ellauri033.html on line 1075: Eleonora d´Este is best known as the beloved of Italian poet Torquato Tasso (1544-1595). In 1565, Tasso was 21 when he first met the beautiful 28-year-old Eleonora at the court of Alfonso, and he was quickly infatuated. An indiscreet remark made by one of the courtiers regarding the poet´s veneration of the princess caused Tasso to challenge the offender. The courtier, along with his three brothers, attacked Tasso, but others put an end to the duel. Alphonso, incensed by this outburst, sent Tasso away from the court, where he remained subject to the duke´s call.
ellauri033.html on line 1076: According to legend, Tasso wrote verses to his beloved Eleonora that touched her heart. A few years later, at the wedding of one of the Gonzaga family, celebrated at the court of Este, Tasso kissed the princess Eleonora on the cheek. Furious, Alphonso turned coolly to his courtiers and remarked, "What a great pity that the finest genius of the age has become suddenly mad!" The duke had Tasso shut up in the hospital of St. Anna in Ferrara. (In actuality, Tasso had been beset by delusional fears of persecution starting in 1575 and began a series of mad wanderings around 1577.)
ellauri045.html on line 804: Justice is one primary virtue, of course, the balance and respect in society so characteristic of Switzerland-well, I suppose not always, and not for every single immigrant, and until 1971 not for every single woman voter; but usually. Temperance is another, the balance in a soul, controlling desire. Courage is the third. What person could flourish if like Oblomov he stayed in bed out of uncontrolled fear, or out of ennui, an aristocratic version of cowardice? Prudence is the executive virtue, as St. Thomas Aquinas called it-know-how, savoir faire, self-interest. It rounds out the four virtues most admired in the tough little cities or tougher big empires of the classical Mediterranean. The Romans called the four of justice, temperance, courage, and prudence the "cardinal" virtues, on which a society of warriors or orators or courtiers hinged (cardo, hinge). The Christians called them, not entirely in contempt, "pagan."
ellauri061.html on line 521: The queen, the courtiers: who is this they follow? Kuningatar, hoviväki: ketä ne saattavat?
ellauri109.html on line 709: Dryden's poem, "An Essay upon Satire," contained a number of attacks on King Charles II, his mistresses and courtiers, but most pointedly on the Earl of Rochester, a notorious womaniser. Rochester responded by hiring thugs who attacked Dryden whilst walking back from Will's Coffee House (a popular London coffee house where the Wits gathered to gossip, drink and conduct their business) back to his house on Gerrard Street. Dryden survived the attack, offering £50 for the identity of the thugs placed in the London Gazette, and a Royal Pardon if one of them would confess. No one claimed the reward.
ellauri190.html on line 267: In the 15th-16th centuries, most of what is now Ukraine belonged to the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth (“The Republic”), but the life of the people depended to a very large extent on their local feudal lords, the Knyazi (“Princes”). Most of these lords were related to the house of Gedimin, spoke a language close to modern Belarusian and Ukrainian, and were Eastern Orthodox Christians. Yet, beginning from ~1569 (the year of the so-called Lublin Unia), these princes also swore allegiance to the Polish king, and were his vassals and courtiers. They corresponded in Latin, Polish, or their native “Old Ukrainian / Old Belarusian” Slavic language. Among them, perhaps the mightiest ruler was Prince Konstayntyn Vasyl Ostrozky. He was nicknamed “the un-crowned King of Rus,” and was, actually, offered the Polish crown several times, but refused because the kings of Poland were, traditionally, Catholics – and Prince Ostrozky wanted to remain Orthodox. He is famous for printing the first Gospels in his native language, and founding the Academy of Ostroh, a university that functions to this day.
xxx/ellauri195.html on line 195: The site of the episode is often identified as Thorney Island (now known as Westminster), where Canute set up a royal palace during his reign over London. Thorney Island is also a small peninsula within Chichester harbour, very close to another claimed location, Bosham and Conflictingly, an ancient sign on Southampton city centre's Canute Road reads, "Near this spot AD 1028 Canute reproved his courtiers".
xxx/ellauri320.html on line 204: A group of snide and snobbish courtiers, allegedly by Princess Margaret, campaigned to influence Earl Spencer into withdrawing the two tickets he had allocated to his mother-in-law for the wedding in St Paul's Cathedral.
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