The yellow book: an illustrated quarterly (3.1894)

A Note on George the Fourth

By Max Beerbohm

HEY say that when King George was dying, a special form


of prayer for his recovery, composed by one of the Arch-
bishops, was read aloud to him, and that his Majesty, after saying
Amen "thrice, with great fervour," begged that his thanks
might be conveyed to its author. To the student of royalty in
modern times there is something rather suggestive in this
incident. I like to think of the drug-scented room at Windsor,,
and of the King, livid and immobile among his pillows, waiting,
in superstitious awe, for the near moment when he must stand, a
spirit, in the presence of a perpetual King. I like to think of him
following the futile prayer with eyes and lips, and then, custom
resurgent in him and a touch of pride that, so long as the
blood moved ever so little in his veins, he was still a king,
expressing a desire that the dutiful feeling and admirable taste of
the Prelate should receive a suitable acknowledgment. It would
have been impossible for a real monarch like George, even after
the gout had turned his thoughts heavenward, really to abase him-
self before his Maker. But he could, so to say, treat with him,
as he might have treated with a fellow-sovereign, long after
diplomacy was quite useless. How strange it must be to be a king !
How delicate and difficult a task it is to judge him ! So far