GOD SAVE THE KING (or QUEEN). The national anthem of Great Britain, of which the music by adoption is that of several of the German States. It is played and sung in every part of the British Empire alike on solemn and festive occa sions. Its origin has long been a subject of controversy. The contentions that it is of French or Scotch origin have been disproved, but no definite conclusion has been reached respecting the claims of Henry Carey (1696'1-1743) to its authorship. He is credited with having com posed both words and music about 1740, though lie never claimed the song as his, and though none of his friends put forward such a claim until his son, some fifty years later, petitioned the Government for a pension on the ground that his father had written the hymn. The evidence which he adduced in support of this was purely circumstantial, and the petition was refused. On the contrary, there are traces of the existence of the sung, or a similar one, long before Carey's time. A Latin hymn, "0 Deus Optime," which still exists, and whose words are a counterpart of the present hymn, was sung in 1740. As for the music, John Bull (c.1563-1628) wrote an `gyre.' still existing, which is identical in rhythm and similar in melody to "God Save the King." The hypothesis, backed by considerable circumstan tial evidence, is that the above Latin words, or their prototypes, were written in 1688, and set to Bull's `sere' by their author. There is record
of such a hymn having been sung in King ,Tanies's Chapel. The song would naturally be preserved by the Stuarts. and the music, passing through various popular transformations, would ulti mately reach its present form. It will be seen that this theory does not preclude Carey from having translated the words and given the final shape to the music.
The words and music were first published anonymously in the Harmonia Anglicana (1742), and appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine (1745). It has been chosen for a national air in Germany, where it is sung to the words Heil dir im Siegerkranz, and it was sung in Russia until the new anthem was written in 1833. In the United States it has long been known as the air to which "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" is sung. Consult: Bateman, "The National Anthem," in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. cclxxv. (London, 1893), and Hadden, "The 'God Save the Queen' Myths," in Argosy, vol. lxxii. (London, 1900) ; Cummings, God Save the King (London, 1902) ; also Chappell, Collection of National Airs (Lon don, 1838-40). See NATIONAL HYMNS.