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From: Stephen Lauf
To: design-l@lists.psu.edu
Subject: 25 April 1886
Date: 2004.04.25 11:46
[I read the following for the first time this morning.]
It is reported that the dying King Maximillian II breathed into the ear of his eldest son a prophecy which is attributed to the sixteenth-century French astrologer Nostradamus but which does not appear in the standard editions of his work. It runs:
Quand le Vendredi Saint tombera sur le jour de Saint Georg,
Pâques sur le jour de Saint Marc,
Et la Fête Dieu sur le jour de Saint Jean,
Tout le monde pleurera
(When Good Friday falls on Saint George's day, Easter on St. Mark's day and Corpus Christi on St. John's day, all the world will weep.)
Perhaps because St. George was considered the patron saint of Bavaria, this prophecy was thought to be of special significance to that country. Like his father, Ludwig II is said to have been haunted by it and to have mentioned it in tones of foreboding to a number of people. Presumably he grew more apprehensive as 1886 approached, for in that year all the conditions of the prophecy were due to be fulfilled, if St. John's day is taken to mean the day of John the Baptist, 24 June.
Christopher McIntosh, The Swan King: Ludwig II of Bavaria, p. 193.
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Ludwig II died 13 June 1886.
Easter 1886 fell on 25 April.
Happy St. Mark's day!
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just did a google search -easter 1886- and apparently Chekhov wrote Easter Eve in 1886 and then there was this:
http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/zel-1886.htm
[I didn't know that Raphael died on Good Friday 6 April. Does that mean that he too was with Ambrose and Dave Schmitt at Lynnewood Hall 20 March 2004? Well, at least The Small Cowper Madonna by Raphael actually once hung in the Raphael Room at Lynnewood Hall.]
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