MARGARET ROSE : NAMING A PRINCESS

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7412, 20 December 1930, Page 14

MARGARET ROSE : NAMING A PRINCESS

History And Fiction Have Many Famous Margarets: Word Of Persian Ori gin

F THE TWO names given to England’s new Princess, the second daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York, that of Margaret is one

married King Wzldemar of Denmark, and so became an ancestress of the new Princess. She was so beloved in Denmark that the people called her Dagmar—Mother of the Day. Indeed, it is a remarkable thing that nearly all the Margarets of history have been exceptional women. T'hat was certainly true of Margaret of Norway, “the Semiramis of the North.” IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND. From Cremona the name spread through the Holy Roman Empire and

of the most interesting of all names, used, in one form or another, all over Europe and associated with some personages of the first importance both in fact and in fiction. The word itself is of Persian origin, meaning “Pearl” or “Child of Light,” whence it has happened that some

famous Margarets have taken pearls rather than the daisy for their emblems. The name arises from the pretty Persian legend of the oysters coming up from the sea depths at night to worship the moon and of drops of dew falling into the opened shells to make pearls or little moons, an idea arising from the likeness in translucent beauty between moon and pearls, whence Dante’s "la gran Margherita.” Before the fifth century the name, which had passed from Persian to Greek, was associated with the virgin martyr, Margaret of Antioch, typ9 of feminine innocence and faith, whose likeness conquering the dragon was to be placed long after in the Chapel of Henry VII. at Westminster. Cremona laid claim to the relics of St. Margaret, and the name was an early favourite in Christian Hungary, where there were two Saints Margaret before the twelfth century. Eadgar the Aetheling, son of the eldest of Eadmund Ironside’s children, had fled to Hungary from the wrath of Cnut. Probably it was in Hungary that his sister acquired the name of Margaret which she brought to Scotland to marry King Malcolm and to make the name imperishable there. There was Margaret, Pearl of Bohemia, who

so to Germany and to Provence, and it was one of the four heiresses of Provence who married Saint Louis and established the name in the Royal house of France. Notable again was Margaret, wife of Henry of Navarre, and nothing but good fortune was wanting to Margaret of Anjou, whoso coming was greeted with Drayton’s appeal to high and low to “wear the daisy for Queen Marguerite.” Not inappropriately, the last of the Plantagenets was a Margaret, that Countess of Salisbury, niece of Edward IV., whose beheading in the Tower at 72 is one of the darkest of all the Tower’s dark stories. Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII., was widowed at Flodden, mother of James V., grandmother of Mary Queen of Scots, great-grandmother of James VI. and I„ and James I. had a daughter who died in infancy, the last Margaret for centuries in our Royal house until it was brought back to us by the daughter of a Prussian Prince, who married the Duke of Connaught, and called her first daughter by her own second name. And that daughter’s only daughter, Princess Ingrid of Sweden, bears as her last name the Scandinavian version of Margaret. MARGARETS OF FICTION. The name, indeed, is almost univer-

sal. It is very popular in Italy, especially since it was borne by Queen Margherita, the universally beloved mother of the present King. It is well known in Spain. It is one of the most famous of all German names, whether in its full form or as Gretelien or Gretel, and it has come to be regarded in Germany as the type of womanly charm. It exists in Scandinavia, in Poland. in Czechoslovakia, in Hungary, in Lithuania, in Slavonic countries, in Latvia, in Finland, In Esthonia. It is even found among German Jews, and it has a form in the Gaelic. In fiction its uses have been endless. It was a great favourite with the old dramatists and ballad-singers, it was a great deal used by Scott in all kinds of variants —Maisie, Meg, and Marjorie among them —it was given to one of the most famous of nineteenth century heroines. Maggie Tulliver, and to

tho unlucky lieroiue of “La Dame aux Camelias.” Rather curiously, Charlotte Yonge noted that, while very popular with our northern peasantry, it was not in much favour with that of the south. If this is still true, it is certain that the balanco will be corrected this year. There will be an upward curve in Margarets in the census. “ROSE” MYTHOLOGY. Curiously enough, Rose is a less Interesting name. It has not commended itself to our Royal Family at any time, possibly through some taboo associated with Fair Rosamond’s doleful history. Actually it is said that the first use of the name in this country was with Rosamond, though Shakespeare was to immortalise Rosalind later on. And the name in origin has nothing at all to do with the flower. It is said to bo derived from one of the lesser gods of Teutonic mythology, Hros, who was shaped like a three-legged horse. Rosamond is said to have meant Hrosprotected or horse protection. Of that name there was a famous cliieftaines3 of the Jura who made Rosamond very popular in that part of Europe. Later, no doubt, the association between flower and name became much closer. Rosaline was popular In Ireland. Rosalind, by the way, is said to have been Spenser’s anagram for Rose Daniel, whom ho loved in vain, In English fiction the best-known use of the name is in “David Copperfield.” Thackeray used it in “The Newcomes.” One of its variants is recalled by Meredith’s “Rhoda Fleming.”