The Serenade: The Prince and the Siren

by Hollingsworth, Suzette

  Marie-Louise Picard was Loubet’s wife.

  ***

  Émile Combes

  French Prime Minister

  Émile Combes (1835-1921) was the French Prime Minister 1902-1905. He studied for the priesthood, but abandoned the idea before ordination. His anti-clericalism would later lead him into becoming a Freemason. Then Combes studied medicine, taking his degree in 1867, and setting up in practice at Pons in Charente-Inférieure. In 1885 he was elected to the senate. He sat in the Democratic left, and was elected vice-president in 1893 and 1894.

  In 1903 Combes was charged with the formation of a cabinet. “The main energy of the government was devoted to an anti-clerical agenda. Under his guidance France took the first definite steps toward the separation of church and state. He was vigorously opposed by all the Conservative parties, who saw the mass closure of church schools as a persecution of religion. But his stubborn enforcement of the law won him the applause of ordinary left wingers, who called him familiarly le petit père.” (the small father) “Finally the defection of the Radical and Socialist groups induced Combes to resign on January 17, 1905, although he had not met an adverse vote in the Chamber. His policy was still carried on, and when the law of the separation of church and state was passed, all the leaders of the Radical parties entertained him at a noteworthy banquet in which they openly recognized him as the real originator of the movement.” - WIKIPEDIA.

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  Hamilton Bromberg is a fictitious character. Actually Justice Joseph McKenna was the former attorney general consulted by U.S. President McKinley prior to the Spanish-American War of 1898, p.99, An Unwanted War: The Diplomacy of the United States & Spain over Cuba, 1895-1898, by John L. Offner.

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  The Ravensdale’s Home

  “The background to the flower is an endless knot pattern of muted vermilion and ochre. The flower is the chrysanthemum, and it confers honor. Brocade was more valuable than even gold during the time of the Silk Road, so bolts of brocade were offered to tribal lords in order to keep the peace. It is meant to bring friendship and harmony.” http://www.dharma.net/monstore/product_info.php?cPath=83_39_118&products_id=1381

  Lady Ravensdale's china is Royal Doulton pattern # C9710.

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  Nicolette in the Bullring

  Being thrown by a bull and thereafter proposed to actually happened to Aline Griffith, future Countess of Romanones. Miss Griffith was a former model and an American spy during World War 2. She later married Luis Quintanilla, who became the Count of Romanones, in Spain. Juanito Belmonte, a famous bullfighter, was also a friend of Aline's.

  Aline Griffith was dating Luis Quintanilla, but his family did not approve of the American model and he was hesitant to displease his family. After Aline had been thrown by a bull, Quintanilla pulled her out of the bullring, holding her and saying, “You'd better stop these wild American pranks and marry me.” p.130, The Spy Went Dancing, by Aline, Countess of Romanones.

  The Spy Went Dancing describes Juanito Belmonte's technique, the first to employ these techniques, and considered by some to be the greatest matador of all time. Rafael Gómez Ortega (1882-1960) did not actually utilize the techniques described (note his long life). Belmonte pulled the bull much closer to the body than any bullfighter had previously. He eventually paid the ultimate price for this.

  The matador in “The Serenade” is a composite of Juan Belmonte and Rafael Ortega. I don't know that, in reality, Rafael Ortega was spectacularly good-looking or masculine: he was known for his humor. He surely must have been fit and athletic. That said, there is no doubt Rafael Ortega had a great deal of charisma.

  Even though Ortega (1882-1960) preceded Belmonte (1892-1962) historically, there is a connection. Aside from the fact that, in such a machismo sport, each generation felt the need to top the preceding one with more and more daring feats, Ortega wasted his fortune and was supported by Juan Belmonte.

  “In order to understand Spain, you must shed your foreign ideas. You cannot judge other countries as you would your own. Don't you agree that the bullring is a more glorious end than a slaughterhouse in Chicago? Here the bull has as much chance as the matador: several toreros are killed or maimed each season. These bulls are bred for the fight and crave it. They'll attack anything that moves, not just a red cape and a matador.” spoken by Juanito Belmonte to Aline Griffith, p.167, The Spy Wore Red by Aline Griffith, Countess of Romanones.

  Juan Belmonte y García (April 14, 1892-April 8, 1962) was an Andalusian bullfighter, considered by many the greatest matador of all time. He revolutionized the art of bullfighting. Born in the Triana area of Seville, Belmonte began his bullfighting career in 1908, touring around Spain in a children's bullfighting group called Los Niños Sevillanos. Juan Belmonte singularly changed the style of bullfighting. Born with slightly deformed legs, he could not run or jump like other boys[4] and so when he finally began his career as a matador, he firmly planted his feet on the ground, never giving way.[2] He forced the bull to go around him (or not) whereas others until then had jumped all over the place like circus performers.

  As an adult, Belmonte’s technique was to stand erect and nearly motionless, always within inches of the bull, unlike previous matadors who stayed far from the animal to avoid the horns.

  As a result of this daring technique, Belmonte was frequently gored, sustaining many serious wounds (24). In a 1927 bullfight in Barcelona, Belmonte was gored through his chest and pinned against a wall. Several other toreros rescued him.

  Belmonte was diagnosed by a Madrid specialist as having a heart condition. Possibly being gored through the chest was a factor.

  Belmonte was also close friends with author Ernest Hemingway, and he appears prominently in two of Hemingway's novels: "Death in the Afternoon" and "The Sun Also Rises." Like Hemingway, Belmonte ultimately committed suicide by gunshot.” –Wikipedia

  It is baffling when men who risk their lives numerous times—and survive—commit suicide. Another similarity with Hemingway is that both Belmonte and Hemingway were incredibly brave men who suffered many injuries, (how many of us would go back in the bullring after being gored through the chest? Or fight in someone else’s war? Hemingway fought in the Spanish Civil War). The suicide was not a cowardly act but a quality of life issue; I don’t have any less respect for either of them because they lived life to the fullest and (literally) took the bull by the horns. Hemingway’s wife talked him into electric shock treatment for depression, which had a deteriorating effect on his mental capacities: writing was Hemingway’s lifeline. One version is that when Belmonte’s doctor told him he could no longer smoke cigars, ride horses, drink wine, or have sex, he was ready to die. A 1995 film about his life, Belmonte,[9] was directed by Juan Sebastián Bollaín.

  In 1919, Belmonte fought 109 corridas, a number not matched by any matador before, until the 1965 bullfight season when Manuel Benítez Pérez ("El Cordobés") performed in 111 corridas, surpassing Belmonte's record. The Mexican matador Carlos Arruza fought 108 corridas in one season but it is said he refused to pass Belmonte's record out of respect for the maestro.

  Rafael Gomez Ortega, (July 16, 1882 - May 25, 1960) also known as El Gallo ("the rooster") came from a family of famous bullfighters, including his matador father, Fernando Gómez García and matador younger brother, José Gómez Ortega. He is remembered for several of his unique fighting techniques such as the espantada - or "sudden flight," which simply consisted of him fleeing when the bull entered the ring. Other techniques included fighting bulls from a chair. He is remembered by the phrase, "all of us artists have bad days." His fights were considered amusement to the audience, and he was brought out of retirement seven times because of this "sportsmanship." In his last fight on October 1918 he claimed he spared the bull because it "winked" at him. The audience again felt this was hilarious, but Ortega's brother, concerned about the family honor, hopped into the ring and killed the bull. Ortega later wasted his fortune, and was supported by Juan Belmonte. He w
as married to Pastora Imperio, a famous flamenco dancer. Radio artist Joe Frank briefly tells Gómez's story in 'The Eighty-Yard Run'”—Wikipedia

  “Death and the Sun: A Matador’s Season in the Heart of Spain” by Edward Lewine.

  Bullfights by matadors were banned in Catalonia at the end 2011 but bull-dodging, in which bulls are . not killed, remains lawful. The last bullfight in Catalonia took place on 25 September 2011 at La Monumental. In October 2016 the Catalonian ban on bullfighting was overturned by the Spanish Constitutional Court.

  Bullfighting in Europe - Humane Society International

  https://www.hsi.org/news-media/bullfighting_europe/

  I personally do not support bullfighting, or any cruelty to animals for entertainment. In Portuguese-style bullfighting the bull is not killed and all the necessary machismo and human bravery is preserved. I don’t see anything to admire in weakening the animal in order to both enrage the bull and increase one’s chances of survival. But neither is it appropriate for me to judge or one-dimensionalize another person’s life. And no doubt my culture is inherently cruel in different ways.

  * * *

  Buddhism holy book

  The sacred book of Buddhism is called the Tipitaka. It is written in an ancient Indian language called Pali which is very close to the language that the Buddha himself spoke. The Tripitaka is a very large book. The English translation of it takes up nearly forty volumes.

  http://www.buddhanet.net/ans66.htm

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  Birth Control in Victorian times

  I did read that men in the 19th century were reluctant to use condoms with their wives and loved ones because of the stigma: inferring the women were prostitutes. I can’t find the source at the moment.

  There was a great deal of information and far more products available than I suspected (I never knew there were condoms in the 1700s!), but blocks to preventing pregnancy were religious objections, difficulty in disseminating the information (no internet, not taught in schools, education was primarily done by motivated people physically touring, which subjected them to harassment as well. I doubt a career of instructing the middle class and poor on birth control methods was lucrative and certainly being continually on the road was not an ideal life), embarrassment around learning the information and procuring the products (in general, moral judgment imposed by both society and oneself, possibly fear of being found out since it was much more difficult to be private than it is today).

  Even so, people may not have talked about birth control, but they were using it. “Despite social and legal opposition, at the end of the 19th century the condom was the Western world's most popular birth control method. Two surveys conducted in New York in 1890 and 1900 found that 45% of the women surveyed were using condoms to prevent pregnancy. A survey in Boston just prior to World War I concluded that three million condoms were sold in that city every year.”

  1642 Oldest condom found (from animal membrane), Dudley Castle

  1838 Condoms and diaphragms made from vulcanized rubber.

  1840 condom advertisement appeared in a British newspaper

  1861 condom advertisement appeared in the New York Times

  1870 1st major condom manufacturing company in England: E. Lambert and Son

  1873 The Comstock Act (U.S.) prohibited advertisements, information, and distribution of birth control, allowing the postal service to confiscate birth control sold through the mail

  1882 Julius Schmid, Inc. founded condom business in New York (initially animal skin)

  1889 Indecent Advertisements Act in Ireland

  1916 Margaret Sanger opens first birth control clinic in the United States. The next year she was deemed guilty of maintaining a public nuisance and sentenced to jail for 30 days. Once released, she re-opened her clinic and continued to persevere through more arrests and prosecutions. – “The Autobiography of Margaret Sanger” by Margaret Sanger

  1938 In a case involving Margaret Sanger, a judge lifted the federal ban on birth control, ending the Comstock era. Diaphragms, also known as womb veils, became a popular method of birth control.

  1960 the first oral contraceptive, Enovid, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as contraception

  There was considerable opposition to condoms on religious grounds*. “The condom market grew rapidly, however. 18th-century condoms were available in a variety of qualities and sizes, made from either linen treated with chemicals, or "skin" (bladder or intestine softened by treatment with sulphur and lye). They were sold at pubs, barbershops, chemist shops, open-air markets, and at the theater throughout Europe and Russia. The first recorded inspection of condom quality is found in the memoirs of Giacomo Casanova (which cover his life until 1774): to test for holes, he would often blow them up before use.”

  The early 19th century saw contraceptives promoted to the poorer classes for the first time: birth control advocates in England included Jeremy Bentham and Richard Carlile; in America Robert Dale Owen and Charles Knowlton. Writers on contraception tended to prefer other methods of birth control other than condoms, citing both the expense of condoms (several months wages, my one account) and their unreliability (they were often riddled with holes, or fell off and broke), but they discussed condoms as the only contraceptive protecting one from disease. One group of British contraceptive advocates distributed condom literature in poor neighborhoods, with instructions on how to make the devices at home; in the 1840s, similar tracts were distributed in both cities and rural areas through the United States.

  In the 1840s, advertisements for condoms began to appear in British newspapers, and in 1861 a condom advertisement appeared in the New York Times.

  The rubber vulcanization process was invented by Charles Goodyear in 1839, and patented in 1844. The first rubber condom was produced in 1855, and by the late 1850s several major rubber companies were mass-producing, among other items, rubber condoms. A main advantage of rubber condoms was their reusability, making them a more economical choice. Skin condoms remained more popular than the rubber variety.

  Distribution of condoms in the United States was limited by passage of the Comstock laws, which included a federal act banning the mailing of contraceptive information (passed in 1873) as well as State laws banning the manufacture and sale of condoms in thirty states. In Ireland the 1889 Indecent Advertisements Act made it illegal to advertise condoms, although their manufacture and sale remained legal.

  Contraceptives were illegal in 19th-century Italy and Germany, but condoms were allowed for disease prevention.

  Despite legal obstacles, condoms continued to be readily available in both Europe and America, widely advertised under euphemisms such as male shield and rubber good. In late-19th-century England, condoms were known as ‘a little something for the weekend’. Only in the Republic of Ireland were condoms effectively outlawed until the 1970s.

  Opposition to condoms did not only come from moralists: by the late 19th century many feminists expressed distrust of the condom as a contraceptive, as its use was controlled and decided upon by men alone. They advocated instead for methods which were controlled by women, such as diaphragms and spermicidal douches.

  Despite social and legal opposition, at the end of the 19th century the condom was the Western world's most popular birth control method. Two surveys conducted in New York in 1890 and 1900 found that 45% of the women surveyed were using condoms to prevent pregnancy. A survey in Boston just prior to World War I concluded that three million condoms were sold in that city every year.

  1870s England saw the founding of the first major condom manufacturing company” E. Lambert and Son of Dalston. In 1882, German immigrant Julius Schmidt founded one of the largest and longest-lasting condom businesses, Julius Schmid, Inc. in New York, initially manufacturing only skin condoms (in 1890 Schmid was arrested by Anthony Comstock for having almost seven hundred in his house). In 1912, a German named Julius Fromm developed a new, improved manufacturing technique for condoms.

 
Beginning in the second half of the 19th century, American rates of sexually transmitted diseases skyrocketed. Venereal disease was introduced in the public schools for the first time, but they taught that abstinence was the only way to avoid sexually transmitted diseases. Condoms were not promoted for disease prevention. The medical community and moral watchdogs considered STDs to be punishment for sexual misbehavior. The stigma on victims of these diseases was so great that many hospitals refused to treat people who had syphilis.” - Wikipedia

  “In 1950, while in her 80s, Sanger underwrote the research necessary to create the first human birth control pill. She raised $150,000 for the project. In 1960 the first oral contraceptive, Enovid, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as contraception.”- https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book-excerpts/health-article/a-brief-history-of-birth-control/

  Since I was born in 1957 and was an accident, that was a close call.

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  Spanish Coronation

  I have taken some liberties with the coronation and have strayed from historical fact in favor of conveying the spirit, excitement, solemnity, and importance of the event.

  “Although the crown is evident at the ceremony, it is never actually placed on the monarch's head. Historical Castilian coronations were performed at Toledo, or in the Church of St Jerome at Madrid, with the king being anointed by the archbishop of Toledo. The monarch assumed the royal sword, sceptre, crown of gold and the apple of gold, after receiving his anointing.

  Five days after his visit to the Cortes, King Juan Carlos I attended an "Enthronement Mass" at the Church of San Jerónimo el Real in Madrid. Accompanied by his wife Sofia, he was escorted beneath a canopy to a set of thrones set up near the high altar. Following the service, the king and queen returned to the palace, where they greeted the people from the balcony, reviewed troops and attended a formal banquet.” - Wikipedia