#heloise and abelard

[my-deer-friend]

Chopin's Abelard

I really enjoyed Karolina Żebrowska's latest podcast episode on Fryderyk Chopin's letters to Tytus Woyciechowski. There's a solid case that Chopin was queer (though – as she also says – this is severely underresearched because Poland is hardly the most progressive country), and this line in one of the letters she read really jumped out at me:

Najdroższe życie moje! Hipokryto obrzydły! Przemierzły, obmierzły Hrabio Ory! Abelardzie itd. My dearest life! Disgusting hipocryte! Detestable, loathsome Count Ory! Abelard etc.

Fryderyk Chopin to Tytus Woyciechowski, 18 August 1830 (my translation)

Aside from the obvious "my dearest life" and the exaggerated, playful slandering, Chopin also references two fictional characters.

Count Ory, the title characters in Rossini's Le Comte Ory comedy opera, is a rake who spends the entirety of the plot attempting to break into a castle and seduce Countess Adèle. One of his strategies involves crossdressing as a nun, and at the very end when Ory finally manages to enter Adèle's bedroom, he ends up accidentally wooing and kissing his male page, Isolier, who took her place to trick Ory (and then help him escape).

Abelard refers to one of the two main personages in the medieval story of Héloïse and Abelard, a true account of a tragic love affair that was a favourite of sentimental authors in the 18th century, including Pope and Rousseau, who wrote fictional adaptations based on the historical love letters. The story is particularly known for the lovers' secret marriage and then their tragic separation, after which they can only communicate their love and longing through letters – in other words, the perfect analogy for lovers who are separated by distance.

Interpret as you will, but the references to randy lovers, men kissing men (a common theme in Chopin's letters), sneaking into bedrooms, secret romances and parted lovers certainly stand out for me.

[galleryofart]

Lady Reading the Letters of Heloise and Abelard

Artist: Bernard d’Agesci (French, 1756–1829)

Date: circa 1780

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Collection: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States

Description

This painting depicts a young woman lost in reverie after reading the letters of the ill-fated medieval lovers Heloise and Abelard. The objects on the table beside her—a letter, a sheet of music, and a book of erotic poetry—hint at a life of leisure and a susceptibility to love. In this early picture, Auguste Bernard drew upon history paintings by Peter Paul Rubens and Charles Le Brun, as well as Parisian traditions of genre painting and portraiture pioneered by Jean-Baptiste Greuze. Bernard worked in Paris in the early 1780s and studied in Italy for several years. Upon his return to Paris, he found his career frustrated by the French Revolution and the emergent fashion for the more austere Neoclassical style.

[asteria-of-the-stars]

Héloïse d’Argenteuil in a letter to her former lover Pierre Abélard, nineteen years after their forced separation and entrance into religious life.

[ephemeral-winter]

did we all know this. i did not know this

[enbycrip]

A thing you need to know is that the famous lovers Heloise and Abelard - a pair of quite well-known Christian philosophers from earlyish medieval France who are also pretty well known for the fact that Heloise’s relatives later broke in to Abelard’s rooms and castrated him one evening - did in fact have one child together.

They called the poor kid Astrolabe.

*Astrolabe.*

I‘m generally quite a big fan of Heloise (I go back and forth on Abelard and quite often want to slap him) but she chose the name and that’s serious child cruelty.

That’s like modern parents calling a kid GPS 🤣

This is what a 12th century European astrolabe looks like btw. It’s a nautical navigation device which had been around since the classical period all over Asia, Europe and Africa.

They were such utter nerds calling their kid after that. (As an utter nerd, I do get the impulse 😄)

It does make Astrolabe *really* easy to track through the records *because no one fucking else is called fucking Astrolabe*.

(Astrolabe was raised by Abelard’s sister Denise because his parents were too busy being religious philosophers. I can’t help picturing her calling him Astro Boy (Garçon d’Astro?). His folks, particularly Abelard, did at least try to help him out in his career in the church when he was older, though given Abelard was basically a walking argument that pissed everyone around him off almost continuously that might actually have been more of a hindrance than a help…)

[gaykarstaagforever]

When your dad is a famous philosopher who was castrated by your great-uncle, and your mother was forced to join a convent before she gave birth to you, but the most interesting thing about you is still your goofy-ass robot name.

[octavianacidicbreastmilk]

the borgias 1x03

[reelaround-deactivated05312024]

Abelard and Heloise. The Letters and Other Writings (edited and translated by W. Levitan)

[sukulentt]

‘‘Okurken seni düşünüyorum. Yalnızca sana dalıyor düşüncelerim. Dualarda bile aklım sende kalıyor.’’

[yorgunherakles]

nereye gideceksin seni yitirdiğimde ?

sappho - selected poems

[beeblelady]

"You Are My Greatest Love. One I'll Happily Drown In."

💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛

Just An Andrew Marston Aesthetic Board I made Last Night. For the Andrew girlies. You are the best.

This one is dedicated to the fans who loves Andrew. 🥐 ����✨✨✨

[epifaniacintilante]

[ethanfreemanappreciation]

This song always gives me: "Erik has just sang Christine to sleep on the first night in his home and fears what will happen once she awakens" vibes.

("Rage Against the Sun" from the musical "Abelard and Heloise")

[apenitentialprayer]

An ideal abbess, according to Peter Abelard, is a woman who "the bishops love[...] as a daughter, the abbots as a sister, and the laity as a mother" (ut eam episcopi quasi filiam, abbates quasi sororem, laici quasi matrem diligerent)

[stromuprisahat]

Another thing I didn't remember, is that the famous "Abelard and Heloise scene" has parallel with Ursula.

L: "Do I have to marry, Cesare?" C: "No. You can take the cloth like me. You can become a nun. We'll live in sanctity and prayer, like Abelard and Eloise." L: "Did they love each other?" C: "With a love as pure and all-consuming as the love of God." L: "So, then. I shall become a nun. For I shall never love a husband as I love you, Cesare."

A comparison Lucrezia was willing to embrace, but Ursula refused, because she recongnized Cesare's possessiveness and lack of moral restraint as a sign his love could never be pure. Only all-consuming.

U: "And now I must live my life in penance, praying for forgiveness." C: "Where?" U: "You will not know where." C: "You mean a nunnery?" U: "I mean confinement." C: "I will search you out. Like Abelard and Eloise. You may find a nunnery cell, but you will never be free of me!" U: "You are right. I will never be free of you."

Lucrezia even brings out the story in the very same episode again, only to still keep the romanticised view, never questioning her brother's unwillingness to respect his lover's decision. Believing it to be an obstacle caused by outside forces.

L: "And you, Brother? What of your heart?" C: "It was broken-by a nun." L: "A nun? Like Eloise? Will you spend a lifetime writing to her?" C: "I could if I knew where she was." L: "But you can find out, surely." C: "I intend to." L: "How wonderful."

I might get back to this theme, but it would have made interesting string, if we were given that last season, with Cesare searching for Lucrezia after she disappears, guilt-ridden from her husband's (another parallel) death.

[reelaround-deactivated05312024]

Abelard and Heloise. The Letters and Other Writings (edited and translated by W. Levitan)