Wrong note

Roy Turnbull is quite correct in his supposition that people joked about the struggle of the Suffragettes (Letters, 1 October). There is a rather shocking example in a song added in 1910 to the second act of Lionel Monckton’s The Arcadians, in which a character lists the ladies who are smitten by him.

I do not know who Lady Vere de Vere, Ermyntrude, Violet, Ethelwyn or Maud were, but the following lines “And Christobel [sic] rang up to say, Come round to lunch at Holloway, O Naughty One Mayfair Her feeding tube she wants to share, With Naughty One Mayfair” clearly refer to Christabel Pankhurst, co-founder of the Women’s Social and Political Union.

One can only hope that Messrs Arthur Wimperis and Monckton were unaware of the full horror of force-feeding in prison when they penned this jaunty little number and that the grim reference is missed by today’s audiences when they demand an encore.

JANE ANN LISTON

Whitehill Terrace, Largo Road

St Andrews, Fife