"GOD SAVE THE KING"

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1574, 15 November 1924, Page 6

"GOD SAVE THE KING"

ORIGIN OF THE NATIONAL

ANTHEM.

It has been said that the authorship of "God Save the Ring" once excited as much controversy as the authorship of the " Letters of Junius " (says a writer in the Weekly Scotsman). Many believed it to have been composed by Dr John Bull for King James I. in 1667. In endeavouring to arrive at the date, we may derive a little help from the Memoirs or Madame de Crequy, wherein it is stated tlhat "God Save the Ring" is an almost literal translation of the Cantique sung by the demoiselles de St. Syr when Louis XIV. entered the chapel of that establishment. The words were attributed to M. de Brinon and the music to Lully:— Grand Dieu, sauve le Roi, Grand Dieu, venge le Roi, vive le Roi! Que toupours gloreux, Louis victorieux, Voye ses eneemis, Toujours soumis!

Grand Dieu, sauve le Roi, Grand Dieu, venge le Roi, vive le Roi! But Rinibault, who supported the authorship of Dr John Bull, affirmed that the music was sixteenth century, and in all essentials could be found in a manuscript of Dr John Bull. Tlhere is another claim to the authorship, namely, that of Harry Carey who died in 1743. Chappell, in his notes to the collection of old English airs, records that about the year 1796 George Saville Carey asserted his father's claim and made a journey to Windsor in the hope of obtaining some pecuniary recompense from the King. It was by no means Carey's wish, though he claimed tlhe authorship for his sire, to prove also that the anthem was written for Ring James, as that would have defeated his hopes of reward, and it has been suggested that lis concealment of the fact tended to throw suspicion upon his statement. It was immediately proved upon concurrent testimonies to have been sung "God Save Great James Our King," and from that time may be dated the endless discussions upon tlhe subject.

The song did not become widely known until 1745. Partly owing, perhaps, to the fact that it had been originally sung " God Save Great James our King," the Jacobites adopted it with enthusiasm. Whether the French version was adapted from a pre-exist-ing English form, or whether the English form was adapted from a pre-ex-isting French form, are 'interesting topics of speculation.