Most of those reading this, and I wouldn’t be surprised it is actually all of those reading this, are familiar with Marie Antoinette and cakes.
While Paris was suffering from a lack of bread, peasants approached the gates of the palace while the queen was holding a lavish banquet inside. When she was told about the peasants, Marie mocked them, saying, “Let them eat cake.”
Then, the deluge.
That’s the poplar story.
Not being French, but Austrian, Marie was not popular with the French people, and, needing a bad guy as a target, no matter what she did, some way out of touch with reality things and the things that she advocated for which, had she gotten support, might have made the impending revolution unnecessary, this story was an effective one for her enemies to spread around.
The other version of the story is that during the banquet, when told about the peasants, she naively thought this lack of bread was a one off shortage, and as an act of kindness had the aristocrats stop eating and commanded the servants to gather all the remaining food to bring to the gates, reminding them not to forget the desserts, one of which was brioche, a rich bread made with eggs and butter, somewhat like, but not cake.
Both stories were useful depending on whether you condemned or commended her.
But in those days there was no photographic record of events against which to judge stories and gossip, and who would have brought pen and paper to a banquet to keep a running commentary
How apocryphal either of these stories are, can be assessed by the details.
First, she would not have referred to cake as we know it, but to bread. The peasants wanted bread, so she would obviously mentioned it.
There were similar tales in other places and times with which people could have been familiar.
People critical, and rightly so, of the excesses of the French nobility, spread stories, real and fictitious to make their point.
In a 16th-century Germany version, a noblewoman wonders why the hungry poor don’t simply eat sweet bread.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in Book VI of his Confessions, tells the story of “a great princess” who uttered the cake line. The book was written in 1767 when Marie-Antoinette was still a child, so it, obviously, was not her.
Although, as someone who inspired the French revolutionaries, and this story Healthy nerve cells are very important for normal erectile functioning. see for source cheap viagra samples However, unable to achieve orgasm could be troublesome for some women and their sale cheap levitra canada partners.There could be many psychological and physical reasons which can lead to erectile dysfunction. Men are supposed to be a stronger cialis 5 mg gender and they are not of less working. Native Americans also used ginseng extensively but prescription cialis usa this fact is less known. would have been useful, there are no contemporary mentions of the cake business in newspapers, pamphlets, and other materials published by the revolutionaries.
The story of Marie and the cake first appeared in an 1843 issue of the journal Les Guêpes by the French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr who said he found the now famous quote in a book published in1760, decades before the alleged event, which would mean, just as with Rousseau’s story, the person in the story could not have been Marie as she was born on November2, 1755.
But like the story of George Washington not lying as a 10 year old after chopping down a cherry tree, which, somehow knowing he would grow to be important, some contemporary wrote down, it is a legend intended to teach a lesson, Marie and the cake is a story invented after a time for a specific purpose.
Had there been still pictures or video recordings, official or on cell phones, the story would be clearly supported or easily denied.
Life as a public figure has not easy for Melania Trump. As with Marie Antoinette, her marriage is difficult and, as she has very few official duties, she spends most of her time socializing and indulging her extravagant tastes.
Unlike with Marie, though, now there is the possibility for pictures and videos.
She has already upset that people judged her based on pictures of her wearing a jacket with “I don’t care. Do you?” written on the back as she headed to the Southern border where kids are held in cages, some of whom had died.
Now she is upset with the peasants, who are dealing with a pandemic and aren’t getting consistent information from her husband’s administration, because they aren’t happy that she posted pictures of herself wearing a hard hat while reviewing blueprints for the construction of a tennis pavilion on the southern grounds of the White House which a press release had stated when the pavilion was suddenly and without any mention prior to the groundbreaking announced it was “fueled by Mrs. Trump’s … passion to provide a functional recreational area for all first families to enjoy.”
Besides seemingly out of touch with people’s concerns about the virus, she also came across as a bit Antoinette-like as the pictures were posted just days after 29 people were killed by a tornado in Tennessee.
Her tweeted response to the negative reaction was just as out of touch, dismissive and insulting.
“I encourage everyone who chooses to be negative & question my work at the White House to take time and contribute something good & productive in their own communities. Be Best”.
History has judged Marie Antoinette to be tone-deaf, out of touch, and self-interested based on an unverified story, while with Melania we have the pictures and a tweet.
In 2018 there was a Blue Wave.
In 2020, it s time for the deluge.