Tea at Trianon: Tristan and Iseult

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

Friday, April 4, 2008

Tristan and Iseult

Tristan and Iseult are the ultimate star-crossed lovers of legend. Their story was extremely popular in the Middle Ages and grew out of the Arthurian cycle. The original tale is remote from the recent film, which was one fornication scene after another. In the earlier versions, the lovers struggle to resist their passion, with Tristan going away and marrying someone else. As the basic story goes, Iseult was an Irish princess to be given in marriage to King Mark of Cornwall. Mark sends his nephew Tristan to escort the bride across the sea to her new home. On the ship, Iseult and Tristan drink of some wine that Iseult's mother had doctored with a "love potion" to help her daughter fall in love with the king. Instead, Iseult and Tristan fall deeply in love with each other, and although they are determined to honor their commitments, they are heartbroken and tormented. Iseult comes to see Tristan as he is dying, a moment magnificently captured in the final scene of Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde. Iseult dies as well and the thwarted pair are buried in the same grave.

In the words of the late Victorian poet Cyril Emra:

Iseult and Tristram - knight and maid: -
O names of dust and fire!
When shall the glamour of them fade,
Or when the pity tire?

Brantigny said...: Elena Maria,
You have been in an operetic mood this week I see.

A cup of tea, a rainy day, and opera playing in the background.

Thanks for the visit to Salon Vidal.

Richard

PS I dont know if you have ever seen this film, but there is a sene it a salon in Strasbourg. this is the trailer. It is a true story by Joseph Conrad,
E Book: http://www.online-literature.com/conrad/point-of-honor/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8nGgvepXCk; April 4, 2008 at 9:20:00 AM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: "A cup of tea, a rainy day, and opera playing in the background." That just about sums it up.

Thanks for the links, Richard.; April 4, 2008 at 9:22:00 AM EDT