The Pageant of the Superstitions

London. October 11, 1930. Every charity-minded lady is at the Pageant of the Superstitions at the Haymarket Theatre to benefit the Queen Charlotte Maternity Hospital Maintenance Fund.

There’s Barbara Cartland, personifying “Good Luck” in a magnificent horseshoe headdress and glittering ball gown. Readers of this blog will take note of the good luck charms and talismans with which her dress is adorned, including a four-leaf clover and heart. She carries a lucky black cat in her left hand. It’s hard to tell from this photo, but is she wearing tiny dolls as earrings?? Well played, Barbara.

But Dame Babs was not the only fabulously bedecked peer at the Pageant. Also in attendance were:

• The Hon Mrs. Roland Cubitt, the grandma-ma of the Duchess of Cornwall (at the time of this writing, and formerly known as Camilla Parker-Bowles). She personified the superstition that three candles are considered bad luck. It was believed that you should not burn three candles together because the person nearest the shortest candle would either be the first to marry or the first to die.

  The House approves of her morbidly brilliant take.

Finally, we have Princess George Imeritinsky in a hat with large horns, embodying “Green.” In The House’s view, this is an extended metaphor that needs to be unpacked a little.

Let’s start with the expression “He was green with envy,” which is said to derive from a turn of phrase used by William Shakespeare or the phrase “green-eyed monster,” which is used to describe a jealous person.

What does this have to do with horns?

There is an association between horns and jealousy. For example, in traditional Shinto wedding ceremonies, the bride wears a headdress that is meant to cover the “horns of jealousy” and signify her desire to become a dutiful wife.

Similarly, a man whose wife is unfaithful to him is said to “wear the horns.” He is called a “cornuto” and can be either actively jealous or quietly accepting of his spouse’s infidelity. The House has written about this topic at length in a separate post.

So The House believes that the Princess is embodying the belief that a person with horns is green — i.e. experiencing jealously or envy. (And we must not forget that envy is one of the seven deadly sins.)

Well done, all.

P. S. A romance novel writer and step-grandmother of Diana, Princess of Wales, Barbara Cartland was a character worthy of her awesome ensemble. In her twilight years, she was The Madonna Inn in human form.