Elizabeth I and her people

Deleted
Deleted Member

Posts: 0

Elizabeth I and her people May 9, 2013 3:18:09 GMT -5

Quote

Post by Deleted on May 9, 2013 3:18:09 GMT -5

Good morning to you all! Writing in today's 'Guardian', Maev Kennedy reports that the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) has spent £329,000 on a postcard-sized painting about which it knows almost nothing, except that it is more than 400 years old, exquisitely painted, and outrageously flattering. Elizabeth I was in her late 50s, and losing teeth and hair, when the image of a girlish round-faced queen, dazzling in cloth of gold and diamonds, was created.

National Portrait Gallery

The painting, to be shown for the first time in a major exhibition at the NPG next autumn, shows Elizabeth in the role of Paris, choosing between the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. While Paris launched the Trojan war by choosing Aphrodite, the queen becomes a peacemaker by cannily keeping the football-sized prize for herself. Maev concludes thus:

' ... The exhibition will bring together some long-separated couples including Thomas Howard and Margaret Dudley, Duke and Duchess of Norfolk, who were for centuries in separate collections, and even rarer portraits of commoners including a female professional calligrapher and a child and his nurse. Cooper said that as merchants' prosperity boomed in Tudor England, they began to ape the aristocracy in commissioning portraits – a fashion mocked in a contemporary play which undoubtedly amused the much-portrayed Elizabeth, in the lines: "Now every citizen's wife that wears a velvett hatt must have her picture in the parlour." '

Guardian - National Portrait Gallery buys postcard-sized portrait of Elizabeth I: flattering painting shows queen in role of Paris choosing between goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite

To be honest, Queen Elizabeth II is in far better shape, Sydney Grew!

Her Majesty the Queen

Last Edit: May 9, 2013 3:25:11 GMT -5 by Deleted

Gerard
Full Member

Posts: 218

Elizabeth I and her people May 9, 2013 4:01:48 GMT -5

Quote

Post by Gerard on May 9, 2013 4:01:48 GMT -5

You can write to Her Majesty at the following address:

Her Majesty The Queen
Buckingham Palace
London SW1A 1AA

If you wish to write a formal letter, you can open with "Madam" and close the letter with the form "I have the honour to be, Madam, Your Majesty's humble and obedient servant."

This traditional approach is by no means obligatory. You should feel free to write in whatever style you feel comfortable.

Expect a response only from the second Elizabeth, not from any queens of the past.

Do members agree that one should feel free to write in whatever style one feels comfortable with writing in? Does that not erode the very concept of monarchy? Should not one feel that Her Majesty's dignity trumps the comfort of Her subjects?

Deleted
Deleted Member

Posts: 0

Elizabeth I and her people May 9, 2013 4:53:36 GMT -5

Quote

Post by Deleted on May 9, 2013 4:53:36 GMT -5

If I may address all three of your questions directly, Gerard:

May 9, 2013 4:01:48 GMT -5 Gerard said:

Do members agree that one should feel free to write in whatever style one feels comfortable with writing in?

No. For example, I would feel comfortable addressing you as Gerry rather than as Gerard. I do not do so, because I doubt that you would feel comfortable online, or off, as Gerry!

May 9, 2013 4:01:48 GMT -5 Gerard said:

b. Does that not erode the very concept of monarchy?

The concept of monarchy is based upon language, so the language we use is important. I could call Queen Elizabeth II Liz, for example, or even Good Queen Bess, but neither would be appropriate in the circumstances.

May 9, 2013 4:01:48 GMT -5 Gerard said:

c. Should not one feel that Her Majesty's dignity trumps the comfort of Her subjects?

I do not think that it simply applies to Her Majesty. If you wish to be known as Gerard, Gerard, this is how you should be addressed. Courtesy trumps comfort, Gerard, every time!

Last Edit: May 9, 2013 4:58:44 GMT -5 by Deleted