Tea at Trianon: Affirmation of Joy

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, March 11, 2026

Affirmation of Joy

From Word on Fire:

Such gentle beauty and light stand as a bulwark against final despair. Sam is in a bad spot, and it seems to him that all hope has gone. Nevertheless, he does not despair, “though here at journey’s end I lie / in darkness buried deep.” He thinks he has reached the bitter end of his journey, and he has been unable to save Frodo. Even so, the words that come unbidden to him affirm a power greater than the darkness and evil that surround him. There is something beyond the evil that oppresses and seeks mastery. “Beyond all towers strong and high, / beyond all mountains steep, / above all shadows rides the Sun / and Stars for ever dwell,” he says. The sun and stars are not held captive by the artifacts of instrumentalized reason, for they are beyond and so greater than all such products of war. Indeed, the sun and stars are “above all shadows” whatsoever, and untouched by them. For this reason, although Sam thinks he is going to die, he will not despair: “I will not say the Day is done, / nor bid the Stars farewell.”

Sam’s song affirms a primordial light and beauty that no shadow, no matter how powerful and complete it may seem, can touch. In this way, the sorrow and grief that seem so absolute are relativized against the backdrop of an ever-greater goodness and beauty. Even though it seems certain that he himself will perish, a final despair is not Sam’s decision to make. Miraculously, he does not perish, for Frodo hears him singing, and the two are reunited and able to escape the tower.

“Dover Beach” and “In Western Lands Beneath the Sun” offer two distinct ways to look upon the world. Arnold looks out upon the beauty of the world and concludes to its irrationality. Sam looks upon the darkness and shadows that surround him and sees beyond them a light and beauty untouched by any passing shadow. In this way, Sam Gamgee affirms what Arnold, in “Dover Beach,” denies. (Read more.)