AGED BEAUTIES.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 3032, 9 July 1875, Page 3

AGED BEAUTIES.

History is full of the accounts of the fascinations of women who were no longer young. Thus Helen b£ Troy was over forty when sheperpetrated the most famous elopement on record, and as the siege of Troy lasted a decade she could not have been very juvenile when the ill-fortune ' of Paris restored her to her husband, who is reported to have received herewith unquestioning lore , and gratitude. Pericles wedded the courtesan Aspasia when she was thirty-six, and yet she afterwards for thirty years or . more wielded an trodimished reputation for beauty. Cleopatra was. past thirty when fef - Antony fell under her spell, which never lessened until her death, nearly ten years %fter; and Livia was thirty-three when she won the heart of Agustus, over whom she maintained her ascendency to the last.- Turning to more modern history, where it is possible to verify dates more accurately, we have the extraordinary Diane de Poictiers, who was thirty-six when Henry 11. (then Duke of Orleans, and just half h«r 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 of the accession to.-, power of Catherine of Medici. Anne of Austria was thirtyeight "when she was described as the handsomest, queen of Europe, and when Buckingham and Richelieu were her jealous admirers. Ninon de I'Enelos, the most celebrated wit and beauty of her day, was the idol of three generations of the golden youth of France, and she was 75 when the Abbe de Bernis -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 when* the Grand Puke Francisco of Florence fell captive to her charms, and made her his wife, though he was five years her junior. Louis XIV; wedded Mdme de Mainienon when she was forty-three years of age. Catherine 11. ofEussiawas thirty-three when she siezed the Empire of Kussia and captivated the daihing young General Orloff. Up to the time of her death (at sixty-seven) she seems to have retained the same bewitching powers, for the lamentations were heartfelt among all those who had ever known her personally. Mdlle.-Mars, the celebrated French tragedienne, only attained the zenith of ■ her beauty and power between forty and forty-five. At that period • the loveliness "of her hands and arms especially was cc-

lebrated throughout Europe." 'i he famous Mdme. Eccamier was thirty-eight when Barras was ousted from power, and she was without dispute declared to be the most beautiful woman in Europo, which rank she held for fifteen years.—Pictorial World.