Cook's tours

A little while ago I acquired an old copy of Cook's Traveller's Handbook to the Rivieras of France and Italy. I had thought that I had noticed the acquisition, but the best I could do in the first instance, associating through the not dissimilar Red Guides from Ward Locke, is reference 1. But then, persisting, I struck gold at reference 2.

It has turned out to be well worth its £5, offering a view of the Riverias such as may have been experienced by the likes of Agatha, Hercule and Simenon. And it did indeed come in useful when reading 'Liberty Bar', set in Cannes and nearby Antibes. See reference 3.

A small book, arranged more or less along the principal railway lines, getting as far as Leghorn, via Ventimiglia (this last said to be good for sufferers from Bright's disease). Without pictures of any sort, but including a number of maps and plans, printed in two or three colours on rather odd paper, a sort of cross between waxed paper and greaseproof. Presumably, in 1927, inserted by hand into the regular pages.

It includes various nice gobbets of history. A thumbnail sketch of Marshall Masséna on account of his having been born in Nice, the chap responsible for the name of one of the sections of the boulevard running around Paris, just inside the Périphérique. An account of the marital custom called cicisbeo of the same place, whereby married ladies were allowed to take gentlemen friends for support and entertainment. It was considered very bad form for the husbands to show any irritation, let alone anger about this, although the ladies sometimes found that gays suited the purpose well: attentive, entertaining and undemanding. Another attraction of the custom from their point of view was that one could change one's cicisbeo then rather like one might change one's bathroom now. And like the husband, he was expected to put a good face on his expulsion. Perhaps on his loss of much needed free lunches. All to be found on and around page 206, should you chance upon a copy for yourself.

And lastly, in among gobbets about the complicated medieval history of the south of France, I came across the lady who made wife of Henry VI, Margaret of Anjou, a lady who was rather rubbished by the English lords on account of her relatively lowly origins. At least I am sure she was in one of the versions we have seen recently, possibly that at the Rose noticed at reference 4, possibly one of the two TV versions of the same cycle acquired subsequently. Whereas, I learn from this guide that she was the daughter of René of Anjou (1409–1480), also known as René I of Naples and Good King René, the chap who was count of Piedmont, Duke of Bar (1430–80), Duke of Lorraine (1431–53), Duke of Anjou, Count of Provence (1434–80), King of Naples (1435–42; titular 1442–80), titular King of Jerusalem (1438–80) and Aragon including Sicily, Majorca and Corsica (1466–80). So as far as pedigree went, more than good enough for a sometimes mad king with a tainted claim to his throne.

René was not a particularly successful king and is now more remembered for his contributions to learning and the arts. His daughter was not behind in that department either, despite her worldly, sometimes successful and ultimately unsuccessful ways in the Wars of the Roses, being foundress or perhaps patroness of Queen's College, Cambridge.

However, checking with the proper text (of the first part of King Henry VI), I find the treatment there of René more even handed, there called Reignier. So perhaps memory defective once again. Perhaps I have conflated story lines, or even stories. See particularly scenes III, IV and V of Act V. Story concluded at the beginning of the second part, a conclusion which includes a rather good pun about the suffocation of Suffolk (Margaret's cicisbeo, as it were) from the Duke of York. Whereas actually he has his head hacked off by pirates a couple of acts later.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/bognor-books.html.

Reference 2: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/just-back-from-short-break-at-lamb-at.html.

Reference 3: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/friday-trivia.html.

Reference 4: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/part-one-of-three.html.