When a ruling class starts to show understanding and pity for the lower orders, idealizing them in verse, arguing over plans for reform and how to better their lot, it is a fine thing, history tells us, and a sign of genuine nobility. But on the one hand it does very little for these same lower orders, and on the other, it augurs very badly for the ruling class. It is a sign that it has lost its self-belief, lost faith in its own divinely ordered superiority: in short, it has lost its raison d’être….
The same applies to Marie Antoinette. It was all very fine, thoroughly human and extremely worthy of her that she should love nature, the people, and the whole romantic ideal that would bring the Revolution to a triumphant head. That she hated stiff Spanish formality and wanted to be just one person among others was deeply sympathetic in her. But it is not the business of a Queen to be human.I do not completely agree; I think that Marie-Antoinette was quite aware of the dignity of her position. Nevertheless, it is an interesting point. More about Szerb's book, HERE.
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8 comments:
I agree with this man. Anyone who has been an entertainer, or someone who manages them, can tell you how important it is to maintain your "game face", and to keep a distance between you and your public. In the old days, Hollywood managers and producers would tell their performers how to dress and do their hair to go to the grocery store. Every public appearance, on screen or off, was very carefully managed and scripted.
Entertainment and politics have a lot in common, and the main thing is that they need to capture the imagination and respect of a public that is looking for people to deify, to WORSHIP. Anything that compromises the goddess-like image and lets your public see you as just as "human" and thus ordinary, as themselves, not only compromises your position, but can be downright dangerous. Don't underestimate how much some people out here need somebody to worship, and when they discover that the object of their adulation is just another ordinary, flawed, messy human, they are often enraged. This response has gotten a number of entertainers both major and minor killed, and I believe it was truly Marie Antoinette's undoing.
What was thought charming in Austria, where the imperial family often mingled with the people, was considered demeaning to the crown in France. And yet by all accounts Marie-Antoinette always had a proud and dignified bearing.....
Marie Antoinette did not mingle with the common people in France and the longer she remained in France the more out of touch her subjects believed she was. And that is more to the point. Her subjects clearly did not believe she was one of them at all. In fact they never did. She was always regarded as an outsider, a foreigner, derided as "l'Autrichienne" or "l'Autruchienne" even by members of the royal family (Mesdames, specifically Adelaide coined the puns), which blended her nationality with the French words for ostrich or bitch (as in a female dog).
While she learned at her mother's heels to mingle among the people and to perform charitable works, and she even played with the children of commoners so that she could understand how advantaged she was, and that not all children had her privileges, that is not the same as identifying with the people. She was hardly a future sans-culotte!
I can't wait to receive my ordered copy of Mr. Szerb's book...It sounds like a fantastic read...Gracias for this post...
Exactly, Juliet. Well said. It was the public perception which did her in.
You're welcome, Laughing Salmon! It is supposed to be a very entertaining but poignant read.
I am always intrigued by the comments about the "foreigner" Marie Antoinette. Was it not correct that because of her father; Francis of Lorraine, the Queen had more French blood in her than the King? The King's mother was a German Saxon. I also believe as an Austrian Archduchess she was very conscious of her position. I believe both the King and Queen knew they stood at the apex of power yet had hearts to match their titles. This I will always believe and no one will ever convince me otherwise.
Yes, Marie-Antoinette probably had more French blood than Louis.
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