Few Britons ever sang the second stanza of God Save the King. Anyone who did sounded as if he were instructing the Almighty in the tone of an irate football coach bawling out a quarterback between halves. It goes: O Lord our God, arise, Scatter his enemies And make them fall; Confound their politics, Frustrate their knavish tricks; On Thee our hopes we fix; God save us all.
Last week, on King George VI's orders, they got a much mellower substitute stanza, although the first and fourth lines still had a shade of condescension....
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