William McGonagall's Appeal to Queen Victoria Quiz

Answer:

According to the 1841 census, William McGonagall was born in Ireland in March, 1825. Then a large group of Irish immigrants travelled to Edinburgh. Among the group were Burke and Hare, the notorious body-snatchers. According to McGonagall's autobiography, he was born in Edinburgh in 1830. He was married and had seven children.

He was a hand-loom weaver at a time when mechanization of the cotton mills was making the job redundant. He was self-educated and entertained his fellow workers with speeches from Shakespeare. When he was asked to play Macbeth on stage, McDuff was supposed to stab him but he refused to die and pranced about the stage until an exasperated McDuff knocked him down and stabbed him to end the play. The "Book of Historical Failures" awarded him the title of "the worst Macbeth".

By 1877, when he was 52, no more weaving work was available but he suddenly had a vision. "I imagined that a pen was in my right hand and a voice was crying 'Write! Write!" - so he did. It has been suggested that he suffered from some form of autism or Asperger's Syndrome. Throughout his life he had total, absolute, unshakeable conviction of his own poetic genius. Since a poetic genius must have a patron, and he was a great genius, the only suitable person was Queen Victoria. In 1878, he sent her copies of some of his poems - including the one above. When the poems were returned by a member of the royal household, he decided that the rejection letter meant he would be welcome to present his poems to her Majesty, in person. So he walked from Dundee to Balmoral - about 60 miles - and presented himself at the gate as 'The Queen's Poet'. When he was refused entry to the castle, he simply walked back to Dundee. Queen Victoria's favourite poet was Alfred, Lord Tennyson who was the Poet Laureate.

McGonagall was only able to provide for his family by selling his poems in the streets and performing his poems in any venue available to him. He was a life-long campaigner against the evils of excessive drinking. Since he gave speeches and recited poems in pubs on the subject, he was not popular with pub landlords. Some of the public were exasperated with him, others regarded him as a comic music hall performer rather than a poet. Either way, heckling McGonagall was a regular pastime. In 1889, a circus owner, Baron Ziegler paid McGonagall 15 shillings a night to recite his poems in the circus ring while the audience threw things at him. The events became so rowdy the local magistrates shut them down. The magistrates also contrived to deny him access to other venues.

Without venues it was difficult to perform and sell his poems so he had no income. When he appealed to the Magistrates for a pension and was refused help, he wrote a poem about his treatment, entitled 'Lines in Protest to the Dundee Magistrates', and threatened to leave Dundee. A witty journalist commented at the time that he should have waited to leave until the following year because 'Dundee rhymes with 1893'. The family were evicted from their home and moved, first to Perth and then to Edinburgh. He died, penniless, in Edinburgh, in 1902 and was buried in an unmarked grave.

In 1894, while the family were living in Perth, he received a hoax letter from a group of students. The letter was signed by K.O.W.E.B, Poet Laureate of Burma at the Court of King Theebaw in the Andaman Islands and informed McGonagall that he had been granted the 'Insignia of the Holy Order of the White Elephant'. For the rest of his life he used the title Sir William Topaz McGonagall, Knight of the White Elephant, Burma.

McGonagall may have been called 'Scotland's worst poet' but over 25 years he wrote 215 poems. If there was a notable wedding, funeral, event or disaster McGonagall wrote a poem about it. His poems can now be seen as a part of Scotland's social history. He has received much more recognition and acclaim since he died than he ever did during his lifetime.

Spike Milligan created the character of William McGoonagall for The Goon Show. McGonagall was played alternately by Spike Milligan and Peter Sellars. A 1974 film called 'The Great McGonagall' starred Spike Milligan as McGonagall and Peter Sellars as Queen Victoria. A character based on him appeared on 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' and he featured in a Billy Connolly programme on TV.

In 1999, a wall-mounted memorial was placed at the grave site. The inscription, which are also the last lines of the poem above, reads:

I am, your gracious Majesty
ever faithful to thee
William McGonagall, the Poor Poet
That lives in Dundee