The Fairy Queen 

White Rose

Aus Gottes ew’gem Rat
hat sie ein Kind geboren
und blieb ein reine Magd.
or: Welches uns selig macht 

At God’s immortal word,
She has borne a child
Remaining a pure maid.
or: Who makes us blessed. 

It is more than two languages, Gloriana and Germania.  Island nations and continental nations who had a rougher transition than the Brits did, and of course not all Brits are English.  Just like not all Germans are Dutch.  Rose is the Fairy Queen and she is still there on top of Cemetery Hill.  One of these days someone is going to see her because it is  fashionable or makes money from the tourists or something like that.  Perhaps you and I will.  See her, I mean.

English language has strange,  Like quarks or languages, it has magic.  Rituals and symbols, actions not to be confused with cymbals , and of course language.  Not to be confused with coarse language in Gettysburg.  Rose was born, that we know.  But who was the lady on the hill?  Was it Elizabeth?  Witch Elizabeth? That is the story.  Witchcraft is alleged to be the practice of magic, Queen Bess would be guilty as charged.

That is who Elizabeth thought she saw on the hill.  Gloriana was a real person.  Germana is only a cymbal witch used to sound from the ground at Gettysburg.  Democracy was dealt a serious hit among the krauts, and the losers fled here and brought communism with them (a meme) or at least that is what the same crowd is still freaking out about today.  The Confederates, I mean, and maybe history has been kinder to them than they deserve.  But I love the South.  Take off.

Rose was conceived during the Civil War and her quickening occurred during the battle.  We do know the real Elizabeth Thorn  worked “…with all that stench. And in three months after I had a dear little baby. But it was not very strong, and from that time on my health failed and for years I was a very sickly woman.”  And of course we know early child care was an idea pioneered by the Nazis, but that is another story, isn’t it?  This is how Rose became the fairy queen.

She is the same Queen Mag about whom Shakespeare wrote.  Was she real?  This one is.  Rose Thorn is as real as Elizabeth I is, and they are both dead and so is Shakespeare but only the person.  That is why you can say, “,..do you know Shakespeare,” and it does not sound as strange as, “do you know Queen Bess or Rose Thorn.”  Her name says it all, Rose Thorn.  How did she die?  Did she ever get her period?  What was her sentence like?

These are questions a women might ask, or at least I would ask were I a woman.  That is the feminist side of the story, questions asked by Rose on Cemetery Hill now because there is not only one word for the fairy queen, just like there is no plural word for “savior” in German, I am told, but it would be easy enough to conjure one.  See Rose has a meaning of battle too long obscured by war.  Lincoln framed it as best he could,  Of, by and for the people they say.

That is the comic part of the opera, although you might need black humor to get it. It is as forbidden… verboten… as black magic, so we will not go there.  Nor is there any need to go into the weaponry, which was laughably crude as the medical care was and still is today.  Care has improved the same way that language and weapons have.  All men are equal?  Is that supposed to be funny?  Well… it is.  But Rose has not perished from the earth.  Not by a long shot.

Rose is Germania’s gift to the English-speaking people of the United States.  The Germans had heard all that Confederate states Rat wurst und ist nicht aber Junkers und Bourgeois.  And even a stupid Dutchman like me can get the idea of socialism and the folk who brawl about their property rights.  Apparently the Know Nothings were quite active when Elizabeth was married on the day the cornerstone was laid for her house.  Did Rose learn to speak German?  Could she speak it at home?

There were bands on the battlefield.  They played the Marseillaise on Cemetery Hill during the battle.  Every European knows what that means, but especially French and Germans.  English had that worked out earlier, both as a nation and a language. This knowledge is what Rose learned from the lady on the hill.  Elizabeth only saw her once, and that was Halloween night.  It could have been a labor dream.  Probably was.

Rose saw the lady most of her life, and they came to know each other quite well.  “Are you all here?”  The lady would ask Rose.  Did Rose see the lady after the Thorns moved down to town?  Nobody knows.  But once Rose was all there, and that was when she became fairy queen of the hill.  Rose is the watch-fire light flickering in the eyes of soldiers long dead.  Cause and comrades sorted out long before this.  Rose is the light that still exists on the ropes in light of the stars not purchased by popes.  Rose is part of that dream.

Do not forget it. 

Get it.