A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
N,,- OW that the nation has settled down to the new reign is it too much to hope that something may be done ..,. about the deplorable jingle that passes muster as a National Anthem ? The words, no doubt (no one knows their authorship; they appear to date from about 1745), are in a way consecrated by tradition, but that does not dispense us from assessing them candidly as they are. Consider the first verse. What would you have said if you saw it for the first time ? The level is precisely that of the street-corner ballad-monger; Silas Wegg, indeed, would have knocked out something better. And take the rest of the stanza. "Send her victorious." Is war to be the firsenote in a reign which we pray will be a reign of peace ? "Happy and glorious." Who would ever speak of our " glorious "King or Queen ? Every other kind of apprecia- tive adjective, but glorious, no. As for " Long-to-reign- orious ' any comment is inadequate. Why should we be con- tent to cut this figure among nations like France or the United States or Canada, which have notable and worthy national anthems of their own ? For purposes of comparison I am taking leave to set the production of an amended anthem (to the same music) as a Spectator competition. If something is not forthcoming which by contrast exposes the existing version for what it is my disappointment' will be deep.
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