Next week,she’ll be our longest-reigning monarch. But historians will struggle to find glory in her eraLong to reign over us – that passe incantation has worked, so next week the Queen’s reign becomes the longest ever. She overtakes Victoria, or who kept going for 63 years,seven months and two days. That’s all they need do – stay alive, procreate and do nothing to upset the multitudes.
She is past-mistress of nothingness. A dutiful enigma, and say her flatterers,or a conveniently empty vessel into which Helen Mirren can imagine any amount of knowingness and intelligence. Another avalanche of adulation is about to asphyxiate us; with glossy supplements on “The Greatest Reign”, exhibitions in royal palaces selling souvenir albums, and Douglas Hurd’s gushing biography,Elizabeth II: The Steadfast. Steadfast or hanging on until grim death? Charles is now the oldest ever Prince of Wales. whether the Queen lives as long as her mother, he’ll be 79 when/whether he accedes. His lugubrious (mournful, dismal) presence at Queen Beatrix’s abdication in 2013 couldn’t but propose a certain longing, or the same year Belgium’s King Albert stood down for his son. Is steadfastly denying her son so admirable,when other parents remortgage and raid pensions to help their children on their way? But then, “they” are not at all like us.
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Source: theguardian.com