Tea at Trianon: Dance Cards

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

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Dance Cards

Via Tiny-Librarian. To quote:

Vintage Dance Cards of the 19th Century

The dance card was a courtly tradition in which women had preassigned dance partners for each dance at the event. The tradition was convenient and inclusive. No wall-flowers allowed at these events. When you consider today’s jr. high dances (and even some weaker high school ones) in the auditorium or cafeteria with boys swaying nervously on one side staring at the girl’s busily chatting away on the other, the dance card is a far more social, viable alternative....

All are from the 19th century with the earliest dating to 1850 (the peacock cover). They represent beautiful visions of the past and remind us of a time when leaving a woman standing alone was not considered “good taste”. (Read more.)