Queen for a New Day

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Although Lady Diana is not much seen just now, what with all the royal tutorials and wedding preparations, she is already being widely imitated. Her haircut is copied. Her outfits are being knocked off. Her husband-to-be met a vanguard of Di clones in New Zealand on his trip, and commented, "Not as good as the real thing."

The real thing will find herself soon enough in an odd position with real life, a little exalted and, at the same time, perpetually risking compromise. Cautionary romances, like William Wyler's 1953 film Roman Holiday, have alerted us to the restrictive, hermetic and sometimes suffocating side of royal life. A princess is required to be both an ornament and an exemplar, a rarefied high-wire act that calls for a lot more skill than a good sense of balance. Everyone waits for a false step, and there are even some who will shake the wire. Diana's older sister, Lady Sarah, was an earlier entrant in the nuptial derby, but was scratched when she remarked one evening, "I really enjoy being with [Charles ... but] I'm not in love with him. I wouldn't marry anyone I didn't love, whether he were the dustman or the King of England." One of her companions that night turned out to be a reporter, and the story hit Fleet Street the next day.

No hard feelings but a sobering lesson. "You are always a bit on your guard," remarked Charles' sister, Princess Anne. "You know that because you're royal, anything you say might be given extra significance . . . There are very few people I know whom I would speak to with any degree of freedom." Freedom does not come with the royal territory, and if Princess Anne is not so well loved as her brother, it may be because she seems aware of this situation, not only more acutely but perhaps more poignantly too.

A princess's perks remain mightily seductive, however, to a popular imagination fueled on storybooks full of wise kings and gentle queens and tall palaces. One knows Lady Diana read some of those same fairy tales, as certainly as one knows that, when they look to be coming true on July 29, she will continue to shine and star. Always, of course, within the bounds of what is seemly; the consort's luster must not dim the King. Eventually, as Queen, Lady Diana will wear a crown with the 109-carat Kohinoor diamond as its centerpiece. This royal geegaw has been out of circulation for years. Watching Lady Diana, whether accepting a flower from a schoolboy or negotiating a receiving line, one wonders for a moment if such a crown might not be . . . well, yes, superfluous. Good enough, really, just to see her smile.

Interrupted again. Book closed, legs crossed, smile adjusted, voice not testy, precisely, but a little weary.

"It was also said at the time of the engagement that Lady Diana Spencer was that very special kind of woman who made men unafraid to be giddy. Certainly she had that effect on her countrymen. We shall also start to see what effect she had on her husband, and what effect their wedding had on the nation.

"That will be next time. Chapter 4 of Monarchs in Love, 'A Doll's Spouse.' Alistair Booke for Masterpiece Theater. Good night.'' —By Jay Cocks.

Reported by Erik Amfitheatrol and Bonnie Angelo/London