Queen Anne (revision)

We bought tickets for 'Queen Anne', presently showing at the Theatre Royal, quite a long time ago, but we only got around to doing any revision much more recently, having found the plot synopsis offered by Wikipedia quite heavy going.

First stop, 1066 and all that, which we thought would probably offer Queen Anne up in a few memorable sentences. Which indeed it did, so getting us off to a good start. We learned about a bit of intolerance called the Occasional Conformity Act, whereby the Tories tried to squash a practise whereby religious misfits of various persuasions got over various legal hurdles by taking Anglican Communion from time to time, while keeping their fingers crossed in their pockets.

Second stop, Unstead, where we learned that the reign of Queen Anne more or less coincided with the war of the Spanish Succession, a war which, despite its name, was a war to stop France being top nation. A war dominated, from this side of the water, by the Duke of Marlborough. I offer a couple of pages by way of illustration, chosen for the illustration which goes to the heart of the play.

Given that France being top nation was very much a personal mission of Louis XIV, we thought we would top up with a bit more work on him, having already made the start noticed at reference 4. So third stop, 'Versailles' where the introductory chapter got us going again. There were also lots of nice pictures. Fourth stop another stab at Shennan, which I have in fact hung on to. One of the books now lying around half read, rather than unread, concerning which see the previous post.

Fifth stop, to round things out, if a little anachronistically, with Sophia Coppola's film 'Marie Antoinette', which wore quite well on its second outing. Probably a little more respectful towards the facts than the BBC version noticed at reference 4. See reference 5 for the report on the first wearing.

Digressions to Chambers (on the various King Louis's) and Antonia Fraser ('Love and Louis IV') which were not terribly helpful.

Reminded that we have quite a lot of stuff about Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette, their lives and times sitting in our bookcases. Maybe time to take some it down again.

But, in the meantime, we felt well prepared for the off.

PS: first impression was that '1066 and all that' really was a very funny book, despite being written nearly a hundred years ago. Perhaps funnier to our generation, brought up on going through English history from 900 to 1900 at the rate of roughly a century a year, than it would be to our children. But later, turning to the end where the authors write of the Boer War and the First World War, it all seemed a bit public-school-boyish and crass. All very well to make cracks about people who have been dead for 500 years or more, not so well when the events were quite recent. Very recent at the time the cracks were written. But, notwithstanding, I liked the last sentence: 'Chapter LXII. A bad thing. America was thus clearly top nation and History came to a [full stop]'.

Reference 1: 1066 and all that - Sellar and Yeatman - 1930.

Reference 2: England: a history in four books - Unstead - 1963. Volume 3 on this occasion.

Reference 3: Versailles - Kemp and Meyer - 1981.

Reference 4: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/veils-of-secrecy.html.

Reference 5: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/jogging-memory.html.

Group search key: qaa.