Tea at Trianon: The Secret History of High-Society Gossip

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, January 8, 2021

The Secret History of High-Society Gossip

I watched two episodes of Bridgertown and it is not my cup of tea. But I found this article by Nancy Bilyeau to be fascinating. From Town and Country:

There have been rumblings among fans that this sort of “gossip sheet” comes from a later time than the early 19^th century Regency period of Bridgerton, which based on a series of historical romance novels written by Julia Quinn. However, for two experts in the social customs of the Georgian and Regency period, a chronicler like Lady Whistledown has definite real-life precedents.
“Newspapers were plentiful during the Regency Era, with most of the stories published centering on politics, crime, fashion, infidelity, or royal doings,” says Geri Walton, author of Marie Antoinette’s Confidante and regular writer on 18^th and 19^th-century Europe. “I think any story that might stir up controversy and increase readership was covered by the press at the time. I’m also sure there were rumors and gossip about debutantes. The newspapers did focus on aristocrats and wealthy socialites.”
Historian Catherine Curzon, author of The Daughters of George III: Sisters and Princesses, says readers could closely follow the comings and goings of the upper classes in the popular “Fashionable World” newspaper columns, which were concerned with clothes, jewels and the general round of court balls and society events.(Read more.)