Word: idyl
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Queen Rules. Estranged from Henry in 1168, Eleanor set up her own court in Poitiers. There, in sunny arcades, to the shapely wooing of a flute, she and her followers brought the cult of chivalric love to perfection. But the idyl of manners was brief. Henry sniffed sedition in the antics of her preux chevaliers, broke up the court, and hauled Eleanor back to an English keep. She languished there, in sumptuous jail, for 15 years...
...lovers' idyl was in reality saddened by Elizabeth's repeated miscarriages and poor health, by Browning's continual worry over his lack of recognition, by the freezing disdain of "Sweet Puppy," who never forgave Elizabeth for marrying...
Still, it was something of an idyl to the end, which came to Elizabeth in Florence, 15 years after their marriage. She died, wrote Browning, in his arms, "kissing me with such vehemence that when I laid her down she continued to kiss the air with her lips . . ." Browning died in Venice, 28 years later, but he was not buried in Florence beside Elizabeth as he had always hoped. Westminster Abbey offered a burial in the Poets' Corner, and Browning's son thought it proper to accept...