Charles’s Shakespearean tribute to the Queen
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The King borrowed from William Shakespeare as he said his mother was “a pattern to all princes living”.
In his speech to MPs and peers, Charles quoted lines from Henry VIII about the then princess Elizabeth, who was to become Queen Elizabeth I.
“As Shakespeare says of the earlier Queen Elizabeth, she was ‘a pattern to all princes living’,” the King said in his address in Westminster Hall.
The scene from Henry VIII, spoken by Archbishop Cranmer, was also highlighted in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s own tribute to the Queen.
RSC executive director Catherine Mallyon and acting artistic director Erica Whyman said: “Shakespeare’s Henry VIII contains a prophecy by Archbishop Cranmer about the baby princess Elizabeth I: ‘She shall be, to the happiness of England, An aged princess; many days shall see her, And yet no day without a deed to crown it.
“Translated to our times, Elizabeth II sought the happiness of England with her steadfast service, certainly lived many days, and did a great deed on every one.”
As Prince of Wales, the King was the president of the Royal Shakespeare Company and has a long association with the Bard’s work.
At the age of 17 he played the lead in a production of Macbeth, and in his first public broadcast as King he included a quote from Hamlet.
He said: “To my darling Mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: thank you.
“Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years. May ‘flights of angels sing thee to thy rest’.”
In the tragedy, Horatio pays tribute to his dying friend Hamlet with the words “Goodnight, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest”.
