The Magnificent Montez: From Courtesan to ConvertWyndham, Horace
History
The Magnificent Montez: From Courtesan to Convert
Wyndham, Horace
Montez, Lola, 1818-1861
Although nominally the author of them, these lectures were, like her
previous flight, really strung together by that clerical "ghost," the
Rev. Chauncey Burr, with whom she had collaborated in her "memoirs."
Wielding a ready pen, he gave good value, for the chapters were well
sprinkled with choice classical quotations and elegant extracts from
the poets, together with allusions to Aristotle and Theophrastus, to
Madame de Stael and Washington Irving.
In the lecture on "Gallantry," Lola had a warm encomium for King
Ludwig.
"His Majesty," she informed her audience, "is one of the most refined
and high-toned gentlemen of the old school of manners. He is also one
of the most learned men of genius in all Europe. To him art is more
indebted than to any other monarch who has ever lived. King Ludwig is
the author of several volumes of poems, which are evidence of his
natural genius and elaborately cultivated taste.... He worships beauty
like one of the old troubadours; and his gallantry is caused by his
love of art. He was the greatest and best King Bavaria ever had."
In another passage she had a smack at the Catholic Church:
"An evil hour brought into Ludwig's counsels the most despotic and
illiberal of the Jesuits. Through the influence of his ministers the
natural liberality of the King was perpetually thwarted; and the
Government degenerated into a petty tyranny, where priestly influence
was sucking out the very life-blood of the people."
More than something of a doctrinaire, her observations on "Romanism"
(which she dubbed "an abyss of superstition and moral pollution") might
have fallen from the lips of a hot-gospeller of to-day. "Who," she asked
her hearers, "shall compute the stupefying and brutalizing effects of such
religion? Who will dare tell me that this terrible Church does not lie
upon the bosom of the present time like a vast, unwieldy, and offensive
corpse? America does not yet recognise how much she owes to the Protestant
principle. It is that principle which has given the world the four
greatest facts of modern times--steamboats, railroads, telegraphs, and the
American Republic."
This somewhat novel definition of "the four greatest facts of modern
times" was received with rapture by its hearers.
Despite certain jeers from some of the reviewers, the lectures
continued to attract the public. The novelty of Lola Montez at the
rostrum drew large audiences everywhere; and she had no difficulty in
arranging a long tour. Feeling, when it came to an end, that a similar
measure of success might be secured on the other side of the Atlantic,
she resolved to visit England.
Just before leaving America for this purpose, she wrote to a one-time
Munich acquaintance, who was then editing a New York magazine:
YORKVILLE,
_August 20, 1858._
MY DEAR MR. LELAND,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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