“ THE LION & UNICORN ”  8x10 Print ready to frame

The Lion and the Unicorn are fictional characters from the novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll. 

The Lion and the Unicorn
Were fighting for the crown
The lion beat the unicorn
All around the town.

Some gave them white bread,
And some gave them brown;
Some gave them plum cake
and drummed them out of town.

The royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom have been supported by a lion and a unicorn since 1603. The Lion represents England and the Unicorn represents Scotland. With these two nations having such an infamous state of animosity between them for centuries, it should be no surprise that the two beasts have become an allegory for bitter foes.

The Lion and the Unicorn are forever fighting over the crown of the White King, which, given that the Unicorn is on the White side as well, makes his part of the rivalry all the more absurd. Carroll subverts the traditional view of a lion being alert and calculating by making this particular one slow and rather stupid, although clearly the better fighter. The role of the Unicorn is likewise reversed by the fact that he sees Alice as a "monster", though he promises to start believing in her if she will believe in him. John Tenniel's illustrations for the section caricature William Ewart Gladstone as the Unicorn, and Benjamin Disraeli as the Lion, alluding to the pair's frequent parliamentary battles, although there is no evidence that this was Carroll's intention. The dramatis personae for Through the Looking-Glass identifies the Lion as the Red King's rook and the Unicorn as the White Queen's knight.

Artist: JOHN TENNIEL (1820-1914) The famous Victorian artist and Punch cartoonist, John Tenniel, is remembered today as the illustrator of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871)