2"d S. VI. 154., Dec. 11. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



475 



wise the Author would have spoken more fully of him 

 and of his end." 



How this quiet ignoring of his Presbyterian 

 father, " the shortest discourse I ever heard," the 

 600/. in " spiritual advancement," the large and 

 convenient parsonage house, " and all accommo- 

 dation according therewith," help us to form to 

 ourselves a picture of the cautious, easy-going, 

 comfortable man, who knew how to make spiritual 

 things agreeable to his patron, Robert Earl of 

 Sunderland (the Trimmer), who, at the very time 

 Evelyn mentions, was vibrating between the 

 church of England and the church of liome. 



Jatdeb. 



"god save the king." 



If a foreign composer desire his piece to succeed 

 he must write his finale on some dance form : but 

 the English composer takes the Psalm tune. Many 

 of Webbe's and Calcott's glees owe their popu- 

 larity to the gentle tripled-time movement, which 

 gradually worked its way into the singing-gallery, 

 and became an authorised psalm tune. Mendels- 

 sohn saw this feature of our national character. 

 He heard Braham and Harpur duettising a choral 

 by Luther, and came back to us with the " Sleepers 

 awake," another Lutheran tune for full chorus 

 and brass band, and thus triumphed over the solo 

 tenor and solo trumpet. 



Although much has been written on the tune of 

 " God save the King" and its composer. Dr. John 

 Bull, little has been advanced respecting the 

 metrical Psalm, or, as it is called, our National 

 Anthem. I consider this hymn or psalm a metri- 

 cal version of the anthems sung at the coronations, 

 and other public occasions. For example : " O 

 Lord, grant the King a long life," " O Lord save 

 rthe King, and hear us when we call upon Thee," 

 'May his years endure throughout all genera- 

 ^tions," "Let his course flourish," "Exceeding glad 

 fshall he be," " He shall rejoice in Thy strength," 

 I " May his seed endure for ever, and his throne as 

 I the days of heaven," "As for his enemies, clothe 

 [them with shame," (Tate and Brady give it "His 

 [vanquished foes, confusion shall o'erspread;" and 

 tagain, "Our hopes are fixed that now the Lord 

 kour Sovereign will defend "), " O prepare Thy 

 ploving mercy and faithfulness that they may pre- 

 fserve him." 



The words of these anthems may be found in 

 I Dr. Marshall's Collection of the Woi-ds of Cathedral 

 [ Anthems at pages 140. 210. and 211., and a refer- 

 lence to the old and new versions of the Psalms 

 21. 20. 61. 72. 89. and 132. will, I think, bear me 

 [out in the opinion that the writer or writers of 

 tour metrical anthem had this notion within him or 

 [them — that of condensing the anthems for the 

 I king into popular verse and popular language. 

 [No question jt was the Protestant feeling of '45 



that gave it an existence as a people's song, and 

 led to its becoming the hymn of our battles and 

 festivities. But how came the words to be allied 

 to the grave, quaint, canonic tunes of Catholic 

 John Bull ? Did John Bull write his tune as "a 

 Dance," or " an Ayre," or as " an Invention;" or 

 if not these, how and why otherwise ? 



It is as simple as a Passacaglia, as stately as a 

 Sarabande, as free as a Galliard ; but how came 

 the metrical Psalm for the king combined with 

 this ancient spirit ? It is rather of Latin than 

 English rhythm, for the dotted minim throws tlie 

 accent very strongly on the antepenultimate — O 

 Lord our | God arise — the word " God " bearing 

 the stress, and the syllable rise carrying no accent. 

 I think it is evident that the writer of the words 

 had a kind of notion that every first and third note 

 in the bar was accented; for the lines 



" God save our I ndble King : 

 O Lord our | Go'd arise," 



if left with their musical accent only, are not in- 

 terpreted in the best manner. 



1 should like to know whether it ever came into 

 the Chapel Royal as a metrical anthem ? When 

 it was first adopted by the regiments as the tune 

 of honour? Whether it was sung at any Thanks- 

 giving Services, or for the convalescence of George 

 III. held in St. Paul's Cathedral? and whether 

 Dr. John Bull's Tune was a well-known tune in 

 1745 ; and if not, how it happened to be fished up 

 and immortalised in a way which, perhaps, no other 

 secular air ever has been or ever will be again ? 



Dr. Nicholls, in his Commentary on the Prayer- 

 Booh, has this note to the Domine, sahnim fac 

 regem : — 



" That it was usual in the ancient Church to pray for 

 the Prince in a short or versicular form is plain from that 

 of St. Athanasius's apology to the Emperor Constantius, 

 ' Let us pray for the safety of the most religious Em- 

 peror Constantius,' to which the congregation answered, 

 ' Be propitious to Constantius, O Christ.' And there is 

 an anthem ascribed to William Byrde by Clifford, who 

 prints it thus : * O Lord, make thy servant Charles our 

 King to rejoice in thy strength ; give him his heart's 

 desire, and deny not the request of his lips. But prevent 

 him with thine everlasting blessing, and give him a long 

 life, even for ever and ever. Amen.' " 



H. J. Gauntlett. 



THE CHANGE OF DRESS A SIGN OF THE POLITICAL 

 DEGENERACY OF NATIONS. 



Conte Baldassar Castiglione, whose period ex- 

 tended from 1478 to 1529, in his celebrated work 

 II Cortegiano (2nd edit. 4to., London, 174^2, with 

 engraved j)ortrait by Vertue), at pp. 146-7 thus 

 makes Frederico to speak : — 



■ " . . . . Mk io non s6 per qual fatto intervenga, che la 

 Italia non hubbia, come soleva havere, hubito che sia 

 conosciuto per Italiano : che benclie lo havfer posto in 

 usanza questi nuovi, faccia parfer quelli primi goffissimi ; 

 pur quelli forse crano s^gno di liberty, come questi son 



