"Engrossing and Beautiful"

 Charles I and Henriette-Marie de France

 

 

 

George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham

 A most eloquent review of My Queen, My Love.

If you read this book, be prepared to obsess over the characters like you would with any engrossing fictional story . . . only to be reminded that they are, in fact, real.  After doing so, you may just scour the Internet for photos of your new "friends."  Be prepared also to lie awake wondering what REALLY happened regarding a matter of court intrigue, asking your husband when you should be sleeping if he thinks that so-and-so poisoned so-and-so before the story started. While you're at it, you should also expect to wonder whether or not you should really google the villain and behold his countenance.

But, of course, you will. After all, you HAVE to know if he really, truly existed.

Then, once you know that he WAS, in fact, real, you will fervently wish for a time machine so that you can go back to warn everyone about him.

. . . or maybe that's just me. ;)  After all, I was crying over Giuliano de' Medici a few months ago.

MY QUEEN, MY LOVE: A NOVEL OF HENRIETTA MARIA by Elena Maria Vidal reminded me of why I love history (and even revitalized that love): that is to say, it is not a simple list of dates and facts, but, rather, a compelling story, alive with rich "characters" that have the power to stay with you. Vidal masterfully wove together a literary tapestry that tapped into real-life events in a way that inspired the reader to keep turning the page. There was beauty, there was tragedy, there was romance . . . and, much to my surprise, the plot was also layered with key characteristics of a mystery novel. Since I didn't know much about this particular "story" going in, it truly was similar to reading a completely fictional work where there still exists uncertainty and suspense.

Yet, despite the strong elements of intrigue and mystery, at the center of the entire narrative is a love story: that of a king and his queen and the Love that transcends their world.

From early on in the novel, I fell in love with the love story of Henrietta Maria and King Charles I. Rather than compose more coherent sentences, I have decided to instead include my "freak-out" gushing below. Unprofessional or not, it accurately reflects my state of mind when delving into the story and may perhaps best inform potential readers:
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HE FELL IN LOVE WITH HER WHEN SHE WAS DANCING---NOT ATTRACTION, BUT REAL LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT WHERE HE SAW THE DEPTHS OF WHO SHE TRULY WAS.
 
BUT SHE DIDN'T KNOW HE WAS THERE AS HE WATCHED FROM AFAR.

And then she fell in love with HIM through his letters, which is SO BEAUTIFUL AND ROMANTIC, too!!! AHHHH. Because she has SUCH a pure heart, like Cinderella and her prince when they first meet in the live action movie.

AND THEN THERE IS THIS EMOTIONAL BUILD-UP OF STORY TENSION because they have to still MEET. And the reader just needs it to happen asap!

And then they meet . . . and it is a Moment with a capital M!

But there be villainy afoot. ;) 
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Vidal's writing skill shone through once again in her brilliant introduction of the villain of the story through the eyes of one who regarded him as a close friend. Without going into detail, he could have been mistaken as a flawed comic relief, before his true nature became clear. Not only did this make the story-line more compelling and unpredictable, but it served as a rather profound commentary on evil relevant to today. In the presence of some, evil masquerades as Cool Guy, charming everyone with his jokes. But, when only some are watching, the mask just might come off.

As a Catholic, I was particularly drawn to the historical depiction of events as concerns the persecution those of my faith faced in England at the time. It was important for me to learn more about their plight, and my heart broke for those who suffered, much like that of Henriette, just as it rejoiced at moments when they received better treatment.  Yet the pain and suffering is balanced also with Light, the reason for which they are fighting.  Through vivid and sometimes ethereal descriptions, as well as profound reflections, Vidal was able to illustrate what we love so dearly.

The writing style in general is both detailed and engaging, rich with beautiful imagery that is, at times, quite lyrical. I found a kindred spirit in the romantic way that Vidal chose to describe figures, scenery, and events and likewise enjoyed the sprinkling of Arthurian legend in the novel. It was lovely to see Henrietta and Charles share a mutual love of these old stories, which not only added depth to their relationship and to them as individuals, but also seamlessly tied into the plot and foreshadowing of future events.

In terms of the characters on an individual level, I found myself bonding quite a lot with Henrietta, between her innocent romanticism, deep love of her faith, and moments of wit and humor.  But, on another level, I wondered at times if she were a saint and found her on the whole to be an inspiring figure. While there were moments in which the reader was called to be frustrated with Charles for being blinded as to certain individuals, I came to care a great deal for him and deeply admire his nobility of heart and desire to do what was right. The reader may also sympathize with the long-seated pain that he experienced, which is slowly revealed within this man of a pure and childlike nature yet confident, regal bearing.

While there were difficult moments to read throughout the novel, beginning with the tragic backstory of Henriette's mother, Marie de' Medici, the beauty of the center characters continued to illuminate the pages. Without going into detail, I will say that the intrigue of the novel also remains until the very end. Just like with a true mystery story, there are revelations at the conclusion that truly took me by surprise.  At the same time, the final pages served as a "bookend" in more than one way.  I'll leave it at that.

The reader should bear in mind that there may be occasional phrasings or actions with which he or she may not agree, even concerning supporting characters with a great deal of good.  However, such may also be found in real life, and it is likely that Vidal wished to present people and events with as much historical accuracy as possible while simultaneously putting forth a compelling narrative.  The meticulous research conducted for this book is abundantly clear from the detailed historical facts imbued into the text (as well as the lengthy works cited), although the novel format also allows for some speculation and presumably fleshing out of characters and situations. (Read more.)

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Why Hasan Piker Mocks a Murdered Man

 From Daniel McCarthy at Chronicles:

Hasan Piker is deeply envious of Charlie Kirk.

The hard-left influencer debated Kirk in 2017 and was set to do so again before Kirk was murdered last year. Yet now Piker is going around mocking Kirk’s assassination, leading a crowd last weekend, during his live podcast tour, in a sarcastic singalong of an AI-generated song called “We Are Charlie Kirk.”

“We are Charlie Kirk, we carry the flame. We’ll fight for the Gospel, we’ll honor his name,” Piker sang off-key, the crowd howling along, while the celebrity socialist’s co-hosts guffawed and waved their arms in the air.

This wasn’t satirizing a political opponent—Kirk has been dead nearly a year. Why make him the subject of this derision?

It’s because Piker knows his audience, and they’re not looking for thoughtful politics. They want a hatefest. Readers of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four might remember the totalitarian leftist party that runs the dystopian state in that novel regularly held events called a “Two Minutes Hate” to whip up hostility against the regime’s enemies.

Piker has improved on that—his podcast and live events like this offer more than an hour’s hate.

And nobody stirs the Piker crowd into a frenzy like Charlie Kirk.

The slain Turning Point USA founder represents everything they’re against, and not just because he was a widely successful conservative organizer who won young Americans away from socialism on the unfriendly campuses where he spoke—and where he ultimately died for his beliefs.

Kirk’s faith in God, his devotion to his family, his happiness all infuriated his enemies.
His self-sacrifice did, too, and more than anything else: Kirk knew the risks he took by going where he wasn’t welcome and speaking truths the left didn’t want to hear—and was determined to prevent anyone else from hearing. (Read more.)

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Rejecting the Robot

 From Chronicles:

The other day, while I was trying to enjoy myself on a short vacation in a beach town, the ethnographer in me could not help but notice a disconcerting phenomenon.

Three or four times in a brief span of perhaps an hour, I saw a young woman and a young man walking together, clearly couples. All of the women were strikingly beautiful. “Well done, lad!” I thought each time. And then, in each case, I noted that the man was not holding the woman’s hand, and he was not talking to her or even looking at her.

What was he doing?

You know exactly what he was doing, don’t you? He was looking at the little machine in his hand as he walked beside this lovely young woman.

And no, it’s not just a quick “What’s the address of the restaurant we’re going to?” kind of looking that he was engaged in. No, these young men were ignoring the humans in their lives in order to attend instead to machines. These men who were walking alongside attractive women—a situation every normal man has devoted backbreaking work and great risks to achieve throughout the long history of humanity—are now too distracted by a handheld machine displaying ghostly images from nowhere and speaking to them in a disembodied robot voice to even notice the beautiful women before them.

In my head, as I see these men doing what they are doing, I am having the same conversation with each of them:

You can stop talking to me about how tough things are for your generation. I’ll hear none of it. You deserve every serving of ordure you might get from the world, and you will get none of my pity. For here is a real human female right beside you, longing to have you take her hand and make her feel loved, and you’re more interested in the little soul-sucking metal box with the screen on it. What has gone so dreadfully and totally wrong with you, you strange creatures? What even are you? I do not see my species in you.

But it is not just the young men. I can’t count the number of young women also fervently clinging to their phones—taking endless pouty-faced selfies, gazing into them as at a lover, and holding them at that ostentatious and ridiculous angle in front of their faces while blathering vapidities to someone somewhere else holding her little machine in just the same ludicrous posture. Absorption by the spirit of the robotic is a binary experience, spread across the sexual divide. (Read more.)

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Elizabeth I and Cleopatra

 Elizabeth I is here portrayed among the goddesses

I think Cleopatra had more similarities with Mary Stuart than Elizabeth Tudor, but the article makes some interesting points. From the University College of London:

Perhaps second only to Tutankhamun in the who’s-who of Ancient Egypt Cleopatra VII is colloquially known as the Last Queen of Egypt. This is a very debatable epithet, whilst she is the last pharaoh of Egypt, she is also the last of Ptolemaic dynasty, a Greek family who ruled Egypt following Alexander’s conquest in 332 BC. Her death, 12^th August 30 BC, is chronicled by Plutarch, mentioned by Virgil and exonerated by Horace[1],  she is so renowned her death is sometimes used to denote the end of the Hellenistic era.

Queen Elizabeth, who died 3 years prior to this play’s performance, is quite a similar character. With a slightly dubious claim to the throne, her death in 1603 heralded the end of the Tudor rule.  Following the establishment of the Church of England in the 1530’s and the sweeping massacres of Catholics and Protestants alike England had a Catholic Scottish King, James I. For years England had been at war with both Scots and Catholics, and now had that exact ilk on their throne.

Cleopatra faced similar regency problems;  she may have been an originally Greek Queen, but she was barring the advancing Roman Empire from Romanising her country and herself. Here the Queens differ, Elizabeth went on the offence, striking out at Catholic enemies, such as Spain with her famous victory in 1588. Cleopatra had nowhere near the allies nor resources to defeat her foe (indeed she lost her major naval incursion at Actium), so she had to make them [allies].

Allying herself to Caesar and then Mark Anthony she coerced armies and treaties out of them to protect her beloved Egypt. Plutarch, writing in the 1^st century AD, describes Mark and Cleopatra’s first encounter as:

“Venus was come to revel with Bacchus for the good of Asia” (Lives III.XXVI.3)

Cleopatra is represented as the Roman goddess of love and founder of Rome, great praise for an Egyptian Queen who defied them. (Read more.)

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Data Centers

 From The Enterprise:

I spent the late 1990s and early 2000s building data centers in the middle of America's largest cities. We built them in Dallas, Miami, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and St. Louis. Thousands of people walked past our buildings every day. They did not protest them. Most did not even know what was inside. That silence was not a cover for some environmental menace. Our data centers were good neighbors. They occupied underused buildings, produced almost no traffic, and bought enormous amounts of electricity from the grid while our cooling systems consumed no water. Servers and telecommunications gear hummed behind anonymous walls while the fiber inside connected businesses and consumers to a rapidly expanding Internet.

 We were hardly alone. After the Telecommunications Act of 1996 opened local telephone networks to competition, venture-backed companies raced to build carrier hotels and colocation facilities across the country. Section 251 of that law required incumbent carriers to interconnect with competitors, which created demand for neutral buildings where rival networks could meet. Equinix, Colo[.]com, Exodus, Switch & Data, LayerOne and scores of others poured billions of dollars into the physical plant of the dot-com economy. The Federal Reserve later described "a massive boom in the sector, beginning in 1997." Then the bubble burst, investors lost fortunes, and the data centers remained. They became the backbone of the cloud, mobile communications, streaming, e-commerce, and now AI. (Read more.)

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The Banality of an Evil Pro-Abortion Art Exhibit

 From Mark Judge at Chronicles:

Still, the effect of seeing Andrea Bowers’ art was mostly enervation. This kind of angry political art is by now very old hat. Take the first room one enters at the exhibit. In Wall of Letters: Necessary Reminders from the Past for a Future of Choice, Bowers has simply reproduced dozens of letters of women seeking abortions, as well as guides on how to perform abortions, blown them up to poster size, and wallpapered a huge white room with them. This performative exercise might have shocked people a few decades ago, but by now the public has already absorbed and passed its judgment on the nonsense of artists like Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano. We have moved on. A hectoring and didactic display meant to incite insurrection in defense of abortion is old news. I mean, I was around to see Karen Finley smear herself with chocolate!

Bowers does better in the other rooms at Glenstone, which feature her pieces The Body is Not a Thing, It’s a Situation and Women and the Earth Have to Tolerate a Lot. Bowers has reproduced book illustrations, both from 1896, on square panels of cardboard. The illustrations themselves are quite beautiful, lovely representations of women in flowing Victorian dresses bodies intertwined. The original drawings were meant to illuminate women as deeply powerful and fertile beings with a seamless and metaphysical connection to nature. Then there are the works Ecofeminist Sycamore Branches: Women Have Always Thought Like Mountains, which feature tree branches illuminated with neon. The irony, of course, is that Bowers is using imagery evocative of the sensual and generative power of women to argue for killing babies. (Read more.)

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Court Masques

Costume design by Inigo Jones for Queen Anne's "Masque of Blackness"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another design by Inigo Jones for one of Henrietta Maria's masques

The court of Charles I in costume in a classical fantasy, Buckingham and his life Katherine are staring up at Charles I and Henrietta Maria.

Henrietta Maria of France

Masques were a big part of court life in both the English and French courts of the seventeenth century, especially during Shrovetide. From Historic Royal Palaces:

The masque began as an improvised performance at court in the 16th century during which courtiers and even royals would disguise themselves for play acting, fun and dancing. 

Masques were staged at Whitehall and Hampton Court Palaces for the Stuarts, with singing, acting, music, dialogue, amazing costume and above all, ‘special effects’ and moving scenery. By the early 1600s, under masque-loving monarchs James I and his queen Anne of Denmark, it became really elaborate. 

A Banqueting House was built specifically for the performance of masques at Whitehall Palace in 1608, but this burnt down in 1619, and was replaced by the present building, designed by Inigo Jones and completed in 1622. 

The Stuart Masques were mostly created by the brilliant partnership of playwright Ben Jonson and set and costume designer Inigo Jones. These temperamental artists quarrelled over whose contribution was more important, and after 1632, Jones worked with less argumentative (and less talented) poets.

The masques were a heady combination of opera, theatre, ballet and ball. They were always allegorical, featuring gods and goddesses from mythology and British history. Their purpose was to demonstrate the wisdom, and God-given right to rule, of the Stuart monarchs. There was always an ‘anti-masque’, featuring wild and outlandish dancers, who symbolised the chaos of a kingdom before the Stuarts. This was followed by the masque proper portraying the idealistic world of peace and harmony under divine kingship. At the end of the masque, the King would dance, and then the courtiers. Masques were performed for, rather than by, the court, although sometimes the queen and her ladies danced. 

A masque was also a place to see and be seen. They were incredibly expensive to produce; some of the most lavish were staged by affluent lawyers. But despite the cost, they weren’t always the most comfortable of shows to attend, for either actors or audiences. The crowded room was stifling hot, and smoke from the hundreds of torches must have been oppressive. Sometimes there was a long delay before the performance began. The chaplain to the Venetian Ambassador wrote of his experience after attending a masque in 1618: ‘So crowded and uncomfortable that had it not been for our curiosity we would have given up or expired … every box was filled notably with the most noble and richly arrayed ladies… During the two hours of waiting we had leisure to examine them again and again.’ (Read more.)

From Luminarium:

HAD Ben Jonson never lived, the English masque would scarcely need to be chronicled among dramatic forms. For despite the fact that mumming, disguising, and dancing in character and costume were pastimes in England quite as old, if not older, than the drama itself, it is to Jonson that we owe the infusion of dramatic spirit into these productions, together with the crystallization of their discordant elements into artistic unity and form. Generically, the masque is one of a numerous progeny, of more or less certain dramatic affiliation. Specifically, a masque is a setting, a lyric, scenic, and dramatic framework, so to speak, for a ball.¹  It is made up of "a combination, in variable proportions, of speech, dance, and song;" and its "essential and invariable feature is the presence of a group of dancers . . . called masquers."²   These dancers — who range in number from eight to sixteen — are commonly noble and titled people of the court. They neither speak nor sing, nor is it usual to exact of them any difficult or unusual figures, poses, or dances. Their function is the creation of "an imposing show" by their gorgeous costumes and fine presence, enhanced by artistic grouping, and by the aids which decoration and scenic contrivance can lend to the united effect. On the other hand, the speech of the masque, whether of presentation or in dialogue, and the music, both vocal and instrumental, were from the first in the hands of the professional entertainer, and developed as other entertainments at court developed. The masque combined premeditated with unpremeditated parts. The first appearance of the masquers with their march from their "sieges" or seats of state in the scene, and their first dance — all designated the "entry" — was carefully arranged and rehearsed; so also was the return to the "sieges" or "going cut," and this preparation included sometimes the preceding dance. The "main," too, or principal dance, was commonly premeditated, as in Jonson Masque of Queens, where the masquers and their torchbearers formed in their gyrations the letters of the name of Prince Charles. Between the "main" and the "going out," two extemporal parts were interpolated, the "dance with the ladies" and the "revels," which last consisted of galliards, corantos, and la voltas. It was in the development of the "entry" and the "main" that the growth of the masque chiefly consisted. (Read more.)

From Dr. Lawrence Shafe:

There was an Italian tradition, particularly a Florentine tradition, called the intermezzi. These were entertainments designed to fill in the gap between plays. The key series was in 1589 when the Grand Duke got married. They were trying to recreate a Roman theatre with classical allegory in the form of an entertainment. Bernado Buontalenti was the architect engineer of these displays.

A 1600 Florentine drawing shows a mountain rising from a stage, at the top is Pegasus with Apollo and the Muses below and Poetry below them. Clouds float in with people in them and they have trees that sprout leaves. Light boxes were used containing multiple candles made brighter with mirrors and the theatres were not darkened as much as ours. This event was publicized across Europe and news came back to Henry, Prince of Wales. His friend John Harrington was in Florence and wrote back describing them.

The intermezzi increased the scale and the engineering (trap doors, revolving stages) and it was these the Stuart court wanted to emulate.

Ben Johnson and Inigo Jones were the great double act although they eventually fell out.

Caroline masques in England had a stage with a proscenium arch (first developed in the 16thC in Florence and picked up by Jones). The stage tilts at an angle and it has slots in the sides for scenery. In 1635 Inigo Jones a country scene for The Temple of Love. 1609 Jones, [at] The Masque of Queens for Anne of Denmark [made] a machine with a round arch doorway and a revolving section on top with seats. The machine was called machina versitilis.

Anne of Denmark was the prime mover to create these spectacular masques. She loved dancing and was the leading dancer. She singled out Ben Johnson but the ideas were unfortunately hers so they were all a bit thin. All the music and choreography has been lost, in fact the scenery was pulled down and destroyed as soon as the masque was over. They were modelled on the French ballet do corps where the dancers formed a complex pattern. James I never ever took part. (Read more.)

 HERE is the original program for the ballet danced by Henrietta Maria at the Louvre when Charles first saw her.

An article on the masques of Queen Henrietta Maria, HERE.

More on the stage props created by Inigo Jones, HERE.

My novel on Henrietta Maria, HERE.
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Wolves in White Coats

 From Human Flourishing:

Yesterday the Department of Health and Human Services released a report, Wolves in White Coats. Along with surgeon and whistleblower Dr. Eithan Haim, I drafted the first two chapters of the report, and my colleague Rachel Morrison at EPPC drafted the third chapter. The report describe how hospitals and clinics recklessly embraced sex-rejecting procedures on minors, despite the lack of evidence of safety and efficacy for these interventions. Our research on insurance claims, presented in Chapter 2, highlights widespread false billing practices that could implicate these institutions in criminal fraud under the False Claims Act. In short, doctors lied about patients’ diagnoses to ensure insurance reimbursements from public and private payers, and in some cases, to circumvent state laws that prohibited these procedures on minors.

The full report and a shorter executive summary are available here. For those who want a brief, high-level overview, I recommend this 12-minute film released in conjunction with the report. The testimonies here from adolescents who were irreversibly harmed by these procedures are particularly devastating....(Read more.)

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Dating as Duty

 From Chronicles:

On the left, one of the most prominent works on this question is the New York Times’ essay “Men, Where Have You Gone? Please Come Back” by Rachel Drucker. Leftists never consider the mess that is the modern dating world—or their role in creating it—and how it might incentivize the “good men” to go their own way. 

Consider the #MeToo movement. After watching baseless accusations destroy the lives of countless powerful men, modest guys stopped pursuing women. When the media, divorce courts, and prospective employers decided to #BelieveAllWomen, young males afflicted by nothing worse than shyness backed off, because they didn’t want to become the object of social ridicule or make women uncomfortable. Courtship died.

Certainly, there are bad men out there, but rather than consider them an outlier, the left has encouraged young women to take a negative view of men in general. 

While many establishment conservatives frame the issue differently, they agree that the courtship crisis is men’s fault. Fox News darling Tomi Lahren, for example, insists that “the pickings are slim” for young women seeking quality masculine men who have their affairs in order.

Attributing blame to a failure of personal responsibility on the part of men is, however, only a half-truth. Men are leaving dating behind because they no longer believe it’s possible to achieve what their fathers and grandfathers did. 

Social conservatives love to blame pornography, but they get cause and effect backward. Porn does not cause men to retreat from dating; modern dating causes men to retreat into porn. 

After realizing they were playing a losing game, a good many men stopped dating. They made the calculation that porn was the best they were going to get. You can think that ignoble—I certainly do—but they’ve come by that conclusion honestly. Of course, the same can be said of all the other petty vices our young men use to while away their days—video games, online trolling, doomscrolling, anonymous posting on 4chan, et cetera. (Read more.)

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