Handel  in  1736  for  per- 
formances of  "Alexander's  Feast,"  "Acis  and  Galatea,"  and  "  Atalanta."  He 
died  in  1791,  in  his  74th  year. 

Thomas  Reinhold,  a  native  of  Dresden,  engaged  by  Handel  as  bass  soloist  for 
"  Israel  in  Egypt,"  "  Samson,"  "  Semele,"  "  Belshazzar,"  and  other  oratorios. 
He  died  in  1751. 

(    33     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE  KING. 


he  says  :  "  The  stage,  at  both  houses,  is  the  most 
pious,  as  well  as  the  most  loyal  place  in  the  three 
kingdoms.  Twenty  men  appear  at  the  end  of  every 
play ;  and  one,  stepping  forward  from  the  rest,  with 
uplifted  hands  and  eyes,  begins  singing,  to  an  old 
anthem  tune,  the  following  words  : — 

O  Lord  our  God,  arise  ! 
Confound  the  enemies 

Of  George,  our  King ! 
Send  him  victorious, 
Happy  and  glorious, 
Long  to  reign  over  us, 

God  save  the  King  ! 

Which  are  the  very  words,  and  music,  of  an  old 
Anthem  that  was  sung  at  St.  James's  Chapel,  for 
King  James  the  Second,  when  the  Prince  of  Orange 
was  landed,  to  deliver  us  from  popery  and  slavery ; 
which  God  Almighty  in  His  goodness  was  pleased 
not  to  grant."  (Original  Letters  and  Poems.  By 
Benjamin  Victor.  1766.) 

Another  interesting  notice  of  a  performance  is  to 
be  found  in  a  letter  of  Horace  Walpole,  dated 
August  5,  1746 :  "  I  saw  the  company  get  into 
their  barges  at  Whitehall  Stairs,  as  I  was  going 
myself,  and  just  then  passed  by  two  City  Companies 
in  their  great  barges,  who  had  been  a  swan  hopping. 
They  laid  by,  and  played  '  God  save  our  noble 
King,'  and  altogether  it  was  a  mighty  pretty  show." 
(Letters  of  Horace  Walpole.  By  P.  Cunningham. 

I857-9-) 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  at  the  time  of  its  performance, 
in  1745,  neither  Dr.  Burney  nor  Dr.  Arne  were  able 

(     34     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


to  say  who  was  the  composer  of  the  Air,  for  Burney 
tells  us  that  when  Arne  was  interrogated  on  the 
subject  he  answered,  "He  had  not  the  least  know- 
ledge, nor  could  he  guess  at  all,  who  was  either  the 
author  or  composer,  but  that  it  was  a  received 
opinion  that  it  was  written  for  the  Catholic  Chapel 
of  James  II.";  and  Burney  added  his  own  opinion 
in  these  words :  "  We  believe  that  it  was  written  for 
King  James  II.,  while  the  Prince  of  Orange  was 
hovering  over  the  coast ;  and  when  he  became  King, 
who  durst  own  or  sing  it  ?  " 

Burney  must  have  continued  his  enquiries 
respecting  the  origin  of  the  Anthem,  as  will  be  seen 
by  the  following  letter,  the  original  autograph  of 
which  is  in  my  possession. 

This  letter,  now  for  the  first  time  printed,  was 
addressed  to  Sir  Joseph  Banks  : — 

Chelsea  College, 

2gth  July,  1806. 

Dear  Sir, — Previous  to  my  plunging  into  a  subject  which 
requires  considerable  discussion,  let  me  refer  you  to  the  article 
Balnea,  in  the  Monthly  Review,  for  July,  1799,  p.  356,*  in 
which  the  author  asserts  that  his  father,  Harry  Carey,  not  only 
wrote  the  words  but  composed  the  music  to  "  God  save  great 
George  our  King." 

Now,  taking  it  for  granted  that  you  have  perused  the  article 
referred  to  in  the  Review  (of  which,  in  confidence  to  you,  dear 
sir,  and  to  you  only,  except  Lord  Macartney,  I  confess  myself 
to  be  the  author),  I  shall  proceed  to  tell  you  all  I  know  con- 
cerning the  history  of  this  loyal  song,  of  which  I  do  not 
recollect  that  I  have  made  any  particular  mention  in  my 
general  history  of  music.  The  assertion  of  Carey  being  the 
author  of  God  save  the  King  is  again  denied  in  the  Monthly 
Review  for  April,  1800,  p.  419.  t 

*  For  a  reprint  of  this  article  see  page  55.  t  See  page  56. 

(    35     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


Old  Mrs.  Arne,  the  mother  of  Dr.  Arne,  and  Mrs.  Cibber,  a 
bigotted  Roman  Catholic,  assured  me  at  the  time,  1746,  that 
"  God  save  the  King  "  was  written  and  sung  for  King  jfames, 
in  1688,  when  the  Prince  of  Orange  was  hovering  over  the 
coast ;  she  said  she  had  heard  it  sung,  not  only  at  the  Play- 
house but  in  the  Street.  Her  son,  Mr.  Arne,  composer  to  Drury 
Lane  Theatre,  at  the  desire  of  Mr.  Fleetwood,  the  Patentee, 
harmonized  this  loyal  song  for  the  stage,  and  he  made  a  Trio 
of  it  for  Mrs.  Cibber,  Beard,  and  Rheinhold,  with  instrumental 
accompaniments  without  knowing  the  author  of  the  words  or 
original  melody,  and  it  continued  to  be  sung  and  called  for  a 
full  year  after  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion.  I,  then  a  pupil 
of  Mr.  Arne,  was  desired  by  some  of  the  Covent  Garden 
singers  with  whom  I  was  acquainted,  and  who  knew  that  I  was 
a  bit  of  a  composer,  to  set  parts  to  the  old  tune  for  the  new 
house,  as  it  was  then  called,  which  I  did  utterly  ignorant  who 
wrote  the  words  or  put  them  to  music.  And  it  seems  as  if  the 
author,  or  authors,  fearful  of  discovering  themselves,  after  King 
William  had  ascended  the  throne,  quitted  the  world  without 
having  their  merit  recorded.  There  are  many  conjectures 
concerning  the  source  of  this  loyal  production,  but  they  are 
mere  conjectures.  A  Monkish  version  of  this  kind  of  Hymn 
in  Latin,  is  pretended  to  have  been  written  and  sung  for 
Charles  the  ad.,  but  how  could  any  case  of  Carolus  (or 
Carolous)  be  made  a  monosyllable  to  go  to  the  present  tune  ? 
God  save  great  Charles,  James,  or  George,  equally  suit  the 
melody  and  English  measure  of  the  words,  and  I  pretend  not 
to  swear  that  they  were  expressly  written  for  James  ;  but  am 
most  certain  that  they  were  sung  for  him  at  the  time  above- 
mentioned,  and  enough  is  known  to  satisfy  us  that  it  is  not  a 
production  of  the  i8th  Century. 

I  have  the  honour  to  be  with  the  highest  respect  and  regard, 

dear  sir, 
Your  most  obliged  and  faithful  servant, 

CHAS.  BURNEY. 

This  autograph  letter  was  in  the  possession '  of  Sir 

Thomas  Phillipps,  Middle  Hill,  Worcestershire.     I 

purchased  it  with  other  papers  of  Bernard  Quaritch. 

Amongst  these  are  the  following  notes  in  the  hand- 

(    36    ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


writing  of  Sir  Joseph   Banks,  which  are  worthy  of 
preservation  : — 

That  the  loyal  and  popular  Hymn  of  "  God  save  the  King  " 
was  originally  written  and  composed  for  the  advancement  of 
Popery  and  Jacobitism  is  scarcely  credible,  and  yet  it  is  all  but 
certain. 

It  first  appeared  or  rather  re-appeared  in  our  day  in  1746,* 
on  the  return  of  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  from  the  suppression 
of  the  rebellion  of  1745,  and  Mr.  Arne,  composer  to  Drury 
Lane  Theatre,  harmonized  it  for  the  stage,  where  it  was  sung 
as  a  trio  by  Mrs.  Gibber,  Beard  and  Rheinold,  with  instrumental 
accompaniment. 

Old  Mrs.  Arne,  a  bigotted  Roman  Catholic,  the  mother  of 
Mr.  Arne  who  harmonized  it,  and  of  Mrs.  Cibber  who  performed 
in  the  trio,  remembered  it  being  sung  in  the  Streets  and 
performed  in  the  Playhouse  in  1688,  when  the  wretched  James 
was  in  hourly  expectation  of  the  arrival  of  King  William.  The 
words  afford  strong  evidence  in  favour  of  Mrs.  Arne's  recol- 
lection, if  it  need  any  support,  when  the  fact  of  her  son  who 
harmonized  it  never  being  deemed  to  be  the  composer  of  it  is 
recollected. 

That  a  King  whom  God  is  so  earnestly  called  upon  to  save 
must  have  been  in  some  danger  seems  evident.  The  second 
stanza  makes  it  appear  that  this  danger  arose  from  political 
enmity  and  popular  disaffection.  Confound  their  politicks 
frustrate  their  knavish  tricks. 

That  the  earnestness  with  which  the  direct  interference  of 
the  divinity  in  favour  of  the  King  is  repeatedly  implored  ;  the 
total  silence  that  reigns  throughout  the  whole  respecting  the 
established  religion  of  the  Church,  and  the  supreme  excellence 
of  the  melody,  which  is  in  the  best  choral  style,  savour  much 
more  of  concealed  Popery  than  of  avowed  Protestantism,  for 
surely  no  one  who  preferred  the  established  religion  of  a 
country  would  forego  the  use  of  that  powerful  instrument  in 
an  attempt  to  excite  a  national  enthusiasm  which  this  song 
most  evidently  is.  Curious  it  is  that  it  failed  entirely  to 
produce  the  effect  intended  by  the  author,  and  has  succeeded 
beyond  all  example  in  producing  the  direct  contrary  one  :  it  is 

*  An  error  ;  it  should  be  1745. 
(     37     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


possible  that  the  expression  in  the  last  stanza  of  "  mav  he 
defend  our  laws,"  rather  a  singular  wish  in  England  when 
neither  coupled  with  Liberty  or  Religion,  may  be  read  into 
some  of  the  later  proclamations  of  that  much  misguided 
Monarch. 

The  words  God  save  the  King  are  a  literal  translation  of 
the  Domine  salvum  fac  Regem,  and  without  much  perversion 
may  be  construed  in  the  double  sense  of  God  preserve  his 
body  from  the  danger  that  threatens  it,  and  his  soul  also,  by 
giving  him  wisdom  to  embrace  what  the  writer  conceived  to 
be  the  proper  means  of  salvation. 

In  Dr.  Burney's  letter,  already  quoted  (p.  36),  he 
says  :  "  A  Monkish  version  of  this  kind  of  Hymn  in 
Latin,  is  pretended  to  have  been  written  and  sung 
for  Charles  the  2d--  but  how  could  any  case  of  Carolus 
(or  Carolous)  be  made  a  monosyllable  to  go  to  the 
present  tune  ?  " 

Dr.  Burney's  difficulty  is  entirely  removed  in 
the  following  Latin  lines,  with  which  he  was 
unacquainted — 

LATIN   CHORUS. 

I. 

O  Deus  Optime  ! 
Salvum  nunc  facito 
Regem  nostrum  ; 
Sit  la?ta  victoria, 
Comes  et  gloria, 
Salvum  jam  facito, 
Tu  Dominum. 

n. 

Exurgat  Dominus ; 
Rebelles  dissipet, 
Et  reprimat ; 
Dolos  Confundito  ; 
Fraudes  depellito ; 
In  te  sit  sita  Spes ! 
O !  Salva  Nos. 
(     38    ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


Anglicised — 

i. 

O  good  God,  preserve  our  King  in  safety  ; 
Let  joyful  Victory  and  Glory  be  his  constant  Companions. 
O  God  !  save  our  King. 

n. 

O  God  arise  !  disperse  the  Rebellious,  and  suppress  them  ; 
Confound  their  Devices,  and  frustrate  their  Schemes,  for 
in  Thee  we  place  our  Hopes. 
O  save  us  all ! 

This  Latin  chorus  and  the  English  version  fill 
two  pages  of  a  word-book  (to  be  described  later), 
without  title-page,  which  commences  on  page  I  as 
follows : — 

ACT   I. 

Overture  of  Esther. 
Canzonet  for  Two  Voices 
Compos'd  by  Mr.  Travers. 

Concerto  Hautboy. 
Song  compos'd  by  Mr.  Travers. 

Concerto  Violoncello. 
Fourth  Concerto  of  Corelli. 


ACT    II. 

Ode  on  the  Birth-day 

Of  Her  Royal  Highness 

The  Princess  of  Wales 

Compos'd  by  Mr.  Travers  ; 

To  conclude  with 
A   LATIN    CHORUS. 

The  second  page  is  blank,  then  follows  on  page  3 
the  canzonet,  "  I,  my  dear,  was  born  to-day,"  by 
Prior,  the  music  composed  by  Travers  ;  on  page  4, 
song,  "  When  vernal  airs  perfume  the  fields,"  com- 
posed by  Travers  ;  on  page  5,  "Ode  on  the  Birthday 
of  Her  Royal  Highness  the  Princess  of  Wales ; 

(     29     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


composed  in  the  year  1743."  The  words  of  this 
ode  are  continued  on  pages  6,  7,  8,  and  9.  The 
Latin  chorus  and  the  translation,  on  pages  10  and  n, 
complete  the  book. 

It  is  evident  that  this  book  of  words  was  prepared 
for  a  performance  given  on  November  28,  1743, 
the  birthday  of  the  Princess  Augusta,  wife  of 
Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales,  probably  at  her  private 
residence.  John  Travers,  the  composer  of  the  music 
of  the  birthday  ode,  had  been  appointed  organist  of 
the  Chapels  Royal  in  1737.  Travers  was  a  favourite 
pupil  of  Dr.  Pepusch,  who  then  possessed  the  several 
MS.  volumes  containing  Bull's  musical  compositions. 
Pepusch  bequeathed  his  library  to  his  pupils,  John 
Travers  and  Ephraim  Kelner.  The  words  of  the 
Latin  chorus  so  accurately  fit  the  music  of  our 
National  Anthem,  that  we  must  conclude  they  are 
those  which  were  originally  sung.  Whether  Travers 
obtained  his  copy  of  the  music,  with  the  Latin 
words,  for  the  concert  of  1743  from  the  Chapel 
Royal,  or  from  Dr.  Pepusch's  library,  cannot  now 
be  ascertained. 

It  will  be  well  here  to  describe  the  volume  which 
contains  the  birthday  word-book :  it  is  lettered  on 
the  back  "  Academy,  1730 "  ;  on  the  inside  of  the 
cover  it  has  the  autograph  signature  "  R.  J.  S. 
Stevens,  Charterhouse,"  and  in  his  handwriting 
the  following  index : — 

Academy  of  Ancient  Music,  Jan.  31,  1733. 
„       Dec.  19,  1734. 

Handel's  Song  of  Moses,  May  10,  1739. 
Handel's  Esther,  Feb.  24,  1742. 
Ode  to  Love  and  Wine  (Purcell). 
(    40    ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


Joseph  by  Defesch,  1745. 

Concert  chiefly  by  Travers, 

Academy  of  Ancient  Music,  April  24,  1746. 

March  29,  1750. 

Feb.  28,  1751. 

Feb.  27,  1755. 

April  29,  1756. 

May  5, 1757. 

March  i,  1759. 

Nov.  29,  1759. 

April  13,  1775. 

Jan.  19,  1786. 

May  n,  1786. 

Feb.  3,  1791. 

The  word-books  are  of  various  sizes,  some  have 
had  their  edges  cut,  but  the  birthday-book  is  uncut. 
It  is  quite  evident  that  the  collection  was  bound  up 
for  Stevens.  The  volume  belonged  to  the  late 
Dr.  Rimbault,  and  was  lot  3  at  the  sale  of  his 
library  in  1877,  when  I  purchased  it.  Dr.  Rimbault 
made  a  communication  to  Notes  and  Queries,  on 
April  29,  1876,  in  which  he  described  the  book 
as  "  a  curious  volume  of  word-books  issued  by  the 
old  Academy  of  Ancient  Music  between  the  years 
1733  and  1791."  This  is,  as  I  have  shown,  quite 
erroneous ;  the  index  proves  that  five  of  the  word- 
books had  nothing  to  do  with  the  "Academy." 
Dr.  Rimbault  alludes  to  the  remarkable  fact  that 
"  the  learned  Directors  of  the  Academy  were  unable 
to  give  the  name  of  the  composer  of  the  Latin 
chorus,"  but  as  it  had  no  connection  with  their 
concerts,  they  probably  had  never  seen  or  heard 
of  it. 

We  have  seen  that  "  God  save  our  noble  King" 
was  received  with  enthusiasm  at  Drury  Lane 
(  41  ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


Theatre  in  September,  1745,  and  the  rapidity  with 
which  it  became  universally  popular  suggests  that 
the  tune  and  some  version  of  the  words  must  have 
been  familiar  in  certain  sections  of  society.  Three 
years  later,  in  1748,  the  following  parody  of  the 
words  appeared  in  a  newspaper  advertisement : — 

"  Extempore  Catch  for  the  Westminster  Fish 
Market,  to  the  tune  of  '  God  save  the  King ' — 

O  may  this  market  thrive 
Whilst  there's  a  fish  alive  ; 

Nature's  best  treat 
Each  knavish  art  decrease, 
Monopolising  cease, 
That  men  of  all  degrees 

May  turbot  eat." 

In  1750  a  satirical  poem  was  published,  entitled 
"The  Scandalizade,"  in  which  occur  the  following 
lines : — 

Ho  !  there,  to  whom  none  can  forsooth  hold  a  candle, 
Called  the  lovely-faced  Heidegger  out  to  George  Handel, 
In  arranging  the  poet's  sweet  lines  to  a  tune, 
Such  as  God  save  the  King  !  or  the  famed  Tenth  of  June. 

In  1754,  John  Sadler,  the  inventor  of  printing  on 
earthenware,  published  a  book  with  the  following 
title:  — 

THE  MUSES  DELIGHT.  An  accurate  collection  of  English 
and  Italian  Songs,  Cantatas  and  Duetts,  set  to  music  for  the 
Harpsichord,  Violin,  German-flute,  &c.,  with  instructions  for 
the  Voice,  Violin,  Harpsichord  or  Spinnet,  German-flute, 
Common-flute,  Hautboy,  French-horn,  Bassoon  and  Bass- 
Violins  :  also,  a  Compleat  Musical  Dictionary,  and  several 
Hundred  English,  Irish  and  Scots  songs,  without  the  music. 
Liverpool :  Printed,  Published  and  Sold  by  John  Sadler,  in 
Harrington  St.  M,DCC,LIV. 

(     42     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE  KING. 


In  the  same  year,  whether  earlier  or  later  there  is 
no  evidence  to  show,  the  work  was  published  in 
London,  the  only  variation  being  the  title-page,  where 
it  reads  "and  upwards  of  Four  Hundred  English, 
Irish  and  Scots  Songs,  without  the  music.  London  : 
Printed  by  Henry  Purcell,*  at  Handel's  Head,  in 
Wood-street.  M,DCC,LIV."  Another  edition  of 
the  book,  with  additions,  in  two  volumes,  was  pub- 
lished by  Sadler,  in  Liverpool,  in  1756.  On  page 
152  of  all  these  volumes  we  find  "  A  loyal  song,  for 
two  voices,"  which,  so  far  as  the  music  is  concerned, 
presents  a  copy  of  that  in  the  second  edition  of 
"  Thesaurus  Musicus,"  but  the  words  differ  in  some 
respects.  A  second  verse  reads — 

O  grant  that  Cumberland 
May,  by  his  mighty  hand, 

Victory  bring ; 
May  he  sedition  hush, 
And  like  a  torrent  rush, 
Rebellious  hearts  to  crush, 

God  save  the  King. 

The   third   verse    "  O    Lord   our   God,  arise,"    is 
without  change,  but  the  fourth  ends  as  follows  :— 

Thy  choicest  gifts  in  store, 
On  him  be  pleas'd  to  pour, 

Long  may  he  reign  ; 
May  he  defend  our  laws, 
And  ever  give  us  cause 
To  cry  with  loud  applause, 

God  save  the  King. 

A  single  sheet  song,  with  the  title  "  God  save  the 
King,"  commencing  "Fame,  let  thy  trumpet  sound," 

*  Probably  a  grandson  of  the  great  composer. 

(     43      )  D 


GOD   SAVE    THE  KING. 


printed  from  copper-plate,  which  must  have  been 
circulated  about  this  time,  is  interesting,  as  showing 
the  penultimate  bar  of  the  melody  in  modern  form, 
and  also  indicating  repeats  of  the  first  and  second 
parts.  It  is  curious  also  as  giving,  according  to 
ancient  fashion,  the  melody  in  the  Tenor,  as  well  as 
a  new  version  of  words. 


GOD     SAVE    THE     KING. 


TREBLE. 


P 


I          I- 


Fame,  let     thy  trum  -  pet  sound,  Tell    all     the    world       a-round, 

CONTRALTO. 


Fame,  let     thy  trum  -  pet  sound,  Tell     all     the    world       a-round, 

TENOR.  tr 


B=3=3?FF?Jlr  r  H^^ 

Fame,  let      thy  .  .    trum  -  pet  sound,  Tell  all  the    world       a-round 
BASS. 

t?t    F^-F        f          I      — ~     »      » — I     F  F  I*     I     * '  »- 


Fame,  let      thy  trum  -  pet  sound,  Tell     all      the    world      a-round, 


*: *at" 

Great  George  is     King.          Tell  Rome  and  France  and  Spain,  Brit-an  -  nia 


=g±=a;  r    I 


Great  Ge'orge  is     King.          Tell  Rome  and  France  and  Spain,  Brit-an  -  nia 
tr 


Great  George  is      King.          Tell  Rome  and  France  and  Spain,  Brit-an  -  nia 


^Great  George  is     King.         Te!l  Rome  and  Franceand  Spain,  Brit-an  -  nia 
(    44    ) 


GOD    SAVE    THE   KING. 


scorns  their  chain,  All  their     vile     arts    are  vain,  Great  George  is     King. 


-f— 

scorns  their  chain,  All  their    vile       arts    are  vain,  Great  George  is     King. 


scorns  their  chain,  All    their    vile    arts    are  vain,  Great  George  is      King. 


scorns  their  chain,  All    their    vile    arts    are  vain,  Great  George  is      King. 


May  Heav'n  his  life  defend, 
And  make  his  race  exstend, 

Wide  as  his  Fame. 
Thy  Choicest  Blefsings  shed, 
On  his  most  Sacred  head, 
And  make  his  Foes  to  dread, 

Great  George's  name. 

3 

He  Peace  and  Plenty  brings, 
While  ROME'S  deluded  KINGS, 

Waste  and  destroy. 
Then  let  his  People  SING, 
Long  live  great  GEORGE  our  KING, 
From  whom  such  Blefsings  spring, 

Freedom  and  Joy. 

None  of  these  publications  had  a  composer's  name 
appended  to 'the  air,  and  it  was  not  until  the  year 
1795  that  George  Saville  Carey  claimed  the  author- 
ship for  his  deceased  father,  Henry  Carey.  It  is 
probable  the  claim  would  not  have  been  made  at  all, 
but  for  the  hope  he  entertained  that  the  King  would 
grant  a  pension  to  him  for  his  father's  assumed 
(  45  )  02 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


loyal  service  on  behalf  of  the  Crown.  A  yearly 
pension  of  £"200  had  just  been  granted  to  Charles 
Dibdin*  on  account  of  the  services  he  had  rendered 
to  the  nation  by  the  composition  of  his  famous  naval 
and  patriotic  songs  ;  and  if  Carey  could  have  proved 
his  father's  claim  to  the  authorship  of  "  God  save 
the  King,"  he  might  clearly  have  anticipated  some 
consideration  at  the  hands  of  the  King  and  the 
Government. 

George  Saville  Carey  shall  tell  his  own  story,  as 
given  in  "The  Balnea"  (1799),  page  no,  where, 
speaking  of  a  fashionable  seaside  resort,  he  says  :— 

When  the  Royal  family  make  their  first  entrance  into 
Weymouth,  every  summer  season,  the  inhabitants,  out  of 
compliment,  cover  the  pavement  with  small  pebbles  from  the 
sea-shore,  which  has  generally  the  effect  of  endangering  your 
eyes,  or  breaking  the  parlour  windows  of  all  the  houses  in  the 
street ;  for  as  the  party  is  numerous,  and  the  horses  driven 
along  at  a  furious  pace,  their  hoofs,  tipping  the  pebbles  before 
them,  make  them  fly  as  thick  as  hail,  and  as  sharp  almost  as 
a  small  bullet  shot  from  a  pistol. 

Yet,  notwithstanding  all  the  apparent  zeal  of  the  natives  of 
Weymouth,  one  would  think  they  in  reality  did  not  care  a 
straw  for  the  Royal  visitors ;  otherwise  these  Gothamites,  if 
they  truly  wished  to  make  their  Sovereign's  entrance  easy, 
would  have  bestowed  a  bundle  or  two  of  the  above  commodity 
for  the  sake  of  his  family,  their  friends'  eyes,  their  neighbours' 
windows,  and  the  general  safety  of  His  Majesty's  subjects. 
Being  thrown  into  this  situation  once  myself,  with  my  head 
uncovered  like  an  obedient  subject,  I  was  under  the  necessity 
of  turning  my  back  upon  my  betters,  for  the  sake  of  saving  my 
face ;  it  was  at  a  time  when  I  had  an  idea  of  addressing  his 
Majesty  in  respect  to  my  father  being  the  author  of  "  God 
save  great  George  our  King.''  I  had  no  evil  in  rny  mind,  like 
Macbeth,  yet  "  the  very  stones  seem'd  to  prate  at  my  where- 
about," for  they  rose  from  the  pavement  in  such  vollies,  and 
pelted  me  hip  and  thigh  at  such  a  rate,  that  I  could  not  help 

*  See  a  reference  by  Dibdin  to  "  God  save  the  King,"  page  122. 
(     46     ) 


GOD   SAVE   THE   KING. 


bringing  to  mind  that  passage  in  the  Scriptures  where  it  is 
said,  "  I  asked  for  bread,  and  he  gave  me  a  stone  !"  As  it  has 
been  whispered  abroad,  nay,  even  in  print,  that  an  annuity  of 
two  hundred  pounds  per  annum  had  been  bestowed  on  me  in 
consequence  of  my  father  being  the  author  of  "  God  save  great 
George  our  King,"  I  think  it  a  duty  incumbent  on  me  to 
acquaint  the  world  that  no  such  consideration  has  ever  yet 
transpired ;  yet  I  must  beg  that  my  readers  will  give  me  leave 
to  introduce  a  few  lines  on  this  subject.  In  spite  of  all  literary 
cavil  and  conjectural  assertions,  there  has  not  yet  appeared 
one  identity  to  invalidate  the  truth  of  my  father's  being  the 
author  of  the  important  song ;  some  have  given  the  music  to 
Handel,  others  to  Purcell ;  some  have  signified  that  it  was 
produced  in  the  time  of  Charles  I.,  others  in  James  I. ;  and 
some  in  their  slumbers  have  dreamed  that  it  made  its  appear- 
ance in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  It  might  as  well  have  been 
carried  still  further  back,  to  the  wicked  reign  of  Saul,  or  the 
wiser  one  of  song-singing  Solomon,  the  son  of  the  psalm- 
singing  David.  I  have  heard  the  late  Mr.  Pearce  Galliard,  an 
able  counsellor  in  the  law,  and  a  colleague  of  my  father's,  who 
died  some  years  ago  at  Southampton,  assert,  time  after  time, 
that  my  father  was  the  author  of  "  God  save  the  King,"  that 
it  was  produced  in  the  year  forty-five  and  six  ;*  another  friend 
presented  it  to  me  in  its  original  state,  bound  up  with  a  col- 
lection of  songs  for  two  and  three  voices,  set  to  music  by  Mr. 
Handel,  Dr.  Blow,  Mr.  Leveridge,  Dr.  Greene,  Mr.  Eccles, 
Mr.  Lampe,  Daniel  Purcell,  Mr.  Corfe,  and  Henry  Carey, 
printed  in  the  year  1750  for  John  Johnson,  opposite  Bow 
Church,  in  Cheapside;f  it  precedes  another  song  of  my  father's, 
beginning  with — 

"  He  comes,  he  comes,  the  Hero  comes, 

Sound,  sound  your  trumpets,  beat  your  drums,"  &c. 
But  for  the  satisfaction  of  my  readers,  I  will  insert  the  song  of 
"  God  save  great  George  our  King,"  as  it  is  printed  in  the 
original  text,  where  it  is  called  a  song  for  two  voices,  and 
runs  thus : — 

[Here  follow  four  verses  of  the  words.     The  first 

*  His  father,  Henry  Carey,  died  in  1743  ! 

t 1  possess  a  copy  of  this  volume,  which,  like  the  "  Thesaurus  Musicus,"  previously 
described,  is  printed  from  plates  engraved  at  various  periods ;  there  is  no 
composer's  name  attached  to  "  God  save  Great  George  our  King." 

(     47     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE    KING. 


three  resemble  those  at  present  in  use  ;  the  fourth 
reads  thus] : — 

Long  grant  that  Marshal  Wade  * 
May,  by  Thy  mighty  aid, 

Victory  bring ; 
May  he  sedition  hush, 
And  like  a  torrent  rush, 
Rebellious  Scots  to  crush, 

God  save  the  King. 

Every  one  who  has  read  the  history  of  the  Scotch  rebellion 
in  1745  will  remember  that  Marshal  Wade  was  a  commander 
of  great  and  eminent  ability,  employed  by  our  Government  to 
repel  the  factious  spirit  of  the  Caledonians,  who  were  hostile 
to  this  country  at  that  time,  and  invaded  many  of  the 
northern  parts  of  this  island. 

The  following  letter  of  the  ingenious  Dr.  Harington,  of 
Bath,  strongly  corroborates  the  authenticity  of  my  father's 
being  the  author  of  the  song  in  question.  Hearing  that  he 
was  in  possession  of  this  piece  of  information,  I  entreated 
him  to  make  it  known  to  me,  which  he  politely  and  readily 
acquiesced  in,  saying  : — 

"SiR, — The  anecdote  you  mention,  respecting  your  father 
being  the  author  and  composer  of  the  words  and  melody  of 
'  God  save  great  George  our  King '  is  certainly  true ;  that 
most  respectable  gentleman,  Mr.  Smith,  my  worthy  friend 
and  patient,  has  often  told  me  what  follows,  viz.,  'That  your 
father  came  to  him  with  the  words  and  music,  desiring  him  to 
correct  the  bass,  which  Mr.  Smith  told  him  was  not  proper ; 
and  at  your  father's  request  he  wrote  down  another  in  correct 
harmony.'  Mr.  Smith,  to  whom  I  read  your  letter  this  day, 
the  1 3th  of  June,  repeated  the  same  again.  His  advanced 
age  and  present  infirmity  render  him  incapable  of  writing, 
or  desiring  him  to  be  written  to  ;  but  on  his  authority  I 
pledge  myself  for  the  truth.  Should  this  information  be  in 
the  least  advantageous  to  yourself,  it  will  afford  the  most 
sincere  satisfaction  and  pleasure  to 
"  Sir, 

"  Your  most  obedient  servant, 
Bath,  June  13,  1795.  W.  HARINGTON. 

*  George  Saville  Carey  did  not  notice  how  absurd  it  was  to  claim  these  words 
for  his  father,  who  was  dead  when  the  Scottish  Rebellion  broke  out,  and  Wade 
sent  to  Scotland. 

(     48     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


"  P.S. — My  curiosity  was  often  raised  to  enquire  after  the 
author  before  Mr.  Smith  related  the  above,  and  I  was  often 
misinformed.  Mr.  Smith  says  he  understood  your  father 
intended  this  air  as  part  of  a  birth-day  ode,  or  somewhat  of 
that  kind  ;  however  this  might  be,  no  Laureate  nor  com- 
poser has  furnished  the  world  with  any  production  more 
complimentary  or  more  popular,  which  must  be  the  con- 
sequence of  concise  elegance  and  natural  simplicity." 

Surely  the  foregoing  letter  wears  the  complexion  of  truth, 
and  yet,  either  from  envy  or  rigid  scepticism,  it  has  been  held 
out  by  many  as  a  matter  of  doubt,  without  one  feasible 
authority  of  circumstantial  argument  that  could  render  it  so. 
Convinced  of  the  infallibility  of  Dr.  Harington's  letter,  I 
concluded  on  giving  it  a  place  here,  referring  the  reader 
to  the  material  and  provident  aid  the  song  had  often  yielded 
to  the  King  and  State  in  every  critical  situation ;  when 
lurking  sedition  had  caused  loud  and  dangerous  murmurs  to 
be  daily  heard  in  every  house  and  street,  threatening  defiance 
to  the  sword  of  justice  and  her  wise  established  laws,  spurning 
at  Majesty  on  his  road  to  meet  his  mob-insulted  senate,  or 
annoying  him  in  his  public  pleasures,  yet  has  the  wavering 
subject  been  often  called  back  to  his  original  duty  to  his  King, 
and  the  harsh  and  clamorous  voice  of  anarchy  lulled  into  a 
calm,  by  this  divine,  this  popular,  and  national  hymn. 
Reflecting  on  its  utility,  and  convinced  of  its  having  been 
written  by  my  father,  I  thought  there  could  be  no  harm  in 
endeavouring,  through  some  medium  or  other,  to  make  myself 
known  at  Windsor  as  son  of  the  author  of  "  God  save  great 
George  our  King,"  and  as  great  families  create  great  wants, 
it  is  natural  to  wish  for  some  little  relief;  accordingly  I  was 
advised  to  beg  the  interference  of  a  gentleman  residing  in  the 
purlieus  of  the  castle,  and  who  is  for  ever  seen  bowing  and 
scraping  in  the  King's  walks,  that  he  would  be  kind  enough 
to  explain  this  matter  rightly  to  the  Sovereign,  thinking  it 
was  not  improbable  but  that  some  consideration  might  have 
taken  place,  and  some  little  compliment  bestowed  on  the 
offspring  of  one  "  who  had  done  the  State  some  service "  ; 
but  alas  !  no  sooner  did  I  move  the  business  with  the  greatest 
humility  to  the  dtmi-canon,  but  he  opened  his  copious  mouth 
as  wide  as  a  four-and-twenty-pounder,  bursting  as  loudly  upon 

(     49     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


me  as  the  largest  piece  of  ordnance,  with  his  chin  cocked  up 
like  the  little  centre  figure,  with  his  cauliflower  wig,  in 
Bunbury's  country  club,  exclaiming :  "  Sir,  I  do  not  see, 
because  your  father  wrote  the  song  of  God  save  the  King, 
that  the  King  is  under  any  obligation  to  his  son."  I  could 
have  said,  had  he  not  been  in  his  own  house,  that  private  as 
well  as  public  obligations  were  hereditary,  and  ought  never 
to  be  forgotten ;  and,  where  there  is  a  propinquity  of  blood, 
it  should  not  be  suffered  to  rest  lingering  in  the  veins  for  want 
of  that  physical  assistance,  gratitude.  Surely  no  one  will  say 
there  is  anything  un-Christianlike  in  this  mode  of  arguing  ;  I 
am  convinced  there  is  justice  in  it,  and  there  is  much  justice 
in  religion :  they  are  engrafted  and  grow  from  the  same 
stock. 

This  is  all  George  Saville  Carey  could  say  con- 
cerning the  assumption  that  his  father,  Henry  Carey, 
had  composed  "  God  save  the  King."  The  attempts 
of  Carey  the  younger  to  obtain  a  pension  failed, 
and  he  seems  to  have  accepted  the  situation  with 
tolerable  equanimity.  Had  other  and  more  weighty 
evidence  been  obtainable  he  doubtless  would  have 
brought  it  into  notice.  He  adds  to  the  foregoing 
statement : — 

I  am  convinced,  had  my  plea  been  fairly  stated  at  a  great  and 
good  man's  house,  I  should  have  had  a  Princely  answer ;  but 
his  doors  perhaps,  like  Jaffer's,  might  have  been  "  damm'd  up," 
not  with  "  starving  creditors,"  but  clamorous  petitioners, 
backed  with  such  irresistible  influence  that  there  was  nothing 
to  be  done  for  me. 

It  is  only  fair  here  to  refer  to  a  statement,  which 
has  obtained  considerable  acceptance,  that  Henry 
Carey  sang  "  God  save  the  King  "  in  1740  at  a  tavern 
in  Cornhill,  at  a  dinner  given  to  celebrate  the  victory 
of  Admiral  Vernon  at  Portobello.  The  evidence 
adduced  to  support  this  assertion  is  not  very  direct 
(  50  ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE    KING. 


or  precise.  A  letter  addressed  to  the  Gentlemen's 
Magazine  in  1796  contains  the  following  passage  : 
"  The  first  time  I  ever  heard  the  anthem  of  '  God  save 
the  King '  was  about  the  year  1740,  on  some  public 
occasion  at  a  tavern  in  Cornhill."  Mr.  Townsend, 
in  1794,  told  Mr.  John  Ashley,  of  Bath,  that  his  father 
dined  with  Henry  Carey  at  a  tavern  in  Cornhill,  in 
the  year  1740,  at  a  meeting  convened  to  celebrate 
Admiral  Vernon's  capture  of  Portobello,  and  that 
"  Carey  sang  it  on  that  occasion."  "  The  applause 
he  received  was  very  great,  especially  when  he  an- 
nounced it  to  be  his  own  composition  "  (Ashley's 
letter  to  the  Rev.  W.  L.  Bowles,  1828).  This  third- 
hand  evidence  is  surely  of  small  value.  It  is  possible 
that  the  memory  of  these  gentlemen  may  have  played 
them  false,  and  that  they  heard  Carey  sing  some 
patriotic  song  resembling  "  God  save  the  King." 
There  are  three  songs  of  Carey's  which  might  have 
done  duty  at  the  tavern  in  Cornhill.  One  of  them, 
the  composition  mentioned  by  G.  S.  Carey  in  "The 
Balnea,"  is  to  the  following  words: — 

He  comes,  he  comes,  the  Hero  comes, 
Sound,  sound  your  trumpets,  beat  your  drums. 
From  Port  to  Port  let  cannons  roar 
His  welcome  to  the  British  Shear. 
Welcome  to  the  British  Shoar. 

Prepare,  prepare,  your  songs  prepare, 
Loud,  loudly  rend  the  Ecchoing  Air ; 
From  pole  to  pole  your  joys  resound, 
For  Virtue  is  with  glory  crown'd. 

Virtue,  Virtue,  Virtue,  Virtue, 

Virtue  is  with  glory  crown'd. 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


The  second,  published  in  1731,  in  The  Musical 
Miscellany,  ends  with  the  following  verse  : — 

Learn,  learn,  ye  Britons,  to  unite  : 
Leave  off  the  old  exploded  Bite  ; 
Henceforth  let  Whig  and  Tory  cease, 
And  turn  all  party  rage  to  Peace  ; 
Then  shall  we  see  a  glorious  Scene, 
And  so,  God  save  the  King  and  Queen  ! 

The  third  song  is  to  be  found  in  a  small  stage 
piece  of  Carey's  which  he  calls  "  Nancy,  or  The 
Parting  Lovers:  an  Interlude  set  to  music  by  the 
author :  "— 

AIR. — Death  or  Victory,  now  must  determinate 

All  disputes  with  Haughty  Spain  ; 
That  proud  race  we'll  entirely  exterminate, 

Or  be  Masters  of  the  Main. 
CHORUS. — Britons,  rouse  up  your  great  magnanimity: 

Let  your  courage  now  be  shewn  ! 
Till  proud  Spain  shall,  with  Pusilanimity, 
For  its  insults  past  atone. 

If  Carey  really  had  been  the  author  and  com- 
poser of  "  God  save  the  King,"  how  was  it  that 
he  never  included  it  in  any  of  his  numerous 
publications  ?  And  if  "  God  save  the  King  "  had 
been  sung  at  the  convivial  meeting  in  Cornhill, 
in  1740,  with  so  much  applause,  would  it  not  have 
been  published  by  one  of  the  many  music-sellers 
who  at  the  time  were  ever  ready  to  appropriate 
and  publish  the  effusions  of  composers  of  merit  or 
note  with,  or  without,  permission.  (See  Appendix, 
p.  121.) 

A  writer  on  the  subject  in  Long  Ago,  February, 
1874,  accounts  for  the  non-publication  of  "  God 
(  52  ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


save  the  King "  by  hazarding  the  supposition  that 
Carey's  last  printed  composition  appeared  in  1740, 
and  that  "God  save  the  King"  was  probably 
written  immediately  afterward  ;  but  this  is  clearly 
an  error,  for  I  have  now  lying  before  me  a  printed 
song  of  Henry  Carey's,  composed  and  written  to 
celebrate  the  "late  glorious  victory  at  Dettingen." 
The  date  of  this  victory  was  June  16,  1743, 
therefore  Carey's  music  must  have  been  published 
only  just  before  his  death,  which  took  place 
on  October  5  of  the  same  year.  Again,  I  find  the 
following  advertisement  in  the  Daily  Advertiser, 
December  20,  1743  : — 

Whereas  the  late  Mr.  Henry  Carey  published  proposals, 
dated  September  20,  1743,  for  the  reprinting  of  his  Dramatic 
works  in  Quarto,  bound  in  calves  leather,  at  half  a  guinea ; 
this  is  to  give  notice,  that  the  said  books  are  reprinted,  and 
ready  to  be  deliver'd  to  the  subscribers.  The  widow  of  the 
late  Mr.  Carey  humbly  begs  the  favour  of  those  gentlemen 
and  ladies  who  are  subscribers,  to  send  a  letter  or  messenger 
to  her  house  in  Cross  Street,  Hatton  Garden,  where  they 
shall  be  deliver'd,  she  being  unacquainted  where  to  send, 
otherwise  would  wait  on  them  with  the  said  books,  and  like- 
wise those  gentlemen  and  ladies  who  have  subscribed  to  his 
"  Musical  Century "  may  be  supplied  therewith  at  the  same 
place. 

From  the  latter  part  of  this  advertisement  we 
may  infer  that  the  third  edition  of  the  "  Musical 
Century  "  had  just  been  issued  from  the  press,  and 
it  is  significant  that  "  God  save  the  King "  is  not 
to  be  found  in  that  volume.*  Mr.  John  Christopher 
Smith's  correction  of  Carey's  music  may  have  had 

*  The  first  edition  of   the    "  Musical  Century "  was  published  in  1737,  the 
second  in  1740. 

(     53     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


reference  to  the  "  God  save  the  King  and  Queen  " 
quoted  on  page  52. 

Dr.  Rimbault's  opinion  may  here  be  cited  from 
Notes  and  Queries,  of  April  29,  1876  : — 

The  authorship  of  the  words  of  our  National  Anthem  is 
all  matter  of  conjecture.  Carey  is  totally  out  of  the  question, 
for  he  died  in  1743,  and  all  the  stories  that  are  told  about 
his  singing  them  are  entirely  devoid  of  credit.  As  regards 
his  having  composed  the  music,  and  getting  Smith  (Handel's 
amanuensis)  to  adapt  or  alter  his  bass,  it  is  too  ridiculous  for 
serious  consideration.  The  supporters  of  this  theory  are 
men  who  know  nothing  of  music,  and  who  are  unable  to 
judge  of  Carey's  skill  as  a  musician.  It  only  requires  an 
examination  of  his  works  to  be  convinced  that  he  possessed 
considerable  knowledge  of  the  science.  I  may  particularly 
notice  his  Cantatas  published  in  1724.  As  music,  these 
compositions  are  second  to  none  of  the  works  of  the  minor 
composers  of  the  time.  All  the  improbable  stories  told  of  Henry 
Carey  in  connexion  with  the  National  Anthem  were  got  up 
regardless  of  truth,  mainly  to  serve  poor  George  Saville  Carey, 
and  perhaps  get  him  a  pension ;  but  they  signally  failed,  as 
it  was  just  they  should. 

Dr.  Chrysander,  in  his  Jahrbucher  (Leipzig) 
for  1863,  page  397,  gives  a  paragraph  in  italics,  as 
if  quoted  from  the  General  Advertiser,  September  28, 
1745  :  An  demselben  28  September  liess  Lacy  zum 
erstenmal  in  seinem  Theater  Carey's  God  save  the  King 
singen.  (On  the  same  28  September,  Lacy  had 
Carey's  "  God  save  the  King "  sung  for  the  first 
time  in  his  theatre.)  This  is  calculated  to  mislead. 
It  is  true,  as  we  have  seen  by  the  extract  from  the 
Daily  Advertiser,  September  30,  1745,  quoted  on 
page  32,  that  "  God  save  the  King  "  was  first  per- 
formed at  the  theatre  on  September  28,  but  Carey's 
name  never  appears  in  connection  with  it  in  the 

(     54     ) 


GOD    SAVE    THE   KING. 


General  Advertiser,  or  any  other  paper  of  the  period. 
Indeed,  his  name  was  not  associated  with  it 
before  George  Saville  Carey  made  an  attempt  to 
obtain  a  pension,  in  1795. 

It  may  be  well  now  to  read  Dr.  Burney's  criticism 
as  it  appeared  in  the  Monthly  Review,  July,  1799 : — 

In  the  article  "  Weymouth,"  abounding  with  vulgar  jokes 
and  flippancy,  his  Majesty  is  charged  with  ingratitude  for  not 
settling  an  annuity  of  two  hundred  pounds  on  the  author  in 
consequence  of  his  father  having  written  "  God  save  great 
George  our  King." 

Here  follows  a  quotation  from  "  The  Balnea," 
which  has  already  been  given  (page  46).  Dr. 
Burney  continues : — 

The  late  Mr.  Smith,  Handel's  confidential  friend  and 
assistant,  may  have  composed  basses  to  some  of  Henry  Carey's 
melodies,  as  the  latter  never  was  thought  to  be  what  musicians 
call  a  good  contrapuntist,  but  as  the  late  Mr.  Smith's  advanced 
age  and  infirmities  rendered  him  incapable  of  writing,  or  desiring 
to  be  written  to,  when  the  question  was  asked  him  by  the 
respectable  Dr.  Harrington,  his  memory  probably  failed  him. 
We  believe  that  it  is  wholly  uncertain  who  was  the  original 
author  either  of  the  words  or  tune  of  the  loyal  and  national 
song  or  hymn  of  "  God  save  the  King,"  and  we  are  well  assured 
that  it  was  unknown  at  the  time  of  the  rebellion,  when  it  was 
brought  on  the  stage  and  sung  at  both  theatres.  As  to  Mr. 
Carey's  claims  on  behalf  of  his  father,  they  can,  unfortunately 
for  him,  be  easily  set  aside.  He  asserts,  from  the  authority  of 
counsellor  Galliard,  "  that  it  was  produced  in  forty-five  and 
six,"  but  alas  !  Sir  John  Hawkins  informs  me  that  the  facetious 
H.  Carey,  in  a  fit  of  insanity  or  despondency  at  the  badness  of 
his  circumstances,  put  an  end  to  his  own  existence  about  the 
year  1744,  and  this  account  has  been  copied  in  the  octavo  edition 
of  the  Bibliographia  Britannica  of  1784.  Though  there  is  little 
room  for  dependance  on  the  dates  of  Sir  John,  the  Bibliographia 
Dramatica,  much  better  authority,  and  the  Gentleman's 
Magazine,  fix  his  death  on  the  fourth  of  October,  1743. 
(  55  ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


In  a  later  number  of  the  Monthly  Review  (April, 
1800),  Burney,  in  reviewing  Coxe's  "Anecdotes  of 
George  Frederick  Handel  and  John  Christopher 
Smith,"  says : — 

We  find  a  note  at  page  43  of  this  pamphlet  on  the  mention 
of  Harry  Carey  which  we  cannot  pass  over.  We  are  sorry  to 
see  in  this  note  an  unqualified  assertion  repeated,  that  Carey 
was  the  author  of  the  words  and  music  of  the  now  national 
song  or  hymn  of  "  God  save  great  George  our  King  "  which  we 
fully  refuted  in  our  Review  for  July,  1799,  page  356.  As  all 
the  magazines  and  newspapers  of  the  time  tell  us  that  Carey 
died  in  1743,  the  song  could  not  have  been  written  and  set  to 
music  by  him  for  the  rebellion  of  1745  !  Nor  on  any  antecedent 
occasion,  since  it  does  not  appear  in  any  of  Carey's  numerous 
publications  of  songs  with  and  without  music  ;  and,  had  it  been 
his,  it  could  not  have  remained  concealed  so  many  years.  The 
composer  of  the  words  and  melody  was  utterly  unknown  at  the 
time  of  the  rebellion,  when  it  was  in  such  favour,  and  so  much 
inquiry  was  made  after  the  author.  We  mean  not  by  denying 
poor  Carey  this  honour,  to  depreciate  his  talents  ;  which  were 
original  both  in  the  words  and  music  of  a  great  number  of 
beautiful  ballads,  serious  and  comic  ;  but  his  claim  to  the  air 
in  question  is  so  ill-founded  that  nothing  but  the  infirmity  of 
Mr.  Smith's  memory  at  his  great  age*  and  when  on  the  brink 
of  the  grave,  can  account  for  his  abetting  it. 

On  Thursday,  November  17,  1743,  a  perform- 
ance was  given  at  Covent  Garden  Theatre,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  widow  and  family  of  Henry  Carey. 
The  advertisement  announcing  it  is  curious  as 

*  He  was  then  83  years  of  age.     Carey  had  at  various  times  published  songs 
containing  the  following  : — 

"  King  George  he  was  born  in  the  month  of  October 
Tis  a  sin  for  a  subject  that  month  to  be  sober." 

"  God  send  no  end  to  line  Divine 
Of  George  and  Caroline." 

"  Then  we  shall  a  glorious  scene 

And  so,  God  save  the  King  and  Queen." 

It  is  quite  possible  Smith  may  have  seen  some  of  these. 
(     56     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


containing  the  only  instance  I  have  seen  of  Carey's 
name  appearing  without  an  "  e,"  evidently  a  mis- 
print ;  his  name  is  always  spelt  Carey  on  his  own 
numerous  publications,  and  on  the  roll  of  the  "  Royal 
Society  of  Musicians,"  of  which  he  was  a  member  :  — 

For  the  benefit  of  the  Wido-.v  and  four  small  children  of  the 
late  Mr.  Henry  Gary.  At  the  Theatre  Royal  in  Covent  Garden 
on  Thursday  next,  the  iyth  inst.,  will  be  presented  a  Comedy, 
call'd  The  Miser.  The  part  of  Lappit  to  be  perform'd  by  Mrs. 
Clive,  in  which  character  will  be  introduced  a  song  call'd  "  The 
life  of  a  Bean."  To  which  will  be  added  a  Farce  call'd  The 
Virgin  Unmask' d.  The  part  of  Miss  Lucy  by  Mrs.  Clive. 
With  other  entertainments  as  will  be  express'd  in  the  bills. 
Boxes  53.  Pit  35.  Gallery  as.  Tickets  and  places  to  be  had 
of  Mr.  Page  at  the  Stage  door  of  the  Theatre,  or  at  Mr.  Suett's, 
the  Apple  Tree  in  Cold-Bath  Fields ;  or  at  the  Widow  Gary's 
in  Cross  Street,  Hatton  Garden. 

In  the  Daily  Advertiser,  December  i,  1743,  we  find 
the  following,  which  may  be  regarded  as  a  summary 
of  the  notable  doings  of  Carey,  but  there  is  no 
reference  to  any  National  Song  or  Anthem  : — 

Prologue  (spoke  by  Mr.  Hale)  to  The  Miser ; 
Acted  at  the  Theatre  Royal  in  Covent  Garden,  for  the  benefit 

of  the  Widow  of  the  late  Mr.  Henry  Carey,  and  her  four  small 

children. 

By  Mr.  Lockman. 

Deep  in  the  Fane,  where  Monarchs  breathless  lie, 
Pleas'd  we  the  Busts,  to  Poets  would  descry ; 
Asa  just  Tribute  offer'd  to  their  Name  : 
And  rousing  some  to  vie  with  them  in  Fame. 
Yet  idle  all  such  Trophies  must  appear, 
Compar'd  to  what  now  forms  the  Circle  here  : 
Those  are  but  Honours  to  a  Phantom  paid  ; 
By  you  the  Helpless  will  be  Happy  made. 
And  sure  no  contrast  is  more  strong  or  just, 
Than  that  'twixt  succouring  Life  and  honouring  Dust, 

(    57    ; 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


Ye  generous  Souls,  whose  sympathising  Breast 

Shares  every  Pang  that  tortures  the  distress'd, 

Say,  mid  the  various  Joys  you  taste  below, 

What  Bliss  so  great  as  easing  virtuous  Woe  ? 

O  !  say  what  Charm,  the  Widow's  Tear  to  dry, 

To  echo  fondly  to  the  Orphan's  sigh  ? — 

To  be  their  Guardian,  bid  their  Wailings  ctase 

And,  with  kind  Language,  tune  their  Souls  to  Peace  ? 

Frequent  the  Bard,  whose  Reliques  are  your  Care, 

In  Theatres  has  pleas'd  the  Brave  and  Fair ; 

His  double  Muse  diverts  us  from  the  Stage, 

Whilst  Nature,  Humour,  ev'ry  Ear  engage  : 

She  soothes  in  private,  whilst  the  Fair-One  sings 

Gaily  responsive  to  th'  harmonious  Strings. 

Ah  !  should  his  breathing  Offspring  then  be  left 

Weeping,  defenceless,  of  all  Aid  bereft  ? 

Be  sunk  in  Sorrow,  when  their  Father's  Lyre 

With  Cheerfulness  does  every  Heart  inspire  ? 

Vain  is  the  Recompense  of  only  Fame  : 

Who  serve  the  Public,  thence  Support  may  claim. 

Yet  this  Reflection  cannot  here  have  Place, 

Vanish'd  the  Bard  and  clos'd  his  mortal  Race ; 

From  his  blithe  Fancy  you  no  more  expect, 

And  'tis  from  Goodness  only  you  protect. 

Exalted  Goodness !  which  whilst  it  supplies 

Another's  Wants,  bids  countless  Transports  rise ; 

Transports  that  bless  the  Donor ;  dart  a  Joy 

Which  naught  can  lessen,  nor  even  Death  destroy. 

Raptures  like  thes.e  (bright  Charity's  alone, 

Child  of  the  Skies;  to  Avarice  are  unknown. 

Av'rice  to  all  Things,  but  mean  Interest  blind, 

Can  boast  no  kindred ;  outcast  of  Mankind. 

Fruitless,  mid  you,  our  comic  Muse  wou'd  place 

Her  sportive  Glass,  in  hopes  to  catch  a  Face. 

She  comes  not  to  instruct,  but  to  delight, 

So  only  holds  your  Counterpart  in  Sight ; 

A  Miser  !     Weeds  like  this  curse  every  Soil 

Beauty  is  best  distinguished  by  her  Foil. 

A  letter  of  Lord  Houghton's,  published  in  The  Times, 

(    58    ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


February  i,  1878,  concluded  with  the  following  bold 
assertion  : — "  The  French  might  find  some  consola- 
tion in  the  knowledge  that  '  God  save  the  King '  was 
composed  by  Lully,  and  first  produced  on  the  visit  of 
Louis  XIV.  and  Madame  de  Maintenon  to  the  convent 
of  the  Demoiselles  de  St.-Cyr.  Some  years  after,  it 
was  happily  and  unscrupulously  appropriated  by 
Dr.  Bull,  organist  of  St.  Paul's." 

Lully  was  born  in  1633,  five  years  after  the  death 
of  Dr.  Bull,  who,  by  the  way,  was  never  organist  of 
St.  Paul's ;  therefore  the  stigma  of  "  unscrupulous 
appropriation  "  should  rest  on  the  head  of  Lully,  were 
there  any  foundation  for  the  mythical  performance 
before  Louis  and  Madame  de  Maintenon.  The 
whole  story,  however,  rests  on  the  mendacious 
fabrication  entitled  "  Souvenirs  de  la  Marquise  de 
Crequi,  1710  a  1800,"  Paris,  1834.  Soon  after  the 
appearance  of  this  work  the  volumes  were  noticed  in 
the  Quarterly  Review.  The  reviewer  most  con- 
clusively proves  the  worthlessness  and  absurdity  of 
the  clumsy  forgery,  which  is  believed  to  have  been 
the  work  of  Cousen  de  St.  Malo.  A  sentence  or 
two  from  the  Quarterly  Review  must  suffice  here, 
the  whole  article  is  printed  in  the  Appendix 
(p.  in):— 

Infinite  are  the  shapes  of  falsehood,  and  depuis  feu  Protee, 
as  Madame  de  Deffand  pleasantly  says,  nothing  can  equal  the 
versatility  of  a  Parisian  manufacturer  of  memoirs.  .  .  .  We 
are  confident,  and  shall  prove,  that  the  "  Memoires"  are,  in 
every  point  of  view,  a  complete  forgery — the  grossest  and  most 
impudent  of  impostures ;  for  not  only  are  the  facts  false,  and 
the  work  spurious,  but  the  very  person  to  whom  they  are 
attributed  is  a  phantom  created  by  the  ignorance  of  the 
(  59  )  E 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


fabricator,  who,  having  very  ridiculously  mistaken  one  lady  of 
the  family  of  Crequi  for  another,  builds  his  whole  edifice  on  this 
fundamental  blunder.  .  .  .  We  add,  that  the  literary  merit  of 
the  work  is  worse  than  nothing — vulgar  trash — stupid  thread- 
bare stories,  not  only  common  to  all  French  jest-books,  but  to 
be  found  in  our  own  Joe  Miller — indecent  in  many  passages, 
disgusting  in  more,  contemptible  in  all. 

The  article  from  which  the  above  passages  have 
been  extracted  appeared  in  June,  1834,  and  in  the 
following  August  the  story  of  "  God  save  the  King  " 
and  the  nuns  of  St.-Cyr  was  innocently  paraded  in 
The  Times  as  a  marvellous  discovery,  but  was  very 
speedily  demolished.  The  Parisians,  not  content 
with  the  "  Souvenirs  de  la  Marquise  de  Crequi," 
manufactured  the  following  canard,  which  appeared 
in  the  Cabinet  de  Lecture  : — 

They  write  from  Edinburgh  that  the  MS.  Memoirs  of  the 
Duchess  of  Perth  have  been  sold  in  London  for  £3,000 ;  among 
them  are  to  be  found  a  number  of  interesting  details  relative  to 
the  Court  of  Louis  XIV.,  as  well  as  of  James  II.,  during  the 
sojourn  of  the  King  and  Queen  of  England  at  St.-Germain-en- 
Laye.  In  giving  an  account  of  the  establishment  at  St.-Cyr, 
she  bears  testimony  not  quite  unknown  in  France,  but  which 
hitherto  rested  on  that  of  the  ancient  nuns  of  this  house, 
namely,  that  the  air  and  words  of  "  God  save  the  King  "  are  of 
French  origin.  She  says,  when  the  most  Christian  King 
entered  the  Chapel,  all  the  Choir  of  the  aforesaid  noble  damsels 
sung  each  time  the  following  words  to  a  very  fine  air  by  Sieur 
de  Lully  :— 

GRAND  DIEU,  sauvez  le  Roy  ! 
Grand  Dieu,  vengez  le  Roy  ! 

Vive  le  Roy ! 
Que  toujours  glorieux, 
Louis  victorieux, 
Voye  ses  ennemis, 
Toujours  soumis, 
Grand  Dieu,  sauvez  le  Roy! 
Vive  le  Roy. 
(    60     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


The  tradition  (proceeds  the  Duchess)  at  St.-Cyr  is  that  the 
composer  Handel,  during  his  visit  to  the  Superior  of  the  House, 
obtained  leave  to  copy  the  air  and  words,  which  he  submitted 
to  George  I.  as  his  own  composition.  Madame  de  Crequi,  in 
her  "  Recollections,"  relates  the  anecdote  in  the  same  manner, 
and  adds  that  the  words  were  written  by  Madame  Briandon. 

Immediately  after  the  publication  of  the  foregoing 
fabrication  certain  questions  were  published,  and  to 
this  day  they  remain  unanswered,  for  very  evident 
reasons.  Where  are  the  memoirs  of  the  Duchess  of 
Perth  ?  Who  sold  them,  and  who  bought  them  ? 

Lully  died  in  1687,  a  year  before  the  fictitious 
singing  by  the  "  noble  damsels"  ;  and  as  to  Handel, 
the  story  is  so  absurd  that  it  is  almost  a  waste  of 
time  to  consider  the  imputation  that  he  stole  the 
air.  He  was  the  most  eminent  composer  in  London 
when  "  God  save  the  King  "  was  produced  at  the 
theatres ;  his  friend  and  amanuensis  being  the  John 
Christopher  Smith  who  fancied  that  "  God  save  the 
King "  was  the  work  of  Henry  Carey.  There  is 
abundant  evidence  in  print  that  Handel  gave 
frequent  proof  of  his  loyalty  to  the  royal  family  by 
the  exercise  of  his  genius.  We  find  in  the  Daily 
Advertiser,  November  28,  1743  : — 

Yesterday  his  Majesty  was  at  the  Chapel  Royal,  St.  James's, 
and  heard  a  sermon  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas,  when  the  new 
Te  Deum  and  the  following  Anthem,  both  set  by  Mr.  Handel 
on  his  Majesty's  safe  arrival,  were  perform'd  before  the  royal 
family,  "  The  King  shall  rejoice  in  thy  strength,  O  Lord,"  &c. 

Again,  in  the  Daily  Advertiser,  September  12, 1744 
we  read : — 

At  the  Green  House  at  Windsor,  this  day,  a  grand  concert, 
to  conclude  with  the  Coronation  Anthem  of  "  God  save  the 
King." 

(      6l      )  E  2 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


This  doubtless  meant  the  grand  anthem  composed 
by  Handel  for  the  Coronation  of  George  II.,  in  1727  : 
"  Zadock  the  priest  and  Nathan  the  prophet  anointed 
Solomon  King,  and  all  the  people  rejoiced  and  said, 
God  save  the  King,  long  live  the  King,  may  the  King 
live  for  ever  !  Amen.  Alleluja." 

In  the  General  Advertiser,  October  26,  1745  : — 

At  the  late  Wells,  the  bottom  of  Lemon  Street,  Goodman's 
Fields,  on  Monday  next,  will  be  performed  a  Concert  of  Vocal 
and  Instrumental  Musick.  Divided  into  two  parts.  The 
Concert  to  conclude  with  the  Chorus  of  Long  live  the  King. 

There  is  a  song  of  Handel's,  said  to  have  been 
sung  about  that  time  ;  each  verse  ends  with  "  Long 
live  the  King."  The  first  verse  reads  as  follows  :— 

Stand  round,  my  brave  boys,  with  heart  and  with  voice 

And  all  in  full  chorus  agree  ; 
We'll  fight  for  our  King,  and  as  loyally  sing, 
And  let  the  world  know  we'll  be  free. 

CHORUS — The  rebels  shall  fly,  as  with  shouts  we  draw  nigh 

And  Echo  shall  victory  ring  ; 
Then  safe  from  alarms,  we'll  rest  on  our  arms, 
And  chorus  it,  Long  live  the  King. 

Later  on  we  find  Handel  composing  a  national 
song  with  the  express  intention  of  catching  the 
popular  ear.  In  the  General  Advertiser,  November 
14,  1745,  is  an  advertisement  of  the  performance  at 
Drury  Lane  Theatre  of  "A  Chorus  Song,  set  by 
Mr.  Handel  for  the  Gentlemen  Volunteers  of  the 
City  of  London,  to  be  sung  by  Mr.  Lowe  and  others." 
I  could  easily  enlarge  upon  Handel's  loyal  work,  but 
it  is  not  necessary  here. 

(    62    ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE  KING. 


There  have  been  many  staunch  champions  on 
behalf  of  a  claim  that  the  tune  of  "  God  save  the 
King"  had  a  Scottish  origin.  Dr.  Mackay,  in  the 
London  Scottish  Journal,  August  n,  1877,  has  ex- 
pressed his  "  conviction  that  the  composition  was 
written  to  give  expression  to  the  loyalty  of  the 
Jacobites,  and  their  hopes  for  the  restoration  of 
James  VIII.  of  Scotland,  the  father  of  Prince  Charles 
Edward."  The  latest  advocacy  of  these  views 
appeared  in  The  Times  of  February  27,  1878,  as 
follows  : — 

GOD   SAVE   THE   KING. 

TO     THE     EDITOR     OF     "  THE     TIMES." 

SIR, — Like  everything  that  is  excellent,  the  air  and  original 
verses  of  "  God  save  the  King  "  are  both  Scotch. 

In  an  account  of  the  Highland  Society  of  London,  drawn  up 
at  the  desire  of  the  society  by  Sir  John  Sinclair,  of  Ulbster,  and 
published  in  1813,  his  Royal  Highness  the  Duke  of  Sussex 
being  then  President  of  the  Society,  I  find  the  following  : — 

"  Some  account  of  the  celebrated  air  of  '  God  save  the  King  ' 
and  copy  of  the  original  verses  to  which  it  was  sung. 

"  It  cannot  now  be  decisively  ascertained  who  was  the  com- 
poser of  this  celebrated  air,  or  whether  it  was  of  Scotch  or 
English  or  German  extraction.  It  seems  indeed  to  have  been 
a  compilation,  for  a  part  of  the  air  is  to  be  found  in  a  collection 
of  Scotch  music  published  at  Aberdeen  in  the  reign  of  William 
and  Mary ;  but,  to  whomsoever  the  air  may  be  attributed,  there 
is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  original  words  to  which  that 
air  was  sung  were  Scotch,  and  composed  in  favour  of  the  House 
of  Stuart.  Indeed  the  author  of  this  account  (Sir  John 
Sinclair)  had  an  opportunity  of  copying  the  following  verses, 
supposed  to  be  the  original  ones,  from  an  inscription  cut  in 
glass  on  an  old  drinking-cup  still  preserved  at  Fingask  Castle, 
in  the  Carse  of  Gowrie,  North  Britain,  the  seat  of  P.  Murray 
(  63  ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


Threipland,  Esq.,  whose  family  were  distinguished  by  their 
attachment  to  the  House  of  Stuart  : — 

"  God  save  the  King.     I  pray 

"  God  bless  the  King.     I  pray 

"  God  save  the  King. 

"Send  him  victorious,* 
"  Happy,  and  glorious, 
"  Soon  to  reign  over  us, 
"  God  save  the  King; 

"  God  bless  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
"  The  true-born  Prince  of  Wales.f 
"  Sent  us  by  Thee. 

"  Grant  us  one  favour  more, 
"  The  King  for  to  restore, 
"  As  Thou  hast  done  before. 
"  The  Familie. 

"  Amen." 

It  would  be  interesting  to  get  hold  of  a  copy  of  the  collection 
of  Scotch  music  published  at  Aberdeen  in  the  reign  of  William 
and  Mary,  in  which  a  part  of  the  air  is  to  be  found.  Also,  if 
possible,  to  learn  the  date  when  these  lines  were  inscribed-on 
the  old  drinking-cup,  which  were  copied  previous  to  1813  by 
Sir  John  Sinclair. 

I  am,  Sir,  your  obedient  servant, 
February  25  [1878].  D.  FORREST. 

This  account  of  the  drinking-glass  appeared,  word 
for  word,  in  Richard  Clark's  book  (1822),  page  37, 
and  was  there  given  as  an  extract  from  The  Gentle- 
man's Magazine.  But,  of  course,  inscriptions  on 
drinking-glasses  are  valueless  unless  we  can  posi- 
tively affix  a  date  to  them.  The  drinking-glass  may 

*  "  Send  him  victorious  "  is  retained  in  the  modern  version,  and  is  evidently 
more  applicable  to  the  Stuart  than  to  the  Hanoverian  family. 

t  "  From  this  line  it  would  appear  that  these  verses  must  have  been  written 
either  about  the  time  of,  or  rather  before  the  Rebellion  in  1715." 
(     64     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


be  old,  but  the  inscription  may  be  modern.  The 
recent  traveller  who  found  the  lines  "  Try  Warren's 
Blacking "  on  the  Great  Pyramid  did  not  imme- 
diately come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  a 
contemporaneous  work  of  the  Pharaohs. 

When  we  consider  the  music  published  at 
Aberdeen  we  deal  with  something  tangible.  There 
is  a  book  entitled  "  Cantus,  Songs  and  Fancies  to 
three,  four,  or  Jive  parts  ;  both  apt  for  Voices  and 
Viols.  With  a  brief  Introduction  to  Mustek,  as  it  is 
taught* in  the  Musick  School  of  Aberdeen.  Printed  in 
Aberdeen  by  John  Forbes."*  Three  editions  of  the 
book  were  published  in  1662,  1666,  and  1682. 
Although  printed  in  Scotland,  it  by  no  means 
follows  that  its  contents  are  Scottish ;  indeed,  the 
author  (Forbe^)  says  in  his  preface  that  the  book 
contains  "  a  considerable  number  of  excellent  choise 
Italian  songs  and  English  ayres."  A  superficial 
glance  at  the  volume  shows  us  that  it  includes  such 
well-known  pieces  as  Douland's  "  /fvvake,  sweet 
love,"  and  Morley's  "Now  is  the  month  of  maying." 

The  music  referred  to  as  resembling  "  God  save 
the  King  "  is  set  to  the  words,  "  Remember,  O  thou 
man,  thy  time  is  spent,"  &c. ;  but  it  had  previously 
appeared  in  a  book  published  in  London  in  1611 
under  the  following  title  :  "  Melismata  :  Musicall 
Phansies  fitting  the  Court,  Citie,  and  Countrey 
Humours.  To  3,  4,  and  5  Voyces.  London : 
Printed  by  William  Stansby  for  Thomas  Adams." 

*  Professor  Wooldridge,  in  his  preface  to  "  Old  English  Popular  Music,"  1893, 
says  "  of  this  work  nothing  but  the  Cantus  part  remains."  No  other  part  was  ever 
printed.  Cantus  is  the  title  of  the  book,  which  is  complete,  and  includes  parts 
for  more  than  one  voice. 

(      65      ) 


GOD   SAVE   THE  KING. 


A    CHRISTMAS    CARROLL. 


— r— i- 

Re-mem-ber,     O    thouman,     O    thouman,    O    thouman,  Re-mem-ber, 


1 — r 


1- 
O     thou  man,     thy    time     is      spent.       Re  -  mem  -  ber,      O      thou  man, 


how  thou  was  dead  and  gone,  and   I     did  what     I  can  :  there-fore  re  -  pent. 

[The  small  notes  with  the  tails  turned  down  are  according  to  the  "  Melismata  ' 
copy,  the  other  reading  is  that  found  in  the  Aberdeen  "  Cantus."] 


"  Melismata,"  in  which  "  Remember,  O  thou  man  " 
was  printed,  was  edited  by  Thomas  Ravenscroft, 
and  became  very  widely  known  amongst  musicians. 
It  is,  however,  probable  that  the  Christmas  Carol 
was  a  very  old  tune,  and  that  Ravenscroft  merely 
harmonised  it  in  four  parts.  Be  that  as  it  may, 
Dr.  Bull,  at  the  time  of  the  publication  of 
"  Melismata  "  (1611),  was  in  the  zenith  of  his  fame, 
and  surely  had  he  desired  to  make  variations  to  a 
well-known  carol,  such  as  "  Remember,  O  thou 
man,"  he  would  have  given  the  tune  in  its  original 
form. 

The  air  of  "  God  save  the  King  "  has  sometimes 
been  claimed  for  Henry  Purcell.  "  The  Essex 
Harmony "  (third  edition,  1786)  prints  it  with  his 
name  attached,  but  there  is  no  composer's  name 
in  the  previous  editions  of  the  work.  Richard 
Clark  asserted  that  Purcell  was  acquainted  with 
(  66  ) 


GOD   SAVE   THE  KING. 


"  God  save  the  King,"  and  endeavoured  to  prove 
it  by  quoting  a  passage  from  the  Sonatas  published 
by  Purcell  in  1683.  Clarke  was  not,  however, 
content  to  leave  his  readers  to  judge  fairly  of  the 
extent  of  the  resemblance,  but  positively  altered 
the  notation  and  added  bars  of  music  and  words, 
the  original  being  a  composition  without  words  for 
viols  (two  violins  and  a  bass)  with  "  harpsecord." 

LARGO  FROM  PURCELL'S  SIXTH  SONATA. 

I*    : 


M 


ZEE* 


—  ' 


i 


There  are  twenty-six  bars  more  in  a  similar  strain. 

Clark  printed  one  other  example  from  Purcell,  and  it 

is  to  be  found  on  page  4  of  "  A  choice  Collection  of 

Lessons  for  the  Harpsichord  or  Spinnet,  composed 

(    67    ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


by  the  late  Mr.  Henry  Purcell "  ;  published  by  his 
widow,  Frances  Purcell,  in  1696 :— 


-f — * — *- 


i 


•^p 


^a 


I  --- 


It  will  be  seen  that  the  air  from  Ravenscroft's 
"  Melismata,"  and  the  extracts  from  Purcell's  instru- 
mental compositions  have  certain  resemblances  to 
"  God  save  the  King,"  notably  the  triple  rhythm  and 
two-bar  phrases ;  but  they  are  wanting  in  the  most 
important  feature  which  is  found  in  Bull's  Ayre,  and 
in  the  National  Anthem,  namely,  the  six-bar  first 
part,  and  the  eight-bar  second  part. 

If  the  reader  has  carefully  considered  the  details 
placed  before  him  in  these  pages,  he  will  be  able  to 
affirm  with  confidence  that  Carey  had  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  the  composition  of  either  the 
words  or  the  music  of  "  God  save  the  King."  He 
will  be  equally  ready  to  reject  the  mythical  French 

(     68     ) 


GOD    SAVE    THE  KING. 


origin  ;  the  suggested  Scottish  derivation,  and  the 
ridiculous  Handel  claim  * ;  probably  he  will  adopt  the 
opinion  that  the  music  is,  as  I  think,  derived  from 
the  air  by  Dr.  John  Bull,  and  that  the  original  Latin 
words  were  used  in  the  Catholic  Church  service.  Of 
course,  in  the  lapse  of  years,  Bull's  tune  has  been 
altered  and  improved  by  the  "  Vox  Populi,"  an 
inevitable  and  desirable  process  in  the  formation  of 
a  national  melody. 

It  would  be  worth  while,  at  the  opening  of  this 
new  century,  and  at  the  commencement  of  what  we 
pray  may  be  a  long  and  glorious  reign,  to  revert  to 
the  form  of  words  used  in  1745-6  :— 

God  save  our  Lord  the  King, 
Long  live  our  noble  King, 
God  save  the  King. 
Send  him  victorious, 
Happy  and  glorious, 
Long  to  reign  over  us, 
God  save  the  King. 

O  Lord  our  God  arise, 
Scatter  his  enemies, 
And  make  them  fall. 
Confound  their  Politicks, 
Frustrate  their  knavish  tricks, 
On  him  our  hopes  are  fixed, 
God  save  us  all. 

Thy  choicest  gifts  in  store, 
On  him  be  pleased  to  pour, 
Long  may  he  reign. 
May  he  defend  our  laws, 
And  ever  give  us  cause, 
With  heart  and  voice  to  sing 
God  save  the  King. 

*  The  fictitious  stories  associated  with  the  names  of  Anthony  Young  and 
Jamee  Oswald  are  dealt  with  on  pages  101-3, 
(     69     ) 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX. 


GOD  SAVE  THE  KINGE. 

(See  p.  10.)  Dr.  JOHN  BULL,  1616. 

From  the  original  manuscript  in  the  Library  of  Wm.  Kitchener,  M.D.* 


•f"  <fl,o  Jtfm  m     , S"V-) 

:i=u  r  £J~T^*\»  ^-g^-jj  j 


L_uJ  I   U" 


m 


William  Kitchener,  born  in  London  about  1775,  and  died  in  1827. 
(     73     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


1 


*  The  notes  D  and  F,  are  both  marked  b  in  Kitchener's  print;  manifest  errors. 

(     74     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


m 


i     F 


(    75    ) 


GOD    SAVE    THE   KING. 


m 


Pi 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


!  L 


—  . 

B. 


. 
(    77    ) 


F  2 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


-*-  -r 


yyy^vv^* 


*M=- 


^Ff^ 


•j!Lasgg= 


?"^~f' 


I  I 


*  t>  Omitted,    t  The  Bass  E  is  i>  in  Kitchener's  print. 
(     78     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


V     r 
— fc 


I      i      r- 


I 


itl      — ^       r^"*^^ — i^ — jiu^cr 


I 


^~    f\      *  r  f\  'J~ 

tf^TTTf-^^^ 


g 


(     79     ) 


GOD   SAVE   THE   KING. 


1 — •_L — 

=== 


-  JT— i*  ~y  .•— ^=?\  y    ? 


GOD   SAVE    THE  KING. 


m 


iJ^N^' 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


P 


i 


T=f=F 


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The  <r  are  marked  =  in  Kitchener's  printed  copy. 


GOD  SAVE  THE  KING. 

"Copied  from  Dr.  Bull's  MS.  Book,  about  which  so  much  has  been  written, 
now  in  the  possession  of  R.  Clark— (G.  Smart). — Page  98." 


^ 


i     r 


/a.  -^     ^.     4^ 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


=p     I     E 


f  -    -f-       f5- 

J^d-J  J .  J 


2  more  verses 


The  first  printed  copy  of  God  save  our  Lord  the 
King,  page  22,  of  "Thesaurus  Musicus."  First 
edition.  1740.  (?) 


(For  Two  Voices.) 


.y  ft  ;t  —  i  -i            h 

1  —  T  r~ 

~i  —   f*  J   r 

&y=J=J=i= 

-J—  J     '     I 

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SjEEaEili 

v                                                                 '        .• 
God   save    our      Lord      the  King,    Long  live     our 

no    -    ble  King, 

-r—  ?= 

H 

i  —  i  —  i  —  j_ 

-I  ^  1  \- 

God  save    the     King!         Send  him   vie  -  to   -    ri  -  ous,    Hap-py     and 

~J-   «TPH—  II  f— f"  f  Lu—S-r-l-f— F=£= 


GOD   SAVE   THE  KING. 


g 


Glo  -  ri  -  ous,  Long    to       reign      o  -    ver   us,    God  save    the   King ! 


O  Lord  our  God  arise, 
Scatter  his  Enemies, 
And  make  them  fall : 
Confound  their  Politicks, 
Frustrate  their  Knavish  Tricks. 
On  him  our  Hopes  are  fix'd, 
O  save  us  all. 


£, 


A  LOYAL  SONG. 
Sung  at  the  Theatres  Royal. 

For  Two  Voices. 
(Second  Edition  of  "  Thesaurus  Musicus."    1745. ) 

J- 


God  save  great  George  our  King,    Long  live    our       no    -    ble  King, 


L_J 

JpS 


g    r 


"I*'       F     m    \    f       * *= 

-i — u  ru     i     i 


God  save      the    King!        Send  him  vie  -  to    -    ri-ous,    Hap  -  py    and 

n — P * ^ — i — f^ * — m — i — <• (•- 


GOD   SAVE   THE   KING. 


~p-    m- 


glo   -    ri  -  ous,  Long     to        reign      o    -   ver   us,     God  save    the    King! 

J=JUILI-J-   Jl  ±- 


s 


O  Lord  our  God  arise, 
Scatter  his  enemies. 
And  make  them  fall ; 
Confound  their  Politicks, 
Frustrate  their  Knavish  Tricks, 
On  thee  our  hopes  we  fix, 
God  save  us  all. 


Thy  choicest  gifts  in  store, 
On  George  be  pleas'd  to  pour, 
Long  may  he  reign. 
May  he  defend  our  laws, 
And  ever  give  us  cause, 
With  Heart  and  Voice  to  sing, 
God  save  the  King. 


DR.  ARNE'S  ARRANGEMENT  OF  THE  NATIONAL 
ANTHEM,  FROM  HIS  AUTOGRAPH  MANUSCRIPT  IN 
THE  BRITISH  MUSEUM.*  (Add.  MSS.  29,466.) 


^ 


God  bless  our      no  •  ble  King,   God  save  great  George  onr  King,  God  save  the   King 

I 


*  This  arrangement  made  by  Dr.  Arne,  was  performed  in  Drury  Lane  Theatre, 
on  Saturday  evening,  September  28,  1745.  The  principal  singers  were, 
Mrs.  Cibber,  Messrs.  Beard  and  Reinhold.  The  pianoforte  accompaniment  is 
added  here  for  convenience.— (W.  H.  C.) 

(      85     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


Vio.  imo  &  2do. 


•  .  P     -q    g;    g-r^t -  *  =?- T-?S— »— gr-rS-g-r— —   gJ-r-fi?  J^\-    »  \  g=-^T 


fe 


CHORUS. 


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-f>    b    g^    'a;    (P  i-J          g!  i-g-e-^-i-: 


=!...  PJ 


,-j   .      <s :&.__,« £2. 


E^: 


Send   him     vie  -   to     -    ri  -  ous,     Hap  -  py      and        glo    -   ri  -  ous, 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


— ,S,_  ,—C-c 

*=^^*=?* 


i * — t 


Long       to         reign        o     -      ver      us,       God    save        the     King ! 


P1  ^5- 


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GOD   SAVE    THE  KING. 


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GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


THE  BANQUET  GIVEN  BY  THE  COMPANY  OF  MERCHANT  TAYLORS 
TO  JAMES  I.   IN   1607. 


For  19  Ibs.  of  rope  at  3d.  the  pound, 

and  31  Ibs.  of  rope  at  3d. 
More  for  three  pullies  for  to  hoise  up 
the  shippe  6d.  the  peece 

13?.  6d. 

To  Mr.  Springham  for  19  ells  £  of  taffite 
to  make  clothes  for  the  three  singers 
in  the  shipp,  and  fcr  him  that  made 
the  speech  to  His  Maty  at  135.  4d. 
the  ell,  the  some  of 

To  John  Allen  the  chief  singer  in  the) 

shipp  j 

To  Thomas  Lupo  the  chief  singer  in  the ) 

shipp  being  his  Maty  Musitian  J 

To  John  Richards  the  third  singer  in ) 

the  shipp  ) 

To  John  Hemmyngs  for  his  direccion 

of  his  boy  that  made  the  speech  to 

his  Maty  405.,  and  5$.  given  to  John 

Rise  the  speaker 

To  John,  Mr.  Swynnerton's  man,  for 
things  for  the  boy  that  maOe  the 
spetch 

Viz :  For  garters,  stockings,  shooes, 
ribons  and  gloves 

For  making  of  the  two  robes  6s.  8d.  for 
the  ribons  and  tapes  2s.  6d.  and  for 
the  firing  8s.  8d. 
For  buckroms  for  the  babes  J8d.     for 

flowers  for  the  garlands  35.  6d. 
For  sowing  silke  2s.  4d.   for  making  of 

ye  garments  255. 

For  setting  of  the  songs  that  were 
songe  to  his  Maty  to  Mr.  Copiarario 
To  Mr.  Johnson's  man  for  writing  out 
copies  of  the  speech  and  songew  to 
be  giuen  to  the  King  and  Lords  with 
others 

To  Mr.  Johnson  for  the  Musitian's 
dynner  the  day  before  the  feast 

(     89     ) 


•13 


For  the  Ship 


For  taffita  for  ye 
garmts  of  the 
singers  in  the 
shipp  and  robes 
for  the  speaker. 


-  o  13 


To  ye  Tavlrr 


o  17  10 


7     4 


-  o  15 


GOD   SAVE   THE   KING. 


o  To    them 
plaid    on 
o     Lute 


To  Powle's  singing  men  by  Mr.  Ben    I      £  s.    d. 

Johnson  150 

47/.  8s.  zd. 
To  Thomas  Robinson  305.  and  to  Mr. 

John  Done  405.  3  IO 

To  George  Roselor  405.  and  to  Tho. 

Sturgon  405.  4     ° 

To   Willm.  Ffregosie,  by  Mr.  Roselor 

40$.,  and  by  Jo.  Robson  405.  400 

To  Nickolas  Sturt  for  himself  and  his    ! 

sonne  400 

To  William  Browne,  by  Sturt  405.  and 

to  Joseph  Sherly  405.  400 

To  Wilm  Morley  for  himself  405.  and   \ 

for  Robert  Kenn'sly  405. 
To    Robt.     Bateman      and      Stephen 

Thomas   who    plaid   on   the    treble 

violens,    by    Nicholas     Sturt     and 

Richard  Morley 
To  Mr.  Beniamyn  Johnson,  the  poett, 

for  inventing  the  speech  to  his  Maty 

and  for  making  the  songs,  and  his 

direccions  to  others  in  that  business 


that 
the 


For  8  horsload  of  birch  for  to  make  the 
windowes  for  them  that  plaid  on  the 
lute  i  ) 

To  his  Mats  trompetors  405.  :  and  to 

his  droms  205.  3     o 

To  the  princes  trompetors  and  droms  i     o 

To  Mr.  John  Bull,  Doctor   of  Musique, 
to  pay  to  him  that  sett  up  the  winde   ! 
instruments  in  the  King's  chamber,    [ 
where  the  King  dined,  and  for  tuning    j 
it,  with  the  carriage  of  it  from  and  to 
Ruccolds  2  1  8 

To  Mr.  Edney,  Mr.  Lancere,*  and  fewer 
others  of  his  Ma*s  Musitions  players 
of  wynde  instruments  being  placed 
over  the  skreene 


*  Laniere  is  intended. 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


DR.  JOHN    BULL. 

John  Bull  was  born,  probably  in  the  parish  of 
Peylinch,  in  Somersetshire,  in  1563.  He  became  one 
of  the  children  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  Chapel  Royal 
in  1572,  when  William  Blitheman,  the  renowned 
organist,  was  master  of  the  boys  who  "  spared 
neither  time  nor  talent  to  advance  his  natural 
ability."  On  December  24,  1582,  he  was  appointed 
organist  of  Hereford  Cathedral  and  subsequently 
master  of  the  choristers.  In  January,  1585,  he  was 
admitted  a  "  Gentleman  of  the  Chapels  Royal," 
in  the  place  of  Mr.  Bodinghurst.  In  the  following 
year,  on  the  gth  of  July,  he  took  the  degree  of 
Mus.  Bac.,  Oxford,  having  "  practised  the  faculty  of 
music  fourteen  years."  In  1591  he  was  admitted  to 
the  degree  of  Mus.  Doc.,  Cambridge.  It  is  said  that 
at  the  last-named  date  he  was  appointed  organist  of 
the  Chapels  Royal  in  succession  to  his  former 
master,  Blitheman.  An  interesting  entry  in  the  old 
Cheque  book  of  the  Chapel  Royal  records  the 
appointment,  May  29,  1592,  of  William  Phelps,  of 
Tewkesbury,  as  "  Gentleman  extraordinary,"  who 
"  dyd  show  a  most  rare  kyndness  to  Mr.  Doctor  Bull 
in  his  great  distresse,  being  robbed  in  those  parts." 
On  July  7,  1592,  Bull  was  admitted  to  the  degree  of 
Mus.  Doc.,  Oxford.  It  is  said  this  had  been  delayed 
in  consequence  of  his  having  met  with  "rigid 
Puritans  there,  who  could  not  endure  church 
music."  In  1596,  on  the  opening  of  Gresham  College, 
(  91  )  G 


GOD   SAVE    THE  KING. 


he  was  made  the  first  music  lecturer  upon  the 
recommendation  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  who,  on 
November  30,  1596,  addressed  a  letter  on  his  behalf 
to  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen  of  London.  Bull, 
being  unable  to  deliver  his  lectures  in  Latin, 
according  to  the  founder's  intentions,  a  special 
ordinance  was  passed  in  his  favour  as  follows : 
"  The  solemn  music-lecture  twice  every  week, 
in  manner  following,  viz.,  the  theoretique  part  for 
one  half  hour,  or  thereabouts,  and  the  practique, 
by  concert  of  voice  or  instruments,  for  the  rest  of 
the  hour,  whereof  the  first  lecture  should  be  in  the 
Latin  tongue,  and  the  second  in  English  ;  but 
because  at  this  time,  Mr.  Dr.  Bull,  who  is 
recommended  to  the  place  by  the  Queen's  Most 
excellent  Majesty,  being  not  able  to  speak  Latin, 
his  lectures  are  to  be  permitted  to  be  altogether  in 
English,  so  long  as  he  shall  continue  in  the  place  of 
music-lecturer  there." 

His  inaugural  address  was  delivered  on  October  6, 
1597.  It  was  printed  by  Thomas  East  (see  Register 
of  the  Stationers'  Co.),  but  no  copy  can  now  be 
found. 

In  1601,  Bull,  being  out  of  health,  was  permitted 
to  travel  abroad  and  to  nominate  Thomas  Byrd  as 
his  deputy  during  his  absence  ;  he  journeyed 
incognito,  and  visited  Germany  and  France. 
Antony  a  Wood  narrates  the  following  amusing 
story  :  — 

Dr.   Bull   hearing  of  a  famous    musician    belonging  to  a 
certain  cathedral  at  St.  Omer's,  he  applied  himself  as  a  novice 
to  him,  to  learn  something  of  his  faculty,  and   to   see   and 
(    92     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


admire  his  works.  This  musician,  after  some  discourse  had 
passed  between  them,  conducted  Bull  to  a  vestry  or  music- 
school  adjoining  the  Cathedral,  and  shewed  to  him  a  lesson  or 
song  of  forty  parts,  and  then  made  a  vaunting  challenge  to 
any  person  in  the  world  to  add  one  more  part  to  them, 
supposing  it  to  be  so  complete  and  full  that  it  was  impossible 
for  any  mortal  man,  to  correct  or  add  to  it ;  Bull  thereupon 
desiring  the  use  of  pen,  ink,  and  ruled  paper,  such  as  we 
call  musical  paper,  prayed  the  musician  to  lock  him  up  in  the 
said  school  for  two  or  three  hours ;  which  being  done,  not 
without  great  disdain  by  the  musician,  Bull  in  that  time  or 
less,  added  forty  more  parts  to  the  said  lesson  or  song.  The 
musician  being  thereupon  called  in,  he  viewed  it,  tried  it,  at 
length  he  burst  out  into  a  great  ecstacy,  and  swore  by  the 
great  God  that  he  that  added  those  forty  parts  must  either  be 
the  Devil  or  Dr.  Bull.  Whereupon  Bull  making  himself 
known  the  musician  fell  down  and  adored  him.  Afterwards 
continuing  there  and  in  those  parts  for  a  time,  he  became  so 
much  admired,  that  he  was  courted  to  accept  of  any  place  or 
preferment  suitable  to  his  profession,  either  within  the 
dominions  of  the  Emperor,  King  of  France,  or  Spain  ;  but 
the  tidings  of  these  transactions  coming  to  the  English  Court, 
Queen  Elizabeth  commanded  him  home. 

On  December  15,  1606,  Bull  was  admitted  into 
the  freedom  of  the  Merchant  Taylors'  Company,  by 
service,  he  having  been  apprenticed  to  Thomas,  the 
Right  Honourable  the  Earl  of  Sussex,  who  was  free 
of  the  Company. 

A  list,  dated  December  31,  1606,  of  persons  to 
whom  James  I.  ordered  "  Gold  chains,  plates  or 
medals  to  be  given,"  includes  the  name  of  Dr.  John 
Bull. 

On  July   16,    1607,  the  memorable   banquet  was 

given  by  the  Company  to  King  James  I.,  when  Bull 

performed  on  the  organ.     On  December  22,  in  the 

same  year,  Bull  obtained  a  marriage  licence  from  the 

(    93    )  02 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


Bishop  of  London,  which  is  entered  in  the  following 
terms : — 

Mr.  John  Bull,  Dr.  of  Music,  of  the  Strand,  and  Organist 
of  His  Majesty's  Chapel,  Bachr.,  47  or  48,  and  Elizabeth 
Walter,  of  the  Strand,  Maiden,  about  24,  dau  of  —  Walter, 
Citizen  of  London,  deed.,  she  attending  upon  the  Rt.  Hon. 
The  Lady  Marchioness  of  Winchester,  at  Christ  Church, 
London. 

This  marriage  necessitated  his  resignation  of  the 
Gresham  Professorship,  which  could  only  be  held  by 
an  unmarried  man.  In  1611,  his  name  stood  first 
in  the  list  of  the  musicians  of  Prince  Henry,  with  a 
salary  of  £40  per  annum. 

In  1612,  Bull  wrote  the  following  letter  (Miscel- 
laneous Collections  relating  to  Gresham  College. 
British  Museum.  Add.  MSS.  6194)  :— 

To  his  honorable  and  singular  good  frinde  Sr.  Michaell 

Hiks  these. 
SR. 

I  have  bin  many  times  to  have  spoken  with  you,  to  desire 
your  favor  to  my  L.  and  M.  Chaunchelor.  Sir  my  humble 
sute  is,  that  it  would  please  my  L.  and  M.  Cha.  to  graunte  me 
theire  favors  to  chainge  my  name  in  my  letters  patents,  and  to 
(put)  in  my  childes,  leaving  out  my  owne.  It  is  but  forty 
pounds  by  yeare  for  my  service  heretofore,  the  mater  is  not 
greate,  yet  it  wilbe  some  reliefe  for  my  poore  childe,  havinge 
nothinge  ells  to  leave  it.  The  Kinge  hath  bin  moved  by  Sir 
Chri.  Perkins,  who  hath  order  from  the  Kinge  to  speak  with  Sir 
Julio  Cesar.  I  humbly  thanck  Sir  Julio  Cesar.  I  have  bin  with 
him,  and  hath  promised  me  his  favor ;  but  one  worde  of  yours 
will  speade  it,  and  make  me  and  my  poore  childe  everlastingly 
bound  to  you.  I  humbly  desire  you  speak  in  this  my  humble 
sute  with  all  the  expidition  you  may,  and  so  with  my  humble 
duty  remembered  I  take  leave. 

Yours  ever  to  commande 
Indorsed  26  Apr.  J.  BULL. 

1612  Docter  Bull. 

(     94     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


We  have  seen  that  Bull  could  only  retain  his 
Gresham  Professorship  whilst  unmarried,  and  the 
date  of  his  marriage,  December,  1607,  makes  it 
impossible  that  a  son  born  in  wedlock  should  have 
been  old  enough  in  1612  to  succeed  his  father  as 
organist  and  composer  to  His  Majesty.  "  The 
poore  childe  "  must  therefore  have  been  an 
illegitimate  son,  and  this  fact  explains  the 
accusations  brought  against  Bull  by  James  I.,  as 
will  appear  later. 

In  1613,  Bull  was  residing  abroad  as  one  of  the 
organists  of  the  Chapel  Royal  in  Brussels.  The 
Cheque  book  of  the  Chapel  Royal  (London),  under 
date  1613,  contains  the  following  notice  : — "  Jo.  Bull, 
Doctor  of  Musick,  went  beyond  the  seaes  and  served 
the  Archduke*  at  Michaelmas."  Another  entry 
under  the  same  date  says,  "  John  Bull,  doctor  of 
Musicke,  went  beyond  the  seas  without  license  and 
was  admitted  into  the  Archduke's  service,  and 
entered  into  paie  there  about  Michaelmas." 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  records  of  the  Chapel 
Royal  contain  no  further  reference  to  Bull's  un- 
authorised and  clandestine  departure  from  London 
and  from  his  Court  duties.  At  that  time  he  was 
probably  the  most  famous  musician  in  England,  his 
reputation  having  been  greatly  enhanced  by  his 
professional  travels  on  the  Continent. 

However,  it  is  evident  from  Bull's  letter  dated 
April  26,  1612,  that  he  was  even  then  contemplating 
leaving  England,  and  therefore  anxious  for  a 

<  Albert,  son  of  the  Emperor  ;  he  married  a  Princess  of  Spain,  and  resided  at 
Brussels. 

(     95     ) 


GOD   SAVE   THE   KING. 


settlement  "for  his  poore  childe."  The  following 
extract  from  a  letter  sent  to  King  James  I.  throws  a 
little  more  light  on  this  matter.  The  writer  of  the 
letter  was  William  Trumbull,  who  was  Ambassador 
to  the  Archduke  Albert  of  Austria,  Regent  of  the 
Netherlands,  from  1609  till  1625  ;  he  returned  to 
England  and  died  in  London  in  September,  1635. 

May  30,  1614  (O.S.)  :— 

Most  Excellent  and  most  worthy  Soveraign, 

Finding  after  long  attendance  by  reason  of  the  Archdukes 
indisposition,  that  he  was  now  so  much  amended  as  he  gave 
accefs  to  some  ministers  of  other  princes,  I  procured  audience  of 
him  on  Monday  was  sennight ;  and  according  to  your  Majesties 
commandment  sent  me  by  Sir  Thomas  Lake,  after  I  had  used 
some  congratulations  unto  him  in  your  Majesties  name  for  the 
recovery  of  his  health,  which  he  seemed  to  take  in  very  good 
part,  I  told  him,  that  I  had  charge  from  your  Majestie  to 
acquaint  him,  that  your  Majestie  upon  knowledge  of  his 
receiving  Dr.  Bull,  your  Majesties  organist  and  sworn  servant 
into  this  chappel,  without  your  Majesties  permission  or  consent, 
or  once  so  much  as  speaking  thereof  to  me,  that  am  resyding 
here  for  your  Majesties  affairs :  that  your  Majesty  did  justly  find 
it  strange  as  you  were  his  friend  and  ally,  and  had  never  used 
the  like  proceedings  either  towards  him  or  any  forreign  Prince ; 
adding  that  the  like  course  was  not  practized  among  private 
persons,  much  lefs  among  others  of  greater  place  and  dignity. 
And  I  told  him  plainly,  that  it  was  notorious  to  all  the  world, 
the  said  Bull  did  not  leave  your  Majesties  service  for  any  wrong 
done  unto  him,  or  for  matter  of  religion,  under  which  fained 
pretext  he  now  sought  to  wrong  the  reputation  of  your 
Majesties  justice,  but  did  in  that  dishonest  manner  steal  out  of 
England  through  the  guilt  of  a  corrupt  conscience,  to  escape 
the  punishment,  which  notoriously  he  had  deserved,  and  was 
designed  to  have  been  inflicted  on  him  by  the  hand  of  justice, 
for  his  incontinence,  fornication,  adultery,  and  other  greivous 
crimes.  (Brit.  Mus.,  Add.  MSS.  6194.) 

(     96     ) 


GOD   SAVE   THE   KING. 


Remembering  the  history  of  the  times  of  James  I., 
it  is  amusing  to  read  of  his  great  anxiety  to  punish 
a  moral  delinquent  in  the  person  of  Bull.  His 
Majesty's  annoyance  at  the  loss  of  the  services  of 
such  an  eminent  musician  may  possibly  have  served 
as  a  stimulant.  It  would  be  interesting  to  trace  the 
progress  of  further  negotiations  between  King  James 
and  the  Archduke,  and  also  what  steps  were  taken  by 
Bull  to  mollify  the  wrath  of  his  late  Royal  Master ; 
that  something  was  attempted  seems  fairly  certain, 
for  it  was  in  the  year  1616  that  Bull  composed  the 
air  with  variations  to  which  he  gave  the  title  "  God 
save  the  Kinge,"  and  in  the  following  year,  1617,  he 
was  promoted  to  the  organistship  of  Notre  Dame 
Cathedral,  in  Antwerp  (at  a  salary  of  100  florins  per 
annum),  in  succession  to  the  deceased  Rombout 
Waelrant.  In  1620  he  was  residing  in  the  house 
adjoining  the  Church,  by  the  side  of  the  Place  Verte, 
the  habitation  of  the  concierge  of  the  Cathedral.  He 
died  in  that  house  on  March  13,  1628,  and  was 
buried  in  the  Cathedral  on  the  I5th  of  the  same 
month.  During  his  tenure  of  office  great  improve- 
ments in  the  Cathedral  organ  were  made  under  his 
personal  guidance  and  supervision.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  several  English  musicians  were  resident 
in  Antwerp  about  the  time  of  Bull,  amongst  them 
John  Beake  (a  Priest  Chaplain),  John  Stark, 
Anthony  Sanders,  Adam  Gordon,  Thomas  Covert, 
Edmund  Lewkenor,  William  Cledero,  Robert  Bruck, 
and  one  Fitzgerald. 


(     97     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 

A  portrait  of  Bull  is  in  the  Music  School,  Oxford, 
painted  on  panel,  with  an  inscription  on  the  left 
side  of  the  head,  AN.  ^ETATIS  SU.E  26,  1589,*  and 
on  the  right  side,  an  hour-glass  placed  on  a  skull. 
Around  the  four  sides  of  the  frame  was  inscribed 
the  following  :— 

The  bull  by  force  in  field  doth  raigne, 
But  Bull  by  skill  good  will  doth  gayne. 

The  date  is  of  importance,  enabling  us  to  fix  the 
year  of  Bull's  birth.  The  wedding  license  describes 
him  as  about  47  or  48  in  1607;  one  can  only  suppose 
that  the  clerk  who  made  out  the  document  merely 
glanced  at  Bull's  face  and  made  a  random  guess  at 
his  age. 

The  Oxford  picture  is  reproduced  on  the  opposite 
page,  from  a  photograph  ;  the  original  is  on  panel, 
size  i  foot  10  inches  by  i  foot  6  inches. 

Another  fine  portrait  of  Bull,  painted  later  in  life, 
at  Antwerp,  on  panel,  14  inches  by  10,  forms  the 
frontispiece  to  this  book  ;  the  musician  is  depicted 
in  the  act  of  conducting,  with  a  music  book  open 
before  him.  The  original  oil  painting  is  in  my 
own  possession. 

*  This  inscription  was  noted  by  Ward  in  1760,  by  Hawkins  in  1776,  and  an 
engraving  from  the  picture  inserted  in  the  history  of  Music  by  the  latter.  It  was 
to  be  seen  on  the  portrait  in  1885,  when  on  loan  at  the  "  International  Inventions 
Exhibition,"  at  the  Albert  Hall,  as  I  can  vouch  from  my  own  observation.  I  am 
told  by  a  resident  in  Oxford  "  the  portrait  was  in  a  very  bad  state  from  exposure 
to  damp  and  the  action  of  the  sun,  and  was  sent  with  some  others  to  be  restored 
some  years  since."  Unfortunately  the  age  has  been  altered  from  26  to  27. 


DR.  JOHN   BULL. 

From  a  picture  painted  in  England.     1589. 


To  face  p. 


GOD    SAVE    THE   KING. 


GULIELMUS   A  MESSAUS. 

Guillaume  Messaus  was  born  towards  the  end  of 
the  i6th  century,  and  lived  at  Antwerp,  where  he 
was  held  in  considerable  reputation  as  a  composer 
and  organist,  and  also  as  Chapel  Master,  or  Director 
of  the  Music,  in  the  Church  of  St.  Walburge,  one  of 
the  most  ancient  ecclesiastical  edifices  in  Antwerp, 
unfortunately  demolished  about  1809.  Messaus 
was  a  pupil  of  Dr.  John  Bull,  Organist  of  Antwerp 
Cathedral,  whose  compositions  he  very  industriously 
and  voluminously  transcribed.  Music  composed  by 
Messaus  is  to  be  found  in  the  "  Laudes  vespertinae 
B.  Marise  Virginis  etem,  Hymnus,  etc,"  published 
by  P.  Phalese,  Antwerp,  1629.  The  contents  of  the 
collection  are  as  follows  : — 

1.  Ave  regina  ccelorum  a  4  voix. 

2.  Quia  quern  meruiste  a  5  voix. 

3.  Nobis  datus. 

4.  Verbum  caro  a  5  voix. 

5.  Vita  dulcedo  a  6  voix. 

6.  Resonet  in  laudibus. 

7.  Beate  immaculata. 

8.  O  quam  amabilis  a  4  voix. 

9.  Ita  dulcedo  vita. 

Chansons  (in  four  parts) : — 

1.  Gen  Kindeken  is  geboren. 

2.  Het  viel  eens's  Hemels  dauwe. 

3.  Laet  ons  met  heste  reij  ne. 

4.  O  Salich  heylich  Bettlehem. 

5.  Waer  is  die  dochters  van  Sijon. 

(     99     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE  KING. 


6.  Heden  is  ons  een  Kindeken  gheboren. 

7.  Loffo  sydat  soete  Kindeken  eleyn. 

8.  Nu  laet  ons  singhen  het  is  tydt. 

9.  Ghegroot  soet  moel  ghy  zyn. 
10.  Met  desen  nieuwen  jaere. 
n.  Het  quamen  dry  Coninghen. 

There  are  also  compositions  by  Messaus  in   the 
following  works : — 

Livre  premier  des  chansons  vulgaires  de  diverses  lutheurs 
a  4  parties,  etc.  En  Anvers,  chez  les  heritiers  de  Pierre  Phalese 
au  Roy  David,  1636. 

Cantiones  Sacra;  de  Messaus  edite  a  Anvers,  chez  les 
heritiers  de  P.  Phalese,  1635. 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


ANTHONY   YOUNG. 

A  claim  has  been  made  on  behalf  of  Anthony 
Young  as  the  composer  of  "God  save  the  King," 
but  it  is  based  on  such  a  flimsy  foundation  that  it 
scarcely  deserves  mention. 

The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  of  1796,  printed  the 
following  letter : — 

Jan.  20, 1796. 
Mr.  Urban, 

The  present  deservedly  popular  air  of  "  God  save  the  King  " 
is  supposed  to  have  been  composed  by  Anthony  Jones,  musician, 
contemporary  with  Purcell,  and  grandfather  of  the  late  Mrs. 
Arne,  Mrs.  Lampe,  and  Mrs.  Jones,  all  stage  singers,  while 
spinsters,  by  the  name  of  Young.  When  this  tune  was  revived, 
in  1745,  tradition  says  that  the  words  of  "  God  save  the  King  " 
were  written,  and  the  tune  composed  for  King  James  the 
Second,  at  the  time  the  Prince  of  Orange  was  expected  to 
land  in  England.  During  the  rebellion  of  1745,  Dr.  Burney 
author  of  the  "  General  History  of  Music,"  composed  parts  to 
the  old  melody,  at  the  desire  of  Mrs.  Cibber,  for  Drury  Lane 
Theatre,  where  it  was  sung  in  a  slow  and  solemn  manner,  in 
three  parts,  by  Mrs.  Cibber,  Mr.  Beard,  and  Mr.  Reinhold,  the 
father  of  the  present  singer  of  that  name,  and  repeated  in 
chorus,  augmented  in  force,  usually  by  the  whole  audience.  It 
was  called  for  at  this  theatre  for  near  two  years  after  the 
suppression  of  the  rebellion. 

About  three  years  ago,  being  curious  to  know  some  further 
particulars  respecting  this  majestic  song,  I  waited  on  Dr. 
Cooke,  late  organist  of  the  Abbey,  who  corroborated  this 
account,  and  told  me,  that,  when  he  was  a  boy,  he  remembered 
to  have  heard  the  tune  sung  to  the  words  of  "  God  save  great 
James  our  King." 

E.  T. 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


Note  here  the  error  of  describing  Anthony  Jones 
as  the  grandfather  of  the  Misses  Young — the  latter 
was  their  birth  name.  They  were  daughters  of 
Charles  Young,  who  was  organist  of  Allhallows' 
Church,  Barking,  from  1713  to  1758,  and  he  was 
supposed  to  be  (it  is  not  proven)  the  son  of  Anthony 
Young  who  was  organist  of  the  Churches  St. 
Clement  Danes  and  St.  Catherine  Cree,  but  never  of 
Allhallows',  Barking. 

The  mistake  in  naming  Jones  as  the  grandfather  of 
the  Young  family  was  doubtless  quickly  discovered, 
and  about  1805  a  copy  of  "  God  save  the  King  "  was 
published  with  the  heading,  "This  air  was  composed 
by  Mr.  Anthony  Young,  late  organist  of  Allhallows', 
Barking,  Essex."  The  printers  and  publishers 
were  Riley  and  Willis,  23,  Commerce  Row, 
Blackfriars  Road. 

The  anonymous  letter  of  E.  T.,  and  the  above- 
mentioned  obscure  and  unauthorised  publications, 
appear  to  be  the  only  evidence  which  can  be  adduced 
in  favour  of  Anthony  Young.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  in  1795  George  Saville  Carey  commenced  his 
attempt  to  obtain  a  pension,  thereby  calling  attention 
to  the  subject,  and  affording  an  opening  for  the 
erroneous  letter  of  E.  T.  in  the  Gentleman's 
Magazine,  1796.  That  Arne  arranged  the  air  for 
performance  in  Covent  Garden,  and  Burney  for  that 
in  Drury  Lane,  has  already  been  shown. 


(    102    ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


OSWALD'S   AIR. 

There  have  been  suggestions  that  possibly  James 
Oswald,  a  musician  and  music  publisher,  who  came 
to  London  from  Scotland  in  1741,  may  have  had 
some  part  in  the  making  or  arranging  of  "  God  save 
the  King." 

The  whole  story  is  grounded  on  a  statement  made 
by  Clark  (p.  27,  "  An  account  of  the  National 
Anthem  "),  which  is  as  follows  : — 

The  editor  being  a  native  of  Windsor,  and  knowing  that 
the  chimes  of  the  parish  church  played  the  tune  of  "  God  save 
the  King,"  under  the  title  of  "  Osweld's  Are,"  wrote  to  his  friend 
Tho.  Jenner  to  get  him  a  copy  of  the  brass  plate  containing 
the  names  of  all  the  tunes  which  are  played  by  the  bells  :  who 
sent  him  the  following  account : — 

"  Sir, — After  some  trouble,  I  have  succeeded  in  getting  you 
the  names  of  the  tunes  which  the  chimes  of  the  Parish  Church 
of  Windsor  play.  We  could  not  discover  the  plate  for  many 
days,  in  consequence  of  its  being  so  crowded  with  dirt,  the 
chimes  not  having  played  for  five  or  six  years  past. 

"They  are  thus  put  down  on  the  brass  plate : — i.  'Highland 
Laddie1;  2.  'Happy  Clown';  3.  'Osweld's  Are';  4.  'A 
Minuet';  6.  'Milton's  J'gg';  7-  'Lady  Chatham's  Jigg'; 
8.  '113  Psalm.'  " 

Clark  adds,  page  29  :— 

The  bells  were  first  put  up  in  the  parish  church  of  Windsor 
in  the  year  1769,  and  the  barrel  of  the  chimes  was  arranged  by 
Mr.  Oswald,  a  musicseller  in  St.  Martin's  Lane,  who  on  that 
account  probably,  called  the  tune  after  his  own  name. 

Clark  seems  to  have  muddled  everything  he  wrote 
about,  and  in  the  above  statement  there  are  two 

(     103     ) 


GOD   SAVE   THE   KING. 


difficulties.  First  of  all,  it  is  very  significant  that 
the  tune  No.  5  is  omitted  from  the  list  given ; 
probably  this  was  "  God  save  the  King,"  which  being 
well  known,  there  was  no  occasion  to  name  it. 
This  leaves  the  "  Osweld  Are  "  in  full  possession  of 
No.  3. 

Secondly,  according  to  the  Gentleman's  Magazine, 
James  Oswald  died  at  Knebworth,  Herts,  on  January 
2,  1769.  How  then  could  he  have  arranged  the 
chiming  barrel  for  bells  which  were  placed  after  his 
death  ? 

We  have  no  authority  beyond  Clark's  assertion 
that  Oswald  prepared  the  barrel;  if  he  had  done  so 
he  would  probably  have  spelt  his  name  properly. 
I  take  it  that  Osweld's  Are,  Milton's  Jigg,  and 
Lady  Chatham's  Jigg,  were  simply  the  names  of 
tunes  and  not  necessarily  those  of  composers. 


(    104    ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


FOREIGN    VERSIONS   OF   "GOD   SAVE 
THE   KING." 

The  earliest  printed  Continental  version  of  "  God 
save  the  King,"  is  that  in  "  La  lire  Magonne,  ou 
Recueil  de  Chansons  des  Francs-Magons.  Revu, 
corrige,  mis  dans  un  nouvel  ordre,  &  augments  de 
quantite  de  chansons,  qui  n'avoient  point  encore 
paru  ;  par  les  freres  de  Vignoles  et  du  Bois.  Avec 
les  Airs  notes,  mis  sur  la  bonne  Clef,  tant  pour  le 
Chant  que  pour  le  Violon  &  la  Flute.  A  la  Haye, 
Chez  R.  van  Laak,  Libraire  M.DCC.LXIII."  On 
page  161  of  that  book  the  tune  appears  as  follows  :— 

D'ONGEVEINSDHEID. 

Stem  :  God  Seav*  great  George  our  King. 


O      las  -  ter   -   ziek      Ge-meen,      Ve  -  racht  vry       bui  -  ten    reen 


f^£ 


uyt     er  -  k'le  nydt,  De     vry  -  c       met  -  ze  laars :  Uw'  blind-heit 


is    niet  raers.Wyl    wy        by      Dag    en  kaers,   2ien  ,     .   tot   uw    spyt. 

Six  verses  follow  which  need  not  be  quoted.  The 
music  in  the  book  is  printed  from  type,  and  it  is 
curious  to  note  that  in  a  second  edition,  published 
in  1775,  a  terrible  blunder  is  made  of  the  end  of  the 
first  strain.  It  will  not  fail  to  be  observed  that  the 
second  part  of  the  tune,  as  printed  above,  even  to 

*  Sic. 
(     105     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


the  concluding    bars,   is   identical   with    the    most 
modern  use. 

A  version  was  made  for  Denmark  by  Harries, 
which  appeared  in  the  "Flensburgsch.es  Wochenblat," 
January  27,  1790.  The  first  line  was  "  Heil  Dir, 
dem  liebenden,"  and  it  was  explicitly  said  to  be 
intended  to  be  sung  on  the  King's  birthday,*  to  the 
air  of  "  God  save  great  George  the  King." 

The  German  form  to  the  words  "  Heil  Dir  im 
Siegerkranz,"  was  written  by  Balthasar  Gerhard 
Schumacher,  and  was  first  published  in  the 
Spenersche  Zeitung,  in  Berlin,  December  17,  1793. 
It  was  afterwards  adopted  as  a  national  song  by 
Prussia,  Saxony,  and  other  German  States. 

It  must,  however,  have  been  familiar  to  German 
folk  in  1791,  for  in  May  of  that  year  was  published 
"  Vier  und  zwanzig  Veranderungen  furs  Clavichord 
oder  Fortepiano  auf  das  englische  Volkslied :  God 
save  the  King,  von  Johann  Nicolaus  Forkel. 
Gottingen,  beym  Autor,  und  in  der  Vandenhoek- 
Ruprechtischen  Buchandlung." — (Four  and  twenty 
variations  for  the  Clavichord  or  Fortepiano  on  the 
English  People's-song  "God  save  the  King"  (by 
Johann  Nicolaus  Forkel).  The  music  is  intro- 
duced in  an  interesting  Preface,  of  which  I  give  a 
translation  : — 

The  following  variations   have   been  specially  written  on 

the  departure  of  the  two  Royal    Princes  of  England,  Ernst 

August  and  Adolf  Friedrich  from  the  University  (Gottingen). 

The  affection  for  all  that  is  pure  and  beautiful  attracted  these 

noble  King's  sons  also  to  the   art  of   music,  an   ennobling 

recreation    of  Princes,    and  during   their   stay  in  Gottingen, 

they  were  amongst  the  most  enthusiastic  and  attentive  of  the 

*  Christian  the  7th,  brother-in-law  of  King  George  of  England. 

(     106     ) 


GOD   SAVE   THE   KING. 


audience,  who  were  present  at  the  Academic  concerts.  Their 
condescension,  good  will  and  sympathy,  with  which  they 
honoured  these  musical  gatherings  from  1786  to  the  beginning 
of  the  year  1791,  raised  in  me  the  wish  to  shew  them  a  small 
proof  of  my  gratitude,  respectful  esteem,  and  love,  on  the  day 
on  which  for  the  last  time  the  audience  had  the  honour  of 
their  presence.  This  I  thought  I  could  best  accomplish  by 
introducing  a  farewell  song  at  the  end  of  the  concert,  choosing 
a  well-known  melody  which  the  whole  audience  could  join  in. 
The  English  People's  melody,  "  God  save  the  King,"  seemed 
to  me  to  be  appropriate,  and  I  chose  it  also  more  particularly 
as  it  would  be  the  most  pleasing  to  the  two  Princes,  being 
their  National  Song.  After  I  had  first  played  the  melody  with 
some  variations  on  a  Fortepiano,  the  following  verses  were 
sung  with  four  solo  voices  and  full  chorus  alternately : — 
Heil,  theures  Furstenpaar!  Am  schonsten  Seegen  reich, 
Aus  Herzen,  treu  und  wahr,  Und  Eurem  Werthe  gleich 

Seyd  uns  gegriisst !  Sey  Euer  Loos ! 

Mit  hulderfulltem  Blick  Euch  adle  eigner  Muth 

Seht  auf  den  Kreis  zuriick         Wie  Eurer  Vater  Blut: 
Der  Eurer  Nahe  Gliick  Georg  ist  gross  und  gut, 

Heut  noch  geniest !  Und  gut  und  gross! 

Kiihn  wandelt  Ihr  hinan  Gott  schirme  seinen  Thron  ! 

Des  Ruhmes  steile  Bahn  ;          Gott  geb'  ihm  hohen  Lohn 

Drum  Heil  Euch,  Heil !  Und  Fried'  und  Heil ! 

Es  gliiht  in  Eurer  Brust  Und  Lieb'  und  Ehrfurchtsvoll, 

Der  eignen  Kraft  bewusst,        Heiss  betend  fur  sein  Wol, 
Erhabne  Thatenlust  Ihm  bringen  Dankes  Zoll, 

Drum  Heil  Euch,  Heil !  Sey  unser  Theil ! 

As  I  wished  and  expected,  a  large  number  of  the  audience 
present  joined  in  with  the  full  chorus,  which  was  not  pre- 
arranged ;  that  surprise  and  the  circumstances  of  the  time 
made  the  song  far  more  solemn  and  effective  than  it  would 
have  perhaps  otherwise  been,  and  I  must  acknowledge  that 
I  never  before  appreciated  this  melody  so  much  as  when  I 
learnt  to  do  so  under  these  conditions.  It  attracted  me  so 
much  by  its  simplicity,  that  I  thought  it  worth  the  trouble 
of  adding  some  artistic  variations.  If  this  work  of  art  is  so 
formed,  that  it  does  not  hide  but  improve  the  original  shape  of 
so  solemn  and  so  loved  a  National  song,  then  the  motive  for  its 
production  will  be  found  the  more  worthy  by  connoisseurs. 
Gottin,  im  May  1791.  J.  N.  Forkel. 

{     107     )  H 


GOD   SAVE   THE   KING. 


The  music  as  arranged  by  Forkel,  who  was  a 
pupil  of  Bach,  is  in  the  key  of  D  ;  the  only  point 
worthy  of  special  mention  is  that  he  marks  it 
"  Tempo  di  Minuetto." 

Beethoven  highly  appreciated  the  air  of  "  God 
save  the  King."  He  used  it  as  a  theme  for  a  set  of 
seven  variations  in  C  for  the  pianoforte  in  1804 ;  he 
arranged  it  for  solo  and  chorus  with  accompaniments 
for  pianoforte,  violin,  and  violoncello ;  and  he  com- 
posed, in  1813,  a  work  entitled  "  Wellington's  Sieg 
oder  Schlacht  bei  Vittoria,"  which  he  dedicated  to 
George,  the  Prince  Regent  of  England.  This 
orchestral  piece  contains  the  air,  and  whilst  working 
at  the  score,  Beethoven  inscribed  in  his  diary 
"  Ich  muss  den  Englandern  ein  wenig  zeigen, 
was  in  dem  '  God  save  the  King '  fur  ein  Segen  ist  " 
(I  must  show  the  English  a  little,  what  a  blessing 
they  have  in  their  "  God  save  the  King"). 

The  subjoined  facsimile  is  taken  from  one  of 
Beethoven's  sketch  -  books,  now  in  the  British 
Museum  (Add.  MSS.  29,801.  /82a).  It  is  not 
possible  to  ascertain  for  what  particular  work  he 
intended  these  bars.  The  pianoforte  variations, 
as  stated  above,  are  in  C,  whilst  this  sketch  is 
in  G.  The  words  written  over  the  last  bar,  "  mit 
dem  Beinschieber,"  seem  to  have  reference  to  the 
lever  which  is  to  be  found  in  Stein's  and  other 
German  pianofortes  of  the  time.  The  performer 
could,  by  pressing  the  lever  with  the  knee,  raise 
the  dampers  over  the  strings. 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


Weber  was  also  very  fond  of  the  tune  of  "  God 
save  the  King."  He  introduced  it  into  his  cantata, 
"  KampfundSieg"  (No.  9),  in  his  "  Jubel"  Overture, 
and  twice  arranged  it  for  voices,  in  the  keys  of  D 
and  B  flat. 

In  America,  the  tune  of  "  God  save  the  King  "  was 
adapted  to  a  hymn  at  a  very  early  period  and 
printed  in  a  book  entitled  : — 

Urania  or  a  choice  selection  of  Psalm-tunes,  Anthems 
and  Hymns,  from  the  most  approved  authors,  with  some 
entirely  new  ;  in  two,  three  and  four  parts,  the  whole  peculiarly 
adapted  to  the  use  of  Churches  and  private  families ;  to  which 
are  preGxed  the  plainest  and  most  necessary  rules  of  Psalmody, 
by  James  Lyon,  A.B. 

The  title-page  is  handsomely  "engraved  by  Henry 
Dawkins,  1761."  The  place  of  publication  is  not 
mentioned,  but  it  is  believed  to  have  been  at 
Philadelphia,  soon  after  1761.  The  music  and  hymn 
are  called  "  Whitefield's."  The  hymn  commences 
with  the  words  "  Come,  Thou  Almighty  King," 
and  as  they  appear  in  the  sixth  edition  of 
G.  Whitefield's  collection,  published  in  London 
in  1757,  the  adoption  of  the  name  is  accounted  for. 

Another  set  of  words  adapted  to  the  tune  of  "God 
save  the  King"  is  very  popular  in  the  United  States. 
They  were  written  by  Charles  Timothy  Brooks, 
Unitarian  Minister,  of  Salem,  Massachusetts,  born 
in  1813.  The  first  verse  commences: — 

God  bless  our  native  land  ; 
Firm  may  she  ever  stand  ; 

Through  storm  and  night. 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


SOUVENIRS  DE  LA  MARQUISE   DE    CREQUI,   1710  A  1800. 

TOMES    PREMIER    ET    SECOND.      PARIS.       1834.* 

Infinite  are  the  shapes  of  falsehood  and  depuisfeu  Protee,  as 
Madame  du  Deffand  pleasantly  says,  nothing  can  equal  the 
versatility  of  a  Parisian  manufacturer  of  memoirs.  One 
day  he  is  a  dramatist — the  next  a  bishop — by  and  by  a  monarch 
— then  a  jacobin — and  in  succession,  a  minister  of  state,  and  a 
thief-taker — a  damsel  of  the  Palais  Royal,  and  a  duchess  of  the 
Louvre.  That  there  was  a  Madame  de  Crequi,  who  lived  to  a 
great  old  age,  and  was  remarkable  for  a  lively  youth  and  an 
aimable  vieillesse,  is  very  well  known  ;  but  that  she  wrote  these 
volumes  is,  we  confidently  believe  to  be,  the  most  insigne 
mensonge  that  ever  was  propounded.  The  fabricators  are  hard 
pushed  ;  they  find  that  the  memoirs  of  men,  and  particularly  of 
men  of  the  present,  or  even  of  the  last,  generation,  are  liable 
to  be  tried,  and,  if  false,  detected,  by  tests  which  no  ingenuity 
can  elude.  A  man  is  either  a  statesman  or  a  soldier — a  cleric 
or  a  commis—3.  lawyer  or  a  litterateur — and  the  sayings  and 
doings  of  such  men  leave  traces  in  their  several  walks  of  life 
which  can  neither  be  imitated  nor  obliterated.  A  forgery  is 
in  such  cases  easily  detected,  and  the  trade,  instead  of  being 
profitable,  becomes  a  losing  concern.  They  have  now,  there- 
fore, thought  it  prudent  to  try  what  they  can  do  in  female 
attire.  The  commerage  of  an  old  lady  deals  little  in  that  class 
of  facts  or  dates  which,  being  preserved  in  authentic  history, 
afford  the  best  test  of  the  authenticity  of  memoirs ;  and  they 
are  now  trying  how  far  the  public  may  be  deluded  by  that 
trivial  gossip,  as  to  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  which  few  care, 
and  still  fewer  examine. 

Some  of  these  manufacturers,  looking  about  for  a  subject 
proper  for  their  purpose,  have  lighted  upon  Madame  de  Crequi, 
a  lady  who — as  the  Biographies  tell  us  and  them — '  died  at  a 
very  advanced  age  in  1803  ;  who  was  remarkable  for  social  and 
conversational  talents  ;  and  who  left  behind  her  several  manu- 
scripts.' 'Upon  that  hint  they  speak;'  and  this,  we  believe, 
is  all  that  the  author  of  this  work  knows  of  the  lady,  in  whose 

*   Reprinted  from  the  Quarterly  Review,  March  and  June,  1834. 
(      I"      ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


name  and  character  he  writes.  He  found,  in  two  or  three 
authentic  works,  notices  of  a  Madame  de  Crequi — stated  to 
have  been  born  under  Louis  XIV.,  and  to  have  died  under 
Napoleon ;  and  he  therefore  adopted  her  life  as  a  canvass  on 
which  he  might  fearlessly  spread  all  the  anecdotic  colours 
which  he  could  collect  from  Dangeau,  St.  Simon,  Bachaumont, 
Marmontel,  Walpole,  and  Mesdames  de  Sevigne,  Maintenon, 
De  Stael,  and  Du  Deffand. 

The  French  critics  believe — (it  is  wonderful  how  credulous 
French  critics  are  prior  to  a  detection,  and  how  clear-sighted 
they  become  when  a  forgery  is  proved) — the  French  critics  we 
say,  affect  to  believe  that  there  is  a  petit  noyeau  de  verite  which 
is  swelled  into  its  present  bulk  by  a  vast  deal  of  supposititious 
matter  :  in  short,  that  some  scattered  manuscripts  of  Madame 
de  Crequi  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  editor,  who  has 
diluted  her  spirit  into  the  gallons  of  washy  stuff  which  fill  these 
two  octavos,  and  which  are  destined — if  the  public  will  but 
consent  to  be  duped — to  fill  ten  or  a  dozen  similar  tomes.  This 
theory  we  absolutely  disbelieve.  We  do  not  think  that  there  is 
one  genuine  drop  of  Madame  de  Crequi  in  the  whole  publica- 
tion ;  we  are  confident,  and  shall  prove,  that  the  '  Memoires' 
are,  in  every  point  of  view,  a  complete  forgery — the  grossest  and 
most  impudent  of  impostures ;  for  not  only  are  the  facts  false,  and 
the  work  spurious,  but  the  very  person  to  whom  they  are 
attributed  is  a  phantom  created  by  the  ignorance  of  the  fabricator, 
who,  having  very  ridiculously  mistaken  one  lady  of  the  family 
of  Crequi  for  another,  builds  his  whole  edifice  on  this  funda- 
mental blunder.  This  seems  incredible,  but  we  think  we  can 
put  it  beyond  all  doubt.  The  account  the  editor  gives  of  his 
author  is  as  follows : — 

'Rente  Charlotte  Victoire  de  Froulay  de  Tesse,  Marchioness 
of  Crequy,  of  Heymont,  of  Canaples,  &c.,  was  one  of  the 
women  of  her  day  the  most  remarkable  for  superiority  and 
originality  of  mind.  She  died  at  the  age  of  near  an  hundred. 
She  had  been  presented  to  Louis  XIV.  in  1713,  and  had  had 
an  audience  of  the  First  Consul  in  the  twelfth  year  of  the 
republic  (1804).' — Prospectus. 

The  date  of  her  birth  is  not  given ;  but  as  she  was  only  near 
an  hundred  when  she  died,  and  as  she  was  presented  to  the 
First  Consul  in  September,  1804,  she  must  have  been  born,  at 
soonest,  in  1705,  and  must  therefore  have  been  presented  to 
Louis  XIV.  when  she  was  eight  years  old.  This  little  difficulty, 


GOD  SAVE   THE  KING. 


however,  was  discovered  between  the  publication  of  the 
Prospectus  and  that  of  the  work  itself;  and  in  the  latter  SHE  is 
made  to  palliate  the  inconsistency  by  saying  that  she  is  not 
sure  whether  she  was  born  in  1699  or  in  1700,  or  in  1701 — that 
she  left  her  convent  in  Brittany,  and  came  to  Paris  in  the  last 
days  of  1713 — that  she  saw  Louis  twice  or  thrice  between  that 
period  and  his  death  in  1715 — that  she  was  married  during  or 
immediately  after  the  mourning  for  that  prince — and  that  her 
interview  with  Buonaparte  was  on  Septidi  de  la  troisieme 
decade  de  Vendemiaire,  an  xi  (2jth  Sept.,  1803),  so  that,  instead 
of  being  near  an  hundred,  as  the  Prospectus  announced,  she 
was  by  her  own  account,  at  least  one  hundred  and  two,  or 
perhaps  one  hundred  and  four. 

But  little  interested  as  we  feel  in  the  private  history  of  the 
Froulay  family,  we  are  enabled  to  remove  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  uncertainty  under  which  the  lady  is  represented 
as  labouring  as  to  the  year  of  her  birth.  She  says  her  mother 
died  an  hour  before  she  was  born — that  her  father  was  then  at 
the  head  of  his  regiment  on  the  frontiers  of  Germany — that  he 
was  soon  after  made  prisoner  by  the  enemy,  and  remained  so 
for  seventeen  months,  and  never  heard  of  her  birth  nor  of  her 
mother's  death  till  his  arrival  at  Versailles,  where  his  uncle, 
the  Marechal  de  Tesse,  informed  him  of  these  events,  and 
obliged  him  to  put  himself  into  mourning.  Now  it  happens  to 
be  known  ('  Memoires  de  Tesse,'  t.  i.  p.  182)  that  the  Count  de 
Tesse  (he  was  not  Marechal  till  1703)  left  Versailles  on  the  4th 
December,  1700,  for  Italy,  where  he  remained  for  some  years 
in  command  of  the  French  army,  so  that  it  was  not  later  than 
the  3d  December,  1700,  that  he  could  have  seen  at  Versailles 
Madame  de  Crequi's  father — who  was  not,  soit  dit  en  passant, 
his  nephew.  Deduct  the  seventeen  months  of  captivity  from 
that  date,  and  we  are  brought  back  to  July,  1699,  as  the  latest 
possible  day  for  the  birth  of  our  heroine — she  was,  therefore, 
thirteen  and  a  half  when  she  left  her  convent — fourteen  or 
fifteen  when  she  was  presented  to  Louis  XIV.,  and  near 
seventeen  at  her  marriage — all  much  more  credible  than 
the  other  story ;  but  then  '  incidit  in  Scyllam  cupiens  vitare 
Charibdim,'  she  must  have  been  not  near  an  hundred,  but 
above  one  hundred  and  four  at  her  interview  with  Buonaparte, 
if  it  took  place  An  XI. — as  she  says — and  above  one  hundred 
and  five — if  it  took  place,  as  the  editor  originally  announced, 
An  XII.  Imagine  a  lady  writing  her  memoirs  at  one  hundred 
(  "3  ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


and  four !  But  it  may  be  said  that  she  only  added  a  few  notes 
at  this  very  advanced  age,  and  that  the  great  body  of  the 
Memoirs  was  written  some  years  before.  They  were  written, 
she  says,  for  the  instruction  of  her  grandson ;  and  the  editor 
tells  us  that  he  died  long  before  his  grandmother — very  well — 
but  if  this  were  so,  why,  when  she  was  correcting  and  adding 
notes  to  her  Memoirs  in  1803,  did  she  leave  untouched  the 
Dedication  to  her  grandson,  who  had  been  long  dead;  and  why, 
in  the  very  note  which  records  her  interview  with  Buonaparte, 
does  she  still  talk,  as  if  to  her  grandson,  of  the  consul's  promise 
to  restore  to  them  '  our  forfeited  estates  ? '  for,  after  this  grand- 
son's death,  there  was  no  one  to  whom  she  could  have 
designated  the  estates  as  ours.  And  why  does  she,  in  a 
passage,  which  must,  as  appears  from  the  context,  have  been 
written  subsequent  to  1793,  address  her  grandson  as  a  child — 
je  votis  conterai  une  histoire  de  voleur,  mon  petit  prince — (vol.  ii. 
p.  65) — when  we  see  from  another  passage  (vol.  i.  p.  137)  that 
the  petit  prince  (who  never  was  a  prince  at  all)  must  have  been 
born  prior  to  1756  ? 

But  every  page  of  the  work  proves,  by  its  style  and  topics, 
that  it  is  of  very  recent  composition.  This,  if  it  were  worth 
while  to  enter  into  such  details,  we  think  we  could  prove,  from 
the  idiom  and  orthography ;  nay,  we  are  convinced  by  several 
political  allusions,  that  it  has  been  wholly  written  since  the 
revolution  of  July.  But  such  an  examination  would  be,  as  our 
readers  will  see  presently,  a  perfect  waste  of  time  in  so  flagrant 
a  case  as  this.  We  shall  content  ourselves  with  two  or  three 
instances,  which  will  prove  that  they  are  of  too  recent  date  to 
be  the  production  of  the  imputed  author. 

In  many  passages  of  the  work,  the  author  quotes  and  fre- 
quently criticises  and  contradicts  the  Memoirs  of  St.  Simon, 
and,  indeed,  St.  Simon  supplies  a  very  considerable  part  of  the 
matter  of  the  work.  Now,  the  Memoirs  of  St.  Simon  were  not 
published  till  1788,  and  then  but  imperfectly,  while  this  writer 
alludes  to  more  recent  additions.  We  hear  of  the  National 
Assembly  (vol.  ii.  p.  123),  and  of  the  Revolutionary  Tribunal 
(p.  132),  and  specifically  of  Philippe  Egalite  (p.  33),  and 
Citizen  Foucke  (p.  104),  and  in  the  midst  of  a  story,  in  which 
she  apostrophizes  her  grandson  as  still  living,  she  talks  of  the 
horrors  of  1793  as  already  a  matter  of  history.  All  this  brings 
the  composition  of  the  work  down  to,  at  the  earliest,  1794, 
at  which  time  she  would  be  about  ninety-Jive  years  old — rather 
(  "4  ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


an  advanced  age  to  commence  writing  thirteen  volumes  of 
memoirs — for  such  we  are  told  is  the  extent  of  her  work. 
'  Credat  Judgus  ! '  But  what  follows  would  be  too  much  for 
the  credulity,  we  will  not  say  of  a  Jew,  but  even  of  the  Parisian 
public.  The  fictitious  marquise  thinks  it  necessary  to  be 
acquainted  with  all  the  eminent  persons  of  the  century  em- 
braced by  her  Memoirs,  and  accordingly  she  introduces,  about 
the  year  1714,  the  Marquis  Dangeau. 

'  They  said  at  the  time  (on  disait  alors)  that  he  was  writing 
his  memoirs,  and  when  they  appeared  (quand  je  les  ai  vu 
paraitre)  they  seemed  to  me  neither  more  interesting  or  less 
insignificant  than  their  author.' — vol.  i.  p.  128. 

Now,  the  Memoirs  of  the  Marquis  Dangeau  did  not  appear 
till  1817,  fourteen  years  after  Madame  de  Crequi's  death. 
These,  and  a  hundred  other  anachronisms  are  not  in  stray 
paragraphs,  or  explanatory  notes,  or  subsequent  insertions — 
they  are  interwoven  with  the  body  of  the  work,  and  accom- 
panied by,  and  dovetailed  into  the  most  elaborate  falsehoods 
and  fabrications.  Let  us  give  our  readers  another  example : — 
In  a  visit  to  Rome  in  1722,  Madame  de  Crequi  is  represented  as 
meeting  a  '  certain  Duchess  of  Bedford  and  her  daughter,' 
'  Milady  Marquionesse  (as  her  mother  called  her)  de  Tavistock,'' 
who  are  the  most  ridiculous  personages  that  can  be  imagined, 
and  of  whom,  particularly  of  the  Marquionesse  de  Tavistock, 
the  Memoirs  tell  us  the  most  absurd  stories.  It  may  be  very 
true,  as  the  Memoirs  say,  that  all  Englishwomen  are  mad  and 
vulgar — but  at  least  the  lady  here  specially  attacked  must  be 
acquitted  of  the  specific  charges  made  against  her — for  luckily 
there  happens  to  have  been  no  Lady  Tavistock  between  the 
yeats  1700  and  1764.  In  1722,  there  existed  a  Duchess 
Dowager  of  Bedford,  (who  died  in  1724,  at  Streatham,)  and 
in  1725,  her  son,  the  third  duke,  married  Lady  Anne  Egerton, 
and  it  was  not  till  the  marriage  of  the  son  of  the  fourth 
duke  in  1764,  that  there  was  a  Marchioness  of  Tavistock. 

But  it  is  mere  waste  of  time  to  dwell  on  such  trifles — we  now 
revert  to  our  former  statement,  that  not  merely  is  the  book 
spurious,  but  the  lady  to  whom  it  is  attributed  is  a  phantom  of 
the  fabricator's  imagination.  We  beg  our  reader's  attention  to 
the  exposure  of  this  miraculous  mistake. 

We  find  in  the  French  Biographic  Universelle,  article 
CREQUI,  the  following  notice  : — 

'  The  Marquise  de  Crequi  (married  in  1720  to  the  Marquis 

(     "5     ) 


GOD   SAVE   THE  KING. 


de  Crequi)  deserves  to  be  reckoned  amongst  the  most  celebrated 
women  of  the  eighteenth  century.  She  loved  literature  and 
cultivated  it,  and  died  in  Paris  in  1803,  at  a  great  age,  leaving 
a  fine  library  to  her  executors,  and  several  manuscripts — 
amongst  others,  Thoughts  and  Reflections  on  different 
Subjects.' 

Here  we  have  the  germ  of  these  Memoirs — a  Madame  de 
Crequi,  of  great  wit  and  talents,  who  dies  at  a  great  age,  who 
might  have  seen  both  Louis  XIV.  and  the  First  Consul,  and 
bequeaths  copious  manuscripts  to  her  executors — and  this  is, 
no  doubt,  the  lady  of  whom  the  Princess  des  Ursins  writes  (as 
triumphantly  quoted  by  the  editor)  from  Rome,  in  1722. 

'  The  young  Marquise  de  Crequi  is  distinguished  by  the 
dignity  of  her  manners,  the  graces  of  her  mind,  the  originality 
of  her  conversation,  and  the  propriety  of  her  conduct.' — 
vol.  i.  p.  2. 

The  editor  quotes  also,  with  great  confidence  and  com- 
placency, the  eulogies  of  Voltaire  and  Rousseau,  and  (so  late 
as  1788)  of  Delille.  All  this  looks  at  first  sight  like  an 
important,  and,  indeed,  conclusive  corroboration  of  the 
authenticity  of  these  Memoirs ;  but  alas !  alas !  we  hardly 
know  how  to  announce  so  direful  a  denouement  of  this  fable — 
there  have  been  TWO  Marquises  de  Crequi — the  one  the  lady 
mentioned  in  the  Biographic,  whose  maiden  name  was  Anne 
Louise  Lefevre  d'Auxy,  and  who  was  married  in  1720,  and 
whose  husband  died  in  1771 ;  and  the  other — the  lady  to  whom 
these  Memoirs  are  attributed — Renee  Charlotte  de  Froulay, 
the  wife  of  a  gentleman  of  another  branch  of  the  Crequi 
family,  which,  on  the  death  of  the  husband  of  Anne,  in  1771, 
claimed  the  Marquisate  of  Crequi.  Anne  Lefevre  d'Auxy  was, 
no  doubt,  born  early  in  the  century,  as  she  was  married  in  1720, 
and  she  was  the  only  Marquise  de  Crequi  existing  till  1771. 
Renee  de  Froulay  was  not  born  till  1715,  (the  year  in  which  the 
author  of  the  Memoirs  pretends  she  was  married  ;) — she  was 
really  married  in  1737  to  the  Marquis  de  Heymont,  and  her  son 
became,  on  the  death  of  his  cousin  —  in  1771— Marquis  de 
Crequi,  and  she  may,  for  aught  we  know,  have  also  called 
herself  Madame  de  Crequi.  All  this  will  be  made  quite  clear 
by  the  following  tabular  view  of  the  genealogy  of  the  family, 
extracted  from  Moreri  and  La  Chesnay  des  Bois. 

(     "6     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


oo  £ 

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>,  O   3 

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•3-5       - 


(     "7    ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


So  that  the  centenaire  Madame  de  Crequi  (if  ever  such  a 
centenairc  existed)  was  Anne  Lefevre  d'Auxy,  the  aunt,  a  la 
mode  de  Bretagne,  of  Renee  de  Froulay,  who,  in  the  Memoirs, 
usurps  her  age,  her  place,  and  her  honours.  What  could  have 
led  to  this  extraordinary  blunder  we  cannot  venture  positively 
to  assert,  but  we  suspect  that  an  error  in  the  Biographic  has 
misled  the  fabricator.  We  doubt  that  the  lady  who  died  in 
1803  was  Anne  Lefevre ;  we  rather  think  it  was  Renee  de 
Froulay,  because  we  know  that  the  Baron  de  Breteuil  inherited 
some  property  from  the  lady  who  died  in  1803,  and  the 
Breteuils  were  certainly  allied  to  the  Froulays,  and  not,  that  we 
can  discover,  to  the  Lefevres  d'Auxy.  But  as  Renee  de 
Froulay,  who  was  born  after  the  death  of  Louis  XIV.,  would 
not  have  answered  the  fabricator's  purpose,  he  confounds  her 
with  her  aunt ;  and  by  taking  the  birth  of  one  and  the  death  of 
the  other,  he  completes  his  fable  of  a  '  centenaire.'  We  see, 
indeed,  that  the  fabricator  had  some  misgivings  that  he  was  not 
on  sure  ground.  He  says  Madame  de  Crequi  complains  of  the 
inaccuracies  of  the  dates  in  Moreri  and  La  Chesnay  des  Bois. 
This  it  was  quite  necessary  to  do,  because,  having  set  out  with 
the  wrong  person,  he  found  it  impossible  to  manage  the  dates, 
and  he  hoped  to  evade  detection  by  thus  denying  the  authorities 
which  he  could  not  reconcile :  but  he  does  not  seem  to  have 
any  suspicion  that  the  cause  of  his  difficulties  was  his  having 
got,  if  we  may  use  Queen  Bess's  homely  expression,  the  wrong 
sow  by  the  ear.  Biographies  and  genealogies  are,  we  well 
know,  very  liable  to  errors  of  date,  but  such  a  mistake  as  Anne 
Lefevre  d'Auxy  in  one  generation,  for  Renee  de  Froulay  in 
another,  we  hardly  think  possible.  But  it  is  remarkable  that, 
in  this  case,  there  seems  additional  reason  for  giving  credit  to 
the  genealogists.  First,  the  Biographic  Universelle  does 
not  copy  the  genealogies,  yet  agrees  with  them 
as  to  the  birth  and  marriage  of  Anne  Lefevre:  secondly, 
the  edition  of  Moreri,  in  1728,  makes  no  mention  of  Renee  de 
Froulay — which  it  would  have  probably  done  had  she  been 
married  in  1715 — but  the  edition  of  1759,  which  continues  the 
history  of  the  family,  introduces  Renee  as  married  to  the 
Marquis  de  Heymont  in  1737  :  thirdly,  in  the  edition  of  La 
Chesnay  des  Bois,  in  1772,  that  writer  continues  still  further 
the  genealogy,  and  notices  the  death  of  James,  Marquis  de 
Crequi,  in  the  preceding  year,  and  adds,  '  that  by  this  event 
Charles,  the  son  of  Renee  de  Froulay,  has  become  ?*larquis  de 

(     "8     ) 


GOD   SAVE   THE   KING. 


Crequi :'  and,  fourthly,  we  find  that  the  genealogies  of  the  two 
different  families  of  Tesse  and  Crequi  agree  in  the  same  story. 
That  of  the  Crequi  family  is  given  in  the  foregoing  table  :  and 
in  that  of  the  Froulay  family  it  is  stated  that  '  Rente  Charlotte 
de  Froulay  was  married  on  the  i8th  of  March,  1737,  to  Louis 
de  Crequi,  Marquis  de  Heymont,  cadet  de  la  branche 
ainee  de  la  maison  de  Crequi.'  We  must  further  remark 
that  out  of  this  genealogy  of  the  Froulays  arises  another 
remarkable  contradiction  in  point  of  fact  to  the  statements  of 
the  Memoirs.  The  Marquise  Rente  is  made  to  say,  that  the 
death  of  her  brother  in  his  youth  was,  by  her  thus  becoming 
an  heiress,  the  cause  of  her  marriage  with  M.  de  Crequi. 
Now,  it  appears,  if  any  faith  is  due  to  history,  that  Renee's 
brother,  the  Marquis  de  Froulay,  survived  her  marriage 
above  eight  years ;  and  that,  so  far  from  dying  a  youth  prior  to 
1713,  he  was  a  general  officer,  killed  at  the  battle  of  Lafeldt, 
nth  July,  1745. 

Our  readers  may  ask  how  it  is  possible  that  any  man  of 
common  sense  and  of  the  most  superficial  literature  could 
fall  into  such  extraordinary — such  obvious  mistakes?  We 
might  content  ourselves  with  replying,  in  the  words  of 
Moliere — 

'  Vous  avez  raison  ;  et  ia  chose,  a  chacun, 
Hors  de  creance  doit  paroitre ; 

Un  conte  extravagant,  ridicule,  importun, 

Cela  choque  le  sens  commun — 
Mais  cela  ne  laisse  pas  d'etre  !' 

We  have  only  to  state  the  facts,  and  cannot  be  expected  to 
account  for  such  strange  inaccuracy  ;  but  the  bold  ignorance  of 
some  modern  French  writers  is  quite  amazing.  We  proved  in  a 
former  number*  that  M.  Lemontey — the  editor  of  Dangeau's 
'  Memoirs  ' — the  author  of  an  historical  [essay  on  the  reign  of 
Louis  XIV.,  on  the  strength  of  which  essay  he  was  elected  into 
the  French  Academy — showed,  in  that  said  essay,  that  he  had 
never  read  (though  he  did  not  fail  to  quote)  the  '  Memoirs'  of 
St.  Simon,  and  had  attributed  to  an  anonymous  satirist — '  whose 
name  he  lamented  he  could  not  discover ' — some  of  the  most 
remarkable  and  best  known  passages  of  St.  Simon's  work. 
After  such  an  example  of  the  learning  of  the  academicians,  we 
cannot  be  surprised  at  any  degree  of  ignorance  in  the  obscure 

*  See  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  XIX.  p.  476. 
(     "9     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE   KING. 


tribe  who  live  by  that  disreputable  class  of  fabrications  which 
it  has  of  late  been  our  duty  to  expose. 

We  add,  that  the  literary  merit  of  the  work  is  worse  than 
nothing — vulgar  trash — stupid  threadbare  stories,  not  only 
common  to  all  the  French  jest-books,  but  to  be  found  in  our 
own  Joe  Miller — indecent  in  many  passages,  disgusting  in 
more,  contemptible  in  all. 


***  Since  writing  the  above,  we  have  received  from  Paris  the 
result  of  a  search  which  we  caused  to  be  made  in  the  official 
registers  of  burial  in  that  city.  It  confirms  all  we  have  said, 
and  all  we  suspected.  The  lady  who  died  in  1803,  (14  Pluviose, 
an.  xi.)  was  Renee  de  Froulay — born  in  1715 — the  widow  of 
Louis  Marie  de  Crequi.  This  settles  the  matter 


(     120     ) 


GOD   SAVE    THE  KING. 


HENRY  CAREY  ON  COPYRIGHT. 

All  Authors  are  ambitious  of  reputation,  tho'  few 
obtain  it.  I  am  resolv'd  to  stand  Candidate,  how- 
ever ;  if  I  succeed,  it  will  overpay  my  Labours ;  if  I 
fail,  it  shall  be  a  Warning  to  me  for  the  future. 

—Cantatas.     1724.     By  HENRY  CAREY. 

In  the  first  edition  of  "The  Musical  Century," 
published  in  1737,  Carey,  in  the  Preface,  alludes  to 
the  absence  of  copyright  for  musical  works,  as 
follows  : — 

As  these  little  Labours  are  the  Offspring  of  my  own  Brain,  I 
confess  I  retain  a  paternal  Concern  for  them,  and  am  willing 
to  send  them  into  the  World  in  the  best  Manner  I  am  able. 

Besides,  many  of  my  Friends  being  willing  to  collect  'em, 
I  chose  this  method  of  Publication,  for  here  they  have  them 
Compleat  and  Correct,  in  one  Entire  Edition  of  my  own,  at  less 
than  the  tenth  Part  of  the  Expence,  they  must  otherwise  be  at 
to  purchase  them,  as  scattered  Abroad  in  false  and  surreptitious 
Scraps  and  Miscellanies,  published  by  other  Hands. 

What  retarded  the  Publication  thus  long,  was  the  Prospect, 
I  had  from  an  Act  depending  in  Parliament,  for  securing  the 
right  of  copies  to  Authors  or  their  Assigns,  &c.,  it  being  almost 
incredible  how  much  I  have  suffer'd  by  having  my  Works 
Pyrated  ;  my  loss  on  that  Account,  for  many  Years  past, 
amounting  to  near  £300  per  Annum.  As  the  Justice  of  such 
a  Law  is  self  Evident ;  and  an  Act  already  made  in  Favour  of 
Engravers,  I  doubt  not  but  the  Wisdom  and  Humanity  of  the 
Legislature,  will  regulate  this  Affair,  not  confining  the  property 
of  Authors,  &c.,  to  one  particular  Branch,  but  extending  it  to 
the  Benefit  of  Arts  and  Sciences  in  General. 

This  method  of  Subscription,  is  the  only  one  I  can  take  to 
defend  me  from  Pyrates,  and  as  I  publish  so  cheap  none  can 
well  undersell  me. 

(       "I       ) 


GOD  SAVE  THE  KING. 


SONG 

Written  and  Composed  by  CHARLES  DIBDIN 

For  his  Entertainment  called  The  Quizes,  or  A  Trip  to  Elysium.     Printed  and 

sold  by  the  Author  at  his  Music  Warehouse,  No.  in  Strand,  opposite  the 

Adelphi  (1792). 

All  true  honest  Britons,  I  pray  you  draw  near  ; 

Bear  a  bob  in  the  chorus  to  hail  the  new  year  ; 

Join  the  mode  of  the  times,  and  with  heart  and  voice  sing 

A  good  old  English  burden — 'tis  "  God  save  the  King  !  " 

Let  the  year  Ninety-three 

Commemorated  be 

To  time's  end ;  for  so  long  loyal  Britons  shall  sing 
Heart  and  voice,  the  good  choius  of  "  God  save  the  King ! " 

See  with  two  different  faces  old  Janus  appear, 
To  frown  out  the  old,  and  smile  in  the  new  year ; 
And  then,  while  he  proves  a  well-wisher  to  crowns, 
On  the  loyal  he  smiles,  on  the  factious  he  frowns. 

For  in  famed  Ninety-three, 

Britons  all  shall  agree, 

With  one  voice  and  one  heart  in  a  chorus  to  sing, 
Drowning  faction  and  party  in  "  God  save  the  King ! " 

Some  praise  a  new  freedom  imported  from  France  : 
Is  liberty  taught  them  like  teaching  to  dance  ? 
They  teach  freedom  to  Britons  !  our  own  right  divine ! 
A  rushlight  might  as  well  teach  the  sun  how  to  shine ! 

In  fam'd  Ninety-three, 

We'll  convince  them  we're  free  ! 
Free  from  every  licentiousness  faction  can  bring ; 
Free  with  heart  and  with  voice  to  sing  "  God  save  the  King  !  " 

Thus,  here  though  French  fashions  may  please  for  their  day, 
As  children  prize  playthings,  then  throw  them  away  ; 
In  a  country  like  England  they  never  do  hurt ; 
We  improved  on  the  ruffle,  by  adding  the  skirt. 

Thus  in  famed  Ninety-three 

Britons  all  shall  agree, 

While  with  one  heart  and  voice  in  loud  chorus  they  sing 
To  improve  "  Ca'ira  "  into  "  God  save  the  King!" 
(     122     ) 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Aberdeen  (Cantus) 65 

Academy  of  Ancient  Music ...       40 

American  Version      ...         ...         ...     no 

Arne      33,  85 

Augusta  (Princess  of  Wales)  40 

Bach it 

Balnea,  The 46 

Banks,  Sir  Joseph     ...       37 

Banquet  (Merchant  Taylors')         ...         ...         ...       89 

Beard 33.8s 

Beethoven's  Opinion  i,  108 

Blow     ...         ...         12 

Bull      4,5,17,18,25,59,69,73-82,91 

Bull — portrait  (1625)  ...         Frontispiece 

Bull— portrait  (1589)  98 

Burney  33,  34,  35,  38,  55 

Byrde 7,  92 

Cantus  (Forbes)         65 

Carey i,  35,  45,  52,  56,  68,  121 

Chappell          ..          ...  19,  22 

Chrysander 54 

Cibber 33-85 

Clark i 

Clark,  Mrs 28 

Copyright  (Carey)     ...         ...         ...         ...  .  .         ...     121 

Cousen  de  St.  Malo  ...         ...         ...         59 

Covent  Garden  Theatre       ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...       30 

Danish  Version          ...         ...  ...  ...  ...         ...  ...  106 

Death  or  Victory       ...         ...  ...  ...  ...         ...  ...  52 

Dibdin ...         ...        ...        ...  ...  ...  46,  122 

(  123  )                                           i 


INDEX. 

PAGE 

Drury  Lane  Theatre  ...  30-32 

Dutch  Version  ...     105 

Elizabeth,  Queen       ...         92 

Fame  let  thy  trumpet  sound          43 

Forbes  (Cantus)         65 

Forkel 106 

Garrick  ...         ...         ...         ...         ...       33 

Gauntlett        23,  27 

Gentleman's  Magazine         29,  51 

German  Version         ...         ...         106 

God  save  our  Lord  the  King          ...         69 

God  save  the  King 9,  10,  12,  20,  29,  32,  33,  44,  73,  82 

God  save  the  King  (Foreign  Versions)      105 

God  save  the  King,  I  pray ...         ...       64 

Gould,  Rev.  Baring  ...         ...         ...         ...         I 

Grand  Dieu,  sauvez  le  Roy...         ...         ...       60 

Gresham  College       91 

Gyles 4 

Handel  42,  56,  61 

Harington       48 

Harmonia  Anglicana  30,  32 

Harries  106 

He  comes,  the  hero  comes 51 

Heidegger       42 

Hiks,  Sir  Michaell 94 

Houghton,  Lord        •••       58 

Hunter 14 

Jones     ...         ...         ...         ...         ...       10 

Jonson  3,  7,  13,  89,  90 

King  of  Hanover       20,22,26 

King  James  I.  ...         ...         ...         ...         •••         3 

King  James  II.  34 

Kitchener        10,  17 

La  lire  Mafonne        105 

Learn,  ye  Britons      52 

Lully 59,  60,  61 

(     "4     ) 


INDEX. 

PAGE 

Mackay  ...         63 

Madden,  Sir  Francis  ..         ...         15,  26 

Maintenon,  Madame  de       •••       59 

Marquise  de  Crequi,  Souvenirs  de  la        59,111 

Melismata       65 

Merchant  Taylors'  Company        2,3,89 

Messaus  ...         ...         ...         ...  18,  99 

Muses  Delight,  The 42 

Music — 

Bull's  Ayre.    Copied  by  Rimbault       20 

Fame  let  thy  trumpet  sound       44 

God  save  the  Kinge  (Bull)          73 

Ditto  82 

God  save  our  Lord  the  King  (1740)      83 

Ditto  (i745)      84 

God  save  our  noble  King  (Arne's  score)          85 

Largo  (Purcell)      67 

Lesson  (Purcell) ...         ...         68 

O  lasterziek  Gemeen         105 

Remember,  O  thou  man 66 

Musical  Century        53 

Musical  Miscellany ...         52 

Non  nobis,  Domine 7,  13 

O  Deus  Optime          38 

O  good  God,  preserve  our  King     ...         ...        ...        39 

Oswald  31,  103 

Pepusch          8,  40 

Perth,  Duchess  of 60 

Phillipps          ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         36 

Purcell  12,  66,  67,  68 

Ravenscroft     ...         ...         ...         ...       66 

Reinhold          33,  85 

Remember,  O  thou  man      66 

Rimbault          13,  19,  41,  54 

Royal  Society  of  Musicians  57 

St.  Cyr  59 

Saville 13,  15 

(     "5     ) 


INDEX. 

PAGE 

Schumacher    ...         ...         ...         ...     106 

Scottish  Origin          ...       63 

Sheppard,  Rev.  Edgar         31 

Smart,  Sir  George 21.82 

Smith 48,  53,  56 

Stevens           ...        ...        ...  ...      40 

Stow1  s  Annals           ...        ...        ...  ...        5 

Thesaurus  Musicus ...         ...         ...         ...      29,  31,  43 

Travers  ...         ...         ...         ...       39 

Trumbull        96 

Victor 33 

Wade,  Marshal         48 

Walpole,  Horace       ...        ...  34 

Walter                        ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  94 

Ward 

Warren            ...         ...         ...  16 

Weber             no 

Wooldridge,  Professor         ...  30,  65 


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