Nigel Bruce

Immortal Beloved

Castle Square, Teplice, Czech Republic

Beethoven knew it as Teplitz, at a time when the majority population spoke German - above. It was a popular spa town for artists, writers and the aristocracy and Beethoven met Goethe here in 1812 and began writing Symphony No. 7. Above is the Castle Square today, Zámecké námestí in

Precious Bodily Fluids

Castrati

Many volumes have been written about castrati - perhaps because this is not your "normal" kind of history. While there were castrati in the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, they did not appear as singers in Italy until the 1550s. Castration was performed by cutting the blood supply to

Dreaming of the Virgin Mary

Cathars

The Cathars inspire rapturous histories nowadays and some of it is deserved. Why shouldn't reincarnation be more meaningful than eternal damnation and Original Sin? But the reality is: they have left no churches, no monuments, no writings. The most striking memento they have left us is their wonderful

From Russia with Love

'Cats'

The inspiration for Cats is said to be T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939). Or was it Behemoth in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita? In this painting you can see Sophia Kramskaya and Mr. Mistoffelees at rest... The inspiration

Letters from Africa

'Ceddo'

“Ceddo is not a tribe, it is a state of mind” - director Ousmane Sembène The following is excerpted from a Michael Dembrow article on the 1977 film: "Sembène wants us to look at the past only to the extent that this will help us to analyze the present.

Life as Opera

Céleste Mogador

Céleste Mogador, real name Élisabeth-Céleste Vénard, was born in 1824 in Paris. The biographies say that at the age of 16, in order to escape an intolerable family situation, she registered as a courtesan and immediately regretted it, but couldn't get it reversed. The photo above is from

A Tale of Two Women

Cervantes and Pedro de Urdemales

Pedro is a mysterious figure who gets very little credit in the stories of the Conquest but he certainly got around. Even if the historians ignore him, he appears in Latin American folklore all the way from New Mexico, Puerto Rico and Guatemala to Argentina and Chile, where he is

Precious Bodily Fluids

Miguel de Cervantes

Where are the Cervantes pilgrimage sites? Start with Esquivias, Sevilla, Valladolid, and Madrid. Cervantes was born in Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid, in 1547, but his family moved away when he was very young. Esquivias is a small town off the A-42 from Madrid to Toledo. It is where Cervantes

The Woman in the Bower

Chapbooks

Chapbooks were the original "street literature" or pop culture from the 16th century onwards, and they often were read aloud since not enough people knew how to read. They were called chapbooks because they were sold by peddlers known as "chapmen" - usually printed on single

Splendour in the Grass

Charles Kingsley's 'The Water Babies'

I read Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby (1862-63) as a kid. Didn't like it - too depressing - but then I didn't much like Alice in Wonderland either and now I love it. But, comfortable Victorian children

Voices and Saints

Chartres Cathedral

If it's for you, virginity and spousal union with Christ can best be experienced at places like Chartres Cathedral, which was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It has profoundly affected many men and women, such as Joseph Campbell, ever since it was built in the 12th and 13th

The Woman in the Bower

Château de Chinon

The Forteresse Royale de Chinon was built by Henry II of Anjou who died there after being defeated by his sons Richard and John in 1189. Henry, Eleanor, their son Richard, their daughter Joan and other members of the extended Plantagenet family are buried at the nearby Abbey of Fontevraud

The Woman in the Bower

Chaucer and 'Balade to Rosemounde'

Geoffrey Chaucer gently satirized the legend of Fair Rosamond in this undated poem, in which he takes the role of the pining poet whose affections are not returned by the Lady but oh, the suffering is worth it: "For though I weep a basin of tears,/Yet may that

The Whore's Revenge

Chaucer and Chaumpaigne

One of the most celebrated cases of literary rape (“raptus”) involved Geoffrey Chaucer. In 1380 charges were dropped by one Cecily Chaumpaigne. The document on which the charges were based - “concerning my rape” (“de raptu meo”) - came to light in 1873. Chaucer apparently paid 10 pounds to Chaumpaigne,

From Russia with Love

Chessboard

(play) "In the heart of a Russian, it's always winter," wrote Yuri Kozyrev in Time Magazine. As a courageous photojournalist, Kozyrev has seen the ugly and the violent many times over, from Chechnya to Baghdad. But he's channeling Gogol, Dostoyevsky, Gorky, maybe Tolstoy... Writers

Precious Bodily Fluids

Chiesa dei Santi Simone e Giuda, Mantua

Chiesa dei Santi Simone e Giuda (the Church of Saints Simon and Jude), on the via Domenico Fernelli, is one of the oldest churches in Mantua. It was rebuilt in 1593 and restored between 2001 and 2006. Before 2001 it was a rather blackened wreck. It is now open for

Vampires in Venice

'Portrait of Frédéric Chopin and George Sand' by Delacroix

The painting shown above by Eugène Delacroix from 1838 doesn't exist as such. It's a reconstruction. It was originally intended as a double portrait of Chopin and Sand, but it was unfinished and, after Delacroix's death, it was cut in half and the two

Splendour in the Grass

'Christina's World'

Wordsworth's "splendour in the grass" echoes through the years in Andrew Wyeth's evocative Christina's World (1948) and - equally - in the supremely depressing Elia Kazan film Splendor in the Grass (1961). The story of the woman in Wyeth's painting,

The Woman in the Bower

Christine de Pizan’s 'City of Women'

Christine de Pizan was born in Venice (her father was from Pizzano, not Pisa), but she spent most her life in Paris. Her Le Livre de la cité des dames or City of Women was first published in 1405. The title and theme of the book are derived from St.

Homer's Women

Circe in paintings

Why do so many English paintings of Circe in the mid-to-late 19th Century feature lions and wolves, not pigs, which is what Odysseus' crew were turned into? They seem more like tragic figures rather than femmes fatale. Wright Barker mostly painted rural and sporting scenes - dogs, hunting, horses,

Homer's Women

John William Waterhouse and the 'Odyssey'

This is Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus (1891). It's hard to see at bottom right, but there is at least one of Odysseus' men who has been turned into a pig. Odysseus himself is visible in the mirror. Waterhouse revisited Circe the next year in Circe

Vampires in Venice

Venice in a selection of 19th century paintings

Some favorites of mine. Below is Friedrich Nerly's Piazzetta di San Marco bei Mondschein (aka A moonlight view of the Piazza San Marco towards San Giorgio Maggiore) from 1849. He died in Venice and is buried in San Michele Cemetery; his paintings are on display in his home

The Judgment of Paris

Cleopatra

Did Cleopatra choose eternal beauty? No. Cleopatra chose power, not beauty and she already had riches and fame. We know this from Roman denarius coins from her era that show a woman who was hook-nosed, with thin lips and a pointy chin. Now some people might find this image of

Letters from Africa

Code Noir

The Code Noir was a decree passed by Louis XIV of France in 1685, affecting all the French colonies, such as Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) that were involved in the sugar trade. Like other European "slave codes," it essentially codified slavery, eliminating slaves’ rights and defining them as property,

Precious Bodily Fluids

Cordelia

Shakespeare's Cordelia has not fared well in painting. There were, after all, only three acceptable poses - her disinheritance and banishment, her reconciliation with her father in prison, and her death. All three involve pathos. There never could be any paintings of her as a heroic warrior queen,