Tea at Trianon: Dreadful

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

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Dreadful

From Vive la Reine. Poor Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte of France, it was not enough for her to lampooned as a child, but even as a mature woman she was hideously mocked. Above is a satire from the July Revolution of 1830, showing Marie-Thérèse as Dauphine ordering around her uncle and father-in-law, Charles X, with her husband Louis-Antoine looking helpless. Share

2 comments:

julygirl said...: That is despicable! She had already suffered more than anyone should have to bear.; October 26, 2014 at 8:58:00 PM EDT
The North Coast said...: I think people who are public figures get rather used to being lampooned, and if they're overly sensitive, they'd best not look. The princess probably tried her best to just laugh, or ignore, because there's no way you can escape it if you are a prominent and powerful public figure unless you severely restrict freedom of speech. I notice that the wives of ruling men are treated with special savagery.; October 27, 2014 at 9:22:00 PM EDT