AGED BEAUTIES

Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 107, 7 May 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

AGED BEAUTIES

History is full of the accounts of the fascination of women who were no longer young. Thus — Helen of Troy was over forty when she perpetrated the most famous elopement on record. Pericles wedded Aspasia when Bb.e was thirty-six and yet she afterwards, for thirty years or more, wielded an undiminished reputation for beauty. Cleopatra was past thirty wheu Antony fell under her spell, which never lessened till her death, nearly ten years afterwards. Livia was thirty-three when she won the heart of Augustus, over whom she maintained her ascendancy to bhe last. Turning to modern history, where it is possible to verify dates more accurately, we have the extraordinary De Poictiets, who was thirty-six when Henry II — then Duke of Orleans, and just half her age — became attached to her; and she was held as the first lady and most beautiful woman at court up to the period of the monarch's death and the accession to power of Catherine de Medici. de L'Euclos, the most celebrated wit and beauty of her day, was the idol for three geuerationsof the golden youth of France, and she was seventy-two when the A bbc de Berais fell in love with her. True it is that in the case of this lady a rare combination of culture, talents, and personal attractions endowed their possessor seemingly with the gifts of eternal youth.

Bianca Capello was thirty-eight i when the Grand Duke Francisco of | Florence fell captive to her charms and made her hia wife, though he was five years her junior. Louis XIV. wedded Madame de Maintenon when she was forty-three years of age. Catherine 11. of fcussia was tbirfcythree when she seized the empire of liussia, aud captivated the dashing young General Orloff. Up to the time of her death, at sixty-seven, she seemed to have retained the same bewitching powers, for lamentations were heartfelt among all those who had ever known her personally. The famous Madame Eecaraier was thirty-eight when Barras was ousted from power, and she was without dispute declared to be the most beautiful woman in Europe, which rank she held for fifteen years.