File:The birth-day ode (BM 1868,0808.4517).jpg

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The birth-day ode   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Title
The birth-day ode
Description
English: Three musicians and four vocalists perform the 'Birth-Day Ode'. The musicians read from a large book open on a table on the right., the score on the right. page; on the left, “the Distresses of the Nation an Ode performd in honour of his Majesty's Birth Day”. The centre figure, seated, plays with great vigour on a pair of kettle-drums; at his feet is a paper, inscribed “To the Blessed Memory of Miss Ray”. On his right stands a violinist, Lord North; behind Sandwich is a flute-player, Lord George Germain, Secretary of State for the Colonies. Behind (left) four men sing from a book which they hold open; the most prominent are a bishop (left) holding a crozier, wearing on a medallion the arms of the City of London; and the singer on his right who wears a furred civic gown, bands, and tie-wig. Beneath the design is etched “First Viol: by Ld N[orth] Hautboy Ld: G. G[ermain] Kettle Drum Ld S[andwich] the Vocal parts by the Bp of L[ondon] & Ld M[ayor] &c. &c.”


Beneath the plate is printed the 'Birth Day Ode' in two columns:

I. STROPHE
"Now Caesar sits on Throne sublime
To snuff the Laureat's drousy Rhime
And take his annual Sleep in state,
To please the Slaves that round him wait;
Swift from the starry Courts above,
Descend some Dream, (for Dreams descend from Jove)
And to the Monarch's mental Ear
The wonders of his Reign declare:
While a grateful People's Voice,
Shall in choral Peals rejoice,
And to the Nations round proclaim,
Caesar, Virtue, and Wisdom are the same."

A bitterly ironical account of the achievements of the reign follows:

I. ANTISTROPHE
“And hark, the spectre speaks! -- G------e
Attend, and N----h, and all your pliant Train,
To YOU her Blessings Britain owes
And yours the high Applause approving Heaven bestows.”

I. EPODE
“ Hark, he sings the Caribb-War!
Brightest ray of Britain's Fame!”

II. STROPHE
“'Beyond the vast Atlantic Main
'What Myriads bless thy gracious Reign;
'To Jove their Prayers ascend, for thee,
'The Father of their Liberty!
'For thee their Prayers . . . Ah! why that Groan?
'Why trembles mighty CAESAR on his throne?'”

III. ANTISTROPHE
“'Hibernia, Britain's Sister-Isle,
'With equal Freedom soon shall smile;
'Taught by thy prudent Sway to know
'No Blessing rivals thee below.-
'And lo! (their worth in Luxury drown'd)
'While Caledonia's Chieftains kiss the Ground,
'Her humble Sons, an untam'd Race,
'Instinctive feel the Fire of Grace;”

II. EPODE
“'Gallia, hide thy recreant Head,
' Vain thy Arms, thy Craft as vain;
'Spight of the Snares, by treachery spread,
'Britain preseves [sic] her Empire o'er the Main!
'But ah how long! - in aweful Gloom
'The Fates involve Britannia's Doom -
'Yet, ye who Courted CAESAR, hear!
'Perchance the Hour is nigh------Pursue
'Your Schemes, perchance 'tis fix'd that you
'The glorious wreath shall wear:
'His worth's the same in Jove's impartial Eyes,
'Who saves a sinking Empire or destroys.'”

FULL CHORUS
“Yes------we will our Schemes pursue,
We will the Wreath of Glory wear;
His Worth's the same in Jove's impartial Eyes,
Who saves a sinking Empire, or destroys. c. June 1779


Etching
Depicted people Representation of: George Sackville Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville
Date 1779
date QS:P571,+1779-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 200 millimetres (etching only)
Height: 444 millimetres (sheet)
Width: 239 millimetres (etching only)
Width: 271 millimetres (sheet)
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Prints and Drawings
Accession number
1868,0808.4517
Notes

(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', V, 1935) 'As several spurious copies of the Birth-Day Ode have made their appearance in the News-papers, that the Public may be no longer deceived, they are here presented with the genuine Ode, as it was actually performed on the 4th of June.' [Original note.]

The date is probably that of the king's birthday (4 June 1779): it is evidently after the assassination of Martha Ray, Lord Sandwich's mistress, on 7 Apr. 1779, and probably before the rupture of relations with Spain on 16 June 1779. Lord Sandwich appears to have been a performer on the kettle-drums, 'Town and Country Magazine', xv. 9. The Lord Mayor, 1778-9, was Samuel Plumbe, very unpopular in the City as a Ministerialist, and reputed a miser, see BMSat 5617. Lowth, the Bishop of London, though a Privy Councillor, was not an active politician, but the bench of bishops was unpopular for its attitude to America, cf. BMSat 5492, 5553. The "Caribb War" was an expedition against the Caribs of St. Vincent in 1772 which was denounced by the Opposition on 10, 12, and 15 Feb. 1773 as "the extravagance of despatching 2,500 against 700 poor savages" (Walpole, 'Last Journals', 1910, i. 173-5). See also 'Parl. Hist.' xviii. 722 ff. B. Edwards, 'History of the West Indies', 1793, i. 402-3. Cf. BMSat 5675. The No-Popery riots in Scotland, Feb. 1779, by Caledonia's "humbler sons" are approved, as in BMSat 5534, &c. The drawing is good, and resembles that of BMSat 5573, 5577.
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-4517
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 © The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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