Editing God Save the King (section)

==History==
The text first appeared in England in the late 1590s, with the publication of [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Richard III (play)|Richard III]]''. In Act IV, Scene I, [[Anne Neville|Lady Anne]] says to [[Elizabeth Woodville|Queen Elizabeth]]: "Were red-hot steel to sear me to the brains! Anointed let me be with deadly venom, And die ere men can say 'God save the Queen.'"<ref>{{cite wikisource|noicon=y|last=Shakespeare|first=William|author-link=William Shakespeare|wslink=Shakespeare - First Folio facsimile (1910)|plaintitle=[[First Folio]] facsimile|chapter=The Tragedy of Richard the Third/Act 4 Scene 1|date=1910|orig-date=1623|page=193|publisher=[[Methuen Publishing]]|location=London|scan=Shakespeare - First Folio Faithfully Reproduced, Methuen, 1910.djvu/555}}</ref>

In ''[[The Oxford Companion to Music]]'', [[Percy Scholes]] points out the similarities to an early [[plainsong]] melody, although the rhythm is very distinctly that of a [[galliard]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Scholes|first=Percy A.|author-link=Percy Scholes|title=The Oxford Companion to Music|year=1970|edition=10th| publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]| title-link=The Oxford Companion to Music}}</ref> and he gives examples of several such dance tunes that bear a striking resemblance to "God Save the King". Scholes quotes a keyboard piece by [[John Bull (composer)|John Bull]] (1619) which has some similarities to the modern tune, depending on the placing of [[accidental (music)|accidentals]] which at that time were unwritten in certain cases and left to the discretion of the player (see {{lang|la|[[musica ficta]]}}). He also points to several pieces by [[Henry Purcell]], one of which includes the opening notes of the modern tune, setting the words "God Save the King". Nineteenth-century scholars and commentators mention the widespread belief that an old Scots carol, "Remember O Thou Man", was the source of the tune.<ref>{{cite book| last=Sousa| first = John Philip|author-link=John Philip Sousa| title=National, Patriotic, and Typical Airs of All Lands| year=1890| quote=[Remember O Thou Man] is the air on the ground of which ''God Save the King'' Is sometimes claimed for Scotland. It is in two strains of 8 bars each and has the rhythm and melody of the modern tune in the first and third bars of the second strain. But it is in minor.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last=Pinkerton| first=John|author-link=John Pinkerton| title = The Literary Correspondence of John Pinkerton, Esq.| year=1830| quote='Remember O thou man' is unquestionably the root of 'God save the King'}}</ref>

The first published version that resembles the present song appeared in 1744, with no title but the heading "For two voices", in an anthology originally named ''Harmonia Britannia'' but changed after only a few copies had been printed to ''Thesaurus Musicus''.<ref>{{multiref|
{{cite journal |last1=Krummel |first1=Donald W. |title=God save the King |journal=[[The Musical Times]]|date=1962 |volume=103 |issue=1429 |pages=159–160 |doi=10.2307/949253 |jstor=949253 |issn=0027-4666}}|
{{cite book|last=Chappell|first=William|author-link=William Chappell (writer)|title=The Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time: A History of the Ancient Songs, Ballads, and of the Dance Tunes of England, with Numerous Anecdotes and Entire Ballads : Also a Short Account of the Minstrels |date=1855 |publisher=Chappell |page=709 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qdlWAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA704|ref=none}}|
{{cite book |title=Thesaurus musicus : a collection of two, three, and four part songs : several of them never before printed, to which are added some choice dialogues set to musick by the most eminent masters |date=1745 |publisher=J. Simpson |location=London |page=22 |volume=I |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/thesaurusmusicus00lamp/page/22 |chapter=A Loyal Song sung at the Theatres Royal}}
}}</ref> When the [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]] pretender [[Charles Edward Stuart]] led the [[Jacobite rising of 1745|1745 rising]], the song spread among those loyal to King [[George II of Great Britain|George II]]. The tune published in ''[[The Gentleman's Magazine]]'' in 1745 departs from that used today at several points, one as early as the first bar, but is otherwise clearly a strong relative of the contemporary anthem. It was recorded as being sung in London theatres in 1745, with, for example, [[Thomas Arne]] writing a setting of the tune for the [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane|Drury Lane Theatre]].

Scholes' analysis includes mention of "untenable" and "doubtful" claims, as well as "an American misattribution". Some of these are:
* [[James Oswald (composer)|James Oswald]] was a possible author of the ''Thesaurus Musicus'', so may have played a part in the history of the song, but is not a strong enough candidate to be cited as the composer of the tune.
* [[Henry Carey (writer)|Henry Carey]]: Scholes refutes this attribution: first on the grounds that Carey himself never made such a claim; second, when the claim was made by Carey's son (in 1795), it was in support of a request for a pension from the British Government; and third, the younger Carey claimed that his father, who died in 1743, had written parts of the song in 1745. It has also been claimed that the work was first publicly performed by Carey during a dinner in 1740 in honour of Admiral [[Edward Vernon|Edward "Grog" Vernon]], who had captured the Spanish harbour of [[Porto Bello, Panama|Porto Bello]] (then in the [[Viceroyalty of New Granada]], now in [[Panama]]) during the [[War of Jenkins' Ear]].

Scholes recommends the attribution "traditional" or "traditional; earliest known version by John Bull (1562–1628)". The ''[[English Hymnal]]'' (musical editor [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]]) gives no attribution, stating merely "17th or 18th cent."<ref>{{cite book| last=Dearmer|first=Percy|author2=Vaughan Williams, Ralph|title= The English Hymnal with Tunes|publisher=Oxford University Press| year=1906| page=724}}Hymn No. 560 "National Anthem"</ref>