1793
God Save Great Thomas Paine
| Tune: | God Save the King |
| Lyrics: | Joseph Mather |
God save great Thomas Paine,
His “Rights of Man” to explain
To ev’ry soul.
He makes the blind to see
What dupes and slaves they be,
And points out liberty,
From pole to pole.
Thousands cry “church and king”
That well deserve to swing,
All must allow:
Birmingham blush for shame,
Manchester do the same,
Infamous is your name,
Patriots vow.
Pull proud oppressors down,
Knock off each tyrant’s crown,
And break his sword;
Down with aristocracy,
Set up democracy,
And from hypocrisy
Save us good Lord.
Why should despotic pride
Usurp on every side?
Let us be free;
Grant freedom’s arms success,
And all her efforts bless,
Plant thro’ the universe
Liberty’s tree.
Facts are seditious things
When they touch courts and kings,
Armies are rais’d,
Barracks and bastiles built,
Innocence charged with guilt,
Blood most unjustly spilt,
Gods stand amaz’d.
Despots may howl and yell,
Tho’ they’re in league with hell
They’ll not reign long;
Satan may lead the van,
And do the worst he can,
Paine and his Rights of Man
Shall be my song.
Of the myriad political parodies of ‘God Save the King’, that of the Sheffield factory-worker Joseph Mather was maybe the bluntest – and the riskiest to perform at a time when radical philosopher Thomas Paine was outlawed, living in Paris, and Britain was newly at war with republican France. Mather puts Paine rhetorically in place of the king, calls for supporters of ‘church and king’ to ‘swing’, and distils his message to ‘Down with aristocracy / Set up democracy’.
| Cause: | Republican | Equal Rights | Anti-clerical |
| Theme: | Rights | Political Process |
| Addressed to: | Universal |
| Target of Protest: | The Ruler | Aristocracy |
| Proposal/Solution: | Republicanism | Franchise Reform |