Tea at Trianon: Cupid and Psyche

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

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Cupid and Psyche

From Gio:

The story of Cupid (or Eros) and Psyche has always been one of my favourites from mythology. It is romantic, but also so sad. According to legend, Psyche was so beautiful that people began to worship her instead of the goddess Venus (or Aphrodite). Furious, she ordered her son Eros to make her fall in love with a monster. But when Cupid saw Psyche, he fell in love with her and took her to his palace as his wife.

Cupid, not wanting to be seen by his wife, only visited her at night. Psyche's sisters, jealous of her beauty and the luxury she lived in after her marriage, filled her mind with horrors about her husband, prompting her to discover his identity. One night, while he's sleeping, Psyche glances at him. But a drop of oil from her lamp falls on his skin, waking him up. Wounded and disappointed, Cupid leaves her. There can be no love where there is no trust, after all. (Read more.)