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“God Save the King!”
Two hundred seventy-seven years ago, on September 28, 1745, the still relatively new kingdom of Great Britain was in disarray. The perfidious Scots (I think understanding a writer’s point-of-view is important, so I always try to make mine clear from the start) were in rebellion (again) and the Stuarts, in the person of Bonnie Prince Charlie (at best a vain and difficult man; at worst, perhaps, a coward and a despot) were revolting (again). George II’s reign was thought to be in jeopardy, banks and stocks were failing, and the country was in need of a symbol to unite it.
That evening, at Drury Lane theater, immediately following (best evidence seems to indicate), a performance of Ben Jonson’s play, The Alchemist, the cast and orchestra appeared on stage to sing an anti-Jacobite song written by the well-known composer Thomas Arne. The tune was borrowed from a number of traditional melodies and was mildly stirring,* but it was the words that captured the imagination of the audience:
God save great George our 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.
