Tea at Trianon: Victoria and Abdul

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

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Victoria and Abdul

A review by Genevieve Kineke. To quote:

Much has been made of the companionship between Queen Victoria and gillie John Brown, not the least of which was the movie Her Majesty, Mrs Brown. But recently recovered letters add depth to the already curious story concerning another man who significantly impacted her life. That would be an Indian fellow brought to the palace from overseas (though “intense relationship” may overstate the case somewhat).

More HERE and HERE.

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2 comments:

anothertwocents said...: Abdul, or Abd-el, "servant of," is only a part of some Arabic names, the other part of which are one of the names of God or "Allah." Abdel-Karim, for example, would be "Servant of the Most Generous," Abdul-Aziz "Servant of the Almighty."; March 27, 2011 at 4:13:00 PM EDT
Julygirl said...: More proof that 'Victorian' did not come from Victoria, but from Albert.; March 28, 2011 at 10:25:00 AM EDT