Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/318

 308

NOTES AND QUERIES. LIIS.XI. APRIL 17,1915.

which I accept as being authorized ; but under King George V., in the present stress, I know of one cathedral where, though they pray in prose that the devices of the ad- versaries may be confounded, this petition may not be enforced in song. It seems to me that the best of Christians should wish that the plans of those hostile to his king and country may be brought to confusion, i.e., confounded, and that he has, at any rate now, no need to be delicate about term- ing certain hostile acts and machinations " knavish tricks." Great harm is done when we do not call things by their right names.

The version of the National Anthem fur- nished by my memory, and quoted above, differs only from one I copied from a sheet of music in Hanover in 1887 in that the first line of the latter was

God save great George our King !

and that it had him in the last line but one of verse 2 instead of " Thee," and George in the second line of verse 3, instead of "him." No doubt "William" and '"Victoria" appalled the poets. There was, however, a fourth verse, which surprised and annoyed me a little when a lively Fr aulein declared that it was part of our national hymn :

God save great George our King !

Long live our noble King !

God save the King !

Send us roast beef a store,

If it 's gone, send us more,

And the key of the cellar door,

That we may drink.

I believe I have quoted this before in ' N. & Q.,' but, as things are with us and Germany just at present, it may be repeated to show how we are misrepresented there. Perhaps it was in the days when the same Georges ruled England and Hanover that some ribald Teuton rimer was guilty of the irreverent doggerel and gave it currency.

ST. SWITHIN.

Will MR. J. K. THORNE kindly say which version it is of the National Anthem which is " distinguished as Carey's version," and the authority for so calling it ?

ERASDON.

RUSSIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM (11 S. xi. 248). As far back as 29 Dec., 1877, in reply to a query, as I find again, the first stanza of the well-known Russian National Hymn, composed by the eminent poet Zhukovsky in 1834, appeared in an attempted translation of mine from the original (cf. ' N. & Q.,' 5 S. viii. 515). It may perhaps appear desirable, at the present time, to transcribe

the complete original text, and to offer a, more literal version of this celebrated song, comprising three unequal stanzas, which I have before me in Yefremov's edition of Zhukovsky's ' Sochineniya ' or ' Collected Poetical Works' (Sanktpeterb., 1878), iii. 149-50. The words are as follows :

Bozhe, Tsarya khrani ! Sil'ny, derzhavny, Tsarstvui na slavu nam^ Tsarstvui na strakh vragam, Tsar' pravoslavny ; Bozhe, Tsarya khrani !

God, protect the Tsar !

Mighty, powerful,

Let him rule to our glory,

Let him rule a terror to the foes,

As a faithful Tsar ;

God, protect the Tsar 1

Slava na nebe solntsu vysokomu Na setnle Gosudaryu velikomu ! Slava na nebe utru prekrasnonm Na zemle Gosudaryne laskovoi ! Slava na nebe yasnomu mesyatsu Na zeinle Gosudaryu Nasledniku ! Slava yarkim svetilam polunochi Sinovyam, docheryam gosudarevym, I velikomu Knyazyu s Knyagineyu ! Slava gromam, igrayushchim na nebe Slava khrabromu Russkomu voinstvu ! Slava nebu vsemu luchezarnomu Slava Russkomu tsarstvu velikomu ! Veselisya ty. solntse nebesnoye Mnogi leta Tsaryu blagovernomu !

Glory in heaven to the sun on high

On earth to the Sovereign great !

Glory in heaven to the morning beautiful

On earth to the Empress gracious !

Glory in heaven to the bright moon

On earth to the Prince Inheritant !

Glory to the glittering stars of midnight

To the sons, the daughters of the Sovereign,

And to the Grand-duke with the Grand-duchess I

Glory to the thunderstorms lightning in the sky

Glory to the valiant Russian Army !

Glory to the whole resplendent heaven

Glory to the Russian Tsardom great !

Rejoice thou, sun of the heaven

Many years to the faithful Tsar !

Bozhe, Tsarya khrani ! Slavnomu dolgi dni Dai na zemli ; Gordykh smiritelyu, Slabykh khranitelyu, Vsekh uteshitelyu Vse nisposhli !

God, protect the Tsar!

To him glorious long days

Grant on earth ;

To the subduer of the proud,

To the preserver of the weak,

To the comforter of all,

Send down everything !