The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #68129   Message #4103007
Posted By: Jack Campin
21-Apr-21 - 02:42 PM
Thread Name: A national anthem for England
Subject: RE: A national anthem for England
Re some things upthread that need fixed:

Britain doesn't legally have a national anthem. God Save the Quing has never been adopted as such by any act of Parliament (it was written ti be George II's personal anthem, at a time when national anthems didn't exist). And there have been many variant sets of words for it, none ever standardized. A lot of Scots like to get outraged about the second verse quoted here, but there's never been a law to say anyone had to sing it, and it probably hasn't been except on very rare occasions. (Percy Scholes's book "God Save the King!" has everything any sane person would want to know about its history).

Parry's "Jerusalem" had strange origins - morphing from oddball militarist propaganda to suffragette anthem within months. The WI only took it up after the suffragettes had achieved their objective.

http://www.culturematters.org.uk/index.php/about-us/item/2254-jerusalem-a-hymn-to-women-s-suffrage