MASQUERADE

 

THIS MASQUERADE : GEORGE BENSON

THE COURTESAN PRINCESS ENDS HER YEARS A DEVOUT CATHOLIC

This is about  Liane de Pougy, married name Princess Anne-Marie Ghika of Roumania, and her later-in-life involvement in Catholicism. 

Born Anne-Marie Chassaigne in 1869, Liane had been born into a Catholic family. After her retirement as a courtesan, due to her marriage to the Prince, she again became acquainted with her faith. She was not especially happy in her marriage as the years went on. She sought some advice on marriage, and she was told that it would be most honorable and spiritual if she stuck with it, though her husband and her were not compatible in important ways. He was younger than she, he was apparently desperately alcoholic and in ill health, and he may also have sought sex with prostitutes. At one point she wanted to leave him and live separate lives.

The Dominican Sisters at Saint Agnes cared for children who were fundamentally disabled.  From her Blue Notebooks, here is an excerpt of how she became familiar with their work. She would chose to fund raise for them and the fashion designer and once-upon-a-time Mistress, CoCo Chanel was a generous donor to the same !

Here is an excerpt:

"We were punctual.  She took us to the playground... and there I saw sixty-seven unhappy creatures between eight and sixteen years old, ... the most inexorable suffering.  I nearly fainted. ... Oh! Those cries!  Those contortions, those grimaces, that smell...  Once you have seen that, never never again can you complain of anything.  I was ashamed of having talked so much about myself to Sister Marie Xavier. I pressed the poor tremulous, rather dirty hands which reached out towards me.  I searched those wandering, fixed or mad eyes for some glimmer of light.  I laid my hand on those foreheads, tumultuous or stunned. feverish, so pale... I gave five hundred francs.  George Ghika (her husband) gave a hundred, and I knew that he was more disturbed than he liked to admit.   (page 219 of The Blue Notebooks)

C 2022 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot

NOT SHY

 

VALTESSE DE BIGNE's LETTERS FROM LIANE DE POUGY END UP SOLD and HER GRANDDAUGHTER ANDRE DE LA BIGNE FOLLOWS IN HER FOOTSTEPS

After her death in 1910 at the age of 62, the famous old courtesan, Valtesse De Bigne not only gave herself a decorative grave, but her estate held some beautiful antiques and paintings that were selectively given to her friends.

Courtesans of Paris often had a child somewhere in their youthful past, often raised by others, while they sent money. My observation is that the child was usually from a very early relationship, and that somehow these women managed to avoid further pregnancies. It is unknown to me, but I speculate that they may have also denied having any children to the men who they had affairs with. If you read Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot, you know that these relationships varied, that some courtesans had many, some had one at a time, and the definition of Courtesan varies. I always wonder who in the family knew about the child and if the child grew up to know its mother or even know her reputation or if that child admired its courtesan mother.

Valtesse's own granddaughter took the letters that Liane de Pougy had sent to Valtesse and she sold them.  (Page 293)  My guess is that she read them. That she did come to understand some things and might have been inspired.

Perhaps you watch The Crown, as I do, and you caught the way Prince Phillip was depicted, a boy alone sent to a rather, in my opinion, brutal school, where team work was emphasized. After the devastating loss of relatives due to a plane crash, it would seem that his mother, who had been mentally ill and received treatment in a hospital, joined a nunnery.  His father was not much in his life.  His father was with his Mistress in Monaco.

Guess who Prince Phillip's father, Prince Andrew of Greece, had as a Mistress in Monaco!

Comtesse Andre de la Bigne, as she called herself was the grand-daughter of Valtesse de la Bigne.  

She deserves a month all to her own here, so I'll stop with that teaser here...

C 2022 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot

Our primary reference for this month's subject, Courtesan Laine De Pougy, is the book titled the Mistress of Paris by author Catherine Hewitt. Additional information comes from other sources, such as, for this post, wikipedia.

HOW ARE YOU?

 

ARE YOU A MAN WHO HAS A LONG TIME MISTRESS? MISSY ASKS YOU!

Tell me your story!  Leave a Comment! 

How long have you had a mistress?

How did you meet the person?

Are you married?

Do you think you will ever marry your mistress?

Do you love her/him?

Do you also love someone else?

Do you Keep this person or contribute to their finances?

HIS FRIENDS ARE MEAN : SHOULD SHE SAY BYE BYE? : OPINION BY MISSY

QUESTION FOR MISSY

I met a man in his 50s who has a sparkle in his eye and seems to be sweet. We had a beautiful, unexpected conversation at a cafe. From that point it was obvious we have crushes on each other. On karaoke night he gets up and sings the most romantic songs, looking right at me.

His friends who are probably around the same age are not nice to me. One openly put me down. He said "You're just a girl wearing a hat." I responded "Most certainly not."  Another one does not speak to me or say hello. The one time he did, indirectly, he had a kind of low growl when he demanded I move to another table. I stayed put. When the man who sings to me shows up over there and his men friends are there, he sits with them. I notice that sometimes he seems to be looking at me from across the room, but he seems reluctant to come over and talk.

If a man's friends don't like you, should you just give up on him?

Veronica in Denver

ANSWER FROM MISSY

Veronica,

How horrible for you!

It sounds to me like this man cares more about what his friends think and that he has allowed them to be overly involved in his life. It sounds to me like his friends don't want him to have you in his life and maybe they don't want him to have any woman in his life. Men and women of any age can have friends who hold them back. They seem to be warding you off.

I wonder if this is a group of bachelors who like to prove they still have it by flirting and cruising, but never go on dates. They might be threatened by the loss of one of their own when he goes into a relationship with a woman instead. However, men like this in their fifties?  They sound extremely immature to me. 

You don't say how old you are, but that man calling you a girl?

To try to be fair to these rude men, maybe they've been along for the ride with him for many years and know what he's gone through with other women. He might have even sworn off women. 

Veronica, not to try and hurt your feelings, but another possibility is that this man who is singing to you is teasing you for liking him. Or he thinks he is complimenting you and that's all he can do but you should be pleased that he thinks you're cute. He may not realize he is leading you on to nowhere.

When dating, or as a couple, we can't truly like and enjoy all our partner's friends but we can get along and go along well enough unless they are insulting to us or creating problems in our relationship. So if you were dating this man you'd feel uncomfortable with these two characters and not want to spend time with them.

My gut feeling on this is that this man is entrenched in his life and is fine with gazing at you from afar. He may cherish the one conversation he had with you but that was it.

So, remove yourself from this place at least for a month or two. In that way, say bye bye!

Refresh your spirit and know your worth. 

Do you have a woman friend you can go places and do things with?  Get going!

Meet men somewhere else.

Missy

DO YOU BELIEVE IN LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT? : QUESTION FOR MISSY and MISSY ASKS YOU

QUESTION FOR MISSY

Was wondering if you believe in Love at First Sight? 

Andrea

Memphis

ANSWER FROM MISSY

Hi Andrea,

Yes, I do think Love at First Sight happens, though perhaps rarely, and it's so compelling that people have been known to make a commitment quickly after realizing that it has happened to them.  

It would be interesting to know how many of you who read Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot have had the experience of Love at First Sight.

My questions are:

Was your experience of Love at First Sight mutual (i.e. you both felt the same way and realized it.)

Did you act upon the realization that you had instantly fallen in love?  Did you make a commitment to be a couple quickly?  If one or both of you was with someone else, did you neatly end that other relationship?

If you did become a couple after falling in love instantly upon first sight (meeting) each other, did the relationship endure?  How long?

If it did not endure, why not?  Are you with someone else now or are you through with relationships?

PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS!

Missy