Princess Beatrice

BBC Learning English
London Life
Princess Beatrice

Amber¹: Hello, I'm Amber, and you’re listening to

bbclearningenglish.com.

In London Life today, we travel back in time to hear about

the life of Princess

Beatrice, the youngest of Queen Victoria’s nine children.

Princess Beatrice was born in 1857 at Buckingham Palace in

London. She was Queen Victoria’s fifth daughter, and as we

’ll hear, she ended up devoting her life to her mother.

Matthew Dennison has written the first biography of

Princess Beatrice. He talks about the reasons why the young

princess became her mother’s constant companion, and why

she went on to edit her mother’s diaries after she died.

From the beginning, Queen Victoria adored Beatrice who was

a good-looking child. Matthew says Queen Victoria was

‘always swayed by good looks’ – to be swayed by

something, means to be influenced or persuaded by it. As

you
listen, try to catch one or two of the six adjectives

Matthew uses to describe the young Beatrice!

Matthew Dennison

‘She was a pretty child – bright, pert, bouncy, naughty,

cheeky child! Queen Victoria was

always swayed by good looks.’
 
Amber: So young Beatrice was ‘pretty, bright, pert,

bouncy, naughty and cheeky’! ‘Pert’ means lively, as

well as small, well-shaped and pretty! She was ‘bouncy’

and she often misbehaved – she was ‘naughty’. To be

‘cheeky’ means to be rude and amusing, or funny.
But everything changed for this delightful² little girl when

she was just four years old. In 1861, her father, the

Prince Consort³, died, and the heart-broken Queen turned to

Beatrice for comfort. Queen Victoria kept Beatrice close to

her all the time – the princess was her ‘constant

companion’.
Matthew says when the Prince Consort died, it was like ‘a

shutter⁴ coming down’ – this means that everything was

very different from now on - it was like ‘a shutter coming

down’.
As you listen, try to catch the expression Matthew uses to

explain that Princess Beatrice was never able to get free

of her mother’s overwhelming need to have her close.

Matthew Dennison

‘Yes, the death of the Prince Consort is really like a

shutter coming down and the tone of

family life, court life, royal life, from 1861 onwards is

what will ultimately shape Beatrice, and which she’ll

never really shrug⁵ off.’

Amber: Matthew says that Princess Beatrice was never able

‘to shrug off’ her mother’s need to keep her close, and

that Beatrice was changed, or ‘shaped’ by her mother’s

behaviour.
And when Beatrice grew up, Queen Victoria did not want her

to get married. But Beatrice did fall in love with, and

marry, Prince Henry of Battenberg. Yet when he died in 1896

of a fever, Beatrice spent the next 30 years of her life

editing her mother’s journals. This is what Princess

Beatrice is famous for, and most people think she probably

made a lot of changes which Queen Victoria might not have

wanted. But Matthew disagrees. He says the Queen made

Beatrice her ‘literary
 
executor’ – she wanted Beatrice to look after her

property after she died – because she knew Beatrice would

act according to her wishes, and she knew Beatrice would ‘

step into the fray⁶’, she would ‘take up the challenge’

of editing her mother’s papers after her death.

Matthew Dennison

‘My feeling is that she acted in accordance with her

mother’s wishes and that because Queen

Victoria had appointed Beatrice, unofficially, her literary

executor, she made no plans to have her journals and

private correspondence burnt - which she easily might have

done, if she hadn’t known that Beatrice would step into

the fray and eradicate⁷ things that perhaps posterity⁸ wasn’

t supposed to know.’

Amber: So Queen Victoria trusted Beatrice to remove, or ‘

eradicate’, anything she didn’t want ‘posterity’,

people in the future, to know!
So, over all, it was an astonishing mother-daughter

relationship! Beatrice does not accuse her mother of being

controlling, and she doesn’t create a ‘cycle’ – she

doesn’t go on to treat her children the way she was

treated by her mother.

Matthew Dennison

‘The Queen behaves towards her with astonishing emotional

selfishness and yet Beatrice

returns her love whole-heartedly – with no element of

recrimination – and the relationship that Beatrice has

with her mother doesn’t become a cycle. Beatrice herself

doesn’t inflict⁹ that on her own children.’

Amber: Now here again is some of the language from today’

s programme:

swayed by good looks cheeky
a constant companion
 
like a shutter coming down to shrug off
to step into the fray a cycle
More news stories and language explanations next time at

bbclearningenglish.com

1 amber   

n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的

参考例句：

• Would you like an amber necklace for your birthday?你过生日想要一条琥珀项链吗？
• This is a piece of little amber stones.这是一块小小的琥珀化石。

2 delightful   

adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的

参考例句：

• We had a delightful time by the seashore last Sunday.上星期天我们在海滨玩得真痛快。
• Peter played a delightful melody on his flute.彼得用笛子吹奏了一支欢快的曲子。

3 consort   

v.相伴；结交

参考例句：

• They went in consort two or three together.他们三三两两结伴前往。
• The nurses are instructed not to consort with their patients.护士得到指示不得与病人交往。

4 shutter   

n.百叶窗；(照相机)快门；关闭装置

参考例句：

• The camera has a shutter speed of one-sixtieth of a second.这架照像机的快门速度达六十分之一秒。
• The shutter rattled in the wind.百叶窗在风中发出嘎嘎声。

5 shrug   

v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等)

参考例句：

• With a shrug,he went out of the room.他耸一下肩，走出了房间。
• I admire the way she is able to shrug off unfair criticism.我很佩服她能对错误的批评意见不予理会。

6 fray   

v.争吵；打斗；磨损，磨破；n.吵架；打斗

参考例句：

• Why should you get involved in their fray?你为什么要介入他们的争吵呢？
• Tempers began to fray in the hot weather.大热天脾气烦燥。

7 eradicate   

v.根除，消灭，杜绝

参考例句：

• These insects are very difficult to eradicate.这些昆虫很难根除。
• They are already battling to eradicate illnesses such as malaria and tetanus.他们已经在努力消灭疟疾、破伤风等疾病。

8 posterity   

n.后裔，子孙，后代

参考例句：

• Few of his works will go down to posterity.他的作品没有几件会流传到后世。
• The names of those who died are recorded for posterity on a tablet at the back of the church.死者姓名都刻在教堂后面的一块石匾上以便后人铭记。

9 inflict   

vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担

参考例句：

• Don't inflict your ideas on me.不要把你的想法强加于我。
• Don't inflict damage on any person.不要伤害任何人。