h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The writer has rather pathetically abridged the National Anthem, supposedly because the rest of it isn't sung much. It seems more to me like a case of censorship in the name of political correctness. So without further ado I shall post the whole thing.

1. God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us;
God save the Queen!

2. O Lord our God arise,
Scatter her enemies
And make them fall;
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix,
God save us all!

3. Thy choicest gifts in store
On her be pleased to pour;
Long may she reign;
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice,
God save the Queen!

4. Not in this land alone,
But be God's mercies known,
From shore to shore!
Lord make the nations see,
That men should brothers be,
And form one family,
The wide world over.

5. From every latent foe,
From the assassins blow,
God save the Queen!
O'er her thine arm extend,
For Britain's sake defend,
Our mother, prince, and friend,
God save the Queen!

6. Lord grant that Marshal Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God save the Queen!

On the last night of the proms, the conductor invited the audience to join in with the second verse. I see from your excellent research that what he actually meant was the third verse.

There were a number of reasons for reproducing only the two verses which appear in my Entry, none of them remotely to do with so-called 'censorship'.

Firstly, there is another Entry (see A798195) which deals specifically with this song and quotes several more verses. I therefore considered that duplication of all the verses was redundant and unnecessary. (It was not possible for me to link to this Entry since, at the time of writing my Entry, the other Entry had not yet been Approved for the Edited Guide, though it has been now.)

Secondly, I believe that the two verses which I quoted are the only verses ever sung these days, or indeed for many a long year past. Thus 'Thy choicest gifts' is now considered to be the second verse, so maestro Slatkin was, I believe, correct. I also suspect that the two verses which I quoted would, quite naturally, be the only two printed in the concert programme, so that for concert-goers encouraged to sing along it would be the second verse printed.

Thirdly, I consider the other verses to be dull, boring and devoid of literary merit, and I did not wish to bore my readers, bearing in mind that in my Entry this is only one among several songs quoted.

Bels

Mind you, I have always loved the lines: "Confound their politics, frustrate their knavish tricks" and sung them with relish on the very very few occasions when I have sung them at all.

Miss you, Bels.

Ben

I am not that old (32) and when I was in teh cubs / scouts we were taught 'Thy choicest gifts' as the second verse however i have noticed that in the last few years "Not in this land alone" seems to have become more popular as a 'second' verse. presumably this is because its distinctly anti-nationalistic and inclusive sentiment goes down rather better with the politically correct brgades who so dislike the rather excellent "Land of Hope and Glory"

I've added the link to the National Anthem entry.

Bernadette, Curator.

Does the anthem change substantially if the ruling monarch isn't a Queen? Apart from changing "God Save the Queen" to "God Save The King" and altering the gender of any relevant pronouns, do any other lines or verses alter?

The only changes are gender related

And all verses are historically correct, verse 6 is obviously no longer correct or acceptable, and verse 1 and 3 are generally used. However at times of war verse 2 is usually included.

Oh, and the scouts always omitted verse 2 based on the age of the participants!