63 Years Of What Exactly?

[poliphilo]

She came to our town when I was a child and I lobbied my mother for a football rattle, only to be told it wouldn't be appropriate. That is probably the last time I felt any great enthusiasm for her or any of her family. I have a mental picture of her sweeping by in a waxed black limousine but I suspect it's a false memory.

I'm sorry she's overtaken Victoria. Victoria- or at least the image crafted of her by her spin doctors- stood for something. Elizabeth stands for nothing but continuity and the persistence of the "firm" she belongs to.

There was a fashion in the early years for talk about a New Elizabethan Age. Britten's Gloriana stands as a monument to that. It didn't last. It's not that there have been no great artistic or scientific achievements in her reign- just that none of them seem to have anything much to do with her. The first Elizabeth was surrounded by poets and pirates and magicians- all of them in some sense- working for her.  She was- and made sure she was- at the heart of things. The second Elizabeth isn't. Her court- insofar as we have been allowed to glimpse it- smells of dogs and horses.

For someone who seems to have been painted every day of her life (a slight exaggeration) she'll leave few icons behind. Annigoni managed a couple of ultra-romantic early portraits. After that it was Rolf Harris all the way. I think the enduring image will be the one off the cover of the Sex Pistols album. Or perhaps- because it's worth so much in monetary terms- the portrait by Lucian Freud which shows her with a five o'clock shadow, looking grumpy.

Comments

[splodgenoodles.livejournal.com]

She used to park her boat near our place, and Eldest Brother kept us very amused with reports of her friendly visits for drinks of cordial.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That will be the Royal Yatch Britannia, I presume.

[splodgenoodles.livejournal.com]

I presume so, although I was puzzled by the lack of sails. School did walk us down there to wave at her once.

[kamomil.livejournal.com]

Her portrait is on Canadian money. As she aged, they updated the image :P

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

On ours too. The portrait they use on the banknotes must have been made when she was about 50.

[resonant.livejournal.com]

Her image on the new Canadian 20 looks recent.

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

Surely she deserves some appreciation for not driving the monarchy into the ditch. It can't have been an easy job.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's essentially her achievement- but as one who would have been happy to see the monarchy driven into the ditch I can't rate it all that highly.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

A figurehead.

Surely cheaper to replace her with one of those wooden ones from that museum you visited recently? A fresh lick of paint every few years and you're good to go for the state opening of Parliament.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

She'd never grow old, be touched by scandal or produce embarrassing offspring. And she'd be very cheap to maintain.

I think you could be on to something.

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

Machin's image (on stamps since the 1960s and on coins for about 20 years) is something of a design classic.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I preferred the image they used before that.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

Being more of a republican in the sense of statehood, not politics, it is about time we had no monarchy.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, indeed!