Lol at the knight of Lorraine! Google translate, always ready to entertain.
It brings back happy memories of Cape Stallion.
The author seems to be collapsing Philippe's entire life story into a single period, thus adding errors of fact to his problematic opinions.
Indeed. Btw, skipping in and out of Voltaire's book, I see that the teenage Duc de Vermandois who gets entangled in the scandalous goings-on and is one of Louis' illegitimate sons is also the son of Louise de la Valliere, Louis' first official Maitresse en titre. Since he then dies at age 16, it's even less likely he ever hung out with Eugene, because wasn't Eugene the youngest of Olympe's kids? Also, when reporting on Louise de la Valliere's post-mistress life, where she retired into a convent as Sister Louisa the Penitent and lived there wairing a hair shirt till her death in 1710: Voltaire snarks thusly:
A king should deserve the name of tyrant were he punish a guilty woman with so much severity ; yet many a woman has punished herself thus for having loved. There are scarcely any examples of statesmen who have buried themselves in this manner ; yet the guilt of politicians seems to stand more in need of expiation than the frailty of lovers ; but those who govern souls have authority only with the powerless. It is generally known that when Sister Louisa was informed of the death of the Duke of Vermandois, her son by the King, she said: "I should lament his birth more grieveously than his death.
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Re: French gossipy sensationalism
Date: 2023-01-21 02:37 pm (UTC)It brings back happy memories of Cape Stallion.
The author seems to be collapsing Philippe's entire life story into a single period, thus adding errors of fact to his problematic opinions.
Indeed. Btw, skipping in and out of Voltaire's book, I see that the teenage Duc de Vermandois who gets entangled in the scandalous goings-on and is one of Louis' illegitimate sons is also the son of Louise de la Valliere, Louis' first official Maitresse en titre. Since he then dies at age 16, it's even less likely he ever hung out with Eugene, because wasn't Eugene the youngest of Olympe's kids? Also, when reporting on Louise de la Valliere's post-mistress life, where she retired into a convent as Sister Louisa the Penitent and lived there wairing a hair shirt till her death in 1710: Voltaire snarks thusly:
A king should deserve the name of tyrant were he punish a guilty woman with so much severity ; yet many a woman has punished herself thus for having loved. There are scarcely any examples of statesmen who have buried themselves in this manner ; yet the guilt of politicians seems to stand more in need of expiation than the frailty of lovers ; but those who govern souls have authority only with the powerless. It is generally known that when Sister Louisa was informed of the death of the Duke of Vermandois, her son by the King, she said: "I should lament his birth more grieveously than his death.