Ross:
And [France]’s horses—a thing most strange and certain—
Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,
Turn’d wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,
Contending ’gainst obedience, as they would make
War with mankind.Old Man:
'Tis said they eat each other.Ross:
They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes
That look’d upon ’t.
CHIRAC AND SARKOZY'S HORSES KEEP UP VENDETTA
PARIS May 26, 2006 (Telegraph) - The enmity between France's fiercest political rivals Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac has extended to their horses [stabled in Mali and named Sarkozy and Chirac after their respective owners].Mr Sarkozy, the interior minister and head of the ruling UMP party, was given a magnificent bay steed from a regional governor during a visit in 2003. A few months later, President Chirac received a grey, dappled horse from his Malian counterpart, Amadou Toumani Touré. Both left their horses behind.
Sarkozy, his groom told the magazine Le Canard Enchainé, is a "short and jumpy horse" - a fair description of his diminutive, excitable owner. Chirac, on the other hand, was reportedly "tall and calm".
The pair were kept at lavish stables in Bamako, the Malian capital. Initially they shared a box, but after a few days, the two could no longer stand each other's company, and Sarkozy was said to have savagely kicked his companion.
Chirac now resides in the Malian president's personal stable, while Sarkozy is looked after in the stables of the national gendarmerie. Mr Sarkozy's office said that the minister tried to bring the horse back to France when he returned to Mali last week but the move was ruled out due to French health regulations.
He faced a hostile reception in Bamako amid anger about his selective immigration policy. Le Carnard suggested that with Mr Sarkozy's failure to import his horse he had received a taste of his own medicine.
Let's hope France fares better than Duncan.
PFFT (What is this?): France's ongoing political horse opera 4 | Rayonnement français 0
Bonjour,
[M. AB/AY, Pave's resident French crank, had posted some off-topic gush about Jack triumphant in Latin America. His comment has been deleted.
We do not require much for the free exchange of opinion at Pave, just that thread comments have some passing relevance to the topic posted. We allow the natural enlargement of a narrow topic in the threads, we entertain requests for posting on specific topics, and we indulge the occasional off-topic comment.
But this is not enough for M. AB/AY. He thinks he is here to run the threads to his liking.
We already abide his antic French. If he wishes to advertise himself as a donkey at Pave, well, that's his business. However, even donkeys are required to stay on topic.
M. AB/AY is free to launch his own blog where he can rant in whatever language on whatever topic to his heart's content. But in our house, stay on topic.
The Management]
Good luck to (?) your country in Irak !!!!!
We are all aware of the “King Henry” plays by Shakesphere, culminating in The Battle Of Agincourt, a decisive English victory, but one of his more obscure plays, Love’s Labor Lost also takes a swipe at the French, a fact most people are unaware of. (Please, no comments about Henry V fighting a “foreign war” in order to strengthen his position at home and Bush and the Iraq war; we see the parallels….)
The 4 main characters in Love’s Labor Lost are Navarre, Berowne, Longaville, Dumaine. The name Navarre should ring a bell with the frogs as Henry of Navarre, who became King Henry IV, champion of the French Protestants (the Huguenots). I will defer to the Professor to tell us more about the bloody religious war with the Catholics…
Queen Elizabeth I (English, and a Protestant to boot) provided troops and money to support Henry of Navarre in his wars was very disappointed when he, as Henry IV ended the religious wars in 1593 by converting to Catholicism. (He had once before converted to Catholicism for political reasons and had later renounced his conversion). This conversion to end the wars led to his most famous quote Paris vaut bien une messe [Paris is well worth a mass], and also this allowed him to enter Paris and be crowned as King.
So, to make a long story short, the play satirically swipes at Navarre’s official conversions and renunciations by having the plays characters’ oath-breaking be the basis of the play.
BTW, the other characters relate to the French as follows:
Berowne= baron de Biron
Longaville = duc de Longueville
Dumaine = duc de Mayenne aka le gros duc, as Navarre called him
Now, to tie this all together, during the “riots” in France, I think one may have heard this line:
Bringing down Nicolas Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa
is well worth a riot,
King Chirac must have thought
