Word: metternich
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1920-1929
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Painter Chandor's grandfather was Count Laszlo Chandor of Hungary, kin by marriage of the great Prince Metternich. His mother was an Irishwoman. Raised in England and at heart an Englishman, he, like many another young gentleman, considered it more sporting to go into the War as a "Tommy" in the ranks than to get a commission. After he came out, the tailstroke of what had smashed him up "a bit," smashed his family's fortunes. Instead of grubbing along or "going out" to the U. S. or Canada, he squared off at life, determined to develop his strongest talent...
...Hesse, until at length he held the strings of that ruler's considerable money bags. The needs of princes first, and later the needs of governments, were the opportunities of the Rothschilds. The wars of the Allies against Napoleon, the collection of the French indemnity, the efforts of Metternich to crush every outbreak of liberal ideas-all these required money. The Rothschilds provided it, at a profit...
...that the incident would have been impossible. The House was never troubled by ethical problems except when integrity was obviously the best policy. Metternich made the brothers Barons; they bought and fawned their way into the society of five capitals. But they remained shrewd moneylenders, with the noses and eyes of hawks, speaking and writing an uncouth jargon of many dialects of French, German, Yiddish. Count Corti quotes one contemporary comment upon a Rothschild: "King of Jews and Jew of Kings." Another, better, he omits: "Princes in the parlor and pawnbrokers in the kitchen...
...laughed at great men. Yet there was no greater man in public life anywhere when he died. Napoleon, Metternich, Wellington, Peel-he had sent flowers to a thousand notable graves. Gladstone and Disraeli-because he lived, they had to wait. And Bismarck had just begun. The last light of the 18th Century flashed in Palmerston's eyes-eyes which, shaded by a white silk hat, were too weak to catch any glimpse of the 20th Century...
...husband. France had detested him also. He once rendered Tannhäuser at the Grand Opera in Paris. He had rehearsed 164 times. Mesdames, seigneurs, laced perfumed lords chitchatted, watched the composer's rotund drab figure squirm in his seat. Wagner's back itched. Princes? Metternich nodded, smiled, as from the orchestra swelled forth great chords, low symphony. Wagner sat tense-slumped down aghast, ashamed at whistles, catcalls, boos, hisses. Princess Metternich sobbed. Wagner went to Vienna, since Germany had exiled him. Again, Prince Metternich, please. . . Tristan und Isolde was accepted, rehearsed 57 times, abandoned-the tenor...