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Friday, July 16, 2004
Masterful
Your thin end for today:
Kings had them. Princes, Lords and Dukes had them. American Presidents, Catholic Cardinals and Merchants had them. Some were purchased by those with power and wealth, a status symbol in their very own class, bought and paid for with a currency of deceit and implicit immorality.
Some wore great beauty and fame like a mantle of honour; others wielded great power. Most were consigned to the shadows, hidden and denied in shame and disrepute, unacknowlegdged, under valued and shunned by all and sundry. That's a pretty wide variety of positions for the same job description.
But what is it that these men bought?
The answer is, of course, a Mistress.
Probably the most famous of the late 19th - early 20th Century was Lily Langtry, the "Jersey Lily", renown as one of Britain's most beautiful actresses. She was also the Mistress of Edward, Prince of Wales who became King Edward the VII when his dear old Mum Victoria finally popped her clogs.
Four hundred years earlier another woman, named Diane de Poitiers (1499 - 1566) made herself indispensible at the courts of several French Kings. Her marriage to the grandson of a King bought her a title. Her extreme intellect and a political astuteness bought her a power few women have ever matched when at at age 35 she chose as her bedmate a 16 year old Henri d'Orléans (who later became King Henri II) and purchased for herself the ability to maintain that power for many years.
For these two women, one beautiful, one less so their roles in history were a choice they made based on their own wealth and status, and their marriages. They really had their cake and ate it too.
Other women were not so lucky.
For many, becoming a Mistress was a necessity. Those ill favoured in looks who were never chosen as wife by a good man, gentlewomen without wealth widowed and left destitute, the warm hearted, the ruthless, the giving and the cruel - for whatever reason they were dragged into a life of betrayal and disavowment of them as women.
Some, like our more priveleged ladies above, were much loved by their men, men escaping the cold clutches of a marriage bed of convenience and political necessity. But the love seldom included public display or recognition of that affection, not unless the man's social status rewarded such relationships with approbation. Your average, everyday merchant seldom had that status, so their "other wives" didn't, either. They were simply "fallen women", shunned by the well heeled, over fed, under enlightened, frigid yet oh so respectable matrons who secretly feared that their husband might have one, too. They couldn't see that sex was simply a currency and all women dealt in it. Be it inside or outside of wedlock, one way or another women always earnt their living on their back.
History is littered with the countless unmarked graves of nameless, faceless Mistresses and prostitutes, women with big minds and bigger hearts, very special women forced to live a life of denial, lacking ownership and security and destined to only ever be second best.
In our much enlightened, sexually liberal 21st century culture, nothing much has changed. Okay, so now the women can chose who they will marry, and sexual compatibility should be implicit in that choice of mate. Yet still it seems, women are witholding sex from their mate and expect them to just suck it down and walk on. And it's still OK to ignore the rights of a marriage partner to have their physical needs met at home by their wife in their own bed, yet forbid them to find the comfort they crave in someone else's bed. These new matrons still expect to have it all their own way. But don't traditional marriage vows mention concepts such as love, honour and cherish, and to worship with their body the fidelity they expect from their spouse? Which bit did these women miss?
Diane de Poitiers was eventually deposed from her self-created throne, and at the death of her lover and King, Henri's lawful wife Catherine de Medici denied her a final goodbye to the man she had loved and served so long and so well. Then she threw her out of her Chateau. Such was ever, and ever will be, the final Truth of those who are the Mistress.
They gave love and comfort, solace to those who couldn't necessarily find it anywhere else, and were in return shunned and judged immoral for it, beyond the social pale. Yet, all these special women ever wanted was to be loved. Lacking respectability and recognition, even that was usually denied them.
Today's prophesy - All that is within you is all that you have.
|
Kings had them. Princes, Lords and Dukes had them. American Presidents, Catholic Cardinals and Merchants had them. Some were purchased by those with power and wealth, a status symbol in their very own class, bought and paid for with a currency of deceit and implicit immorality.
Some wore great beauty and fame like a mantle of honour; others wielded great power. Most were consigned to the shadows, hidden and denied in shame and disrepute, unacknowlegdged, under valued and shunned by all and sundry. That's a pretty wide variety of positions for the same job description.
But what is it that these men bought?
The answer is, of course, a Mistress.
Probably the most famous of the late 19th - early 20th Century was Lily Langtry, the "Jersey Lily", renown as one of Britain's most beautiful actresses. She was also the Mistress of Edward, Prince of Wales who became King Edward the VII when his dear old Mum Victoria finally popped her clogs.
Four hundred years earlier another woman, named Diane de Poitiers (1499 - 1566) made herself indispensible at the courts of several French Kings. Her marriage to the grandson of a King bought her a title. Her extreme intellect and a political astuteness bought her a power few women have ever matched when at at age 35 she chose as her bedmate a 16 year old Henri d'Orléans (who later became King Henri II) and purchased for herself the ability to maintain that power for many years.
For these two women, one beautiful, one less so their roles in history were a choice they made based on their own wealth and status, and their marriages. They really had their cake and ate it too.
Other women were not so lucky.
For many, becoming a Mistress was a necessity. Those ill favoured in looks who were never chosen as wife by a good man, gentlewomen without wealth widowed and left destitute, the warm hearted, the ruthless, the giving and the cruel - for whatever reason they were dragged into a life of betrayal and disavowment of them as women.
Some, like our more priveleged ladies above, were much loved by their men, men escaping the cold clutches of a marriage bed of convenience and political necessity. But the love seldom included public display or recognition of that affection, not unless the man's social status rewarded such relationships with approbation. Your average, everyday merchant seldom had that status, so their "other wives" didn't, either. They were simply "fallen women", shunned by the well heeled, over fed, under enlightened, frigid yet oh so respectable matrons who secretly feared that their husband might have one, too. They couldn't see that sex was simply a currency and all women dealt in it. Be it inside or outside of wedlock, one way or another women always earnt their living on their back.
History is littered with the countless unmarked graves of nameless, faceless Mistresses and prostitutes, women with big minds and bigger hearts, very special women forced to live a life of denial, lacking ownership and security and destined to only ever be second best.
In our much enlightened, sexually liberal 21st century culture, nothing much has changed. Okay, so now the women can chose who they will marry, and sexual compatibility should be implicit in that choice of mate. Yet still it seems, women are witholding sex from their mate and expect them to just suck it down and walk on. And it's still OK to ignore the rights of a marriage partner to have their physical needs met at home by their wife in their own bed, yet forbid them to find the comfort they crave in someone else's bed. These new matrons still expect to have it all their own way. But don't traditional marriage vows mention concepts such as love, honour and cherish, and to worship with their body the fidelity they expect from their spouse? Which bit did these women miss?
Diane de Poitiers was eventually deposed from her self-created throne, and at the death of her lover and King, Henri's lawful wife Catherine de Medici denied her a final goodbye to the man she had loved and served so long and so well. Then she threw her out of her Chateau. Such was ever, and ever will be, the final Truth of those who are the Mistress.
They gave love and comfort, solace to those who couldn't necessarily find it anywhere else, and were in return shunned and judged immoral for it, beyond the social pale. Yet, all these special women ever wanted was to be loved. Lacking respectability and recognition, even that was usually denied them.
Today's prophesy - All that is within you is all that you have.
|
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
In my next life...
Your thin end for today:
I am going to be very, very rich one day.
I am going to need to be to afford the fine art I am discovering.
Thanks to Muzz, I found a new painter to sigh over - impressionist Jean Béraud (1849 - 1935)
This guy makes me go "wow" (no, not Muzz, Béraud) and, having spent hours pouring over a book of his works with him (no, not Béraud, Muzz), I have discovered a new painting worthy of my desktop. Move over, Lady of Shallot, I think she's been a bad girl, too.
"After the misdeed" circa 1895
This one makes me want to stroke the velvet couch... being so terribly tactile is a dreadful hardship to bear, you know. Just ask my teddy.
Today's prophesy - The spam in your inbox does not reflect your personal popularity.
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I am going to be very, very rich one day.
I am going to need to be to afford the fine art I am discovering.
Thanks to Muzz, I found a new painter to sigh over - impressionist Jean Béraud (1849 - 1935)
This guy makes me go "wow" (no, not Muzz, Béraud) and, having spent hours pouring over a book of his works with him (no, not Béraud, Muzz), I have discovered a new painting worthy of my desktop. Move over, Lady of Shallot, I think she's been a bad girl, too.
"After the misdeed" circa 1895
This one makes me want to stroke the velvet couch... being so terribly tactile is a dreadful hardship to bear, you know. Just ask my teddy.
Today's prophesy - The spam in your inbox does not reflect your personal popularity.
|
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