Queen Victoria has been portrayed or referenced many times.
Literature
In 1937 Lord Chamberlain the Earl of Cromer ruled that no British sovereign may be portrayed on the British stage until 100 years after his or her accession. For this reason, Laurence Housman's play Victoria Regina (1935), which had earlier appeared at the Gate Theatre Studio in London with Pamela Stanley in the title role, could not have its British premiere until the centenary of Queen Victoria's accession, 20 June 1937. This was a Sunday, so the new premiere took place the next day, at the Lyric Theatre. Pamela Stanley reprised the title role at Housman's request, and Carl Esmond played Prince Albert.[1] The play later appeared on Broadway, where Helen Hayes portrayed the Queen, with Vincent Price in the role of Prince Albert.
Vaughan Wilkins' novel And So-Victoria (1937) focuses on Victoria's life.[2]
A Royal Diaries book was written, documenting her childhood between 1829 and 1830: Victoria, May Blossom of Britannia by Anna Kirwan.
The Victorian age is experienced through the eyes of the fictional Morland family in The Abyss, The Hidden Shore, The Winter Journey, The Outcast, The Mirage, The Cause, The Homecoming and The Question, Volumes 18–25 respectively of The Morland Dynasty, a series of historical novels by author Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. One of the characters becomes Victoria's devoted lady-in-waiting.
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles also wrote I Victoria, a fictional autobiography of Queen Victoria.
Another Sanskrit poem, titled Victoria Carita Sangraha, was written by scholar Keralavarman on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the coronation of Queen Victoria.[4]
Although she did not live to see the Victorian age, Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) wrote a number of poetic tributes to the young princess and queen. These are:
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Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1832. 'The Princess Victoria', to accompany a plate drawn by Anthony Stewart and engraved by T. Woolnoth. (This plate is in some editions, entitled 'The Princess Alexandrina-Victoria')[5]
Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1837. 'The Princess Victoria', to accompany a plate engraved by J. Cochran after Sir Geo. Hayter's painting.[6]
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Romy Schneider in the West German biopic Victoria in Dover (1954), remake of the 1936 film, which features a highly fictionalised story about Queen Victoria's ascension to the throne and marriage to Prince Albert
Monty Python's Flying Circus portrays Queen Victoria as a slapstick prankster and includes a sketch in which she says "We are not amused" in German accented English. Another Monty Python sketch contains a footrace in which all the contestants are dressed as Queen Victoria.
In a series of sketches portraying the Phantom Raspberry Blower, the Two Ronnies dress an entire squad of policemen as Queen Victoria to act as body doubles for protection from the PRB.
In the 2006 series of Doctor Who, Queen Victoria appears in the episode "Tooth and Claw", where she is played by Pauline Collins. In the episode, set in 1879, she is threatened by a werewolf that wants to infect her and take control of her empire. It is suggested that a scratch from the werewolf is the source of haemophilia in many of her descendants. Rose Tyler makes a bet with the Doctor for £10 that she can get the Queen to say "We are not amused". At the episode's conclusion, she founds the Torchwood Institute, an integral feature of the spin-off series Torchwood, with various (fictional) speeches and proclamations by her available on the Torchwood Institute website. An image of Collins as Victoria was later displayed prominently in the 2017 episode "Empress of Mars", set during the later years of Victoria's reign (coincidentally, the episode guest-starred Ferdinand Kingsley, who at the time was co-starring with Jenna Coleman in the ITV series based on Victoria's life). In 2008, the Doctor's former companion Sarah Jane Smith, notes Her Majesty's awareness of aliens in The Sarah Jane Adventures episode, "Enemy of the Bane", to which her young apprentice Rani Chandra responds, "I'll bet she wasn't amused."
The BBC series Blackadder Goes Forth, set in World War I, alludes humorously to Queen Victoria's heritage. Captain Blackadder interrogates Captain Kevin Darling whom he suspects to be a German spy. Captain Darling claims that he is "as British as Queen Victoria", to which Captain Blackadder replies: "So your father's German, you're half German and you married a German?"
The prominent Victoria Memorial stands in Kolkata (Calcutta), and in Bangalore the statue of the Queen stands at the beginning of MG Road, one of the city's major roads.[17] In the town of Cape Coast, Ghana, a bust of the Queen presides, rather forlornly, over a small park where goats graze around her.[18] In Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, a statue toward the harbour from the centre of Kent and Cambridge Terraces. There is also a Queen Victoria Statue in the heart of Valletta, Malta's capital.
Victoria Jubilee Town Hall in Trivandrum is still one of city's most sought after theatres for live entertainment and is considered a prestigious landmark by both locals and tourists alike.
In Pietermaritzburg, capital of the South African province of KwaZulu Natal, formerly the British colony of Natal before formation of the Union of South Africa, there is a statue of Victoria in front of the provincial legislature building, the former parliament building of the colony of Natal. There is also a statue of Queen Victoria in front of the South African Parliament.
Most of the large cities in Australia that prospered during the Victorian era feature prominent statues of Queen Victoria. Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales has several. There is one statue (re-sited from the forecourt of the Irish Parliament building in Dublin) dominating the southern entrance to the Queen Victoria Building that was named in her honour in 1898. Another Sydney statue of Queen Victoria stands in the forecourt of the Federal Court of Australia building on Macquarie Street, looking across the road to a statue of her husband, inscribed "Albert the Good". In Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, the Queen Victoria Gardens named after her also features a large memorial statue in marble and granite. In Perth, capital city of Western Australia a marble statue stands in King's Park overlooking the city. In Adelaide, capital city of the state of South Australia, the Queen Victoria Square, named after her also has a large statue of her.[19] In Brisbane, capital city of the state of Queensland, there is a statue of her in Queens Square, also named for her;.[20]Ballarat, a boomtown in Victoria has a statue of Queen Victoria in the main street directly opposite its town hall. A small bust of the Queen is in the Queen Victoria Gardens in Burnt Pine, the largest town in the Australian territory of Norfolk Island.
Statues erected to Victoria are common in Canada, where her reign included the original confederation of the country and the addition of three more provinces and two territories. A bas-relief image of Victoria is on the wall of the entrance to the Canadian Parliament, and her statue is in the Parliamentary library as well as on the grounds.[21]
English rock band The Kinks honour Queen Victoria and her empire in their 1969 song "Victoria". The song has since been covered by English rock band The Kooks, English post-punk band The Fall, American alternative rock band Cracker, and American rock band Sonic Youth. Both The Kinks' and The Fall's versions were UK Top 40 hits.
Canadian singer Leonard Cohen refers to her in a mostly non-factual way in his 1964 poem "Queen Victoria and Me", and again in the 1972 song "Queen Victoria" (based on the poem). The song was later covered by Welsh musician John Cale.
In 2006, the Comics Sherpa online comic service started carrying a comic strip titled The New Adventures of Queen Victoria using cut-out photographs and portraits of the Queen and others.[23]
Queen Victoria is revealed to be watching the climactic trial in the video game The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve, and uses her authority to strip the main villain of his position as chief justice. Rather than appearing in person, another character reads her proclamation to the court.
Footnotes
^All the Best People ...: The Pick of Peterborough 1929–1945, George Allen & Unwin, 1981; p. 139
^Stanley Kunitz and H. W. Wilson Twentieth Century Authors: A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature. Supplement, Volume 1. New York, 1955. (p. 1083)
^The contribution of Kerala to Sanskrit Literature; K.Kunjunni Raja; University of Madras 1980; page 257
^The contribution of Kerala to Sanskrit Literature; K.Kunjunni Raja; University of Madras 1980; p. 255
1Overlord of Britain. 2Also ruler of Ireland. 3Also ruler of Scotland and Ireland. 4Lord Protector. 5Also ruler of England and Ireland. Debatable or disputed rulers are in italics.