Tea at Trianon: Haydn and the Habsburgs

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

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Haydn and the Habsburgs

Here is a compelling article from History Today about Joseph Haydn and the German nation. (Via Joshua Snyder) Share

2 comments:

Athanasius said...: I have a biographical CD of Haydn with music and narration, and one of the stories told on it is that as a boy he was misbehaving in the presence of the Hapsburgs, and the Empress Maria Theresa ordered him spanked. Years later when he composed for her he reminded her of the incident, and she remarked "I'm glad to see the spanking did some good."

Is that a true anecdote?; April 30, 2009 at 8:28:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: I don't know. All I really know about Haydn's boyhood (off the top of my head) is that his family were peasants on the Esterhazy estates and Haydn's musical talent was noticed and cultivated by the seigneurs.; April 30, 2009 at 8:36:00 PM EDT