Tea at Trianon: As Summer Ebbs

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

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

As Summer Ebbs

My garden is a total and complete mess. This essay made me feel a little better about it. Share

3 comments:

Anonymous said...: Oh, dear! I have the original BROWN THUMB. I LOOK at a plant, and it dies on the spot! My Nicky, on the other hand, has the greenest of green thumbs, and he loves all things that grow from the ground. In return,they grow well for him. I think this is one of the minor mysteries of God. You should see the flowers he planted in front of our apartment building.

a very non-plused non-gardener,

Vara; August 22, 2007 at 4:04:00 PM EDT
The Bass player said...: wow, that writer has been in my backyard...; August 22, 2007 at 4:19:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...: Heavy mulching in the spring with shredded bark over an application of 'Preen' (trademark) and you have a weed free garden all summer. I like a garden but do not like to 'garden'. I learned the above technique from the landscapeing program in a school where I worked.; August 22, 2007 at 8:54:00 PM EDT