In our recent investigations of Houghton’s historical sheet music collections, I ran across an unusual score of the anthem God Save the King. The score included an unfamiliar verse by Mr. Sheridan at the bottom of the first leaf, and I couldn’t find the imprint recorded anywhere (though frequently libraries don’t catalog their sheet music individually so this may not mean anything).
Sheet music 154 caption
I did a bit of poking around, and discovered a rather surprising story. On May 15 (date confirmed in The Times of London) 1800, an assassin shot at King George III from the audience, as the king entered his royal box at the Drury Lane Theatre. The king apparently remained calm while all around him descended into chaos, and once the would-be assassin was removed, the performance began despite the shattered nerves of audience and performers alike. Sheridan was so impressed with the king’s sang-froid that he scribbled this new verse (number 3, printed as text above) to God Save the King during the performance, and Michael Kelly sang it at the end of the play.
Sheet music 154 second leaf
The new verse was applauded so loudly that Kelly repeated it three times. George III is not generally considered to be a heroic figure in America, so I found this story quite compelling. Sheridan seems to have been convinced that George’s response was heroism rather than mad oblivion, what do you think? I simply don’t know enough about the king to judge.
[Thanks to Andrea Cawelti, Ward Music Cataloger, for contributing this post.]