ещё об ухаживании (англ.)
Jun. 21st, 2005 05:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avvaЕщё несколько любопытных цитат и исторических анекдотов из книги Тернера об истории ухаживания.
- The Lady's Magazine, in 1818, printed a number of maxims, one of which might well have been framed and hung in every young woman's bedroom:
'Such is the depravity of human nature that in certain situations even the purest of men are scarcely to be trusted.' - В следующем отрывке рассказывается о романе английского короля Георгия IV, правда, эти события произошли в конце 18-го века, когда он не был ещё ни королём, ни регентом.
The most hysterical wooing, too well known to need more than brief mention, was the Prince Regent's pursuit of that entrancing but disappointingly virtuous widow, Mrs. Fitzherbert. The threat of self-destruction was Florizel's trump card, or so he hoped. First, for her sake, he induled in all manner of crude histrionics - beating his brow, popping his eyes, tearing his hair and writhing on the floor. He threatened to carry her off by force to America. Then when she remained unimpressed, he drank three pints of brandy, which would have killed a person less habituated to strong liquor. Still the lady was unmoved. As she was about to leave for the continent, he sent a message to her saying that he had stabbed himself. Dubiously, Mrs. Fitzherbert said she would attend his bedside only if accompanied by a lady of impregnable character; the Duchess of Devonshire accepted the part. The prince had an injury of some kind, with blood oozing from one side of his body. It has been suggested that the surgeon 'faked' the injury; it has also been suggested that the prince cautiously mutilated himself after first studying the principles of phlebotomy. Mrs. Fitzherbert nearly fainted at the sight of blood, and possibly at the reek of brandy. Then, weakly, she consented to a betrothal and with the aid of a borrowed ring the two plighted their troth. Almost immediately afterwards, no doubt suspecting that she had been duped, she left the country.
The prince later married Mrs. Fitzherbert secretly and in due course they were estranged. To pay off his debts he agreed to marry Caroline of Brunswick, and in the best loyal tradition, he undertook to accept her unseen. Lord Malmesbury, who began life with the name of Harris, went to look over the lady, and saw fit to gloss over her many grossnesses. Not ever her best friends had told her of her principal shortcoming, though Malmesbury dropped hints about soap to her women.
When he met Caroline the prince said hardly a word, turned and withdrew to a far part of the apartment, saying, 'Harris, I am not well. Pray get me a glass of brandy.' Caroline inquired, 'My God, is the prince always like that?'
(под "her principal shortcoming" автор имеет в виду, что Caroline of Brunswick почти никогда не мылась, и от неё невыносимо воняло) - А вот зато как нашла мужа королева Виктория, поколением позже.
One day in 1839 the queen sent for Prince Albert and sat with him hand in hand on a sofa in a small blue sitting-room. There, exercising her queenly prerogative, she proposed to him. As Prince Albert told his grandmother: '[she] declared to me in a genuine outburst of love and affection that I had gained her whole heart and would make her intensely happy if I would make her the sacrifice of sharing her life with her...' The queen's 'joyous openness of manner' enchanted the sober prince, who felt convinced that heaven had not delivered him into evil hands. Soon afterwards he sent her 'a complete account of my ancestors and their connection with the Reformation and the Protestant movement.'
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 02:16 pm (UTC)"Ladies do not move" ;-]]
Вообще очень интересно, как они ухитрялись размножаться при таких нравах.
Впрочем, вероятно, после женитьбы, в своих спальнях, они были чуть менее скованы.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 02:32 pm (UTC)а джентльмены исполняли супружеский долг - хитрое разве дело? жена не мешает, терпит. выполнил минут за 10, и спать.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 03:22 pm (UTC)"Если бы ты так не спешил, я бы успела снять колготки", в общем.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 03:27 pm (UTC)ну да ведь! во всяких там 18-х веках невозможно никак было оставить девицу на выданье наедине с сердечным другом даже ненадолго - отсутствие нижнего белья способствовало скорости :) раз! и готово!
no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 02:50 pm (UTC)"It has been hinted that the strictly brought-up girl of the Regency - like the strictly reared Victorian girl - married without knowing the 'facts of life'. One of the 'dangerous' ideas being bandied about at the time of the French Revolution was that young woman should be taught botany, and it was opposed by many mothers as indecent. Today the mere notion of courting a young woman who does not know where babies come from seems as bizarre as that of a tavern-crawling with a girl who is unaware that gin will make her drunk. It is very hard to believe that more than a handful young women, in any generation, have ever reached the marriage bed in total ignorance of what awaited them. How girls did, in fact, acquire their basic knowledge is a nice point for speculation. No hint is to be gained in the pages of Jane Austen. Her heroines flirt, as all young women were expected to flirt, they become engaged, they marry; but whether they learn the facts from parents, chaperones, servants, friends or suitors is unrevealed. Although one is loth to suggest any more books about Jane Austen, there is perhaps room for a last thesis entitled: 'Who told Jane Austen's heroines?' "
no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 03:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 11:02 pm (UTC)вот хорошо воспитанной девушки, которой никто, включая мать, не рассказал про
секс. Не знаю, насколько это всё реалистично, но после прочтения о сексе думать
не хочется, настолько вся эта сцена отвратительна. Правда, это быстро проходит.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-22 07:37 am (UTC)'Who told Jane Austen's heroines?'
Date: 2005-06-22 08:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 02:54 pm (UTC)По-русски короче: "Мало ли что я на тебе обещал..."
no subject
крхм
Date: 2005-06-21 09:10 pm (UTC)Re: HELP ME PLEASE
Date: 2005-06-22 07:12 am (UTC)Try http://www.livejournal.com/support/
Оффтопик о филологии
Date: 2005-06-22 10:38 am (UTC)http://www.livejournal.com/users/miiir/44287.html?mode=reply
no subject
Date: 2005-07-06 03:22 am (UTC)Разве это не означает примерно нижеследующее?
и посчитал, что будет к месту умолчать о её многих полнотах. Ни единожды её лучшие друзья не говорили ей о её главном недостатке, однако Malmesbury намекнул на суть дела её фрейлинам (служанкам).
to gloss - (один из смыслов) замалчивать недостатки (часто gloss over)
gross - (один из смыслов) толстый, тучный
to drop hints about soap - мне кажется, это такой оборот, но он, правда, не хочет находиться в словарях
Я, пожалуй, уточню у знакомых, профессионально владеющих английским языком.