What Comes Next?

Hamilton and Washington reached their goal set in “Stay Alive,” their concentrated use of guerrilla tactics and spycraft harried the British forces to the point where it made it impossible for Britain to “justify the cost of the fight.”

The “they” here is the British people and parliament. Many British people sympathized with the Colonists and support for the war was always mixed. The final nail in the coffin was when King George’s supporters lost control of Parliament, and the new leaders turned the country’s attention to the other wars they were fighting with their European rivals: France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic.

In the production, immediately following the line “I’m so blue,” King George III stamps his foot in petulance. His lighting then immediately changes to blue tones.

This may be a coincidence (or not, considering “insane” popping up two lines above), but one of the most famous symptoms of “mad King George who lost America” was blue urine.

Purple-ish urine is a symptom of porphyria, and this reported symptom is a large reason why historians believe King George III suffered from the disease. However, his urine may have been stained that color because of ingredients in his medicine or a buildup of tryptophan (that stuff in turkey) in the liver, which can also lead to blue-hued urine.

The Patriots' alliance with France, Great Britain’s enemy, supplied the Revolution with more equipment, men, and military skill than they should have had, had they fought alone. The line cleverly words this to fit the “break-up anthem” feel of George’s songs.

France declared war on Great Britain in 1778, Spain in 1779, straining Britain’s military strength across multiple fronts. Though the Treaty of Paris concluded hostilities in 1783, England and France’s various revolutionary coalitions would continue to do battle for nearly the entire remainder of King George III’s life, beginning with the War of the First Coalition in 1793 and not ending until the defeat of Napoleon in the Hundred Days War in 1815 (also known as the War of the SEVENTH Coalition; France was really into revolting).

The results of these wars were mixed, and involved many tough defeats; surrendering the Colonies was only one. This led to a public loss of confidence in King George III and his going down in history as… well, a bit of a chump.

In the production, immediately following the line “I’m so blue,” King George III stamps his foot in petulance. His lighting then immediately changes to blue tones.

This may be a coincidence (or not, considering “insane” popping up two lines above), but one of the most famous symptoms of “mad King George who lost America” was blue urine.

Purple-ish urine is a symptom of porphyria, and this reported symptom is a large reason why historians believe King George III suffered from the disease. However, his urine may have been stained that color because of ingredients in his medicine or a buildup of tryptophan (that stuff in turkey) in the liver, which can also lead to blue-hued urine.

The arrangement George is referring to is the settlers who would colonize and ultimately settle America as a British colony. The understanding was that while they made their riches in the new world, they would send tribute back home and would remain loyal to the crown. By rebelling against King George, he feels that the Americans have betrayed their agreement.

The use of “estrangement” does double-duty in this line. There is the general definition of no longer being on good terms (something of an understatement in this context) and the more specific separation that is a precursor to divorce. This follows with the relationship/break-up motif in King George’s songs.

Using the passive phrasing “you’ve been freed” elides the Revolution’s role in securing its own freedom. George still doesn’t want to grant the colonies agency, even grammatically.

This also parallels the other George, Washington, who will go on to tell Hamilton in Act II that “Winning was easy … Governing is harder.”

Historically, George’s skepticism about the colonies being capable of self-rule echoes the belief of many slaveholders that if African-descended slaves were freed, they’d be incapable of fending for themselves. This was often used as an argument against abolition.

George insultingly utilizes the American accent. He also uses words that commonly are used by sarcastic teenagers who most pointedly DO NOT think whatever they are talking about is awesome.

It’s a fun anachronism, too, since during this period, the standard English and American accents were largely the same—in fact, they were both closer to the American accent we hear today. The British accent as we know it now (called “Received Pronunciation”) disseminated largely in the 19th century. So George’s “Awesome, wow”—for all its mocking, Valley Girl sensibility—is actually be closer to his true accent at the time.

In KG3’s eyes, technically, America is like a stubborn child, and Britain the parent. America didn’t want to be ruled, or live by rules, and tried to live on their own. This is where the comparison of a child comes in handy. A child, especially a young one, is usually incapable of taking care of themselves. They would come back to the parent after their ‘tantrum’ was over. Kg believed that, America would be a failure. He asked about four lines before ‘Do you know how hard it is to lead?’ A new nation, especially one that once was a colony, would have to deal with taxes, wars and many other stuff without their mother nation. And, that did happen, with Egypt. Egypt had a revolution, but, had their system collapse. This is said as a jeer to the colonies, in belief they’d fail.

George is being a bit of a psychic here. Geological evidence shows that ocean levels were actually fairly stable in the 1700s, and only started steadily rising in the 1800s.

Similarly, although the independence of Britain’s American colonies were a loss to the British Empire, they would expand east and the Empire wouldn’t fall for another century and a half.

Washington expresses a similar sentiment to Hamilton in “Cabinet Battle #1,” when he says:

Winning was easy, young man. Governing’s harder.

This is the only one of King George’s songs where only his voice is heard.

In his first song, “You’ll Be Back”, George invites the ensemble to sing the last four lines with him. In his third and final song, “I Know Him”, a sentinel’s unintelligible whisper is heard, informing the King that John Adams is the new president of America.

The theme here is that America is on their own now, which, to an extent, means that England is alone now as well.

This song ends fairly abruptly, trailing off the mediant (B) instead of resolving back to the tonic (G).

By not resolving the melody, the listener is left waiting for the next note, wondering quite literally “What comes next?”

On stage, King George III sings this final line, then throws his hands up as if to say “well, that’s it, what’re you gonna do?” and storms off audience right.