Lives of the Queens of England of the House of Hanover, volume 1 (of 2)Doran, Dr. (John)
History
Lives of the Queens of England of the House of Hanover, volume 1 (of 2)
Doran, Dr. (John)
Hanover, House of; Queens -- Great Britain -- Biography
Between the wedding drawing-room and the coronation the King and
Queen appeared twice in public, once at their devotions and once
at the play. On both occasions there were crowds of followers, and
some disappointment. At the chapel-royal, the preacher, the Rev. Mr.
Schultz, made no allusion to the august couple, but simply confined
himself to a practical illustration of his text, ‘Provide things
honest in the sight of all men.’ It was a text from the application
of which a young sovereign couple might learn much that was valuable,
without being preached _at_. But the crowd, who went to stare, and not
to pray, would have been better pleased to have heard them lectured,
and to have seen how they looked under the infliction. The King had
expressly forbidden all laudation of himself from the pulpit, but
the Rev. Dr. Wilson, and Mason the poet, disobeyed the injunction,
and, getting nothing by their praise, joined the _patriotic_ side in
politics immediately. At the play, to which the King and Queen went on
the day after attending church, to witness Garrick, who was advertised
to play Bayes, in the ‘Rehearsal,’ the King was in roars of laughter
at Garrick’s comic acting; which even made the Queen smile, to whom,
however, such a play as the ‘Rehearsal’ and such a part as Bayes must
have been totally incomprehensible, and defying explanation. No royal
state was displayed on this occasion, but there were the penalties
which are sometimes paid by a too eager curiosity. The way from the
palace to the theatre was so beset by a violently loyal mob that there
was difficulty in getting the royal chairs through the unwelcome
pressure. The accidents were many, and some were fatal. The young
married couple did not accomplish their first party of pleasure, shared
with the public, but at the expense of three or four lives of persons
trampled to death among the crowd that had assembled to view _their_
portion of the sight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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