Tea at Trianon: The Greatest Urban Legend

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 14, 2011

The Greatest Urban Legend

A critique of the Liv Ullman film Pope Joan.

With this coming out in the 1970s and all, I'm sure Joan was intended to be a feminist icon. But the ideology of that age couldn't celebrate women without putting down men . . . and there was a point when I wondered whether the movie's theme is that men are responsible for all the problems in ~~the world~~ ~~the Catholic Church~~ every woman's life.

Enbrethiliel said...: +JMJ+

Thank you very much for the link, Elena!

I was just pondering how ironic it is that a satire originally meant to criticise a Pope for being effeminate or weak has found new life as "evidence" that women can do anything men can do, including become Supreme Pontiff. Talk about missing the boat!; April 14, 2011 at 2:06:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Exactly! It was a misogynist satire meant to mock lax pontiffs. It was not meant to praise women at all.; April 14, 2011 at 3:10:00 PM EDT