governo

"The entire monarchy of the Turk is governed by one lord, the others are his servants; and, dividing his kingdom into sanjaks [sub-provinces], he sends there different administrators, and shifts and changes them as he chooses. But the King of France is placed in the midst of an ancient body of lords, acknowledged by their own subjects, and beloved by them; they have their own prerogatives, nor can the king take these away except at his peril. Therefore, he who considers both of these states will recognize great difficulties in seizing the state of the Turk, but, once it is conquered, great ease in holding it. The causes of the difficulties in seizing the kingdom of the Turk are that the usurper cannot be called in by the princes of the kingdom, nor can he hope to be assisted in his designs by the revolt of those whom the lord has around him. This arises from the reasons given above; for his ministers, being all slaves and bondmen, can only be corrupted with great difficulty, and one can expect little advantage from them when they have been corrupted, as they cannot carry the people with them, for the reasons assigned."no Príncipe, de Maquiavel.

não sabia que Maquiavel tinha dito isto, nem podia. li o Príncipe só no que dizia respeito aos hábitos corteses e mundanos e ignorei totalmente o aspecto político, que nunca me interessou muito a não ser nas suas consequências para o "homem normal", diria melhor para a "mulher comum". sempre preferi o Cortesão de Castiglione e durante um tempo dediquei-me a lê-lo. julgo que foi uma referência para alguns da minha geração, especialmente aqueles que se julgavam e talvez julguem ainda hoje especiais, superiores ou mais do que os outros. há quem o julgue por ter mais dinheiro, há quem o faça por ter a família mais antiga ou importante, há quem o faça por ser mais famoso (um triste acontecimento deste tempo) e há e sempre houve quem o faça por julgar que sabe mais e melhor do que os outros. na verdade, qualquer desculpa serve para que alguém se julgue superior a outra pessoa e se for superior a um grande grupo de outras pessoas melhor ainda.

o Cortesão descreve esse "melhor do que os outros" e como chegar a sê-lo.

em época de crise das formas de governo, crise para os povos mas não para os detentores do poder, é interessante ler "The Ottoman dynasty or House of Osman (c. 1290–1922) was unprecedented and unequaled in the Islamic world for its size and duration." (...) "There were only two attempts in the whole of Ottoman history to unseat the ruling Osmanlı dynasty, both failures, which is suggestive of a political system which for an extended period was able to manage its revolutions without unnecessary instability."

um país tem de ser demasiado mal-agradecido para declarar esta dinastia como non grata no seu território e no entanto foi o que sucedeu no final do império. o sucessor desta longa dinastia nasceu no exílio e viveu nos estados unidos onde, depois de fazer serviço militar, trabalhou toda a vida numa biblioteca de nova iorque, sem nunca casar nem ter filhos. tem hoje 91 anos.

gostei de:

Everyone falls silent, each of us lost in a private reverie, as giant freighters slowly glide down the Bosporus in the gathering dusk.
daqui.

castiglione

para mim, e não só, Castiglione e Maquiavel sempre estiveram juntos, o Cortesão e o Príncipe. e quem é quem?

sugestão da noite avançada:
Tales of Heptameron, Margarida de Navarra.

Whilst he was alone the fancy took him that he might obtain by force what neither prayer nor service had availed to procure him, and accordingly he broke through a wooden partition which was between the chamber where his mistress slept and his own. The curtains of his master's bed on the one side and of the servant's bed on the other so covered the walls as to hide the opening he had made; and thus his wickedness was not perceived until his mistress was in bed, together with a little girl eleven or twelve years old.
When the poor woman was in her first sleep, the servant, in his shirt and with his naked sword in his hand, came through the opening he had made in the wall into her bed; but as soon as she felt him beside her, she leaped out, addressing to him all such reproaches as a virtuous woman might utter. His love, however, was but bestial, and he would have better understood the language of his mules than her honourable reasonings; indeed, he showed himself even more bestial than the beasts with whom he had long consorted. Finding she ran so quickly round a table that he could not catch her, and that she was strong enough to break away from him twice, he despaired of ravishing her alive, and dealt her a terrible sword-thrust in the loins, thinking that, if fear and force had not brought her to yield, pain would assuredly do so.
The contrary, however, happened, for just as a good soldier, on seeing his own blood, is the more fired to take vengeance on his enemies and win renown, so her chaste heart gathered new strength as she ran fleeing from the hands of the miscreant, saying to him the while all she could think of to bring him to see his guilt. But so filled was he with rage that he paid no heed to her words. He dealt her several more thrusts, to avoid which she continued running as long as her legs could carry her.
When, after great loss of blood, she felt that death was near, she lifted her eyes to heaven, clasped her hands and gave thanks to God, calling Him her strength, her patience, and her virtue, and praying Him to accept her blood which had been shed for the keeping of His commandment and in reverence of His Son, through whom she firmly believed all her sins to be washed away and blotted out from the remembrance of His wrath.
As she was uttering the words, "Lord, receive the soul that has been redeemed by Thy goodness," she fell upon her face to the ground.
Then the miscreant dealt her several thrusts, and when she had lost both power of speech and strength of body, and was no longer able to make any defence, he ravished her.

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uma história escrita em 1558. ou ontem.