"A Pattern For All Princes Living"

 

When our new King Charles 111 addressed the Commons and the Lords of both Houses of Parliament in his speech in Westminster Hall on the 12th September, (on YouTube) and when he was talking about his late mother Queen Elizabeth 11, he quoted from William Shakespeare's Henry V111. He called his mother A Pattern For All Princes Living. In the play, it is Archbishop Cranmer who is talking about Henry's new daughter. Elizabeth1. And here was me, at the Globe Theatre, a few days later, hearing those same words. And in the programme, obviously published before our Queens's death, is an article that discusses this part of the text. Not only that, but in that large volume of Complete Works, the first paragraph of a detailed and long Introduction includes that same A Pattern to all Princes.

Then there was a brilliant article by Camilla Long in the Sunday Times Culture section. She describes herself as "nobody's idea of a Royalist"...."But television during the royal mourning period has been, quite simply, extraordinary". Now I'm often in disagreement over what Camilla says about television programmes in her weekly slot, but here her article is, quite simply, extraordinary. Something to cut out and keep.