"All the brass instruments and big drums in the world cannot turn `God Save the King' into a good tune, but on the very rare occasions when it is sung in full it does spring to life in the two lines:

Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks!

And, in fact, I had always imagined that the second verse is habitually left out because of a vague suspicion on the part of the Tories that these lines refer to themselves.

-- George Orwell (1943)

I am glad to see that those lines go back pretty near to the beginning. Likewise the lines

May he defend our laws
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice, etc.

Fancy any other people on earth openly praying, in the presence of their sovereign, for divine intervention to make him mind his business!

The rhymes are pretty embarrassing, tho.