The Jubilee Sov'rin
Marriott Edgar's monologue of how Mr Ramsbottom coped with medical expenses
One of many monologues by Marriott Edgar which delighted 20th century British audiences.
This text of the poem includes the original John Hassall illustrations.
Chronology
- 1837 Queen Victoria's accession
- 1840 Marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
- 1887 and 1897 Queen Victoria's Golden and Diamond Jubilees
- 6th May 1935 Silver Jubilee of King George V - and the Ramsbottoms' celebration
Currency
As many of the monologues refer to money, here is the Royal Mint's visual guide to Britain's pre-decimal coinage (i.e. before 1971).
The page does not include the sovereign (valued at one pound) as the coin was only minted for commemorative occasions. Wikipedia has more details Sovereign (British coin).
The Ramsbottoms' doctor, as was common in 20th century England, gave his fee in guineas. One guinea being one pound and one shilling, his reduced offer of eighteen shillings and sixpence leads to Mr Ramsbottom's counter offer of swapping Albert for the eighteen pence difference between the fee and the swallowed sovereign.
This article explains the strange, and still ongoing, aristocratic pretensions of using guineas as a unit of currency.
A monetary system based on twelve pence to the shilling and twenty shillings to the pound naturally provided challenging maths lessons for many British schoolchildren - a challenge compounded by the extended imperial units of measurement we also had to learn.
More about other comic monologues on my website, and how I began to perform them.
Abaht them 'ere monologues lists all of Marriott Edgar's poems with links to their texts, plus a few by other authors.
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Permission to tell outlines my views on copyright
For those who are teachers: Telling stories in the classroom: basing language teaching on storytelling