Tea at Trianon: I Refuse to Watch Season 2 of 'The Empress'

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

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

I Refuse to Watch Season 2 of 'The Empress'

I could not even make it through Season 1 because of all the bizarre liberties taken with history, as if the life of Sisi and her tumultuous marriage to Franz Josef needed embroidering. But this is hilarious. From Frock Flicks:

Last year, for Snark Week, I suffered through season one of Netflix’s The Empress (2022-), allegedly set in the 1860s and purportedly about Austria-Hungary’s Empress Elisabeth aka Sissi. It was painful. I refuse to fall on that grenade again, and have serious doubts that Trystan or Sarah will either, so let’s snark the preview for season two (coming Nov. 22, 2024) and call it good.

According to Netflix’s site, the same costume designer is responsible for season 2, although previously she was listed as Gabrielle Reumer and now Netflix is spelling it Gabriela. (Read more.)