And the Rest Is History

Table of Contents

 

 

 

A PERIGEE BOOK
Published by the Penguin Group
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Copyright © 2011 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

 

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

 

Wagman-Geller, Marlene.
And the rest is history : the famous (and infamous) first meetings of the world's most passionate
couples / Marlene Wagman-Geller.
p. cm.
“A Perigee book.”
Includes bibliographical references.

eISBN : 978-1-101-47553-9

1. Couples—History. 2. Paramours—History. 3. Man-woman relationships—History. I. Title.
HQ801.A2W34 2011
306.7092'2—dc22 [B] 2010038244

 

 

 

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To J—
And the rest was my history

INTRODUCTION

—From
Romeo and Juliet
, by William Shakespeare

 

 

 

 

 

 

O
ne of life's most significant moments is being able to say, “I've met The One.” Such a statement is invariably followed by the question, “How did you two meet?”
And the Rest Is History
is a look at how history's most famous lovers first laid eyes on each other: through fate, setups, and plain old blind luck. The first meetings shared in this book give us a look at what makes that one grand passion.

In some instances, lovers' destinies changed the world. When a weary traveler spied a girl at a well, it led to the birth of a people; an encounter outside the British Parliament sounded the death knell to Ireland's independence. A Prague ball led to a great war, a fox hunt to a royal abdication.

Although other encounters did not etch new lines on the face of history, they nevertheless left their calling cards on the arts. One love affair led to the crown jewel in the world's architecture; a visit to a London home resulted in immortal poetry; a backstage exchange brought together the king and queen of country music.

The stories in
And the Rest Is History
also focus on how the lovers parted. Often it is only in the moment of farewell that people truly look into the face of love. Before Abelard left for his Benedictine monastery, Héloise said, “Farewell, my only love.” Napoleon's last words were “France, the army, the head of the army, Josephine.” Queen Victoria's final breath was spent whispering, “Bertie.”

In some cases, farewells were caused not by death but by an inability to remain together. Although many of the liaisons did not end with a happily-ever-after, this does not make them any less romantic; indeed, it can make them more so. The stories that touch us most deeply are often born of human frailty. Just because it ended doesn't mean it wasn't love.

Like others reared on tales beginning with “Once upon a time,” I am an out-of-the-closet romantic. Growing up, I eagerly read about how fictional characters met their loves. Romeo's life was inextricably bound with that of Juliet, whom he first spied when he crashed the Capulet ball. Sleeping Beauty awoke from a hundred-year slumber with a kiss from a stranger who just happened to be a handsome prince. Catherine was introduced to Heathcliff when her father brought home a foundling from the streets of Liverpool. However, as I was unlikely to be invited to Verona, I'm not adept with a spinning wheel, and no orphan was ever adopted in my childhood home, I turned from fictional forays to nonfictional ones to discover how people met their
beshert
, Yiddish for “preordained soul mate.”

It is love that makes us want to live, or makes us want to die. Shakespeare's Antony said of his Cleopatra, “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale / Her infinite variety.” The same can be said of the immortal love stories. Together these make a treasure trove of the romance of the ages, for both armchair romantics and those who can say of their own life-changing encounter, “And the rest is history.”

 

Marlene Wagman-Geller
San Diego, California, 2010

 

 

Author's note: There are always new stories of the ways couples met. Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart, who tied the knot in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2010, revealed that they met when Calista accidentally spilled wine on the
Indiana Jones
star at the 2002 Golden Globes. Please feel free to email me about other interesting first encounters at [email protected] or go to my website,
www.onceagaintozelda.net
.

1

1759 BC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

T
he Old Testament tells the tale ofa lostparadise, a great flood, a promised land; it also features one of the world's first love stories.

The biblical Jacob's life was the antithesis of uneventful—he wrestled an angel, had four wives and dozens of children, and christened a country. Yet one of his greatest struggles involved his years of toil—all for the woman he loved.

Jacob's life was tumultuous, even in the womb. When his mother, Rebekah, asked God why her pregnancy was so agonizing, she was told her twins were wrestling and were to do so all their lives. In fact, when Jacob was born, he came out clutching his twin Esau's heel, which led to his being named Jacob, Hebrew for “the supplanter.” One fateful day, Esau, a hunter, returned home with a voracious appetite, and Jacob decided to exploit his brother's hunger. Jacob told his starving sibling that he would feed him a “mess of pottage” (the biblical vernacular for a meal of lentils) in exchange for Esau's inheritance of the family wealth, which was his birthright as the elder sibling. Their father, Isaac, old and blind, mistakenly conferred his blessing on the wrong son. Infuriated, Esau swore to kill his brother upon their father's death. To protect Jacob, Rebekah sent him to her brother's country; it was where he was to fall in love and, in the process, leave his imprint on the millennia.

The life of Rachel, Jacob's destiny, was calm before the arrival of her lover. She lived with her father and siblings; her task was to water their flock of sheep at a well near Haran, an outpost of the ancient city of Ur.

Yet one day, her family had a visitor, and the family's tranquillity was to become a thing of the past. Her first cousin Jacob arrived in a state of extreme exhaustion; he had just fled from his home, five hundred miles away, desperate not to become the victim of a fratricide, and had experienced an out-of-body experience in which he saw angels ascending and descending a ladder. He was relieved when he spied a well and sat down to rest. There he met a number of shepherds who were waiting for others to join them, because it took several men to lift the heavy stone that covered the well.

The first time Jacob met Rachel she was approaching the watering hole with her sheep. She was “beautiful of form and face,” with mesmerizing eyes, and Jacob was immediately smitten. In an astounding feat of strength, exhaustion forgotten, he single-handedly removed the huge stone. Genesis states, “Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted his voice and wept.” She was suitably impressed with the combination of masculine strength and tears, and she hurried home with her newfound love interest in tow.

Within a month the couple desired to wed, and Jacob approached Rachel's father, Laban, to ask for the hand of his daughter. Laban agreed, with the caveat that Jacob would have to labor seven years without pay for the privilege. Jacob, the trickster, was to discover he was a rank amateur in comparison to Laban.

Jacob was so enamored of his fiancée that the seven years “seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her” (Genesis). Indeed, those words are some of the loveliest ever penned of a man's devotion to the woman he loved.

At last, the longed-for day dawned. After the ceremony, the groom took his veiled bride to his tent. He was ecstatic to finally be with his love after his seven years of labor. To his extreme consternation, in the light of dawn, he found not his intended, but her older sister, Leah. In a fury he approached his father-in-law for an explanation. Laban justified the switch by saying he had promised Jacob his daughter; he had just not specified which one. (Perhaps this was karma for the deception Jacob had practiced on his father; he had pretended to be his brother, Esau, and Leah had pretended to be her sister, Rachel.)