The Idler in France by Countess of Marguerite Blessington
page 50 of 352 (14%)
page 50 of 352 (14%)
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The Duc de Cazes, who came in to the Duchesse de Guiche's box, was enthusiastic in his praises of Mademoiselle Taglioni, and said hers was the most poetical style of dancing he had ever seen. Another observed, that it was indeed the poetry of motion. I would describe it as being the epic of dancing. The Duc de Cazes is a very distinguished looking man, with a fine and intelligent countenance, and very agreeable manners. _À propos_ of manners, I am struck with the great difference between those of Frenchmen and Englishmen, of the same station in life. The latter treat women with a politeness that seems the result of habitual amenity; the former with a homage that appears to be inspired by the peculiar claims of the sex, particularised in the individual woman, and is consequently more flattering. An Englishman seldom lays himself out to act the agreeable to women; a Frenchman never omits an opportunity of so doing: hence, the attentions of the latter are less gratifying than those of the former, because a woman, however free from vanity, may suppose that when an Englishman takes the trouble--and it is evidently a trouble, more or less, to all our islanders to enact the agreeable--she had really inspired him with the desire to please. In France, a woman may forget that she is neither young nor handsome; for the absence of these claims to attention does not expose her to be neglected by the male sex. In England, the elderly and the ugly "could a tale unfold" of the _naïveté_ with which men evince their sense of the importance of youth and beauty, and their oblivion of the presence |
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