Tea at Trianon: Norma Shearer’s Morning Routine

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, August 11, 2023

Norma Shearer’s Morning Routine

Norma Shearer as Marie Antoinette

From Do You Remember?:

Norma detailed her morning ritual in a 1929 interview with the Pittsburgh Press. “Before I get out of bed in the morning, I have a glass of hot water, and then I go through a five-minute set of exercises in bed,” she said. “These are stretching and bending exercises which awaken me and give me pep to start the day.”
After her exercises, Norma took a cold shower— and on days when she was “very ambitious,” she went swimming, after which she got dressed and had breakfast. “I dress and go down for breakfast which is an old-fashioned one, orange juice first and then real Canadian porridge (the kind that is cooked the night before) toast and coffee,” she added. If Norma was so particular about how her day started, it must have had much to do with her health and well-being. For example, her light stretching is medically proven to activate the muscles, increase flexibility, reduce symptoms of depression and promote cardiovascular health by increasing heart rate variability, which is beneficial to the body and mind for the day ahead. (Read more.)