Tea at Trianon: The Vision of St. Joseph by James Tissot

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

Friday, May 28, 2021

The Vision of St. Joseph by James Tissot

What a wonderful angel! Via East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

"I am poor, and in labors from my youth and being exalted, I was humbled and troubled." Psalm 87:16

Joseph of Nazareth
On a joiner's bench
You ply your trade.
Hands calloused
Fingers nimble.
Wood chips and shavings
At your feet.
Sawdust
In your beard.
You sing
The song of your people
Longing
For the Face
Of Him
Who is to come.

Joseph of Nazareth
Of David's line
You sing
The wedding song.
"My sister, my spouse
Is a garden
Enclosed..."
Virgin husband
Of the Daughter of Sion
You prepare a
Dwelling
For the Stainless One.

Joseph of Nazareth
In sweat of anguish
You ponder
Another Joseph
Thrown in the cistern.
Your song
Becomes sad.
"Save me
O God
For the waters
Are come in
Even unto
My soul..."
You sing
Then fall silent.
Sleep comes
With the breeze
That stirs
The curls of wood...
And then
The voice:
"Joseph, Son of David,
Fear not...."