Tea at Trianon: The Canterbury Pilgrims...

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 1, 2007

The Canterbury Pilgrims...

...ride again. And they are headed for Rome. (From Lew Rockwell) Share

3 comments:

Anonymous said...: One of the good things about Meredith college, where I sent my daughter Genevieve is during their freshman year they have to read the entire Chaucer in old English, and in order to graduate it is a tradition that they must memorize the prologe in old English and recite it.

Each year at their winter festival called "corn Huskin'" the entire student body stands as one and recites Chaucer. It will bring tears to your eyes and a smile to your face.

de Brantigny; August 1, 2007 at 2:19:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: That sounds excellent!; August 1, 2007 at 2:36:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...: We had to memorize Chaucer in 7th Grade English class, but I went to school before the dumbing down process, and even then they had cut out the requirement of learning Latin which my brother before me had to tackle.; August 2, 2007 at 12:23:00 AM EDT