Famous Affinities of History: The Romance of Devotion. Volume 1Orr, Lyndon
History
Famous Affinities of History: The Romance of Devotion. Volume 1
Orr, Lyndon
Biography; Love; Women -- Biography
To-day their bones are mingled as she would have desired them to be
mingled. The stones of their tomb in the great cemetery of Pere
Lachaise were brought from the ruins of the Paraclete, and above the
sarcophagus are two recumbent figures, the whole being the work of the
artist Alexandra Lenoir, who died in 1836. The figure representing
Heloise is not, however, an authentic likeness. The model for it was a
lady belonging to a noble family of France, and the figure itself was
brought to Pere Lachaise from the ancient College de Beauvais.
The letters of Heloise have been read and imitated throughout the whole
of the last nine centuries. Some have found in them the utterances of a
woman whose love of love was greater than her love of God and whose
intensity of passion nothing could subdue; and so these have condemned
her. But others, like Chateaubriand, have more truly seen in them a
pure and noble spirit to whom fate had been very cruel; and who was,
after all, writing to the man who had been her lawful husband.
Some of the most famous imitations of her letters are those in the
ancient poem entitled, "The Romance of the Rose," written by Jean de
Meung, in the thirteenth century; and in modern times her first letter
was paraphrased by Alexander Pope, and in French by Colardeau. There
exist in English half a dozen translations of them, with Abelard's
replies. It is interesting to remember that practically all the other
writings of Abelard remained unpublished and unedited until a very
recent period. He was a remarkable figure as a philosopher and scholar;
but the world cares for him only because he was loved by Heloise.
QUEEN ELIZABETH AND THE EARL OF LEICESTER
History has many romantic stories to tell of the part which women have
played in determining the destinies of nations. Sometimes it is a
woman's beauty that causes the shifting of a province. Again it is
another woman's rich possessions that incite invasion and lead to
bloody wars. Marriages or dowries, or the refusal of marriages and the
lack of dowries, inheritance through an heiress, the failure of a male
succession--in these and in many other ways women have set their mark
indelibly upon the trend of history.
However, if we look over these different events we shall find that it
is not so much the mere longing for a woman--the desire to have her as
a queen--that has seriously affected the annals of any nation. Kings,
like ordinary men, have paid their suit and then have ridden away
repulsed, yet not seriously dejected. Most royal marriages are made
either to secure the succession to a throne by a legitimate line of
heirs or else to unite adjoining states and make a powerful kingdom out
of two that are less powerful. But, as a rule, kings have found greater
delight in some sheltered bower remote from courts than in the castled
halls and well-cared-for nooks where their own wives and children have
been reared with all the appurtenances of legitimacy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account