Tea at Trianon: The Lady Guide to Modern Manners

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

Monday, October 22, 2012

The Lady Guide to Modern Manners

On complaining in public. To quote:

It's a shame, because in Britain, for complex reasons, some of them good, we don't do anything like enough complaining – or, should I say, providing honest, constructive feedback. Exhibitionists such as your fellow passenger give complaining a bad name.

With my marvellous grasp of history, I trace it back to the 1980s. The new 'service culture' of that decade swept away the long suffering mentality of the previous decades. Which was all well and good, but a hard-bitten minority who complain about everything and always want money off, or back, had a field day. Now, post banking crisis, it's all rather different. Let's hope businesses will answer back.

If you have to complain, be discreet about it. In restaurants and hotels the conspicuous complainer, however justified, might spoil the enjoyment of others who have no complaint. (Read entire article.)

julygirl said...: In this age when so many people feel 'intitled', nothing pleases anyone, there is always a complaint about one thing or another. I believe people are trying to project how 'well bred' they are and think this is the way to show pthers that they are used to the best, but it comes over as being just Spoiled Brats.; October 22, 2012 at 10:07:00 AM EDT