Tea at Trianon: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2

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

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2

Juliet.
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.

Romeo.
O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard,
Being in night, all this is but a dream,
Too flattering-sweet to be substantial.

Anonymous said...: I am afeard that far more than the blessed night is but a dream-- and Shakespeare (that scoundrel of a mushmelon) hath applied my final welts and flayed thy servant-reader alive. Prithee, might a bandaid be spared? Wait.. two?

But.. is the Juliet dialogue reminiscent of Lover and Beloved, and Romeo's of a dark night of soul?

I never know what I'll find here.
:-); May 8, 2007 at 11:14:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Yes, whoever-you-are, that is it, Lover and Beloved and the Dark Night. Thank you for being able to see!

Well, I guess I never know what am going to find here either, half the time....; May 9, 2007 at 7:35:00 AM EDT
Warren said...: Romeo loved Juliet,
Juliet she felt the same
When he put his arms around her,
he said "Julie baby you're my flame"
Thou givest fever,
when we kisseth,
fever with thy flaming youth
Fever
I'm afire
Fever
yea I burn forsooth.

+W+; May 9, 2007 at 7:45:00 AM EDT