Pets in Prison

Madame Royale in the Garden of the Temple Prison

From History Today:

The humanity with which Richard and his wife had behaved towards the queen during her first month at the Conciergerie, and the suspicion of their having collaborated in the Carnation Affair, had led to their being suspended. By the time they were reinstated in November 1793, Made Antoinette had perished on the guillotine. Given their previous acts of kindness they may well have taken pity on her pug, a breed to which she was famously attached. Whether this dog was the original Thisbee or the pet of another victim which she had adopted is impossible to gage.

The reticence of Madame Royale on the subject of her mother's dog at the Temple also applies to her own spaniel, Mignon, which her brother, the Dauphin, gave her before being finally separated from his sister on October 7th, 1793. In all probability he retained some of his earlier ambivalence towards dogs. The existence of Mignon is well documented: the eye-witness Hue, refers to 'a dog which was long the sole witness of her sorrows', and the dog features in many engravings of Madame Royale after her release on December 19th, 1795. When Mignon died in 1801, having fallen from a balcony of the Poniatowski Palace in Warsaw, Louis XVIII wrote to the poet Jacques Delille, then in England, asking for some lines to inscribe on the dog's tomb. In Malheur et Pitie, Delille incorporated an elegy to Mignon:

Be then the subject and the honour of my poems, Oh you! who consoling your royal mistress, Until your last breath proved to her your kindness, Who beguiled her misfortunes, enlivened her prison; Oh of the last farewell of a brother, unique and tragic gift ...

 If the Dauphin was wary of dogs, he was unequivocal in his liking for birds. At the Tuileries in 1792 he took care of the aviary and of the ducks in the pond, he also raised rabbits. At the Temple in 1795, in response to the boy's entreaties, one of the towers was transformed into a pigeonry and his gaoler, Simon, had a birdcage built in one of the window-recesses, even removing a plank from the hoarded-up casement-window 'in order to provide the birds with light'. Bills for supplying 'bird-seed for the little Capet's pigeons' are still in evidence. The Commune baulked, how- ever, when presented with a demand for 300 livres from a clock-maker, Bourdier, whom Simon had commissioned to repair a very beautiful bird- cage which he had found in the furniture-repository of the Prince de Conti, the former proprietor of the Temple. Simon had undertaken to pay this sum out of his own pocket but, by the time the work was completed, he too had been guillotined. (Read entire post.)

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Who is Driving the Campaign Against the Order of Malta?

 From The Catholic Herald:

Somebody has got it in for the Order of Malta, the 900-year-old Catholic order which maintains hospitals and runs charitable activities all over the world. In Italy, a stream of very similar articles has been appearing, beginning with an attack last October in the left-wing newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, by a journalist writing as Thomas Mackinson. In recent weeks there has been an accelerating series of articles under different names, all of them repeating the same criticisms. People in the Order’s ambit are beginning to wonder who is putting them up to it and why.

The articles accuse the Order of betraying a reform intended by Pope Francis, who wanted to bring it more into line with the life of a full religious order. The criticisms highlight the role of the professed knights – those who take the traditional religious vows – and assert that these need to be made to live in community so as to be true religious. What the articles do not explain, however, and indeed seriously misrepresent, is how the Order came to be in its present position.

The background is the crisis precipitated among the knights by Pope Francis in January 2017, when he forced the Grand Master, the Englishman Matthew Festing, to resign. The result was effectively putting the Order into the hands of its German branch, under the Grand Chancellor (effectively prime minister of the Order) Albrecht von Boeselager. The German-backed faction consolidated their control in the five-yearly elections to the Order’s government held in 2019. Of the 18 names back by this camp, all but one were elected. (Read more.)

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Out on the Wily, Windy Moors...

One of the best reviews. From Charlotte Allen at Quillette:

It’s all R-rated sex and the characters keep their clothes on (their passion is too urgent for undressing), but Fennell makes up for that by having Heathcliff do quite a bit of licking—of Cathy’s face mostly, but also of her fingers after he catches her masturbating on the moors (which have undoubtedly seen worse over the millennia). It also rains constantly, drenching the lovers mid-coitus—another “primal” touch added by Fennell. The results are often risible. I enjoyed a good laugh when Heathcliff and Cathy sneak up to a hayloft and peep through the floorboards at two lusty young servants engaging in a bit of BDSM with the horse tack. And a reviewer for the Hollywood Reporter remarked that a shot of a shirtless, sweating Heathcliff stacking hay bales was “so close to gay farmer porn I giggled.” Just in case we haven’t got the idea, Fennel lays the sexual symbolism on extra thick during a scene in which Cathy cracks raw eggs onto Heathcliff’s bedsheets, and another in which we watch Cathy knead wet dough in slow-motion like she’s giving an erotic massage.

But for most of the film’s running time, I was bored. After about an hour, I began to wonder when, how, and if all of this was going to end. Part of the problem is that for all their strenuous exertions, there’s no chemistry between Elordi and Robbie at all. Elordi is good-looking and swarthy enough, but he doesn’t have the hammy charisma of, say, Laurence Olivier in William Wyler’s 1939 adaptation. It doesn’t help that, for the first third of Fennell’s movie before he makes his fortune and cleans himself up into Hot Mr. Darcy, Heathcliff resembles a stringy-haired, bushy-bearded hobo (like Charles Manson, but a lot taller). Whenever he kissed Margot Robbie, much less licked her fingers, I recoiled on her behalf.

And Margot Robbie is comically miscast as Cathy. She’s a rare blonde bombshell who can also act, and she’s a standout in spunky, high-spirited roles like Mrs Wolf of Wall Street, Tonya Harding, Sharon Tate, and Barbie. But she can’t do tragic period heroines well. Furthermore, Robbie was 34 when “Wuthering Heights” was shot, which is much too old to play the part of Cathy. In the novel, Cathy develops her crush on Heathcliff when she is fifteen, and dies aged just nineteen. This is not necessarily fatal to the adaptation—Merle Oberon was 27 when the Wyler version was shot—except that Robbie had just given birth to her son when filming began, and her postpartum-thickened waistline and maternal pheromones make it hard to take her moor-romping seriously.

Nor is Robbie well-served by the movie’s much-praised but actually ugly and unflattering costumes—the handiwork of Jacqueline Durran (who also designed the costumes for Barbie). Nearly every one of Robbie’s frocks features a tight-waisted bodice that makes her look like an opera coloratura instead of a Yorkshire ingenue, and a neckline (if it can be called that) cut to emphasise her heaving cleavage (I don’t know whether it was push-up bras or nursing, but Robbie isn’t that busty). On the Wuthering Heights farm, she sports a revealing Oktoberfest dirndl outfit that looks like it was copied from the St. Pauli Girl label. Once she marries into the conspicuously consuming Lintons, there must be a hundred different costume changes. But it’s all more of the same, except with even bigger puffed sleeves and skirts so voluminous that when Robbie is running across the moors in long shot, she looks like a bowling ball. A crimson bowling ball specifically, since Durran apparently decided that Cathy’s sensuality required her to almost always be dressed in red. Red garments with their bloody connotations seem to be de rigueur these days for the tempestuous heroines of female-directed movies (cf. Hamnet). 

There is no character development in Fennell’s film because there are hardly any characters. Fennell has ruthlessly stripped away most of the ones that Brontë created, including an entire second generation of Heathcliff’s and Cathy’s offspring (not by each other). She’s by no means the first Wuthering Heights adapter to lop off the novel’s second half; William Wyler did the same, as did many of those who followed him. After all, it’s not easy to make a movie version of a book work when the A-list female protagonist dies long before the story is over. But in Fennell’s version, the amputation means there’s hardly any story left at all. (Read more.)

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Essential Lavender

 

Meanwhile, in Frederick County... From Virginia at Chartreuse and Company:

Treasured Roots Farm is a multi-generational family farm right here in Frederick County, Maryland. Laura and her husband are building it with her parents and three young daughters. We bonded instantly over raising kids while building a business, homeschooling, and shared dreams of creating something lasting on family land. 

Laura, with her family and truffle-hunting puppy, on their farm in Frederick County, MD.

I have a deep love for design. Laura has a deep love for food. But at the heart of it, we share the same passion for family and creating beautiful things that invite people in. Things that feel like home. 

In addition to lavender, Treasured Roots Farm is also home to a young truffle orchard and honeybees. They have a vision to create products that are meant to be used and enjoyed, not saved for a special occasion. Elevated ingredients that are simple, honest, and really well done. (Read more.)

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Who Wants This War?

 From The Tablet:

Some members of the MAGA opposition are mad because, they say, Trump—and America—is being led to war by Israel. Accordingly, antisemitic agitator Tucker Carlson says that Trump’s Iran campaign is “absolutely disgusting and evil.” Former Fox News siren Megyn Kelly says that the Iran campaign “is clearly Israel’s war. Mark Levin wanted it, it’s his war, Ben Shapiro, Lindsey Graham, Miriam Adelson—that’s obvious. They are the ones who’ve been pushing us into it.”

Others don’t understand why Iran is so important to the 47th president. For instance, podcaster Matt Walsh, who last year said that Iran should be annihilated for plotting to kill Trump, now says support for Trump’s Iran campaign is astroturfed. “I can’t take the gaslighting, guys,” Walsh posted on X. “Conservatives are now running around saying ‘Iran has been waging war on us for 47 years.’ Okay then why didn’t any of you call for an attack on Iran at any point until now?”

The fact is that no one before Trump had the courage to attack. Iran has been waging a war against Americans, U.S. interests, and allies for nearly five decades, and no other American leader would stand up against that. But plenty of people called for it: As the historical record makes plain, conservatives and Republicans have been saying for 47 years that we should wage war on Iran. For instance, shortly after the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, career U.S. diplomat George Kennan told a Senate committee that the United States should declare war on the Islamic Republic. Best known as the father of “containment”—Washington’s Cold War policy to keep the Soviets in check without risking nuclear war—Kennan counseled U.S. policymakers to “hold in readiness” the means of unilateral pressure on Iran, including military pressures. Iranian officials, he said, should be interned and released only in exchange for the Americans held by the revolutionary regime. This action, said Kennan, “would also put us in a position to make our own decisions about such military action that we might wish to take if it became necessary.” (Read more.)

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The Hell There Is

 From Fairest Love:

This week, we are joined by Msgr. Charles Pope to discuss his book, The Hell There Is, and why a healthy understanding of eternal justice is essential for modern families.

We explore how a diminished awareness of Hell has led to a trivialized view of God and discuss the vital importance of teaching children about repentance and spiritual reality without fear. Msgr. Pope offers pastoral guidance on balancing God’s infinite love with His justice, helping parents prioritize their children’s eternal salvation over worldly success.

You can find Msgr. Charles Pope’s book, The Hell There Is, through TAN Books and check out more of his appearances and writings on his website.

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you listen! (Read more.)

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Illness in the Temple

Both of Marie-Antoinette's children fell sick while in the Temple prison. From Vive la Reine:

Madame Royale treated by the physician Brunier on January 24th, 1793 by Jean-Baptiste Mallet Grasse (1759-1835). [source: Artcurial, via Auction.fr]
 
This painting depicts the physician who was allowed to come into the Temple and treat Madame Royale, who became ill in the days following her father’s execution.

But nothing was able to calm the anguish of my mother–we could make no hope of any sort enter her heart; she was indifferent whether she lived or died. She looked at us sometimes with a pity that made us shudder. Happily, grief increased my illness, and that occupied her. My own doctor, Brunier, and the surgeon La Caze were brought, and they cured me in a month.

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When a Nation Loses Its Moral Language

 From Unlicensed Punditry:

In nearly every nation surveyed, large majorities said their fellow citizens were good people. They might complain about politicians or corruption, but they still believed the average person around them was fundamentally decent.

Except in the United States.

In America, the survey found that a majority of respondents believed their fellow citizens were morally bad rather than morally good. The most common explanation offered is political polarization and there is certainly some truth to that explanation. Our politics have become increasingly hostile, and the language used to describe opponents often sounds less like disagreement and more like moral condemnation. Political arguments are increasingly framed as battles between good people and bad people, but the deeper problem may not be that Americans have suddenly become less moral than people in other countries. It may be something more basic: Americans increasingly disagree about what morality even means.

Words like “good” and “bad” sound simple, but they are not. Their meaning depends on the moral framework someone is using. For most of American history, that framework was broadly shared. Even people who were not personally religious lived within a culture shaped by religious assumptions about right and wrong. Ideas such as honesty, responsibility, loyalty, charity, and restraint formed a common vocabulary of morality.

Americans argued constantly about policy, but they were generally speaking the same moral language when they did so.

Over the past several decades, that shared framework has weakened. Religious affiliation has declined, church attendance has fallen, and the number of Americans who identify with no religious tradition has grown steadily. As those institutions faded, the common moral vocabulary that accompanied them faded as well.

In its place, several competing moral systems have taken root. (Read more.)

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Affirmation of Joy

 From Word on Fire:

Such gentle beauty and light stand as a bulwark against final despair. Sam is in a bad spot, and it seems to him that all hope has gone. Nevertheless, he does not despair, “though here at journey’s end I lie / in darkness buried deep.” He thinks he has reached the bitter end of his journey, and he has been unable to save Frodo. Even so, the words that come unbidden to him affirm a power greater than the darkness and evil that surround him. There is something beyond the evil that oppresses and seeks mastery. “Beyond all towers strong and high, / beyond all mountains steep, / above all shadows rides the Sun / and Stars for ever dwell,” he says. The sun and stars are not held captive by the artifacts of instrumentalized reason, for they are beyond and so greater than all such products of war. Indeed, the sun and stars are “above all shadows” whatsoever, and untouched by them. For this reason, although Sam thinks he is going to die, he will not despair: “I will not say the Day is done, / nor bid the Stars farewell.”

Sam’s song affirms a primordial light and beauty that no shadow, no matter how powerful and complete it may seem, can touch. In this way, the sorrow and grief that seem so absolute are relativized against the backdrop of an ever-greater goodness and beauty. Even though it seems certain that he himself will perish, a final despair is not Sam’s decision to make. Miraculously, he does not perish, for Frodo hears him singing, and the two are reunited and able to escape the tower. 

“Dover Beach” and “In Western Lands Beneath the Sun” offer two distinct ways to look upon the world. Arnold looks out upon the beauty of the world and concludes to its irrationality. Sam looks upon the darkness and shadows that surround him and sees beyond them a light and beauty untouched by any passing shadow. In this way, Sam Gamgee affirms what Arnold, in “Dover Beach,” denies. (Read more.)

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