German wit
8:26pmRosemary Righter’s column in The Times today is trenchant stuff. She calls Diana’s death the “best thing that could have happened to the Royal family”, which seems rather strong even to a Diana-sceptic like myself. (One can only admire, though, her response to her editor when he asked her what all the messages on the tribute bouquets said to her: “One thing,” I said. “The nation cannot spell.” True. Angel was Angle, Heaven was Hevven and Love, more forgivably, was Luv.’)
But the reason I am actually writing this post is that Righter has a fantastic example of that rarest of collector’s items, German wit.
“when, at the height of World War I, George V decided it would be a tactful gesture to change the family name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the Royal House of Windsor, his cousin Kaiser Wilhelm II remarked: “I suppose Shakespeare’s play will now be known as The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg.”
Previous
Bruce Robertson
August 30th, 2007 10:34pm Report this commentAnd how tedious is *that* hoary old chestnut?...
EDWIN STEPHENS
August 30th, 2007 11:06pm Report this commentAmen to Bruce Robertson's post and (a ) the quip was "Saxe - Coburg - Gotha " and (b) Righter should research a little harder; the source wasn't the Kaiser.
Lee Jakeman
August 31st, 2007 2:01am Report this commentA German friend of mine quoted a Bavarian proverb when the subject of Diana came up: "Wenn aber das Tauwetter eintritt, ist es gefährlich auf das eis zu gehen". It took me a while to translate, but it means (literally): "When the thaw-weather sets in, it is dangerous to go out on the ice". I think he was implying that Diana lived dangerously.
Back to top