12.03.2006

Saving a monarch is dirty work

A friend of mine just directed me to look at all the lyrics to the British National Anthem.
It seems that they cut some of the versus in polite company.

God save our gracious Queen
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen:
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us:
God save the Queen.

O Lord, our God, arise,
Scatter thine enemies,
And make them fall:
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On thee our hopes we fix:
God save us all.

Thy choicest gifts in store,
On her be pleased to pour;
Long may she reign:
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice
God save the Queen.

The part that is often omitted:

Not in this land alone,
But be God's mercies known,
From shore to shore!
Lord make the nations see,
That men should brothers be,
And form one family,
The wide world o'er.

From every latent foe,
From the assassins blow,
God save the Queen!
O'er her thine arm extend,
For Britain's sake defend,
Our mother, prince, and friend,
God save the Queen!

Lord 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 Queen!

God sure has to do a lot to keep those Brits happy.

3 comments:

Nicholas said...

Well, when you win the first prize in His lottery...

Anonymous said...

Hmm. Still not impressed, Sharon. The Scots will look at this and say "well that's no secret. Hey look-we annoyed them enough to make it into their song!"

Anonymous said...

I'm God's emissary dedicated to keeping at least one of them happy :)