CORONATION "ASIDES."

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11347, 9 August 1902, Page 6

CORONATION "ASIDES."

WHISPERED REMARKS NOT IN THE- RUBRIC. The little asides, not contained in the Coronation rubric, but for all that indulged in by some of the principal performers in the many coronations of the kings and queens of England, might be collected into not one, but several portly volumes. Probably a Queen Regnant may lay claim to the 'honour of having uttered the best, perhaps the only, repartee ever made a chief actor in the course of the ceremony. No one needs to be reminded that the second Mary, who helped depose her father, James 11., was as much sovereign in her own right as was her Consort, William of Orange, in his. The short King and tall Queen walked up the Abbey aide by side, not a* King and Consort, but as Joint sovereigns, with the sword between them, Mary was lifted into one of th* two chairs of state, and, like her husband, girt with ths sword and invested with the symbols of authority. The Princess Anne, who stood near, •aid, '"Madam, I pity your fatigue." The Queen turned sharply with ths words, "A crown, sister, ia not so heavy as "it seems," A WEAK CHAMPION. Her stepmother's aotto voce at h<£, father's Coronation banquet was even mora significant. When the Champion of England dismounted to kiss tha King's hand, 'he*fell down all his length in ths hall, whenas there was nothing in his way that could visibly cause the same." Whereupon Queen Mary a Princess of Modena, remarked i "See yon, love, j what a weak Cftampioji.,you have." The King said nothing, but only laughed, and the unhappy Champion excused himself on the ground that his armour was heavy and that he himself was weak with sickness, "which was false, foy he was very well, and had had none." AN IRREVERENT MONARCH. Another monarch who laughed ia the midst of Coronation solemnities was the incorrigible John. At the religious ceremony which was to, have followed his investiture as Duke of Normandy he laughed most irreverently, because some of the more lawless of his youthful companions were at the time amusing themselves in a comer. " ' t A DEATHLIKE SILENCE. I Altogether the* most tragic aside that evar occurred at any Coronation cere-, mony waj the one forced upon the Earl Marshal at the crowning of King Charles I. After the crown had been placed upon the King's head, Archbishop Laud presented him to the people in the usual way. The Primate had come to the end of his invocation : "and therefore I desire you, by your general akdamatlon, to testify your consent and willingness thereunto." But the only response was a death-like silence. Not a single voice was lifted to even speak the King's name, much less shout it. Then came the aside of the Earl Marshal; an aside which—like the run of stage usides— could be heard in every corner of the building. "Cry 'God save King Charles P" he enjoined loudly, and the spectators took the hint and did as they had been ordered. During ths sermon, preached by Senhouse, Bishop of Carlisle, on what the King considered a most ill-chosen text, an earthquake was felt. That may be included in the list of "asides," and one of very disquieting import. A QUEEN'S REFUSAL. • But possibly the greatest "aside" of ail was the standing aside altogether of Queen Henrietta Maria, who refused to be crowned on account of her religious opinions. A quaint contemporary chronicler relates: "She took a place at tha palace gate, when she might behold the procession going- and returning, her ladies frisking and dancing ia the room." PEEVISH JACOBITES. The early Georges were not Sovereigns to go "mum" through the most solemn ceremonial, or keep faithfully to tha ritual, without hare and there a little word or act expressive of tha inward man. But ta ft most amusing sotto voce at tha Coronation of any of them was a remark which fell from tha peeresses' gallery directly after George I. had been crowned. Wrote Lady Cowper in bar amusing "Diary" i "One may- ee«£y conclude that this ras not» day of mbaing **» th* J* so " bites; however, they were all looking as well as they coaW, but very peevish with everybody that spoke to them. My lady Dorahestw stood ijndarnaath mc, ma when the Archbishop went round tha throne demanding tha consent of the people, she turned about to mc and said: 'Boss the old fool think that anybody here will aay "No to his question, when there are so many drawu awordaf There was no remedy but jMtfaix*, to W jOaaaed, <* F* taads* to be sot" 1