Dark Lady. A Rose, Prinsentuin, Groningen, The Netherlands
One of the four sections of the pleasant Prinsentuin - here in Groningen - next to the Herbal Garden, the Berceaux, and the Rose Garden is the Willem Frederik and Albertine Agnes Hedgery. In the shade of a towering ancient Chestnut Tree, low hedges mark out the first initials of [W]illem and [A] Albertine. Willem Frederik of Nassau-Dietz (1613-1664), Stadtholder of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe, and Albertine Agnes of Orange-Nassau (1634-1696) - direct ancestors of the present Queen of the Netherlands, Beatrix - were married in 1652. The Renaissance garden had already been made by 1626, and it may have been soon after 1652 that these hedges were laid out.
The pretty green low shrubbery is enclosed by a square of trellises. There are climbing roses, bright ones in the sunny area. But in the shady western section these Dark Climbing Roses blossom in profusion. They remind of the 'Tradescant' Rose hybridised by David Charles Henshaw Austin (1926-) in the early 1990s. But I seem to recall having seen these Dark Ones here before that...
Whatever the case... this particular Rose Darkness brightens the Gloom and Darkness and Rain of this Sunday. And it brings to mind the literary diversion of Shakespeare's 'colorful' if for some 'off-color' - in more senses than one - "Dark Lady Sonnets" (127-152). The first of these sonnets is quite apt:
In the old age black was not counted fair,/
Or if it were it bore not beauty's name:/
But now is black beauty's successive heir,/
And beauty slandered with a bastard shame,/
For since each hand hath put on nature's power,/
Fairing the foul with art's false borrowed face,/
Sweet beauty hath no name no holy bower,/
But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace./
Therefore my mistress' eyes are raven black,/
Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem,/
At such who not born fair no beauty lack,/
Slandering creation with a false esteem,/
Yet so they mourn becoming of their woe,/
That every tongue says beauty should look so.
Dark Lady. A Rose, Prinsentuin, Groningen, The Netherlands
One of the four sections of the pleasant Prinsentuin - here in Groningen - next to the Herbal Garden, the Berceaux, and the Rose Garden is the Willem Frederik and Albertine Agnes Hedgery. In the shade of a towering ancient Chestnut Tree, low hedges mark out the first initials of [W]illem and [A] Albertine. Willem Frederik of Nassau-Dietz (1613-1664), Stadtholder of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe, and Albertine Agnes of Orange-Nassau (1634-1696) - direct ancestors of the present Queen of the Netherlands, Beatrix - were married in 1652. The Renaissance garden had already been made by 1626, and it may have been soon after 1652 that these hedges were laid out.
The pretty green low shrubbery is enclosed by a square of trellises. There are climbing roses, bright ones in the sunny area. But in the shady western section these Dark Climbing Roses blossom in profusion. They remind of the 'Tradescant' Rose hybridised by David Charles Henshaw Austin (1926-) in the early 1990s. But I seem to recall having seen these Dark Ones here before that...
Whatever the case... this particular Rose Darkness brightens the Gloom and Darkness and Rain of this Sunday. And it brings to mind the literary diversion of Shakespeare's 'colorful' if for some 'off-color' - in more senses than one - "Dark Lady Sonnets" (127-152). The first of these sonnets is quite apt:
In the old age black was not counted fair,/
Or if it were it bore not beauty's name:/
But now is black beauty's successive heir,/
And beauty slandered with a bastard shame,/
For since each hand hath put on nature's power,/
Fairing the foul with art's false borrowed face,/
Sweet beauty hath no name no holy bower,/
But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace./
Therefore my mistress' eyes are raven black,/
Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem,/
At such who not born fair no beauty lack,/
Slandering creation with a false esteem,/
Yet so they mourn becoming of their woe,/
That every tongue says beauty should look so.