#i think i need to re-read sabatini one of these days

[ducavalentinos]

“Gregorovius, in this connection, is as full of contradictions as any man must be who does not sift out the truth and rigidly follow it in his writings. Consider the following scrupulously translated extracts from his Geschichte der Stadt Rom:

      (a) "Cesare departed from Rome to resume his bloody work in the Romagna."

      (b) "...the frightful deeds performed by Cesare on both sides of the Apennines. He assumes the semblance of an exterminating angel, and performs such hellish iniquities that we can only shudder at the contemplation of the evil of which human nature is capable."

 And now, pray, consider and compare with those the following excerpt from the very next page of that same monumental work: “Before him [Cesare] cities trembled; the magistrates prostrated themselves in the dust; sycophantic courtiers praised him to the stars. Yet it is undeniable that his government was energetic and good; for the first time Romagna enjoyed peace and was rid of her vampires. In the name of Cesare justice was administered by Antonio di Monte Sansovino, President of the Ruota of Cesena, a man universally beloved.”

It is almost as if the truth had slipped out unawares, for the first period hardly seems a logical prelude to the second, by which it is largely contradicted. If Cesare's government was so good that Romagna knew peace at last and was rid of her vampires, why did cities tremble before him? There is, by the way, no evidence of such trepidations in any of the chronicles of the conquered States, one and all of which hail Cesare as their deliverer. Why, if he was held in such terror, did city after city--as we have seen--spontaneously offer itself to Cesare's dominion?

But to rebut those statements of Gregorovius's there is scarce the need to pose these questions; sufficiently does Gregorovius himself rebut them. The men who praised Cesare, the historian tells us, were sycophantic courtiers. But where is the wonder of his being praised if his government was as good as Gregorovius admits it to have been? What was unnatural in that praise? What so untruthful as to deserve to be branded sycophantic? And by what right is an historian to reject as sycophants the writers who praise a man, whilst accepting every word of his detractors as the words of inspired evangelists, even when their falsehoods are so transparent as to provoke the derision of the thoughtful and analytic?

As l'Espinois points out in his masterly essay in the Revue des Questions Historiques, Gregorovius refuses to recognize in Cesare Borgia the Messiah of a united Central Italy, but considers him merely as a high- flying adventurer; whilst Villari, in his Life and Times of Macchiavelli, tells you bluntly that Cesare Borgia was neither a statesman nor a soldier but a brigand-chief. These are mere words; and to utter words is easier than to make them good.

"High-flying adventurer," or "brigand-chief," by all means, if it please you. What but a high-flying adventurer was the wood-cutter, Muzio Attendolo, founder of the ducal House of Sforza? What but a high-flying adventurer was that Count Henry of Burgundy who founded the kingdom of Portugal? What else was the Norman bastard William, who conquered England? What else the artillery officer, Napoleon Bonaparte, who became Emperor of the French? What else was the founder of any dynasty but a high-flying adventurer--or a brigand-chief, if the melodramatic term is more captivating to your fancy? These terms are used to belittle Cesare. They achieve no more, however, than to belittle those who penned them; for, even as they are true, the marvel is that the admirable matter in these truths appears to have escaped those authors.”

Rafael Sabatini, The Life of Cesare Borgia.

[avaantares]

I was tagged by @zjtimekeeper. I think I actually may have done this one before...? But oh, well, I guess I’ll do it again. :)

Rules: Tag 9 people you want to get to know better

Relationship status: Hey, my Doberman is adorable! She has her own blog.

Lipstick or chapstick: I prefer the term “lip balm.” Never leave home without one! Though I can rock a 1940s candy apple red lip when necessary.

Last Movie I Watched: Horatio Hornblower: The Duel, because Ioan Gruffudd was in it and I’m apparently working through his entire filmography right now.

Last song you listened to: I don’t know. Whatever snippet the Pop Remix channel played during the two minutes I was in the car? It wasn’t a song I knew.

Top 3 shows: Remember WENN is my all-time fave. It’s smart, funny, has wonderfully three-dimensional characters, and is dripping with 1940s flair. Second and third place... Er, I’m not sure I can narrow it down to two others. Jeeves and Wooster is another great period comedy. I’m also really into Doctor Who and Torchwood, though I’m very selective about which seasons/episodes, and I’m the first to admit their flaws. And I love stylish procedurals (White Collar, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries). Give me a gorgeously-dressed detective or sassy criminal genius any day.

I actually watch very little television, and for many years didn’t even have television at home, which is why my favorite shows are all from the ‘90s or available from on-demand services like Netflix. But I am going to reiterate @zjtimekeeper‘s recommendation for The Last Tycoon, because Matt Bomer + 1930s = probably-illegal levels of gorgeousness. I can’t call it a favorite after only one episode, but I’d love to see more of it produced!

Top 3 characters: I’m sorry, there seemed to be a typo in that question. Here are my top five characters:

Simon Templar (The Saint series by Leslie Charteris)

Peter Blood (Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini)

Sir Percy Blakeney (The Scarlet Pimpernel series by Baroness Orczy)

Lucrezia Noin (Gundam W)

Ianto Jones (Torchwood)

Top 3 ships: I’m not much of a shipper, and I don’t tend to ship any pairings that aren’t canon. I do support a lot of canon relationships (Percy & Marguerite, Simon & Pat, etc.) without discussing or producing fan works for them, but I don’t know if that counts as “shipping” for the purposes of this questionnaire.

But here are the handful of ships I’ve actually written fanfic for (though I won’t tell you in what decade some of those fics were written, because I have some dignity. Okay, not much, but still):

Betty Roberts/Victor Comstock (Remember WENN) - Baby’s first OTP. Aww, I was adorable. (Shut up, I was only 16 when I wrote that fic.)

Lucrezia Noin/Zechs Merquise (Gundam W) - The series is mediocre at best, but I will go down with this ship like Dido. There’s something about these two walking cliches that I just love. Maybe it’s the hair.

Ianto Jones/Jack Harkness (Torchwood) - I admire Ianto Jones, and this relationship is important to Ianto; therefore I recognize and uphold the relationship for Ianto’s sake even though Jack is kind of a jerk sometimes (especially in the first half of the series) and probably doesn’t deserve him (at least until he cleans up his act in Series 2), but it would hurt Ianto’s feelings if I actually came out and said that, so I’ll put it in strikethrough here so he won’t see it when he reads this later. Because Ianto is totally still alive and trolling the internet for Torchwood references in case he needs to Retcon anyone for knowing too much about Cardiff’s worst-kept secret organization. *cough* Sorry, that got away from me a bit...

I don’t want to re-spam anyone I tagged on the last one, so, uh... tagging @trashmel, @iant0jones, @primeval-goddess, and anyone else who wants to do this. (That’s not nine, but a bunch of my crew have already been tagged!)