Tea at Trianon: Always the Music

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, March 9, 2015

Always the Music

From Joyce Elson Moore:

Always the Music is the story of Cosima, born in 1837 to the Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt and his mistress, Marie d’Agoult. Set against the backdrop of late 1800’s Paris, Cosima’s story tells of a tumultuous childhood and adolescence, followed by a notorious affair with one of Germany’s most famous composers. Her life is a tale of courage and determination in the face of obstacles.

The Paris in which Cosima spent her formative years was not what visitors see today when they visit the famous City of Lights. From fashion and shopping, to dining and entertaining, nineteenth century Paris was a different world.

During the 1800’s, Parisian fashion went through many changes. In mid-century, the crinoline defined a lady’s figure. It spread the skirt of a dress equally around the body in a rounded shape. The crinoline, originally made of horsehair and cotton or linen thread, played an important role in women's fashion for decades. Later the word crinoline referred to any stiff petticoat or rigid skirt that supported women’s dresses and formed them into the rounded shape fashionable at the time.

After 1860, skirts in Parisian fashion began to narrow and flatten in front, with much of the bulk of fabric moved to the back. By the mid 1870’s a new undergarment, the tournure, had replaced the crinoline. The tournure supported the large backside of dresses, a style known as Cul de Paris, or ‘the Paris bottom'.

Shoppers in nineteenth century Paris enjoyed browsing perfume shops. In the latter years of the century, perfume production underwent a change. Perfume was no longer a luxury afforded only by the elite. Thanks to new innovations and techniques in production, it became widely available. Perfume emerged as a popular luxury, thanks to its new affordability and what some referred to as a ‘hygiene revolution'. (Read more.)