“Our May Queen: The Lass that Loved a Sailor” from the 1893 “Fun”

Our “May” Queen: “The Lass that Loved a Sailor”

John Gordon Thomson (1841-1911)

Fun 57-58 (17 May 1893): 203

“The latest exhibits at our imperial institute”

Two of the lines from the verses on p. 208: “For I'm to be King o’my May, grandma, for I'm to be King o’my May. / Years hence, perhaps, who knows, grandma! — I shall in fact be seen / Upon your throne as King, with her beside me as my Queen.” [See commentary below.]

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This cartoon features the future George V and Queen Mary — the latter was then Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, known in the family as "May," because it was her birthday month. The couple had just got engaged, and they appeared in public together on the grand occasion of the opening of the Imperial Institute on 10 May 1893. The caption plays on Tennyson's well-known poem, "The May Queen" (1832), in which the girl is doomed to die an early death. Fortunately, the kind of change envisaged in the cartoon is not a miserable one. The couple would be married in July, and the poem correctly foretells that Queen Victoria's grandson would eventually become King, and occupy his grandmother's throne with his consort beside him. Their marriage would, in fact, be a long and happy one.

The verse also refers to an old song composed by Charles Dibdin (1740-1814), entitled "The Lass that Loves a Sailor." Prince George, who had not been expected to succeed to the throne until his elder brother's untimely death, had served in the Royal Navy from 1877-91. — Jacqueline Banerjee

Related Material

Sources

"The Opening of the Imperial Institute." Times. 10 May 1893: 8. Times Digital Archive. Web. 7 May 2016.

"The Royal Betrothal." Times. 11 May 1893: 8. Times Digital Archive. Web. 7 May 2016.

Last modified 7 May 2016