Tea at Trianon: The Triads of Ireland

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

Thursday, March 31, 2016

The Triads of Ireland

From English Historical Fiction Authors:

One has to wonder at this point if the scribe has somehow found a wormhole where he is viewing the 21st century. Leaving his very pertinent observations on human nature, we come to the cleric’s Triads that relate to the natural world. These for me have great lyrical beauty.

‘Three slender things that best support the world: the slender stream of milk from the cow's dug into the pail, the slender blade of green corn upon the ground, the slender thread over the hand of a skilled woman.’

‘Three live ones that put away dead things: a deer shedding its horn, a wood shedding its leaves, cattle shedding their coat.’

‘Three cold things that seethe: a well, the sea, new ale.’

‘Three sounds of increase: the lowing of a cow in milk, the din of a smithy, the swish of a plough.’

‘Three dead things that give evidence on live things: a pair of scales, a bushel, a measuring-rod.’

‘Three renovators of the world: the womb of woman, a cow's udder, a smith's moulding-block.’
Beautiful, of course, but this unknown writer didn’t simply excel at pastoral imagery. He also has a number of observations of human nature that are on the nail and often hilarious.

‘Three rude ones of the world: a youngster mocking an old man, a healthy person mocking an invalid, a wise man mocking a fool.’

‘Three ungentlemanly things: interrupting stories, a mischievous game, jesting so as to raise a blush.’

‘Three deaths that are better than life: the death of a salmon, the death of a fat pig, the death of a robber.’

‘Three silences that are better than speech: silence during instruction, silence during music, silence during preaching.’

‘Three speeches that are better than silence: inciting a king to battle, spreading knowledge, praise after reward.’

‘Three things that constitute a buffoon: blowing out his cheek, blowing out his satchel, blowing out his belly.’

‘Three wealths in barren places: a well in a mountain, fire out of a stone, wealth in the possession of a hard man.’

‘Three oaths that do not require fulfilment: the oath of a woman in birth-pangs, the oath of a dead man, the oath of a landless man.’

‘Three worst smiles: the smile of a wave, the smile of a lewd woman, the grin of a dog ready to leap.’
(Read more.)