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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Of Six Mediæval Women + To Which Is Added A Note on Mediæval Gardens + +Author: Alice Kemp-Welch + +Release Date: March 31, 2010 [EBook #31843] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OF SIX MEDIÆVAL WOMEN *** + + + + +Produced by Meredith Bach, Irma Spehar and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h2 class="begin">OF SIX MEDIÆVAL WOMEN<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">WITH</span><br /> +<span style="font-size: 85%">A NOTE ON MEDIÆVAL GARDENS</span></h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px"> +<img style="border-style: none" src="images/imacmillan.jpg" width="150" height="43" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="publisher"> +MACMILLAN AND CO., <span class="smcap">Limited</span><br /> +<small>LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA</small><br /> +<small>MELBOURNE</small><br /><br /> + +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br /> +<small>NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO</small><br /> +<small>DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO</small><br /><br /> + +THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span><br /> +<small>TORONTO</small> +</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="frontispiece" id="frontispiece"></a> +<img src="images/ifrontis.jpg" width="600" height="543" alt="Poet declaiming to accompaniment of Viol" title="Poet and Viol" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Bib. de l’Arsenal, Paris.</i></p> + +<p class="caption">POET DECLAIMING TO ACCOMPANIMENT OF VIOL.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>Frontispiece.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="tpage"> +<h1>OF SIX<br /> +MEDIÆVAL WOMEN<br /> + +<span style="font-size: 50%">TO WHICH IS ADDED</span><br /> + +<span style="font-size: 60%">A NOTE ON</span><br /> +<span style="font-size: 80%">MEDIÆVAL GARDENS</span></h1> + +<p class="author"><span style="font-size: 60%">BY</span><br /> +ALICE KEMP-WELCH</p> + +<p class="center" style="margin-bottom: 4em">WITH INTRODUCTION AND ILLUSTRATIONS</p> + +<p class="publisher">MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED<br /> +ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON<br /> +1913</p> + +<p class="center">COPYRIGHT</p> +</div> + +<div class="authornote"> +<h2><a name="AUTHORS_NOTE" id="AUTHORS_NOTE"></a>AUTHOR’S NOTE</h2> + + +<p class="ni"><span class="smcap">The</span> Author’s acknowledgments are due to the +Editor of <i>The Nineteenth Century and After</i> for +his kind permission to reprint such of the +following studies as have already appeared in +that Review, and also to “George Fleming” +(Miss Constance Fletcher) for her rendering, on +page 146, of four verses of Christine de Pisan’s +poem on Joan of Arc.</p> +</div> + + +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></h2> + + + +<table summary="table of contents"> +<tr><td class="lal"> </td><td class="ral"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal"><a href="#INTRODUCTION"><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></a></td><td class="ral"><a href="#Page_xi">xi</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal"><a href="#A_TENTH-CENTURY_DRAMATIST"><span class="smcap">A Tenth-Century Dramatist, Roswitha the +Nun</span></a></td><td class="ral"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal"><a href="#A_TWELFTH-CENTURY_ROMANCE-WRITER"><span class="smcap">A Twelfth-Century Romance-Writer, Marie +de France</span></a></td><td class="ral"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal"><a href="#A_THIRTEENTH-CENTURY_MYSTIC"><span class="smcap">A Thirteenth-Century Mystic and Beguine, +Mechthild of Magdeburg</span></a></td><td class="ral"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal"><a href="#A_FOURTEENTH-CENTURY"><span class="smcap">A Fourteenth-Century Art-Patron and Philanthropist, +Mahaut, Countess of Artois</span></a></td><td class="ral"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal"><a href="#A_FIFTEENTH-CENTURY_FEMINISTE"><span class="smcap">A Fifteenth-Century Feministe, Christine de +Pisan</span></a></td><td class="ral"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal"><a href="#AGNES_SOREL"><span class="smcap">Agnes Sorel</span></a></td><td class="ral"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal"><a href="#A_NOTE_ON_MEDIAEVAL_GARDENS"><span class="smcap">A Note on Mediæval Gardens</span></a></td><td class="ral"><a href="#Page_173">173</a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span></td></tr> +</table> + + + +<h2><a name="ILLUSTRATIONS" id="ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>ILLUSTRATIONS<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span></h2> + +<table summary="list of illustrations"> + +<tr><td class="lal"> </td><td class="ral"><small>FACE PAGE</small></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Poet declaiming to accompaniment of Viol</td><td class="ral"><a href="#frontispiece"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Roswitha presenting her Poem to the Emperor Otho I., +the Abbess of Gandersheim standing at her +side. A. Dürer, 1501</td><td class="ral"><a href="#rosw">1</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Cover of St. Emmeran Gospels. 10th century</td><td class="ral"><a href="#emmeran">7</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Marriage of Otho II. and Theophano. Byzantine, +10th century</td><td class="ral"><a href="#theo">7</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Lady playing Harp. Add. MS. 38117, Brit. Mus.</td><td class="ral"><a href="#harp">32</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Add. MS. 10293, Brit. Mus.</td><td class="ral"><a href="#ms10293">34</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Boat with Knights and Lady. Add. MS. 10294, +Brit. Mus.</td><td class="ral"><a href="#boat">49</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Glaukos and Polyeidos in Tomb. Greek Vase, Brit. +Mus.</td><td class="ral"><a href="#glaukos">52</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Statue of Mahaut in Abbey of La Thieuloye, near +Arras, now destroyed. From a Drawing, now +in Brussels, made in 1602</td><td class="ral"><a href="#mahaut">99</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Marriage of Charles le Bel and Marie of Luxemburg. +Grandes Chrons. de France. Bib. Nat.</td><td class="ral"><a href="#lebel">100</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Thirteenth-Century Treatise on Surgery, in French. +Sloane MS. 1977</td><td class="ral"><a href="#sloanems">103</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Banquet, with Minstrels playing, and Room hung with +Embroidery. MS. Romance of Alexander, +14th century. Bodleian, Oxford</td><td class="ral"><a href="#minstrels">104</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Harl. MS. 4425, Brit. Mus.</td><td class="ral"><a href="#harl4425">105</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Christine de Pisan</td><td class="ral"><a href="#pisan">119</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Lady in Horse-Litter, returning from Tournament. +Harl. MS. 4431, Brit. Mus.</td><td class="ral"><a href="#horse">132</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">La Cité des Dames</td><td class="ral"><a href="#dames">138</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Setting out for Poissy. Harl. MS. 4431, Brit. Mus.</td><td class="ral"><a href="#poissy">140</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Tomb of Agnes Sorel</td><td class="ral"><a href="#agnes">158</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Book of Hours of Etienne Chevalier</td><td class="ral"><a href="#hours1">162</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Book of Hours of Etienne Chevalier</td><td class="ral"><a href="#hours2">163</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Book of Hours, French, 14th century. Brit. Mus.</td><td class="ral"><a href="#hours3">176</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Harl. MS. 4425, Brit. Mus.</td><td class="ral"><a href="#harl2">177</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Flemish Master, 15th century. Stephenson Clarke +Collection</td><td class="ral"><a href="#flemish">181</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">MS. Romance of Alexander, 14th century</td><td class="ral"><a href="#alex">183</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Rhenish Master, C. 1420, Frankfort Hist. Mus.</td><td class="ral"><a href="#rhen">185</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="lal">Harl. MS. 4425, Brit. Mus.</td><td class="ral"><a href="#harl3">186</a></td></tr> +</table> + + + +<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span></h2> + + +<p class="ni"><span class="smcap">The</span> recent researches of scholars and students +have brought the study of mediæval times +within the range of almost any one who +cares to live in imagination in the past. No +part of this study has been more advanced +and made more informing to us than +that which regards the individual. This is +specially true of womankind, of whom we have +learnt somewhat, in some instances from their +own writings, and in others from allusions to +their work in those of contemporary and later +writers, and also, incidentally, from the vast +storehouse of didactic literature, which is so +suggestive in itself, reflecting through successive +centuries, as it seems to do, the standard of +conduct of the large majority. But on this +subject—a very large one, and only partially +explored—light can only be thrown gradually. +For this there are various reasons. One is that, +until comparatively recent times, the small details +of everyday life which go so largely to make<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span> +up a woman’s life, have generally been taken +for granted by writers. Then the few mediæval +historiographers and chroniclers were principally +engaged in recounting the deeds of kings and +feats of arms. Then again, although probably +many MSS. of the time still lie undiscovered in +libraries, those that are known to us are scattered +far and wide. Furthermore, self-advertisement +was not a mediæval fashion. It is perhaps +difficult for us nowadays to understand a spirit +of self-effacement. Self-esteem, which may develop +for either good or ill, has perhaps always +existed in the human breast, but certainly since +the time of the Renaissance, when it seemed to +have its own special revival, it has grown apace, +and is to-day like unto the Mustard Tree of +Holy Writ. But it is not proposed to contrast +this our modern attitude with the impersonal +one, if so it may be called, of the Middle Ages, +because, whilst there were many humble, zealous +workers then, just as there are now, it is possible +there were other and perhaps more potent factors +to account for this apparently humble attitude. +In mediæval days, the subject of a narrative or +didactic work was considered so important, that +an author would scarcely venture on any independent +treatment of a theme for fear of incurring +censure for a contempt of authority, or, if he did +so venture, he would probably deem it wiser to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span> +do so anonymously, or by ascription to some +departed celebrity, who was obviously not in a +position to gainsay him. The writer was of +much less interest than his ideas and sentiments. +Then again there was the intense localisation of +life. Localities were very independent of one +another. Each was complete in itself, and +within it there was no need for self-advertisement. +It was the same in the wider life of associated +religious communities, such as Benedictines, +Cluniacs, and Cistercians, who had so much to +do with the building of abbeys and cathedrals. +Within a fraternity, the specially gifted craftsman +was known, and wherever work was going on +within the Order, was made use of as needs be, +not as Brother This, or Brother That, but simply +as scribe, or as artificer in Madonnas or gargoyles, +or whatever else was wanted. The glorification +of the community as a whole, and not the +advertisement of the individual, was the desired +goal. This self-effacement was not so much +humility, though of course that too existed, as +the special form which communal feeling took +at that time. Now if this suppression of the +individual was true of men, how much more +true must it have been of women, who seldom +ventured beyond town, or castle, or convent +walls. In truth, women hardly appear on the +scene, and English women least of all. It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</a></span> +only women who were prominent through their +high official positions, either political or religious, +such as Blanche of Castile, or St. Catherine of +Siena, or the Abbess Hildegarde, or women like +the Blessed Angela of Foligno,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> or Julian, +anchoress of Norwich,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> or some other of the +devout women of mediæval Italy, who interpreted +the mysteries of divine love to mediæval +society, having in fact, as it were, religious +salons, from whom the veil has been withdrawn, +and even amongst such as these it has sometimes +been only very slightly lifted. With these +saintly and political women must be mentioned +the women doctors of Salerno—Trothula, Abella, +Mercurialis, and others—who played so important +a part both as professors and practitioners when +this school of medicine was at its zenith in the +eleventh and twelfth centuries, and who left +behind them, as evidence of their learning, +treatises which are of interest to-day as showing +mediæval methods in medicine.</p> + +<p>Still, even so, the records are scanty. In +order, therefore, to form some idea and estimate +of women generally in the Middle Ages, we +must perforce fall back on reasoning from the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[xv]</a></span>known to the unknown, and, by studying the +few who are recorded in written history, judge +of that great majority who, though nameless, +have yet so largely helped to make up the world’s +unwritten history. Just as many a flower blooms +and dies unseen, so many a woman must have +lived her life, serviceable to her special environment, +but wholly unrecorded. Just as, in the +course of ages, the seeds of some humble plant +have been carried by wind or water from some +lonely region to one less remote, and made to +serve a purpose by adding to the sum-total of +beauty and usefulness, so the thoughts and deeds +of many an unremembered woman have doubtless +passed into the great ocean of thought, encircling +us to-day, and influencing us as a living force.</p> + +<p>Thus we have the women who figure in +history, and whom we must take as types of the +influential woman of the time, and the women +whom history has not so honoured. Of the +former, even when only portrayed in outline, we +can learn something, but how are we to learn +anything of the latter, whether living in the +seclusion of religious houses or in the world? +Of those living in religious houses, we know +from records that, besides attending to their own +spiritual and mental education and tending the +sick, they conducted the cloister schools and +taught in them needlework, the art of confectionery,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</a></span> +surgery, writing, and drawing. They +also wove, and embroidered, and added their mite +to the sum-total of beauty by transcribing and +illuminating MSS. of the Gospels and of the +lives of the Saints. But sometimes such a +limited sphere of activity was enlarged, and it is +to an anonymous Anglo-Saxon nun of the eighth +century, to whom the experiences were related, +that we owe one of the earliest and most +interesting accounts extant in Northern Europe +of a journey to Palestine.</p> + +<p>To learn something of those living in the +world, who were the inspirers, the helpmates, +and the companions of men in everyday life, we +must turn to the poems and romances. These +form the key to the domestic life of the time. +Though ordinary life may be somewhat idealised +in them, still it is ordinary life on which they +are based. Moreover, many of the MSS. in +which they are written down contain miniatures—a +legacy of exceeding worth to the student. +But if we seek some knowledge of mediæval life +from miniatures, it is not necessary to confine +our researches to MSS. of romances. Transcripts +of the classics, of the moralised Bible, and +of other religious works also supply many +pictures of everyday life, adapted quite regardless +of incongruity, for one of the characteristics +of the Middle Ages was a profound incapacity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[xvii]</a></span> +to picture to itself anything <i>but</i> itself, or to +reconstitute in any way, as we do to-day, times +and scenes not its own. This was owing partly +to its vitality and its youthfulness, which grasped +at anything and everything without discernment, +and partly to its lack of reliable material. The +whole aspect of life, too, was changed and +enlarged, and for the moment over-charged, for +the flood-gates of the East, hitherto only +partially opened, had been rent asunder by the +traveller and the crusader.</p> + +<p>Before we attempt to arrive at some idea of +the manner of life of the women of the Middle +Ages, it will be well, if possible, to modify what +seems to be a general and perhaps a distorted +impression of these women of bygone days, as +regards their want of loyalty in their domestic +relations, and all the deceit and cunning such +a want led to. Without attempting to justify +what is fundamentally wrong, let us go if we +can into the region of fact, and in that region +there is quite enough romance without introducing +it from outside.</p> + +<p>In the first place, so much more, as a rule, is +heard of vice than of virtue. “La voix de la +beauté parle bas: elle ne s’insinue que dans les +âmes les plus éveillées.” Then the standard of +life in those days was very different from what +it is to-day. Manners and customs which were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[xviii]</a></span> +accepted facts of everyday life then, would strike +us as strangely rude and repellent now. Take, +for instance, the attitude towards his queen of a +king we have all been taught to revere—Arthur, +the semi-saint, and the so-called pattern of +courtesy. When Guinevere deserts him, and +some of his knights are slain, his remark—not +whispered into the ear of a confidant, but uttered +aloud in the presence of all around him—is, “I +am sorrier for my good knights’ loss than for the +loss of my fair Queen, for queens I might have +enow.” Such a sentiment, expressed in public, +does not seem quite up to our modern standard +of courteous, or even civilised, conduct, and yet +here we have the sentiments of the Prince of +Chivalry, as conceived by the poets of the +thirteenth century. So it is obvious that before +passing judgment upon the standard of life of +the mediæval woman, we must endeavour to +arrive at the truth by thinking and living in +imagination on the same plane, as near as may +be, as she did.</p> + +<p>Then again, it is largely owing to certain +stories in the Middle Ages that the women of +those times have been defamed. If we consider +the sources and the transcribers of these stories, +we shall perhaps find a reason for their distorted +outlines, filled in with so much imperfectly +understood detail. Many of these tales originated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[xix]</a></span> +in the East, and particularly in India, where +the conditions of domestic life led to and +favoured intrigue, and many of them also were +mere allegory, in which the Eastern sought to +hide great truths. These the less meditative +Western interpreted literally, mistaking the +outward form for that which it concealed. So +in passing to the West, Eastern ideas and +Eastern exaggeration, misconstrued, became +caricature. Moreover, the compilers of these +stories were often monks or minstrels who vied +with each other for popular favour, the monk +introducing into his legends material which he +hoped would rival the often shameless outpourings +of the minstrel, whilst the minstrel, +for his part, tried to adorn his story with some +moral. Naturally neither class of such purveyors +was in the least capable of judging woman +with respect, or indeed of judging woman at all.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, however, it must be +remembered that there are stories that tell a +very different tale, a tale of self-sacrifice and +devotion in face of grievous trial, as, for instance, +that of Eric and Enide, sung by Chrétien of +Troyes, and made familiar to us by Tennyson’s +poem of “Geraint and Enid.” It is impossible +that such a conception should have been the mere +outcome of the poet’s imagination, since a poet, +whilst he may transform, focuses and reflects the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">[xx]</a></span> +ideas of his time. In truth, we find mediæval +literature, if we try to estimate it reasonably, +gives a quite pleasing impression of womankind, +whether we turn to some of the royal ladies who +presided over brilliant Courts, where learning +was encouraged and poets made welcome, or to +the lady of lesser degree, who reigned supreme +in her castle, at any rate when her lord was +away, as was often the case in time of war or +during attendance at Court, or to the abbesses +who governed the religious houses they were set +over, to their material and mental well-being, +proving thus their genius for administration, and, +in many instances, their rare intellectual attainments. +A record in a chartulary of the Benedictine +nunnery of Wherwell in Hampshire, now +in the British Museum (Egerton MS., 2104), +and accessible to all in translation in the second +volume of the <i>Victoria History of the County of +Hampshire</i>, may be mentioned in passing, since +it gives such a charming picture of mediæval +convent life. It recounts the life and work of +the Abbess Euphemia, who presided over the +house from 1226 to 1257. Amongst her many +good deeds, it is told of her that “with maternal +piety and careful forethought, she built, for the +use of both sick and sound, a new and large +infirmary away from the main buildings,” and +that, besides caring thus for the bodily wants of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">[xxi]</a></span> +her community, “she built there a place set +apart for the refreshment of the soul, namely a +chapel of the Blessed Virgin.” The writer +adds that “in numberless ways she provided for +the worship of God and the welfare of the +sisters,” and that “she so conducted herself with +regard to exterior affairs, that she seemed to have +the spirit of a man rather than of a woman.” +The account is altogether delightful and informing, +and should be read by any who would go in +spirit to a mediæval convent. It is therefore +not surprising that in the late Middle Ages a +regard and reverence for womanhood gradually +arose—a regard and reverence for woman not +merely as the weaker vessel, but as the principle +of all good and of moral elevation. This attitude +was also in large measure due to the inevitable +fusion of the cult of the Virgin and the cult of +woman, which in the thirteenth century developed +into a faith. Then was it that religion +and chivalry, in combination, formed the solvent +that disintegrated the layer of selfishness—the +outcome of the worship of brute force—that had +settled over man’s nobler instincts, and by their +appeal to his better nature decided the position +that woman, not only as an individual, but also +as a class, was thenceforth to take in the civilised +world.</p> + +<p>Let us now turn, first to the woman of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii">[xxii]</a></span> +Romances and then to the woman of History. +Each completes and is completed by the other. +For the woman of the Middle Ages there were +practically only two alternatives—to enter into +the bonds either of Holy Matrimony or of Holy +Church. In both cases the vows were, as a rule, +taken early, especially in the case of marriage, so +that the woman of the Middle Ages knew little +of the joys of girlhood, with all its romantic +castle-building and fondly fostered illusions. +From playing with dolls, the child of twelve +or even younger often suddenly found herself +transformed into a wife. Although the Church +had decreed that no girl should be wedded +before the age of fifteen, this mandate was often +ignored in noble families, where, through death, +large fiefs had been left without a male representative +and protector. In such a case the +over-lord considered it necessary to assert his +authority, and compel the marriage of some +young girl of perhaps only twelve, so as to +secure for her vassals and retainers a qualified +leader, and for himself the needful and pledged +military service. Still these marriages of convenience +were often really happy arrangements, +for the girl-wife had been trained to altruism, +and its principles were the very essence of her +daily life. Love, moreover, is a subtle sprite, +and just as surely as he can spread his wings and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxiii" id="Page_xxiii">[xxiii]</a></span> +fly away, so he can come, as if at unconscious +bidding, and make for himself a dwelling-place.</p> + +<p>To get any true insight into the life of the +woman of the Middle Ages, we must study the +small everyday affairs, and to this end go, in +imagination, to some castle, and see how the +day is passed there by its lady. Perhaps it is a +day in late spring. The watchman on the tower, +heralding the day, has sounded his horn, and +soon all the castle is astir. Leaving her curtained +bed, she first offers a short prayer at the +small shrine hanging close by with its flickering +light. Then the bath, the water scented with +aromatic roots and covered with rose-petals, is +taken. Mass and the morning broth follow, and +the day is considered fitly begun. The poor, or +any sick and sorry folk, are the first to be considered, +or perhaps there is some wounded +knight, who has sought shelter within the +protecting walls of the castle, for whom soothing +potions or healing salves have to be compounded. +This latter service was generally the +work of the lady of the castle, who as a rule +possessed sufficient surgical knowledge to bind a +broken limb. To beguile the weary hours of +convalescence, she sings to the lute, tells stories, +recounts legends, or reads aloud a romance lately +bought from some wayfaring packman. Little +is it to be wondered at that the convalescence is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxiv" id="Page_xxiv">[xxiv]</a></span> +protracted, or that the knight delays his departure +from day to day, sometimes to his own +and the lady’s undoing.</p> + +<p>Beside such varied ministrations, the woman +of the Middle Ages rode to the chase, went out +hawking, snared birds with nets, ferreted rabbits, +spun, wove, and embroidered. Embroidering +was a really formidable occupation, for the great +hall, and each room, had its special hangings, +and on fête-days every inch of wall-space was +covered. One set would picture an Arthurian +legend, and others again were made bright with +flowers, lilies, roses, and columbines. The lady +and her maidens—often girls of noble birth, +whom it was customary to send to some castle +to complete their education—worked at the +countless yards such decoration involved, and +chatted the while, it may be, of some coming +marriage or tourney, or perchance one among +them would tell a story, and so time passed +merrily enough. Then for the educated woman, +of whom there were many, Latin verse offered a +wide field of delight, and the woman of the +Middle Ages read and loved her Virgil just as +we of to-day read and love our Shakespeare. +When the daylight had faded, there was always +chess-playing, dancing the carole, and singing, +and by the thirteenth century little pastoral ballets, +in which a knight, and a shepherdess and her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxv" id="Page_xxv">[xxv]</a></span> +lover, took part, began to be produced for the +diversion of castle-folk. For daily entertainment, +every castle of any pretension had its own +minstrel or minstrels, whilst in the smaller castles +a wandering singer was warmly welcomed. +Sometimes the lady gave audience to a poet, +who read his latest idyll, a minstrel, to the +accompaniment of his viol, singing the interspersed +lyrics. Such a scene may be found +depicted in miniatures, and suggests how such a +story as “Aucassin and Nicolette,” and many +another, partly in prose, partly in verse, was +rendered. One such miniature shows a lady reclining +on a couch, with a lordling seated beside +her, the poet, with his small parchment leaflets, +declaiming his story, the minstrel waiting to +take up the theme in song. It is of interest +to note that in this particular miniature the +gown of the lady is ornamented with heraldic +devices. By such means we are enabled not +only to identify the person represented—since +portraiture, even if there was anything worthy of +the name, was in a very rudimentary condition—and +thus arrive at the approximate date of the +picture, but also to verify a custom, and a stage +in social life. It was not until the end of the +twelfth century, when some sort of heraldic +system became necessary owing to the introduction +of the closed helmet, that armorial bearings,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxvi" id="Page_xxvi">[xxvi]</a></span> +hitherto mere personal badges, became attached +to noble families. By the thirteenth century, +when the bourgeoisie had become rich, they +were worn by the sumptuously attired wife of +the lord to distinguish her from the equally +sumptuously attired wife of the wealthy burgher.</p> + +<p>Such, in mere outline, was the daily life of +the mediæval lady. Descriptions of the lady +herself seem to be mere replicas of an admired +and fixed type, for there is in them such a sameness +of delineation, that we can only imagine +that poets sang of qualities that pleased, and did +not attempt to individualise. All are good and +gracious, beautiful, and slight of figure, with +delicate hands and tapering fingers, small feet, +fine and glossy hair, and grey eyes, laughing and +bright. Only occasionally are these attractions +varied and enhanced by the telling of beauty +unaided by paint and hair dye.</p> + +<p>It is hardly necessary to speak, save very +generally, of woman’s dress, for much has already +been written on the subject. For everyday use, +garments of wool or linen, according to the +season, and with much fur in winter, were worn. +At weddings or tournaments, or on any other kind +of fête-day, the ladies vied with each other in +rich cloth of gold and silver, in silks woven with +threads of gold and patterned with conventional +design, and in all kinds of iridescent silken stuffs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxvii" id="Page_xxvii">[xxvii]</a></span> +from the East. From Mosul, on the banks of +the Tigris, whence the material we call muslin +takes its name, was brought a fine silk gossamer, +something like our <i>crêpe de Chine</i>. This was +used for the finely plaited underdress seen at the +neck and foot of mediæval costume. Perhaps +the best representation of this, although stone +seems hardly the most favourable medium for +the delineation of so delicate a fabric, can be +seen in the long slim figures of the queenly ladies +standing in the niches on either side of the west +door of Chartres Cathedral.</p> + +<p>But when we have contemplated this gorgeous +and dainty apparel, and all the other personal +luxury that accompanied it, such as enamelled +and jewelled gold circlets for the head, jewelled +girdles with each jewel chosen for its own special +virtue, carved ivory combs, tablets and hand-mirrors, +and the like, we are forced to wonder +how all this refinement and beauty could go +hand in hand with so much that is unpleasing. +If we turn to consider the manners of the men, +we find the same contrasts—on the one hand +the maximum of gallantry and courtesy, and on +the other a corresponding churlishness and +brutality. Metaphorically and actually, the +lance and the battle-axe were still rivalling each +other in the warfare of daily life. Although +the battle-axe must eventually yield to the lance,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxviii" id="Page_xxviii">[xxviii]</a></span> +still strange extremes have flourished side by +side all down the ages. Turning to but comparatively +recent times, the coarseness we associate +with much of the reign of Charles II. stands +out in glaring contrast with the delicate, graceful +poetry that found expression then. And coming +still nearer to our own days, we think of the +unseemly manners in the reigns of George III. +and IV. and the dainty miniatures such as those +painted by Cosway, and wonder how these could +exist together. Might we not just as well +wonder why the olive tree has a gnarled, distorted +stem, whilst its delicate, symmetrical leaves, +of the tenderest green grey, glisten in the sunshine +like silvery shells fresh from ocean’s bed?</p> + +<p>Renan, amongst the many thinkers on life’s +mysteries, tells us that “Life is the result of a +conflict between contrary forces.” But to philosophise +is useless, and it is still more useless to +question life’s seeming anomalies. We can only +bow in silence before “what Time in mists +confounds.”</p> + +<p>As has been already said, it is only a general +idea of the women of the Middle Ages that can +be gleaned from the Romances. For something +to bring us into more real touch with them, and +to reveal more of their personality, we must +consider some who have made themselves known +to us through their work, since history, until<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxix" id="Page_xxix">[xxix]</a></span> +we come to the fourteenth century, is almost +silent about them. Thus it is that as we study +these women, it almost seems at first as if we +were looking at some faded frescoes in a dimly +lighted church. But just as the half-obliterated +figures take form and life as our eyes grow +accustomed to the dimness, and our minds get +attuned to the days that knew their living +representatives, so these women of whom we +are speaking may live again for us if only we +treat their works as human documents, and not +as archæological curiosities. The following +pages tell of six such women who lived between +the tenth century and the first half of the +fifteenth—Roswitha, a nun of Germany; Marie +de France, a lady at the Court of Henry the +Second of England; Mechthild of Magdeburg, +mystic and beguine; Mahaut, Countess of +Artois, a great-niece of St. Louis; Christine de +Pisan, an Italian by birth, living at the Court of +Charles the Fifth of France; and Agnes Sorel, +the Mistress and inspirer of Charles the Seventh.</p> + +<p>In trying to evoke the women of these days +of long ago, it is hardly possible to do more +than portray them in outline. Yet even so, if +the outline be true, we may remember, for our +consolation, that it has been said that we shall +never, except in outline, see the mysterious +Goddess Truth.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>The Book of the Divine Consolation of the Blessed Angela of +Foligno.</i> The New Mediæval Library.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>Revelations of Divine Love recorded by Julian, Anchoress of +Norwich, 1373.</i></p></div></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="rosw" id="rosw"></a> +<img src="images/i001.jpg" width="400" height="604" alt="ROSWITHA PRESENTING HER POEM TO THE EMPEROR OTHO I., +THE ABBESS OF GANDERSHEIM STANDING AT HER SIDE." title="Roswitha and Otho I." /> + +<p class="source"> <i>Photo. Macbeth.</i></p> + +<p class="caption">ROSWITHA PRESENTING HER POEM TO THE EMPEROR OTHO I., +THE ABBESS OF GANDERSHEIM STANDING AT HER SIDE.</p> + +<p class="illoaut">A. Dürer, 1501.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 1.</i></p> +</div> + + + +<h2><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span><a name="A_TENTH-CENTURY_DRAMATIST" id="A_TENTH-CENTURY_DRAMATIST"></a>A TENTH-CENTURY DRAMATIST,<br /> +ROSWITHA THE NUN</h2> + + +<p class="ni"><span class="smcap">In</span> this age of personal curiosity, politely called +psychological interest, when personalities are +analysed with all the thoroughness of the dissecting +theatre, it seems almost courting failure +to try to call to remembrance one whose +personality has long since faded away, and of +whom, apparently, no contemporary writer has +made mention. Of Roswitha, the woman, we +know but little, and this little is gathered from +her own writings.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Presumably the date of her +birth was about <small>A.D.</small> 935, and that of her death +about <small>A.D.</small> 973. There is a tradition that she +was connected with the royal house of Germany, +at that time represented by the enlightened +Otho the Great. Be this as it may, her life for +us begins when, probably at an early age, she +entered the Convent of Gandersheim. Gandersheim +was a Benedictine nunnery in the Harz +Mountains, founded in the ninth century by +Liudolf, Duke of Saxony, and important enough +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>to entitle its Abbess to a Seat in the Imperial +Diet, a right perhaps never exercised except by +proxy. The story of its foundation, as told by +Roswitha in the unique MS. of her works, is +of strange beauty. Listen to her own words as +she tells the tale:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>At that time there was, nigh unto the Monastery,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> a little +wood, encircled by shady hills, those same hills by the which +we ourselves are surrounded. And there was, moreover, in the +wood a small farm where the swineherds of Liudolf were wont +to dwell, and within the enclosure of which the men, during +the hours of night, composed to rest their weary bodies until +the time when they must needs drive forth to pasture the pigs +committed to their care. Here, on a time, two days before +the Feast of All Saints, these same herdsmen, in the darkness +of the night, saw full many bright lights glowing in the wood. +And they were astonished at the sight, and marvelled what +could be the purport of this strange vision of blazing light +cleaving the darkness of the night with its wondrous brilliance. +And all trembling with fear, they related unto their Master +that which they had seen, showing unto him the place which +had been illumined by the light. And he, desiring by very +sight thereof to put to proof that which he had heard tell, +joined them without the building, and began the following +night, without sleeping, to keep watch, closing not his eyes +though they were weighed down by the desire of slumber. +And after a while he saw the kindling lights, more in number +than afore, once again burn with a red glow, in the same place +forsooth, but at an hour somewhat earlier. And this glad +sign of happy omen he made known so soon as Phœbus shed +his first rays from the sky, and the joyous news spread everywhere. +And this could not be kept back from the worthy +Duke Liudolf, but swifter than speech did it come to his +ears. And he, carefully observing on the hallowed eve of the +approaching festival whether perchance some further like +heavenly vision would clearly show it to be an omen, with +much company kept watch on the wood all the night long. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>And straightway when black night had covered the land with +darkness, everywhere throughout the wooded valley in the +which the very noble temple was destined to be built, many +lights were perceived, the which, with the shining splendour +of their exceeding brightness, cleft asunder the shades of the +wood and the darkness of the night alike. And thereupon, +standing up and rendering praise to God, they all with one +accord declared it meet that the place should be sanctified to +the worship of Him who had filled it with the light. And, +moreover, the Duke, mindful of his duty to Heaven, and with +the consent of his dear consort Oda, forthwith ordered the +trees to be felled and the brushwood cut away, and the valley +to be completely cleared. And this sylvan spot, aforetime +the home of fauns and monsters, he thus cleared and made +fitting for the glory of God. And then, before obtaining the +money needful for the work, he at once set out the lines of +a noble church as traced by the splendour of the red light.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>In suchwise was the building of our second Monastery to +the glory of God begun. But stone suitable for the structure +could not be found in those parts, and thus the completion of +the sanctuary which had been begun, suffered delay. But the +Abbess Hathumoda, trusting to obtain all things from the +Lord by faith, oft-times, by serving God both night and day +with holy zeal, wore herself out with too abundant labour. +And with many of those placed under her care, she besought +the solace of speedy help from Heaven, lest the work so well +begun should be left unfinished. And of a sudden she became +aware that the divine grace which she sought was present, +ready to have compassion on her longings. For as she lay one +day prostrate nigh unto the altar, fasting and giving herself up +to prayer, she was bidden of a gentle voice to go forth and +follow a bird she would see sitting on the summit of a certain +great rock. And she, embracing the command with ready +mind, went forth, putting her trust in it with all her heart. +And taking with her very skilled masons, she sped swiftly +whither the kindly Spirit led her, until she was come to the +noble sanctuary which had been begun. And there she saw, +seated on the lofty summit of the self-same rock, a white dove, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>the which, flying with outspread wings, straightway went +before her, tempering its flight in unwonted way so that the +virgin, walking with her companions, might be able to follow +in a straight course its aerial track. And when the dove in +its flight had come to the place which we now know was not +wanting in great stones, it descended, and with its beak pierced +through the ground,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> where, beneath the soil, many stones +were disclosed. And assured by this sight, the very worthy +virgin of Christ bade her companions clear away the heavy +mass of earth, and lay the spot bare. And this done, supernal +and devout piety presiding over the work, a great wealth of +mighty stones was brought to view, whence all the needful +material for the walls of the monastery already begun, and of +the church, could be obtained. Then, striving ever more and +more with all their heart, the builders of the temple destined +to be consecrated to the glory of God, laboured at the work +by night and by day.</p></div> + +<p>Thus does Roswitha tell how the work of +the new Foundation was begun, the Duke +Liudolf and his wife having already journeyed +to Rome to ask of the Pope his blessing, as well +as to beg of him, as a token of his favour, some +sacred relics to deposit there. The Pope, giving +them his blessing, thus makes answer to their +request:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>There were here, aforetime, two mighty rulers—the most +holy Anastasius who presided over this See, and his co-apostle, +the holy Innocent. These, through their services to the +Church, were the most famous next after St. Peter and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>St. Paul. With such care have the illustrious bodies of these +two been heretofore preserved by all the rulers of this city, +that never has any one been permitted to carry away the least +portion of them, and thus their sacred limbs remain undiminished. +But forasmuch as it is meet that I yield to your +pious request, I will grant you, without recompense, tokens +from both these sacred bodies, cut before your very eyes from +off the sacred bodies themselves, if so be that you will make +solemn oath to me to venerate these relics in your community, +of the which you have made mention, preserving them for all +time within your Church, sacred hymns being there sung by +night and by day, and a light being alway kept burning. And +of our apostolic right we ordain, according to your request, +that your community be of our See, to the end that it may be +secured from all secular rule.</p></div> + +<p>And Liudolf, with glad heart, made promise +of this, and returned home with the coveted +relics.</p> + +<p>The MS., now at Munich, which tells this +fascinating story of love and faith, was, it is +considered, written about <small>A.D.</small> 1000, and was +fortunately preserved in the Benedictine convent +of St. Emmeran, Ratisbon, where the scholar +and poet, Conrad Celtes, discovered it at the +end of the fifteenth century. It also includes +metrical legends, a fragment of a panegyric on +the Emperor Otho, and six dramas. Of such +worth were these latter counted, that when +Celtes published the MS. in 1501, Albert Dürer +received a commission for an ornamental title-page, +and for a frontispiece to each of the +plays. It is by these dramas that Roswitha has +distinguished herself in the world of letters; +for although the legends contain points of +interest, and are treated with skill, they are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +naturally not so unique as the dramas, nor do +they reflect her personality in the same way. +She herself tells us that the plays were written +in imitation of the manner, but not of the matter, +of Terence, and that her only desire in writing +them was “to make the small talent given her +by Heaven to create, under the hammer of +devotion, a faint sound to the praise of God.”</p> + +<p>But before considering her work, let us glance +at her own life, and the life of contemporary +Saxon nunneries.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="emmeran" id="emmeran"></a> +<img src="images/i007a.jpg" width="400" height="506" alt="COVER OF ST. EMMERAN GOSPELS." title="St. Emmeran Gospels" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Royal Library, Munich.</i></p> + +<p class="caption">COVER OF ST. EMMERAN GOSPELS.</p> + +<p class="illoaut">Tenth Century.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 7.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>Nearly one hundred and fifty years before +the supposed date of Roswitha’s birth, the +hitherto untamed and warlike Saxons had been +finally defeated by the mercenaries of Charlemagne, +and, as one of the signs of submission, +forced to embrace Christianity. But having +submitted, they forthwith, and with an aptitude +suggestive of the spirit of the modern Japanese, +set themselves to appropriate, assimilate, and +remodel for their own use, the rudiments of the +civilisation with which they found themselves +brought into contact. So speedy and so thorough +was the transformation, that scarce a century +passed ere the once powerful Frankish kingdom +of Charlemagne bowed down before the strenuous +Saxons, to whom the supreme power was transferred. +Their Chief was elected king of the +Germans, and some fifty years later their king, +Otho the Great, after being crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle, +the former centre of Frankish rule, +received the Imperial Crown from the Pope in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +Rome. This displacement of the political +centre was naturally followed by a complete +displacement of artistic centres. Both these +sides of life were fostered by Otho with a keen +personal interest—the building up of his empire +and the encouragement of art going hand in +hand. Moreover, owing to his close ties with +Italy and the East, and the element of classic +tradition inevitably induced by such ties, art +received an added stimulus and grace. Oriental +monks were to be found in the monasteries. +Learned men and artists were summoned from +Italy and Constantinople. The number and +influence of these were increased when Otho’s +son, afterwards Otho the Second, married +Theophano, a Greek princess, who, bringing +many compatriots in her train, sought to reflect +in her German home something of the learning +and splendour of the Byzantine Court. The +ivory, shown in illustration, commemorating +this marriage, is an example of the work of +some Byzantine craftsman in her employ, whilst +the jewelled and gold-wrought cover of the +Gospels of St. Emmeran (now at Munich) +shows to how high a level the goldsmith’s art +of the time had been raised by the influences +alluded to.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="theo" id="theo"></a> +<img src="images/i007b.jpg" width="350" height="580" alt="MARRIAGE OF OTHO II. AND THEOPHANO." title="Otho II. and Theophano" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Musée de Cluny, Paris.</i></p> + +<p class="caption">MARRIAGE OF OTHO II. AND THEOPHANO.</p> + +<p class="illoaut">Byzantine, 10th century.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 7.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>Perhaps the one place which retains in the +most varied and concentrated form the traces +of this wave of artistic development then +passing over Germany, is Hildesheim. This is +of interest here because the bishops of Hildesheim<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +were specially appointed to perform the office +of consecration of nuns at Gandersheim. It +seems hardly possible that Roswitha could have +seen its gifted bishop Bernward, himself a +painter, and a worker in mosaic and metals, +though owing to the uncertainty of the date of +her death—one chronicler making it as late as +1002—it is just possible that she may have done +so. Bernward’s learning and artistic nature +attracted the attention of the princess Theophano, +who appointed him tutor to her son, the boy-emperor +Otho the Third. Brought thus into +touch with the many gifts presented on special +occasions to the young Emperor by Greek and +Oriental princes, as well as by “Scots” (<i>i.e.</i> +Irish missionaries and emigrants settled in +Germany), he, by taking with him to Court, +from the School of Art established in his palace +at Hildesheim, apt and talented youths, made +use of these rare and beautiful offerings for the +encouragement of the study of divers arts. +Students also accompanied him when he went +farther afield for study, for it is said of him +that there was no art which he did not attempt, +even if he failed to attain perfection.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> Hildesheim +thus became famous as a working-centre +of fine art, especially in metals, and remained so +down to the end of the Middle Ages. After +a lapse of nearly a thousand years, the result of +the labours of this artistic prelate and his pupils +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>may still be seen in situ as it were. Besides +jewelled service-books, there are chalices, incense +burners, a gold candelabrum, and a jewelled +crucifix, fashioned, if not in part by him, at +least under his supervision. The entrance to +the Cathedral is beautified with delicately +wrought bronze doors, modelled, it may be, +from those of Sta. Sabina, Rome, themselves +considered to be of Oriental origin,<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> and in the +transept rises a column adorned with bronze +reliefs from the life of Christ, probably designed +by the bishop either after his pilgrimage to +Rome in 1001, when he had seen Trajan’s +column, or, as a recent writer suggests, from +the “Juppiter and giant columns” of Roman +Rhineland.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p>We are tempted to recall other princesses +whose marriages, and even more whose personalities, +have influenced art and letters, but two +must suffice us—the one, the beautiful and +cultivated Anne of Bohemia, wife of Richard +the Second, whose bridal retinue was in reality +a small Court of literary and artistic personages; +the other, the brilliant Valentine Visconti of +Milan, sister-in-law of King Charles the Sixth +of France, whose influence in matters of art and +literature alone, at a time when England and +France were so intimately associated, makes her +of special interest to us.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p><p>But what bearing, it may be asked, had +Court life on the life of the nun Roswitha in +the convent of Gandersheim? To answer this +question we must recall briefly the position of +the early religious houses, and especially those +of Saxony. Many of the foundations were royal, +and, in return for certain privileges, were obliged +to entertain the king and his retinue whenever +he journeyed. Such sojourns naturally brought +a store of political, intellectual, and other information +to the favoured house. Added to +this, the abbess of such a house, generally a +high-born and influential woman, was, in her +position as a ruler of lands as well as of communities, +brought into direct contact with the +Court and with politics. To her rights of over-lordship +were attached the same privileges and +duties as in the case of any feudal baron. She +issued summonses for attendance at her Courts, +at which she was represented by a proctor, and, +when war was declared, she had to provide the +prescribed number of knights. In some cases +her influence was supreme, even in imperial +affairs, extending also to matters social and +literary. Roswitha tells us how much she +herself owed to the two successive abbesses +under whose rule she lived, for suggestion, +information, and encouragement in her literary +work.</p> + +<p>The convents of Saxony, as many elsewhere +in the tenth and eleventh centuries, were centres +of culture in the nature of endowed colleges.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +In some of them women resided permanently, +and besides their religious exercises, devoted +themselves to learning and the arts, for the +Church of the Middle Ages took thought for +the intellect as well as for the soul. In others, +no irrevocable vows were made, and if desire or +necessity arose, the student inmate was free to +return to the world. In others again, though +residence was permanent, short leave of absence +from time to time was granted by the abbess, +and the nun was able to sojourn with her friends, +or to visit some sister community. But at +Gandersheim the rule was strict, and a nun, her +vows once taken, had to remain within the +convent walls. Yet even so, life there was +perhaps far less circumscribed than in many a +castle, where the men gave themselves up to +war and the chase, and the women perforce spun +and embroidered and gossiped, since to venture +without the walls was fraught with difficulty +and sometimes with danger. Even if there +were some who cared to read, and who would +fain go in imagination to other scenes and times, +MSS. were difficult to come by, and costly +withal. Wholly different was it in the religious +houses. In these, women associated with their +equals, with whom they could interchange ideas, +and the library was well furnished with MSS. of +classical and Christian writers. One of the first +cares of St. Benedict, in the case of every newly +founded house, was the formation of the library. +So held in honour did this tradition become, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +so assiduously was it pursued, that the status of +a monastery or a convent, as a centre of learning, +came to be estimated by its wealth in MSS. +Besides the mass of transcribing which such +rivalry occasioned, there was illuminating to be +done, musical notation to be studied and prepared +for the services of the Church, chants and choir-singing +to be practised, and the needful time to +be devoted to weaving and embroidery—a part +of every woman’s education. Weaving had of +necessity to be done in every convent in order to +provide the requisite clothing for its inmates, +and the large and often elaborate hangings used +for covering the walls. Embroidery, on the +other hand, was no mere occupation, or even a +craft, but in truth a fine art. The few specimens +still preserved give some idea of the quality of +the work, whilst old inventories attest the +quantity. Illuminated MSS. of the Gospels and +the Apocalypse were lent from royal treasuries, +and their miniatures were copied, with needle +and silk, to adorn vestments and altar hangings. +Then at Gandersheim, as we have already said, +the occasional visits of princely travellers brought +interest and diversion from the outside world. +It was in an atmosphere such as this that +Roswitha passed her days.</p> + +<p>Of her work, the metrical legends seem her +earliest effort. In these, though they are mainly +based on well-known themes, Roswitha shows +much originality in description. Whilst they +need not detain us, passing reference may be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +made to two of them—the Passion of St. +Pelagius of Cordova, and the Fall and Conversion +of Theophilus—since their subject matter +is of value to us to-day. The one interests us +because, in relating that the story was told her +by an eye-witness of the martyrdom in <small>A.D.</small> 925 +(<i>Acta SS.</i> Jun. V.), she shows that communication +existed between that great intellectual +centre, Cordova, and Germany, a fact that +must have had considerable influence on art and +literature; the other as being the story out of +which the Faust legend was developed.</p> + +<p>After these legends, we turn to her panegyric +on the Emperor Otho. This she opens by +acknowledging her debt to the Abbess Gerberg, +niece of Otho the Great, for aiding her in her +literary work with her superior knowledge, and +for giving her the necessary information concerning +the royal doings. Then by humbly +likening her mental perplexity and fear on +entering upon so vast a subject to the feelings +of one who has to cross a forest in winter when +snow has obliterated the track, she in a few +words pictures for us the natural wooded surroundings +of the convent. Her poem—for such +it really is—then sets forth the personal history +of this monarch and his predecessors, rather than +public events, and is thus of value more on +account of its poetical than its historical quality. +But one episode, picturesque in its quaint setting, +and interesting historically because its stirring +details are not to be found elsewhere, is worthy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +of record. It centres round Adelheid, the young +and beautiful widow of Lothair, a Lombard king. +Taken prisoner by his successor, the tyrant +Berengarius, she is immured in a castle on the +Lago di Garda, and threatened with a forced +marriage with the son of her oppressor. This +threat seems to endow her with superhuman +power. Bidding defiance to all difficulty and +danger, she contrives gradually to dig a secret +way through the soft earth, and suddenly finds +herself free. Dawn is just breaking. But how +can she make use of her freedom before her +guards awake and discover her escape? Quickly +is her mind made up. But let Roswitha herself +tell the story:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>As soon as black night yielded to the twilight, and the +heavens began to pale before the rays of the sun, warily hiding +herself in secluded caves, now she wanders in the woods, now +lurks in the furrows amongst the ripe ears of Ceres, until +returning night, clothed in its wonted gloom, again veils the +earth in darkness. Then once more is she diligent to pursue +her way begun. And her guards, not finding her, all-trembling +make it known to the officer charged with the safe keeping of +the lady. And he, struck to the heart with the terror of +grievous fear, set forth with much company to make diligent +search for her, and when he failed, and moreover could not discover +whither the most illustrious queen had turned her steps, +fearful, he made report of the matter to King Berengarius. +And he, at once filled with exceeding wrath, forthwith sent +his dependants everywhere around, commanding them not to +overlook any small place, but cautiously to examine every +hiding-place, lest perchance the queen might be lying hid in +any one. And he himself followed with a band of stout-hearted +troops as if to overcome some fierce enemy in battle. +And rapidly did he pass on his way through the self-same +corn-field in the which the lady whom he sought was lurking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +in the bent-back furrows, hidden beneath the wings of Ceres. +Hither and thither forsooth he traversed the very spot where +she lay, burdened with no little fear, and although, with great +effort, he essayed with outstretched spear to part the corn +around, yet he discovered not her whom by the grace of Christ +it concealed.</p></div> + +<p>From the sheltering corn Adelheid effects +her escape, and after weary wandering, reaches +the Castle of Canossa, the stronghold of the +Counts of Tuscany. Any one who has visited +this now ruined castle, some twenty miles from +Parma, will remember the threadlike way +between rocks covered with brambles, by +which its eyrie height is approached. Up this +steep track the queen, fearful of any pause, +hastens, and finds a welcome and ready help. The +Count becomes her champion, and appeals on +her behalf to the Emperor Otho. The latter, +glad of an excuse to further his cause in Italy, +descends with his troops into the Lombard plain, +weds the beautiful Adelheid, and receives the +formal cession of the so-called kingdom of Italy +from Berengarius and his son, whose power had +ebbed away in their futile attempts to control +their feudatories.</p> + +<p>Roswitha’s thrilling narrative is amplified +by the graphic account recorded by St. Odilo, +Abbot of Cluny, Queen Adelheid’s friend and +one-time confessor. In this he tells us that +during Adelheid’s imprisonment in a castle on +the Lago di Garda, her chaplain Martin succeeds +in making a hole in the wall, through which the +queen and her maidservant, disguised as men,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +creep. He does not recount the episode of the +hiding in the corn, but relates another equally +stirring adventure. He tells us that, in fleeing +from their persecutor to the safety of Canossa, +the fugitives become involved in a swamp. +After two days, they are rescued from their +perilous position by a fisherman who, passing +near by, and hearing sounds of distress, goes to +their aid. Their deliverer, finding them faint +with hunger and cold, lights a fire with the +flint he carries in his wallet, and cooks some +small fish, the only food he has to offer them. +Once more they start on their way, and eventually +reach Canossa. But hardly do they gain admittance, +ere the castle is surrounded by the +soldiery of the outwitted and wrathful Berengarius. +A knight, carrying a message from the +Emperor Otho of promised deliverance, essays +to enter the castle, but finding this impossible +owing to the hostile troops encamped around, +he fastens the letter to an arrow, and shoots it +over the wall. A strong force sent by Otho +is near at hand, and speedily puts the enemy to +flight. Adelheid is rescued, and is brought +with rejoicing to Pavia, her dower city, which +had already opened its gates to the Emperor, and +she and the Emperor enter the city together in +triumph. Much has been written of the illustrious +Adelheid, but perhaps she would best like +to be remembered by the eulogy of her confessor—the +saintly Odilo—that she never forgot a +kindness, or remembered an injury.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is in a spirit far different from that of her +panegyric on the emperor Otho that Roswitha +writes her dramas. Fear and mental perplexity +no longer possess her. Though humbly begging +the reader not to “despise these strains drawn +from a fragile reed,” she has no misgiving, for +she feels that herein lies her mission. She +explains her reason for using the dramatic form, +and for taking Terence as her model. There +are many, she says,—and she does not entirely +exonerate herself,—who, beguiled by the elegant +diction of the Classics, prefer them to religious +writings, whilst there are others who, though +generally condemning heathen works, eagerly +peruse the poetic creations of Terence because +of the special beauty of his language. She +further expresses the hope that by trying to +imitate his manner, and by at the same time +dramatising legends calculated to edify, she +may induce readers to turn from the “godless +contents of his works” to the contemplation +of virtuous living. Emboldened by this pious +hope, Roswitha shrinks from no difficulties +or details, details which might well have made +her hesitate, and which, betraying a knowledge +of the world, have raised the question as to +whether she made her profession as early as was +customary. This solicitude of Roswitha for the +welfare of frail and all too human mankind +recalls St. Bernard’s condemnation, some hundred +and fifty years later, of all carving in church or +cloister, when he says, “one reads with more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +pleasure what is carven in stones than what is +written in books, and would rather gaze all day +upon these singular creations than meditate upon +the Divine Word.”</p> + +<p>It has been maintained that the classic +theatre decayed and disappeared as Christianity +became all-powerful in Europe, and that the +modern theatre seemingly arose in the twelfth +century out of the services of the Church, and +owed no debt to the past. But neither Nature +nor Art works in this way except to our own +unperceiving minds. After the fall of the +Roman Empire, and the consequent disruption +of society, classic civilisation gradually withdrew +into the security of the religious communities, +seeking, like distraught humanity, +shelter and protection. It was in such tranquil +atmosphere as this that Latin drama, though condemned +in substance, was fostered and favoured +as an education in style. Roswitha’s plays may, +as has been said, have been the last ray of classical +antiquity, but if so, it was a ray, like the pillar +of fire, bright enough to guide through the +dark night of feudalism to the coming day.</p> + +<p>Whether her dramatic efforts were an +isolated phenomenon or not, must remain +undecided, but it is reasonable to assume that +any work surviving to the present day is but a +sample of much else of the same sort that has +disappeared in the course of time. Still all we +would claim for them, apart from their intrinsic +value and interest, is that they helped to keep<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +up continuity in the tradition of drama. The +gradual movement in the Church towards +elaboration in its services which began in the +ninth century,—a movement which led to the +dramatising of the Mass, out of which the +liturgical drama, and eventually the miracle-play, +were evolved,—was a popular movement. +To a people ignorant of Latin, yet fond of shows, +it provided instruction and diversion alike. +Roswitha, on the other hand, avowedly wrote +for the literary world, and with a special end +in view as regards that world. To attain this +end, she set before her, as her master in style, +Terence, who himself had aimed at a high ideal +of artistic perfection, and of whom it has been +said that he perpetuated the art and genius of +Menander just as a master engraver perpetuates +the designs of a great painter whose works have +since perished. Still, in spite of the glamour +of the style to which she aspires, and poetess +though she is by nature, her plays reflect the +handiwork of the moralist rather than that of +the artist, for though beauty charms her by the +way, her goal is moral truth, and to this all else +must yield. If we would see the beauty of +holiness as she saw it, we must enter in spirit +within the shrine of her thought and feeling, +just as the traveller, standing without the simple +brick exterior of the tomb of Galla Placidia, at +Ravenna, must penetrate within if he would +know of the beauty there enshrined. “Il faut +être saint, pour comprendre la sainteté.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>”</p> + +<p>The subject which dominates her horizon is +that of Chastity. Treated by her with didactic +intent, this really resolves itself into a conflict +between Christianity and Paganism,—in other +words, between Chastity and Passion,—in which +Christianity triumphs through the virtue of +Woman. But at the same time Roswitha +neither contemns marriage nor generally advocates +celibacy. She merely counsels, as the +more blessed, the unmarried state. Yet even +so, we feel that beneath her nun’s garb there +beats the heart of a sympathetic woman, whose +emotional self-expression is but tempered by the +ideals of her time and her surroundings.</p> + +<p>Another important element to be taken into +account in her plays is the part she assigns to +the supernatural. It is impossible to develop +character with any continuity when the supernatural, +like some sword of Damocles, hovers +continually overhead, ready to descend at any +moment and sever cause from effect. Such a +sword was the Divine Presence to Roswitha. +When her plot requires it, she introduces a +miracle, converting a character, at a moment’s +notice, and in a way that no evolution could +possibly effect, into one of a totally different +kind. Still to her audience such a <i>dénouement</i> +would be quite satisfactory. With her, +sudden changes and conversions but reflect the +ideas which possessed the minds of her contemporaries, +who realised God more in deviations +from, than in manifestations of, law and order.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> + +<p>Were her plays ever performed? To this +question no certain answer can be given, since +no record has yet been found of their performance, +and the best critics are at variance on the +subject. But judging from analogy, there seems +to be no reason why they should not have been. +We know that as early as the fifth and sixth +centuries the monks played Terence, probably +on some fête-day, or before their scholars as a +means of instruction, and doubtless Roswitha’s +plays were also acted on special occasions, such as +when the Emperor sojourned at Gandersheim, +or the Bishop made a visitation. As they were +written in Latin, the literary language of the +time, this in itself, even if their themes had +appealed to the people, would have prevented +them from being performed save before the +educated few. So if we would picture to +ourselves a performance of one of them by her +companion nuns in the Chapter House, or it +may be in the refectory, it must be before the +Bishop and his clergy, and perhaps also some +members of the Imperial family, and lords and +ladies of the Court. How refreshing must +such an entertainment have been to this distinguished +company as it found itself carried +away into an atmosphere of poetry and passion, +of movement and colour, in place of the sobriety +induced by the stiff liturgical dramas that +probably formed the usual diversion! Such a +drama was that of <i>The Wise and Foolish +Virgins</i>, a specially favourite old-world dramatic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +exercise, dispensed as a sort of religious tonic +to womankind, calculated to arouse slumbering +souls, or to quicken to still further effort those +that did not slumber. For us, its chief interest +lies in the antiphonic arrangement of the +dialogue, in which we may trace the first germs +of characterisation, and in the music, the refrains +of which contain the first suggestions, as far as +we know, of the principle of the leitmotiv, a +principle carried to its most complete development +by Wagner. Although the earliest known +MS. of it is of the eleventh century, so finished, +yet so simple, are its dialogues and refrains, that +it seems not unreasonable to infer that the form +of the play was well known, either through +some earlier MS. or through oral tradition. +It is only a slight development of the elegy in +dialogue which was performed in <small>A.D.</small> 874, at +the funeral of Hathumoda, the first abbess of +Gandersheim. This dialogue takes place between +the sorrow-stricken nuns, who speak +in chorus of their loss, and the monk Wichbert, +who acts as consoler. Although its form is +liturgical, its subject entitles it to be considered +the earliest known mediæval dramatic work +extant.</p> + +<p>Of Roswitha’s dramas, three seem to stand +out as of special interest—<i>Abraham</i>, <i>Callimachus</i>, +and <i>Paphnutius</i>. All of these are more or less +patchwork adaptations from the legendary débris +of antiquity. The first appears to have been +taken by Roswitha from a Latin translation of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +fourth-century Greek legend.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> Whilst she does +not display any originality in elaborating the +story, but keeps carefully to the text—so much +so that at times she merely transcribes—she +reveals her artistic as well as her psychological +instinct by concentrating the essentials, thereby +transforming a rather discursive composition into +a poignant picture. The subtle touches, the +sentiment, and the dialogue so pathetic and so +true to nature, make this drama verily her +masterpiece, and one worthy of a place beside +the delicate and dramatic miniatures of the time. +In a few words, here is the story. A holy man, +by name Abraham, has abandoned a life of solitude +in order to take care of his young orphaned +niece. After a few years, she is tempted to a +house of ill fame. Some two years later, her +uncle, having discovered her whereabouts, determines +to exchange his hermit garb for that of a +man of the world, and go to the house in the +guise of a lover, so as to get an opportunity of +speaking with his niece alone. Of course she +does not recognise him in his change of costume, +and when he asks for a kiss, she puts her arms +round his neck, and suddenly detects a strange +perfume. Instantly a change comes over her. +The scent recalls to her her former unsullied life, +and tears fill her eyes. At the fitting moment +the uncle makes himself known, and showing +her with sweet words of sympathy and encouragement +that sin is natural to humanity, and that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>what is evil is to continue in it, takes her back +with him to begin afresh the simple good life.</p> + +<p>The second play recounts an incident taken +from the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, supposed +to take place in the first century. A young +heathen, Callimachus, falls in love with a young +married woman, a Christian. She dies, and is +buried the same day. That night Callimachus +goes to the grave, and with the help of a slave +disinters the body. Holding it in his arms, and +triumphing in the embrace denied to him in life, +he suddenly falls dead. In the morning the +husband and St. John, coming to the cemetery +to pray for her soul, see the rifled grave and the +two dead bodies. St. John, at the command of +Christ, who appears for but a moment, restores +them both to life, and brings to repentance the +young man, who, in further amendment of his +ways, becomes a Christian. This mere outline of +the play is given to suggest points of resemblance +between it—the first sketch of this kind of drama +of passion, the frenzy of the soul and senses—and +the masterpiece of this type, <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>.</p> + +<p>Many passages in the plays of Roswitha +remind us of Shakespeare, but it is not possible +to deal adequately with them here, nor does it +seem material to do so. There is no reason why +Shakespeare should not have seen a printed +collection of her dramas. He, like Dante, +seems to have had the power of attracting +material from every possible source, and it should +not be forgotten what a sensation was caused by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +Celtes printing in 1501 Roswitha’s MS. But, +on the other hand, the similarities we notice +may be a mere coincidence, or, as is much more +likely, the details in each case may have been +common property handed down from one generation +to another.</p> + +<p>In her play of <i>Paphnutius</i>, Roswitha made +use of a story taken from the <i>Historia Monachorum</i> +of Rufinus, a contemporary of St. Jerome, who +had journeyed through Palestine and Egypt to +visit the Hermits of the Desert. The mention, +too, at the beginning of Rufinus’s account, of a +musician who tells of his retirement to a hermitage +in order to change the harmony of music +into that of the spirit, evidently suggested to her +a discussion on music and harmony, probably +adapted from Boëthius’s <i>De Musica</i>. In this +discussion lies the chief interest of the play as +giving us some idea of the sort of intellectual +exercises probably practised by women in convents +in the tenth century. The play opens +with a truly mediæval scene,—a disputation +between a hermit and his disciples on the question +of harmony between soul and body, suggested +by the want of it in the life of the courtesan +Thais. Such harmony <i>should</i> exist, says the holy +man, for though the soul is not mortal like the +body, nor the body spiritual like the soul, we +shall, if we follow the method of the dialecticians, +find that such differences do not necessarily +render the two inharmonious. Harmony cannot +be produced from like elements or like sounds,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +but only by the right adjustment of those which +are dissimilar. This discussion on harmony +naturally leads to one on music, which is divided, +according to the then received writers on the +subject, into three kinds—celestial, human, and +instrumental. Music, in the Middle Ages, was, +for dialectical purposes, treated in accordance +with the Pythagorean theory as interpreted by +Cicero in his <i>Somnium Scipionis</i>, who represented +the eight revolving spheres of heaven—the +Earth being fixed—as forming a complete +musical octave. Such celestial music forms the +subject of the argument in Roswitha’s play, the +music of Earth being merely touched upon. +Why, it is asked, do we not hear this music of +the spheres if it exists? To this comes the +answer that some think it is because of its continuity, +others because of the density of the +atmosphere, and others again because the volume +of sound cannot penetrate the narrow passage of +the human ear. And so with subtle argument, +the music of Heaven was often drowned in the +din of Earth. Dante, in the <i>Paradiso</i>, lifted the +idea once more from Earth to Heaven, and +clothed it in a wealth of gorgeous imagery. +But it is Shakespeare who, with the magic of a +few words, has given the thought immortality.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But in his motion like an angel sings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><span style="padding-right: 2em; padding-left: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span>•<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such harmony is in immortal souls;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But whilst this muddy vesture of decay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>In judging of Roswitha’s dramatic work it +must be remembered that, in true mediæval +spirit fearing to profane what she venerates, she +allows herself but little licence with the legends +she dramatises. Nevertheless, as has been said, +she from time to time shows, in psychological +touches, a capacity for originality quite phenomenal +for her time and for the literature of the +cloister. Still her plays express but a very small +part of the whole gamut of human emotions and +experiences, just as her life was lived in an +intellectual world narrow from the point of view +of to-day or of the great intellectual age of +antiquity. Many causes contributed to this. +Intellectually, the Christian world shrank as +Paganism was superseded by Christianity, a +supersession by no means complete in Roswitha’s +day. Of course this nascent Christianity was +inconsistent with much of the intellectual life of +the ancient world, which was either inextricably +interwoven with Paganism, or essentially anti-religious. +With its task of laying afresh the +foundations of education, politics, and morality, +it had to take root and become established in a +relatively narrow intellectual field, the boundaries +of which had gradually to be broken down, +sometimes with violence.</p> + +<p>Time, like some lens which clears our vision, +makes it an easy task to criticise and condemn a +phase of religious life which, having essayed to +tranquillise and sweeten existence, was, under +altered conditions of civilisation, bound to pass<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +away. We of to-day pride ourselves on a wider +view of life, on a higher conception of duty, +expressed in lives dedicated to public work as +a necessary complement to private virtue. Still, +if we would judge fairly this age of contemplation +and faith within the convent walls, and +all that, even if done mistakenly and imperfectly, +it aspired to do, we must realise, as best we can, +the world without those walls. One of our +poets has vividly reflected it for us when he +speaks of man’s life as made up of “whole +centuries of folly, noise, and sin.” So bitter was +life then and even later, that by the thirteenth +and fourteenth centuries, when mysticism had +claimed many votaries, eternal rest, even at the +cost of personal annihilation, was the whispered +desire of many devout souls.</p> + +<p>“A Simple Stillness.” “An Eternal Silence.” +These are the words that float across the centuries +to us, like echoes from troubled, longing +hearts. These are the words that give us the +key to the understanding of the choice of +vocation of the mediæval woman. The spiritual +need for harmony and peace may have been +great; the practical need was perhaps even +greater; for in its accomplishment the spiritual +found its consummation.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The authenticity of these has been called in question by some +critics, but apparently upon insufficient data.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The first foundation, afterwards removed to Gandersheim.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> For other instances of churches laid out on lines said to have +been revealed in dreams or visions, see Didron, <i>Christian Iconography</i>, +vol. i. (1886) pp. 381, 382, 460, and Sta. Maria Maggiore, Rome.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> The intervention of a bird to aid in discovery was a favourite +tradition derived from antiquity. We may recall, amongst many +variants of the theme, the story of the celebrated expedition of the +Athenians to the Island of Scyros to find and recover the body of +Theseus. Theseus, being a hero, the agent employed in the quest +must likewise be distinguished, and so the eagle, Zeus’s bird, is +alone thought worthy to peck the earth and indicate the resting-place +of the demi-god.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Thangmarus, “Vita Sti. Bernwardi,” Migne, <i>Patrol. Lat.</i> 140, +col. 397. 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Michel, <i>Histoire de l’Art</i>, 1905, Tome I. i. p. 258.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <i>Journal of Studies</i>, vol. i. part i., 1911, article by +E. Strong, p. 24.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Migne, <i>Patrol. Lat.</i> lxxiii.</p></div> +</div> + + +<h2><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span><a name="A_TWELFTH-CENTURY_ROMANCE-WRITER" id="A_TWELFTH-CENTURY_ROMANCE-WRITER"></a>A TWELFTH-CENTURY ROMANCE-WRITER,<br /> +MARIE DE FRANCE</h2> + + +<p class="ni"><span class="smcap">“Marie</span> ai nom, si sui de France.” Thus, more +than seven centuries ago, wrote Marie de France. +What an unpretentious autobiography! Yet +these few simple words, which seem to tell so +little, but in reality suggest so much, are the +counterpart of her work, and form its fitting +crown.</p> + +<p>But who was this modest writer, and why does +her work interest us to-day? Around Marie de +France there must always remain an atmosphere +of doubt and mystery, since she is only mentioned +by an anonymous thirteenth-century poet, +and by one of her contemporaries—an Anglo-Norman +poet, Denys Pyramus by name—who +speaks of her in the most flattering terms, and +from whom we learn that her lays were much +appreciated by the noblesse, especially the ladies. +That these should take rare delight in them +may well be, seeing how monotonous life must +have been to many a woman shut up with her +maidens and her needlework in a dismal castle,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +or perhaps in but one tower of it, whilst her +lord went forth to the chase or to war, his +home-coming meaning merely the wine-cup +and war-songs, or tedious epic. Many a one +must have read or listened to Marie’s love idylls, +and longed, and perhaps even hoped, as in the story +of “Yonec,” that a fair and gentle knight, in the +form of some beautiful bird, might fly in at her +window and bring her some diversion from the +outside world. With nothing before us but her +own poems and the scant recognition of Denys +Pyramus, she seems like some old portrait in +which the delicate pigments that once glowed in +the face and made it live have, owing to their +very delicacy, long since faded away, leaving +behind only the stronger and less volatile colours +of the dark background from which we in vain +try to wrest more than one or two fragments of +the secret it holds.</p> + +<p>Judging from internal evidence, it would seem +that Marie was born in Normandy, about the +middle of the twelfth century, but settled in +England, where since the Conquest, and indeed +since the time of Edward the Confessor, many +Norman families had made their home. Not only +does she make occasional use of English words, +and translate from English into French the fables +known as Æsop’s, but in the prologue to her +<i>Lays</i>, which she dedicates to “the noble King,” +generally considered to be Henry the Second, +she expresses fear lest her work should not find +favour in a foreign land. In this prologue she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +also gives her reason for abandoning classical +translation, which, as a Latin scholar, she had +contemplated making, not only for the use of the +less learned, but also, as she tells us, for personal +discipline, since “he who would keep himself +from sin, should study and learn and undertake +difficult tasks. In suchwise he may the more +withdraw him and save himself from much +sorrow.” The twelfth century was a time of +extraordinary intellectual activity, and Marie +tells us that she suffered from what we are apt +to regard as a special evil of our own day—the +overcrowding of the literary market. So she +wisely turned aside from the Classics and the +crowd, and set herself to give literary expression +to the old Celtic folk-lore, hitherto perhaps +unrecorded save in song.</p> + +<p>Of Marie’s work that has come down to +us we have <i>The Fables</i>, already mentioned, +dedicated to Count William, surnamed Longsword, +and son of Henry the Second and Fair +Rosamond;<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> <i>The Lays</i>, dedicated to the king, +Henry the Second, and doubtless read by Fair +Rosamond in her retreat at Woodstock; and +<i>The Purgatory of St. Patrick</i>, translated from the +Latin at the request of an anonymous benefactor. +Of these only <i>The Lays</i> need here concern +us, as it is in them that our interest lies, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>since they are perhaps among the first stories, +given literary form, which tell of love “for +love’s sake only,”—love unqualified and unquestioning. +They form, perhaps, the only +collection of lays now extant, and it is to them, +therefore, that we must turn to get some idea of +the style of narration that gradually replaced the +taste for the epic as Norman influence grew and +spread in England. Beside the sensualism of the +<i>Chansons de Geste</i>, the sentiment expressed in +them may seem naïve; beside the gallantry of +the Provençal poetry, it may seem primitive; +but nevertheless it is, in its very simplicity, the +profoundest note that can be struck in this world +of men and women. Marie makes no pretence +to originality, but even if she did not possess the +supreme gift of creating beauty, she at least +possessed the lesser gift of perceiving it where +it existed and of making it her own, and her +stories glow with colour, and enchant by their +simple yet dramatic appeal to the imagination. +She declares that <i>The Lays</i> were made “for +remembrance” by “Le ancien Bretun curteis,” +and that “Folks tell them to the harp and the +rote, and the music is sweet to hear.” Doubtless +it was this sweet music which both soothed +and thrilled even before the words were understood, +for on sad and festive days alike, the sweet +lays of Brittany were always to be heard.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">La reine chante doucement,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">La voiz acorde a l’estrument:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Les mains sont belles, li lais bons,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Douce la voiz et bas li tons.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="harp" id="harp"></a> +<img src="images/i032.jpg" width="450" height="563" alt="LADY PLAYING HARP." title="Lady playing harp" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Photo. Macbeth.</i></p> + +<p class="caption">LADY PLAYING HARP.</p> + +<p class="illoaut">Add. MS. 38117, Brit. Mus.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 32.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>Whether Marie was connected with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +Court of Henry the Second and his brilliant +and artistic queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, where +learned men and poets congregated, we do not +know, but it seems a very fair conjecture that +she was. Not only does she dedicate her +principal work to the king and his son, Count +William, but her stories are coloured with the +courtly life and ideas of her time, notwithstanding +the simplicity of the fundamental +theme. It is doubtful whether any one unacquainted +with the teaching of the Courts of +Love, such as they were in the twelfth century, +would have made the compulsory quest of love +the keynote of a story, as, for instance, Marie +does in the “Lay of Guigemar.” These Courts of +Love, though not so elaborate, yet seemingly as +imperious, as those of the fourteenth century, +formed one of the semi-serious pastimes of the +Middle Ages, and although it may be that they +were often mere forms of entertainment, no self-respecting +person could afford to disregard their +rules or decisions. The cardinal doctrine was +that love was necessary to a man’s moral, social, +and æsthetic training. Hence if it did not arise +of itself, it must be sought for, and, like its +counterpart in the spiritual world, come at, if +needs be, through much tribulation.</p> + +<p>Owing to Henry’s possessions in France +through inheritance, marriage, and the many +ties of relationship which united the royal +families of both countries, England and France<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +were never more closely allied than they were at +that time. French was established by them as +the speech of the cultured and the high-born. +The Norman Conquest had made us more +cosmopolitan in both manners and ideas. May +we not look on the victory at Hastings as a +symbol as well as a reality? Did it not mean +for us a spiritual as well as a material conquest, +since, mingled with the clashing of battle-axes, +was to be heard the chanting of the <i>Chanson de +Roland</i>? Moreover, through a desire to bring +about uniformity of sentiment and service, the +Church, though perhaps unconsciously, aided +this good work of general enlargement of outlook +by appointing outsiders to control our +abbeys and religious foundations. Thus, in the +latter half of the twelfth century, the romantic +movement which characterised late mediæval +literature stirred in England and France alike, +and Marie was one of its truest and daintiest +exponents. Although what she relates may be +fiction intermingled with myth and magic, she +all the same pictures on her somewhat small +canvases the ideas of her time, and so helps to +make history.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="ms10293" id="ms10293"></a> +<img src="images/i034.jpg" width="500" height="523" alt="Add. MS. 10293, Brit. Mus." title="Manuscript 10293" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Photo. Macbeth.</i></p> + +<p class="illoaut"><span class="smcap">Add</span>. MS. 10293, <span class="smcap">Brit. Mus.</span></p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 34.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>Marie’s readers and hearers were naturally to +be found amongst castle-folk. That these were +many we may conclude from the fact that the +number of castles had already come to be +regarded as a menace to the central government, +and a royal command had gone forth for the +demolition of many of them. That her stories<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +were read and prized for at least a century and +more is evident from the manuscripts—five in +number, and all of the thirteenth, or the beginning +of the fourteenth, century—which still exist. +Her renown, too, had travelled even beyond the +seas, for in about <small>A.D.</small> 1245 a translation of +her lays into Norse was made by order of the +king, Haakon the Fourth. The fact that their +popularity began to wane after a hundred years +or so is in no wise an adverse criticism of their +intrinsic worth, for in the fourteenth century +English was, in high places, beginning to take +the place of French, and naturally the demand +created a supply. But even if this had not been +so, Marie’s work had served its purpose, and of +necessity passed into the crucible of human +thought and expression, to be resolved into +matter suited to other needs and conditions. As +has been well said, “les siècles se succèdent, et +chacun porte son fruit, qui n’est pas celui du +siècle précédent: les livres sont les fruits des +mœurs.”</p> + +<p>Of the five manuscripts still extant, two are +in the British Museum. One of these is the +most complete that has come down to us, seeing +that, in addition to its including the largest +number of lays—twelve in all,—it alone contains +the prologue, in which for a moment the illusive +Marie lifts, as it were, her all-enshrouding veil. +It is a small manuscript, beautifully inscribed, +and even after its seven hundred years of +existence, as fresh as is the love enshrined in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +its parchment pages. How strange a feeling +possesses us as we turn over its leaves, leaves +across which the shadows of readers of bygone +days still seem to flit! Could these pages speak, +of what would they tell? Of desires that die +not, of longings that are immortal, of love enthroned.</p> + +<p>When first read, these stories, so simply are +they told, may seem somewhat slight and superficial. +But this is the general characteristic of +mediæval literature, which, for the most part, +recognised things in outline only, and sought, +and perhaps possessed, but little knowledge of +the hidden springs of motive. The writers of +those times troubled as little about moral, as +the early painters did about physical, anatomy. +Still, in spite of this indifference to what has +become almost a craze in our own day, Marie’s +lays are so full of charming detail, deftly handled, +that they give much the same sense of delight as +do delicate ivories or dainty embroidery. Sometimes, +it is true, she scarcely, despite all this +outward charm, seems to touch the world of +fact. Yet in this ideal atmosphere which she so +essentially made her own, she contrives to convey +such a sense of reality, that for the moment +we are wholly possessed by it and carried away, +without questioning, into her fairyland. And a +beautiful fairyland it is, where love triumphs for +the most part, not in heedless ecstasy along +flower-bestrewn ways, but through self-sacrifice +and suffering mutually accepted and mutually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +endured. Listen to the words spoken to the +knight Guigemar, wounded by a chance arrow +as he rides through a wood. “Never shalt thou +be healed of thy wound, not even by herb, or +root, or leach, or potion, until thou art healed by +her who, for love of thee, shall suffer such great +pain and sorrow as never woman has suffered +before: and thou shalt bear as much for her.” +Equality in love! Such is the vital note struck +amid the artificial and soul-enfeebling atmosphere +of mediæval love-poetry! This is the +note which Marie set ringing down the centuries +whilst her manuscripts lay unused on library +shelves. This is Marie’s gift to the world, and +this it is that gives her stories immortality. +Not only do they possess this immortality in +themselves, but they have also been immortalised +by poets and writers both in days long past +and in those more within our ken. All who +know her stories will recall Chaucer’s indebtedness +to incidents and descriptions in them, and +coming to our own time, we find Sir Walter +Scott taking his ballad of “Lord Thomas and +Fair Annie” from the lay of “The Ash Tree,” +although it is possible, as has been suggested,<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> +that his ballad may have been founded on some +Scotch folk-song having a common origin with +Marie’s lay. When her lays were first published +in Germany in 1820, Goethe wrote thus: “The +mist of years that mysteriously envelops Marie +de France makes her poems more exquisite and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>precious to us.” Yes, it is this all-pervading +mystery which, though so tantalising, is yet so +attractive. It is in vain that, in studying them, +we try to penetrate somewhat beyond our +normal atmosphere, for we only find ourselves +lost in vague possibilities and hazy distances. +Brittany has kept her secret concerning such of +these lays as were hers just as jealously as she +has kept her secret of the long avenues of great +lichened stones which make Carnac look like +the burial-place of some giant host. Marie’s +lays are stories of deep meaning, which each +reader must interpret for himself.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to do more here than just +touch upon Marie’s ideal conception of love, for +to realise it fully it is necessary to read the +stories themselves.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> Allusion has been made to +the wounded knight in the “Lay of Guigemar,” +who can only be healed through mutual love +sanctified by mutual suffering. In the lay of +“The Ash Tree” a maiden of noble birth, +abandoned in infancy and brought up in a +convent, is loved by a lord, and returns his love, +and goes with him to his castle. After a time +the knights who owe him fealty complain that +as through his love for his mistress he has +neither wife nor child, he does them wrong, and +protest that if he does not wed some noble lady, +they will no longer serve him or hold him for +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>lord. The knight has to yield to their demands +and to consent to accept in marriage the daughter +of a neighbouring noble who had made it known +that he desired him for son-in-law. Neither +lover utters any complaint or reproach, and the +needful sacrifice is about to be made. But +fortune, sometimes kind, intervenes ere it is too +late, and reveals the noble birth of the loved +one. The knight weds her with great joy, and +to complete this happy picture we read that the +other lady returned with her parents to her +own domain, and was there well bestowed in +marriage.</p> + +<p>This idea of mutual sympathy and sacrifice +gives meaning also to the lay of “The Two +Lovers,” and to that of “Yonec,” but perhaps it +is most simply, yet forcibly, summed up in the +lay of “The Honeysuckle,” an episode taken +from the Tristan story. Tristan, hearing that +Isolde is to ride through a certain wood on her +way to Tintagel to attend the Pentecostal Court +held by the King, hides in the wood. Here he +cuts a branch of hazel round which honeysuckle +has twined, and carving his name and certain +letters on it, he lays it in the way by which the +Queen must pass, knowing that she will recognise +it as a sign that her lover is near, since they +have met before in suchwise. The import of +the writing is that he has long been waiting to +see her, since without her he cannot live, and +that they two are like the hazel branch with +the encircling honeysuckle, the which, as long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +as they are intertwined, thrive, but as soon as +they are separated, both perish. Says Tristan, +“Sweet Love, so is it with us—nor you without +me, nor I without you.”</p> + +<p>But besides this conception of love which +Marie had simply found awaiting expression, +when we turn to examine the stories somewhat +in detail, we find legend and poetry, Eastern +magic and Christian symbolism, mingled with +strange ingenuity. Whence came all these +divers threads which Marie has so dexterously +interwoven? It is very difficult to tell whether +we are wholly in a world of romance, accepted +by her without question, or whether she had +some understanding of the divers matters she +touches upon, and shaped them into a new form +to suit new hearers. The answer to this question +seems to depend on whether Marie recounted +the lays from hearsay, or whether they had been +already written down, and were merely retold +by her, she colouring them with the atmosphere +of her time, which was charged with strange +incongruities of religion and magic. To this +we can give no certain answer, since Marie +herself gives no hint, and only tells us that the +ancient Bretons made the lays. But whatever +may have been her contribution, Christian or +otherwise, to the original matter she worked +upon, we cannot help feeling that we have +before us the remains of some primitive +mythology overlaid and interpenetrated with +Eastern lore, especially that of India, which, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +the Middle Ages, was spread broadcast in the +West. This Indian thought, itself borrowed in +a measure from Egypt, had also been tempered +by the Hellenism which, after the conquests of +Alexander the Great in Asia, had filtered through +India, and had on the way become tinged with +its colour and its mystery. It was from the +matter of these Indian stories that so much was +learnt, for whilst, in the West, the national epic +and the chivalrous romance had been alone +considered worthy of record, in the Indian stories +all social conditions were revealed, and poets +thus learnt little by little to observe and portray +the manners and sentiments of the people generally, +changing social conditions also acting in +the same direction. All such influences must be +taken into consideration in studying mediæval +literature generally, but particularly the occult +element in Oriental thought which presents +such difficulties to the less meditative Western +mind, and has in consequence given rise to +much misconception.</p> + +<p>In the “Lay of Guigemar,” which we take first +because it is the first in the manuscript, we find +Marie making use of a subject, in gorgeous +setting, of Christian symbolism, but using it +apparently so unconsciously that it is only from +one or two details that we realise what is really +lurking in disguise. Guigemar, the wounded +knight already referred to, to whom naught but +love, and sorrow endured for love, can bring any +alleviation, sets forth for his healing. He comes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +across a ship into which he enters, and which +by unseen means carries him to the desired +haven. As we read the description of the ship, +our thoughts at once revert to the picture of the +barge in which Cleopatra goes to meet Antony. +Marie tells us that the fittings are of ebony, and +the unfurled sail of silk. Amid the vessel is a +bed on to which the wounded knight sinks in +anguish. This is of cypress and white ivory +inlaid with gold, the quilt of silk and gold +tissue, and the coverlet of sable lined with +Alexandrian purple.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> All this we might regard +as merely a poet’s fancy were it not that we go +on to read that there were set two candlesticks +of fine gold with lighted tapers. Here we have +the clue. Doubtless the ship, a favourite theme +of Christian symbolism, and one which delighted +poets and painters and workers in mosaic alike, +represented the Church. It is not to be +necessarily inferred that Marie, when giving +her hero so rare a means of transit, had in her +mind all the elaborate symbolism connected +with it; but she had probably read or heard +tell of it, and made use of it simply for the +enhancement of her story. It is in such ways +that we find mysteries embedded, the real significance +of them being lost or misunderstood or +unheeded, just as the Renaissance painters, without +any knowledge of Arabic characters, and +solely on account of the ornamental quality of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>lettering, used texts from the Koran, and distorted +into mere design the sayings of Mahomet.</p> + +<p>In the lay of “The Two Lovers” we again +find Christian symbolism in disguise. Here is +the old theme of a difficult task to be accomplished +by the lover before he can win his lady.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> +The undertaking imposed is the carrying of the +loved one to the top of a hill, and our interest +in it is enhanced by the fact that the trial was +to be made near Pitres, a few miles from Rouen, +where there is a green hill, still known as “La +Côte des Deux Amans.” In Rouen there lived +a king who had an only daughter, very fair and +beautiful, whose hand was sought in marriage +of many. Loath to part with her, he bethought +him how he could thwart her suitors. To this +end he caused it to be proclaimed far and wide +that he would have for son-in-law only him +who could carry his daughter to the top of the +hill without pausing to rest. Many came, but +each in turn failed, greatly to the content of the +princess, since secretly she loved, and was loved +by, a young knight who frequented her father’s +Court. At last, constrained by love, the knight, +though with much misgiving, determines to +undertake the adventure. Before allowing him +to do this, the maiden, in order to ensure his +success, and herself fasting meanwhile, bids him +go to Salerno,<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> near Naples, a school of medicine +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>famous in the Middle Ages, and ask of her +kinswoman there, who was well practised in +medicine, a draught to give him the needful +strength for his task. Returned with this +potion, he makes the attempt, but so great is his +desire to reach the goal quickly, that he will +not slacken his speed to drink from the phial +carried by his Love, but hastens forward, only +to fall dead as he reaches the summit of the +hill.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p><p>In this strength-giving potion we may +perhaps see the expression of a Christian, and +the survival of a pre-Christian belief, where the +getting of strength and life is only possible +through a direct act of communion, either +material or spiritual, with the god. Such world-old +beliefs, in which the supernatural intervenes +to help the natural, are also intimately connected, +even if they are not identical, with the magic of +philtres and charms.</p> + +<p>We pass from Christian symbolism to magic +in the lay of “Yonec.” The delightful ease +with which mediæval folk turned from magic +to religion, or <i>vice versa</i>, shows how simply they +accepted what they did not understand. At the +same time it proves how intermingled the two +were, and that what some are inclined to separate +now, were once regarded as one and the same +thing, the eccentricities and impositions which +have developed in both being of mere external +growth, and to be treated accordingly. In the +lay of “Yonec” a young wife, passing fair, is +shut up by her jealous old husband in a great +paved chamber in a tower of his castle, to which +no one save an ancient dame and a priest has +admittance. After seven years of this isolation +and uncongenial company, the lady remembers +that she has heard tell that means have been +found to rescue the unhappy, and she wishes +with all her heart that deliverance may come +to her. Suddenly a shadow comes across the +window, and into her chamber there flies a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +falcon, which forthwith changes into a knight. +As soon as the lady has recovered from her +surprise, the knight tells her that he has long +loved her, but could not come until she wished +for him. Here we have an incident, borrowed +direct from Oriental magic, in which a modern +believer in psychical phenomena might find an +element of telepathy. The will, as in all magic, +is the motive power which acts sympathetically +on the object of desire, that object being in a +receptive condition. Quickly we turn from +magic, and the story goes on to tell that the +lady, before accepting the knight as her lover, +makes it a condition that he believes in God, +and the knight offers to prove his belief by +taking the Sacrament. This demand is evidently +in the nature of a protective test. It was very +usual to try some means of discovering whether +a person was in league with the powers of evil +or not; for if any one unworthy touched holy +things, retribution came at once, either by death +or some dire visitation. But how is the priest +to administer the Sacrament without seeing the +knight? The latter tells her that he will make +himself like her in appearance; in other words, +that he will hypnotise the priest, and make him +see what he, the knight, wishes him to. The +ruse succeeds, and for a time all goes well; +then comes discovery, despair, and death. The +whole story is a most extraordinary medley of +fairy-lore, religion, and magic, and most characteristic +of the mediæval mind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span></p> + +<p>The lay of “Eliduc,” the last in the manuscript, +is also the longest and most elaborate. +Marie unfolds her story with so certain yet so +subtle a hand, that the reading of it is like the +unwinding of some finely illuminated parchment-roll +where miniature follows miniature, each +perfect in itself, yet all needful to the whole. +To the charm of its pictures of mediæval life, +with the fine scene between the two women, +and their final reunion in the same convent, +there is added an incident which gives special +interest and importance to the story, since it +brings us into touch with one of the oldest and +most widespread of traditions—the restoration +to life, from apparent death, by means of a +flower. There are few pursuits more fascinating +than the tracing of traditions, except, it may be, +that of symbols, with which they have so much +in common. We find the same traditions, just +as we find the same symbolic figures, common +to the most widely separated peoples, and the +real interest in the case of each lies in trying to +discover how and why in the course of their +migrations their form and their significance +have been varied or modified. But before +considering the tradition, let us first hear the +story.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="boat" id="boat"></a> +<img src="images/i049.jpg" width="500" height="481" alt="BOAT WITH KNIGHTS AND LADY." title="Boat, knights and lady, Manuscript 10294" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Photo. Macbeth.</i></p> + +<p class="caption">BOAT WITH KNIGHTS AND LADY.</p> + +<p class="illoaut">Add. MS. 10294, Brit. Mus.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 49.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>Eliduc, a knight of Brittany, whose wife, +Guildeluëc, was very dear to him, had for over-lord +one of the kings of Brittany, with whom, +owing to faithful service, he had gained high +favour. Being defamed on this account by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +envious tongues, he was banished from Court, +and thereupon determined to quit his country +for a while and seek service in the West of +England. With many promises to his wife to +be faithful to her, he set out for Totnes, where +he found many kings ruling in the land, all at +war with one another. One of them, a very old +man, was ruler in the province of Exeter, and at +war with a neighbouring king on account of +his refusal to give to the latter his daughter, +Guilliadun, in marriage. So Eliduc determined +to offer his services to the old king, by whom +they were accepted, and by his tact and prowess +he soon proved himself worthy of the trust reposed +in him. Through a skilful ambush, +planned and conducted by him, he defeated the +enemy. Guilliadun, hearing of his deeds, sought +an interview with him, and at once fell in love +with him, and after certain maidenly reserve and +hesitation, made her love known to him. This +Eliduc secretly returned, but, troubled at the +remembrance of his wife and of his pledge to +her, his courage failed him to confess that he +was already wedded. In order to escape from +his dilemma, he sought and obtained the permission +of the old king to avail himself of the +entreaty of his liege-lord to return to his own +country to fight against the enemies who were +desolating the kingdom. This permission was +granted under his promise to come back if his +services were again required. After pledging +himself to Guilliadun to do this on such a day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +as she should name, Eliduc, having exchanged +rings with her, and she having named the day for +his return, departed. Having speedily reduced +the enemies of his liege-lord to submission, he +came once more to England, and immediately +sent to Guilliadun to apprise her of this, and to +beg her to be ready to start on the morrow. +Guilliadun secretly left the castle the next night +and joined her lover, and together they hurried to +Totnes, whence they at once set sail. But as +they were nearing land, a violent storm arose. +Finding that prayers were of no avail, one of +the company cried out, “We shall never make +the land, for you have a lawful wife, and you +are taking with you another woman, setting at +naught God, the law, and uprightness. Let us +cast her into the sea, and anon we shall get to +land.” On hearing these words Guilliadun fell +as one dead, whereupon Eliduc in anger struck +the esquire on the head and hurled him into +the sea. When the ship was brought to port +Guilliadun showed no sign of life. So Eliduc, +believing her to be dead, lifted her in his arms, +carried her ashore, and, mounting his horse, +sadly bore her to a small chapel in a forest +adjoining his own lands. Here he laid her in +front of the altar, and covered her with his cloak, +and then returned to his home. Filled with sadness, +he arose early each morning and went to +the chapel to pray for her soul, marvelling +nevertheless to find that the face of his Love +suffered no change except to become a little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +paler. His wife, made anxious by his melancholy +and silence, and wondering whither he +went, had him watched, and soon discovered +the truth. Taking a varlet with her, she went +to the chapel, and there discovered the beautiful +maiden, looking like a new-blown rose, and at +once guessed the cause of her husband’s sadness +and gloom. As she sat watching and weeping +out of sheer pity, a weasel ran from behind the +altar and passed over the body of Guilliadun, +and the varlet struck it with a stick and killed +it. Then its mate came in and walked round it +several times, and finding that it could not rouse +it, made sign of great sorrow and ran out into +the wood, and returning with a red flower +between its teeth put it into the mouth of its +dead companion, which within an hour came +to life again. Guildeluëc, seeing this, seized the +flower and laid it in the mouth of the maiden, +who after a short time sighed and opened her +eyes. Then she told Guildeluëc that she was +a king’s daughter, and had been deceived by a +knight called Eliduc, whom she loved, and who +returned her love, but who had hidden from her +that he was already married. Guildeluëc thereupon +made known to her who she was, and sent +at once for her husband. When he came, she +begged him to build a nunnery, and to allow +her to retire from the world, as she would fain +give herself to the service of God. When the +nunnery was ready, Guildeluëc took the veil, +with some thirty nuns, of whom she became the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +Superior. Then Eliduc wedded his love, and +after some years of happiness they too resolved +to retire from the world, Guilliadun joining +Guildeluëc, who received her as a sister, and +Eliduc going to a monastery which he had +founded near by.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + +<p>In this charming romance, given here in +epitome only, the two most interesting points, +after noting the mutual suffering of the lovers +for love’s sake, are the episode of the sacrifice +to the sea, and that of the weasel and the life-giving +flower. Both these incidents point to +the great antiquity of the fundamental theme +of the story, which Marie, possibly like many +another before her, merely reclothed in garments +suited to the fancy of the time. In most stories +where the sea has to be appeased by the sacrifice +of some one, it is the guilty person who is thrown +overboard, or if the offender is not known, lots +are cast to determine who shall be the one to +make expiation to the god. In the present +instance Eliduc is clearly the wrong-doer, but +he is the hero, and must be treated as such, and +accordingly the hostile voice is the one to be +silenced in the depths of the sea.</p> + +<p>The other incident—the restoration to life by +means of a flower or a herb—frequently occurs +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>in classical stories and folk-lore.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> Perhaps the +most familiar example, and, owing to the recent +excavations in Crete, the most interesting one, +is that connected with Glaucos, son of Minos, +king of Crete. In the story (Apollod. iii. 3) +Glaucos when a boy fell into a cask of honey +and was smothered. His father, ignorant of his +fate, consulted the oracle to ascertain what had +become of him, and the seer Polyeidos of Argos +was named to discover him. When he had +found him, Minos shut Polyeidos up in the +tomb with the dead body of the boy until +he should restore the latter to life. Whilst +Polyeidos was watching the body, a serpent +suddenly came towards it and touched it. +Polyeidos killed the serpent, and immediately a +second one came, which, seeing the other one +lying dead, disappeared and soon returned with +a certain herb in its mouth. This it laid on the +mouth of the dead serpent, which immediately +came to life again. Polyeidos seized the herb +and placed it on the mouth of the dead boy, +who was thereupon restored to life.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 558px;"><a name="glaukos" id="glaukos"></a> +<img src="images/i052.jpg" width="558" height="350" alt="GLAUKOS AND POLYEIDOS IN TOMB." title="Glaukos and Polyeidos" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Photo. Macbeth.</i></p> + +<p class="caption">GLAUKOS AND POLYEIDOS IN TOMB.</p> + +<p class="illoaut">Greek Vase, Brit. Mus.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 52.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>This story is most graphically depicted on a +fifth-century Greek vase in the British Museum, +and, whatever its real interpretation may be, it +has gained in significance since the life of the +distant past of the island has been laid bare, and +large jars, which in all probability were used for +storing wine and honey and other necessaries, +and from their size and contents might well +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>have proved a snare to a venturesome and greedy +boy, have been discovered <i>in situ</i>. After a lapse +of many centuries we find this idea of the life-giving +plant reappearing in mediæval garb, +daintily fashioned by Marie de France.</p> + +<p>Marie, in her story, tells us that the weasel +brings a <i>red</i> flower. This was possibly the +verbena, well known in folk-medicine as vervain, +and much used in the Middle Ages. According +to one writer, the weasel uses vervain as a +preservative against snake-bites, and this idea of +its effect might easily have been extended to +include death. Even so great an authority as +Aristotle mentions that the weasel understood +the potent effects of certain herbs. The intervention +of a weasel instead of the usual serpent +opens up the further interesting question as to +whether this weasel incident was not imported +from India, where Greek stories had become +alloyed with Indian lore. Even to-day, in +India, a mongoose, a species of weasel, is sometimes +taken on expeditions by any one fearful +of snakes, and kept at night in the tent as a +protection against them.</p> + +<p>In addition to the choice of a weasel as +medium, the unusual colour of the flower is also +of interest. Giraldus Cambrensis, writing in +the twelfth century on the subject of weasels, +after remarking that they have more heart than +body (<i>plus cordis habens quam corporis</i>), goes on +to say that they restore their dead by means of a +<i>yellow</i> flower, and in the still earlier record of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +the Lydian hero Tylon, where a serpent is the +intermediary—and serpents are often credited +with a knowledge of life-giving plants,—reference +is made to a <i>golden</i> flower.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> This may +possibly be connected with the idea of the life-giving +power of the god, since the golden flower +is dedicated to Zeus. Professor J. G. Frazer +thinks that a red flower may perhaps have been +chosen to suggest a flow of blood—an infusion +of fresh life into the veins of the dead. It is +also possible that red and yellow may have been +interchangeable terms, just as they are to-day +amongst the Italian peasantry. The choice of +colour may, however, have been derived from +the red anemone, which is said to have sprung +from the blood of Adonis, with whom love and +life are traditionally associated. There are some, +on the other hand, who ascribe to the story a +deep spiritual meaning. With them it is not +the flower itself which brings about resurrection +from apparent death, but the spiritual truth of +which the flower is but the outward symbol. +It may be that the red blossom represents the +joys of earth which Eliduc’s wife voluntarily +renounces, and which, surrendered to her rival, +in time became like a burning thing whose fiery +touch awakens to life the sleeping conscience. +In a story such as this, which has evidently +travelled far and wide before we find it in +England in the eleventh century, it is possible +that any or all of these surmises may be true. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>The whole of this incident of the weasel and the +flower, read in the original, is of extraordinary +interest and beauty. What a touching picture +of animal sensibility is the account of the despair +of the weasel on finding its dead mate, and its +tender display of solicitude and sympathy, raising +the lifeless head and trying to reanimate the +small inert body! Only one who loved animals +and knew their habits well could have told thus +tenderly and graphically a story so simple, yet +so suggestive, of the love of two sentient things, +a love which runs like a thread of gold through +all creation and makes it one.</p> + +<p>The twelfth century was an age of humanism +as well as feudalism. As often happens in times +of comparative peace, a growth of interest in +the individual was springing up and finding +expression in lyric poetry and stories. The day +of epics was waning. Those vast and involved +poems, like to huge and complex frescoes, found +little favour at a time when men and women, or +at least women, had more leisure and inclination +to try to get below the surface of things. Heroes +had been glorified till they had almost become +deified, and something more personal, more +individual, was wanted. By the side of modern +romance, where the most sacred and secret intricacies +of human nature are, as it were, displayed +under the microscope, Marie’s narrations may +seem somewhat artless. But in putting into +words the dawning desires of her time she +gave form and impetus to feeling and thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +struggling for expression, and gained for her +work a definite place in the development of +human utterance. Evolution, whether of the +spirit or of matter, is the supreme law of things. +Marie struck a spark from the ideal which poets +and writers down the ages have fanned into a +flame.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Marie thus refers to Count William:— +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Pur amur le cumte Willaume,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Le plus vaillant de cest royaume,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">M’entremis de cest livre feire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E de l’Angleiz en Roman treire.”<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Warnke. <i>Die lais der Marie de France</i>, p. lxiii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Marie de France, <i>Seven of her Lays</i>, trans. E. Rickert, 1901; +Warnke, <i>Die lais der Marie de France</i>, Halle, 1885; Hertz, <i>Spielmannsbuch</i>, +1905.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Compare with this the bed of “King Fisherman” described in +<i>Holy Grail</i>, vol. i. p. 137, trans. Sebastian Evans, 1898.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Hertz, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 396.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> This mention of Salerno is of interest on account of the +reference to women practising there as medical experts. The +origin of the School remains in obscurity, and it is not until the +ninth century, when the names of certain Salerno physicians appear +in the archives, that we get any definite information with regard +to it. It seems to have been a purely secular institution, but it is +quite possible that its development was aided by the Benedictines, +who became established there in the seventh century, and who +made medical science one of their principal studies. Before the +middle of the eleventh century there were many women there +who either practised medicine or acted as professors of the science, +and some of the latter even combined surgery with medicine in +their teaching and treatises. These women doctors were much +sought after by the sick, and were much esteemed by their brother-professionals, +who cited them as authorities. That the sexes were +on an equal footing we infer from the fact that the title of “master” +(Magister) was applied to men and women alike, the term “doctor” +not having come into use, apparently, before the thirteenth +century. Besides the general practitioners and the professors, +there were others who fitted themselves specially for military +service, as well as priests who added medical knowledge to their +holy calling. The teaching followed that of Hippocrates and Galen, +and the Salerno school was world-renowned in the art of drug +preparation. In the thirteenth century, however, Arab medical +writings began to be known in Europe through Latin translations, +and Arab practice in medicine, though based on Greek teaching, +initiated a new departure. As a result of this, the glory of Salerno +waned. Another cause of its decline in fame and popularity was +the founding by the Emperor Frederick the Second of a school of +medicine at Naples, which he richly endowed, and the rise, unencumbered +by old traditions—for medicine, like scholasticism, +could be hampered by dialectical subtlety—of the school of +Montpelier.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> M. Gaston Paris (<i>Poésie du Moyen Age</i>, vol. ii.), in recalling +various legends of “Le Mari aux deux femmes,” suggests that the +present story, borrowed by Marie from Celtic tradition, is probably +of Occidental, and not Oriental, origin, since in the polygamous +East the story of two wives would not have furnished a sufficient +motive for a special narration.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Warnke, <i>op. cit.</i> civ.; Hertz, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 409.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> J. G. Frazer, <i>Adonis, Attis, Osiris</i>, p. 98.</p></div> +</div> + + +<h2><a name="A_THIRTEENTH-CENTURY_MYSTIC" id="A_THIRTEENTH-CENTURY_MYSTIC"></a>A THIRTEENTH-CENTURY MYSTIC +AND BEGUINE,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span><br /> +MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG</h2> + + +<p class="ni"><span class="smcap">The</span> triumphant ecclesiasticism of the thirteenth +century, manifested in the forms of political +power, material wealth, splendid architecture, +and worldly positions sufficiently commanding to +satisfy even the most ambitious, was, perhaps +naturally, accompanied by a gross materialism. +Against this the truly pious-minded revolted, +thereby causing a reaction towards mysticism. +Whilst before the eyes of some there floated, as +the ideal, the material ladder leading to fame +and power, before those of others there arose, as +in a vision, the “Ladder of Perfection,” each +rung of which gained brought them nearer +to the object of their quest—Divine Reality. +These latter, whether of great, or lesser, or even +of no renown, and amongst whom women played +a great and very notable part, were scattered far +and wide; but each one cultivated some little +corner of the mystic garden. One such garden +was the Cistercian convent of Helfta, near +Eisleben, in Saxony, in the thirteenth century a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +centre of mystic tendencies. It was here that, +harassed and ill, Mechthild of Magdeburg took +refuge, and entered as a nun in 1270. But we +are anticipating.</p> + +<p>Mechthild, at first a beguine, and afterwards +a nun, but a visionary from the days of her +childhood, was born, most probably of noble +parents, in the diocese of Magdeburg, in 1212. +That she is perhaps better known to the general +reader than are other contemplatives of her day +is probably due to the suggestion that she may +be the Matilda immortalised by Dante in the +“Earthly Paradise” (<i>Purg.</i> xxviii. 22 <i>seq.</i>), +rather than to her own writings. This may be +partly because the personality of that supreme +visionary and poet tended, as does all superlative +genius, to cast a shadow over the lesser lights of +both earlier and later times, and partly because, +although Mechthild’s works were early translated +into Latin, she wrote in Low German. +Though this original MS. has not yet been +found, there exists one, translated into High +German in 1345 at Basle (a centre of the +“Friends of God”) by the Dominican, Heinrich +von Nördlingen, by which Mechthild’s work +has been made known to us, but the language +even of this proves a very real stumbling-block +to the most strenuous student. Still, by recording +her thoughts and visions in the language +of her country and her day, she gained a lay +audience, a result which would have been hardly +possible if she herself had been a classic. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +though no classic—for she says Latin was difficult +to her—she evidently, as her work shows, +grew up under the influence of courtly life, and +knew the language of minstrels. She tells us +that her mind was turned to the spiritual life +when she was but twelve years of age, and that +from that time worldly glory and riches became +distasteful to her. Like the visionary and Saint, +Theresa of Avila, of 300 years later, she took +into her confidence her younger brother, Baldwin, +who later, perhaps under her influence, became +a Dominican. What we know of her, we know +from her writings, which exist in the above-mentioned +unique MS. (No. 277) now in the +monastery Library of Einsiedeln, a foundation +south of the Lake of Zurich, and still one of the +most famous of pilgrim resorts. In seeking to +know more of the history of this MS. we get a +most interesting and intimate glimpse of the +methods in religious centres in bygone days, +when MSS. were few. In quite early times—how +early is not known—there dwelt in the +valleys round about Einsiedeln certain devout +women-recluses, who later lived, as a community, +in four houses, and, ultimately, in a convent. +They were called “Forest Sisters,” a name +which may well express the poetry and peace +of their life and surroundings. Whilst they +were still living in the detached houses, the +MS. was, through Heinrich von Rumerschein of +Basle, sent by Margaret of the Golden Ring, a +beguine of that town, to the one called “The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +Front Meadow.” Heinrich addresses the gift +“To the Sisters in the Front Meadow.” “You +shall know that the book that is sent by her +of the Golden Ring is called <i>The Light of the +Godhead</i>, and to this you shall give good heed. +It shall also serve in all the houses of the wood, +and shall never leave the wood, and shall remain +a month in each house. Also it shall go from +one to another as required, and you shall take +special care of it. Pray for me who was your +Confessor, though, alas, unworthy.”</p> + +<p>In 1235, at the age of twenty-three, +Mechthild—not without many a heart-pang, and +prompted to this determination by a troubled +conscience, a determination doubtless brought +about by the preaching of the Dominican friars, +who were stirring all classes by their impassioned +zeal—left her home and went to Magdeburg, +where she entered a settlement of beguines. +These settlements, semi-monastic in character, +were provided to afford some protection, by +living in community, for women who, whilst +devoting themselves to a religious life, did not +wish to separate themselves wholly from the +world. It was at the time of the Crusades, +when the land teemed with desolate women, +that their numbers increased so greatly, and the +first beguinage was founded about the beginning +of the thirteenth century. The beguine took no +vows, could return to the world and marry if +she so desired, and did not renounce her property. +If she was without means, she neither<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +asked nor accepted alms, but supported herself +by manual labour or by teaching the children of +burghers, whilst those who were able to do so +spent their time in taking care of the sick or in +other charitable offices. Each community, with +a “Grand-Mistress” at its head, was complete in +itself, and regulated its own order of living, +though, later, many of them adopted the rule of +the Third Order of St. Francis.</p> + +<p>Mechthild tells us that she knew but one +person in Magdeburg, and that even from this +one she kept away for fear lest she might waver +in her determination. In this very human way +she indicated that her spiritual adventure was +no easy matter to her, as, indeed, it could not be +so long as her temperament and ideals were at +variance. But gradually, she says, she got so +much joy from communion with God that she +could dispense with the world. As has been +well said, “La loi des lois c’est que tout morceau +de l’univers venu de Dieu retourne à Dieu et +veut retourner à lui.”</p> + +<p>The book of her writings, which, under +divine direction as she opens by saying, she calls +<i>The Flowing Light of the Godhead</i>,<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> is composed +of seven parts, of which six appear to have +been written down during the time she was a +beguine at Magdeburg, and were collected and +arranged by a Dominican friar, Heinrich von +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>Halle, whilst the seventh, consisting of sundry +visions and teachings during the last years of her +life, was put together just before her death at +Helfta in 1282, and, as she pathetically adds, +“by strange eyes and hands.” In all of these, +whilst reflecting in them her inmost feelings, she +expresses her entire dependence on spiritual help +and inspiration. “The writing of this book,” she +says, “is seen and heard and felt in every limb. +I see it with the eyes of my soul, and hear it with +the ears of my eternal spirit, and feel in every +part of my body the power of the Holy Ghost.”</p> + +<p>The general tenor of her writings is contemplative +and prophetic. Whilst, as a contemplative, +she reminds us of Suso, as a reformer, +proclaiming her prophetic warnings, she recalls +to us St. Hildegarde, though the latter was a +more astute and powerful reasoner. It would +seem as if, in general, there are two conflicting +tendencies in minds such as Mechthild’s, a tendency +to tradition—in her case, of course, church +tradition—and a tendency to definite self-expression. +With Mechthild it was certainly that of +self-expression which predominated, for whilst, +with her, both co-operated to make a beautiful +whole, it was in detail and ornament, so to +speak, rather than in the design itself, that she +showed her special qualities and gifts. Further, +as a mystic, she may be classed with those “for +whom mysticism is above all things an intimate +and personal relation, the satisfaction of a deep +desire,” and who therefore fall back “upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +imagery drawn largely from the language of +earthly passion,” as opposed to the mystic whose +“longing is to go out from his normal world in +search of a lost home, a better country,” as well +as to the one whose “craving is for inward +purity and perfection.”<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> + +<p>In order to enter into the spirit of her +writings, and particularly the prophetic ones, +it is necessary to consider how the character and +style of her work was induced and affected, on +the one hand by her environment and her time, +and on the other by her saintly nature and +poetic temperament, as well as by her intimate +and personal attitude towards things touching +the inner life.</p> + +<p>The world, in Mechthild’s day, was in a +state of unrest and of looked-for change. Mankind +was ever haunted by forebodings of the +approaching happening of something momentous. +Whole-hearted faith in the Church was waning, +and although outward conformity still prevailed, +there existed very diverse opinions, tolerated so +long as they did not become too obtrusive. +Prophetic writings, giving expression to the +yearnings of the time—yearnings fomented and +fostered by the prevailing misery caused, in no +small degree, by the wars between Pope and +Emperor—taught that the world was on the +brink of a new era. One of the most influential +of these writings, entitled <i>The Eternal Gospel</i>, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>and said to embody the revelations of Abbot +Joachim of Flora (1130-1202), proclaimed that +the dispensations of God the Father and God +the Son—the first two eras of the Church—were +past or passing, and that these would be +succeeded by a third era—that of the Holy +Ghost—when men’s eyes would be opened by +the Spirit, and when there would be a time of +perfection and freedom, without the necessity +of disciplinary institutions. In this fair age it +was the hermits, monks, and nuns who, whilst +not superseding the rulers of the Church, were +to lead it into new paths, for to Joachim the +visible Church could not, where all is moving, +remain unchanged, and his counsel was, to keep +pace with the advancing world. Naturally such +sentiments aroused ecclesiastical alarm, and, later, +were condemned by the fourth Lateran Council +(1215), though Dante, withal a good son of the +Church, made bold to see in Paradise the +“Abbott Joachim, endowed with prophetic +Spirit” (<i>Par.</i> xii. 140).<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> When Mechthild +wrote her predictions on the last days, Joachim’s +teachings, owing to the stir which their unorthodoxy +had created—not only in the Church +and amongst the preaching friars, but also in the +University of Paris, whence all manner of +polemical discussions freely circulated—were +well known in Germany, and there can be but +little doubt that Mechthild knew of them, probably +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>from the Dominicans, who found special +favour in her sight, and that they greatly +influenced her own prophetic warnings to the +Church.</p> + +<p>From these objective conditions which, whilst +influencing Mechthild’s own thoughts and works, +might and did, however differently, influence +the work of others as well, we turn to the +consideration of her work as the expression of +her own poetic soul, welling up from depths +filled with love for the highest and most divine +things. Before all else we recognise how richly +endowed she was with visionary powers and +poetic feeling. She revels in beautiful fantasies, +as, for instance, when she says, “If I were to +speak one little word of the choirs of heaven, it +would be no more than the honey that a bee can +carry away on its feet from a full-blown flower.” +With rapture she touches upon the deepest +questions of the soul’s life, and the highest +truths and mysteries of belief, so that in her +flights of contemplation her prose becomes +poetry, impelled, like some torrent, by the rush +of her emotion.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O thou God, out-pouring in thy gift!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O thou God, o’erflowing in thy love!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O thou God, all burning in thy desire!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O thou God, melting in union with thy body!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O thou God, reposing on my breast!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Without Thee, never could I live.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="ni">But even so, she does not lose the sense of form +or of the picturesque. Some of her writings are +clothed in language recalling the Song of Songs,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +and are, perhaps, echoes of St. Bernard’s sermons +on that wondrous allegory of the Spiritual Bridegroom +and Bride, as when, in a transport, and +attempting to express how God comes to the +Soul, she exclaims—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I come to my Beloved<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like dew upon the flowers.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="ni">Others suggest reflections of courtly life and +poetry, and at the same time seem to anticipate +pictures of the Celestial Garden, bright and +blossoming, where Saints tread in measured +unison, symbolic of their spiritual felicity and +harmony. So with her didactic writings, or +with her predictions concerning the decay and +corruption in the Church, in which, like some +prophet of old, she declaims against such evils in +no sparing terms, all alike are fraught with a +special grace. In them all the most intimate +and the most sublime meet in one expression—the +expression of a soul which sees God in all +things, and all things in God.</p> + +<p>During the thirty years which Mechthild +spent as a beguine at Magdeburg, she lived an +austere life, and one beset with difficulties, +largely created by the fearless way in which she +warned and denounced those in high places +in the Church. In such denunciations she was +not alone, or without good example, for—to +name two only of those who stand out pre-eminently +on account of their positions and +personalities—St. Bernard and St. Hildegarde<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +had both sternly denounced the evils in the +Church. “The insolence of the Clergy,” says +St. Bernard, “troubles the earth, and molests +the Church. The Bishops give what is holy to +the dogs, and pearls to swine.” But the poor +beguine, Mechthild, was not in the same powerful +position to stay, or even to modify, the resentment +which her attacks occasioned. “For +more than twenty years was I bound with thee +on a hideous gridiron,” she writes, likening her +anguish to that of St. Lawrence. Nevertheless +solace came to her troubled spirit, for, having +been warned that it had been said of her writings +that they deserved to be burnt, she tells how she +prayed to God, as had been her wont when in +trouble, and that He told her not to mistrust her +powers, since they were from Him, and that no +one can burn the Truth.</p> + +<p>In many passages Mechthild dwells on the +clergy, and her reflections—some very practical, +others, to those not versed in symbolism, very +quaint—seem to suggest how grievously lacking +she considered them to be. Writing in God’s +name to a canon, she begins by saying that we +should, in common with all men, give thanks to +our Heavenly Father for the Divine gift which +day by day, and without ceasing, pours forth +from the Holy Trinity into sinful hearts, and +then she quaintly adds, “For that it soars so +high, the Eagle owes no thanks to the Owl.” +Furthermore, she calls upon the priest to pray +more, to pay his debts in full, and to live<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +simply, and thus, with humble heart, to set a +good example, and, with many other admonitions, +she also counsels him to have two rods +by his bedside, so that he may chastise himself +when he awakes. Mechthild adds that she +asked of God how such an one could keep +himself without sin in this earthly state, and +that God made answer: “He shall keep himself +always in fear, like a mouse that sits in a trap +and awaits its death. When he eats, he shall be +frugal and meek, and when he sleeps, he shall +be chaste, and alone with Me.”</p> + +<p>Touching upon some of the duties of a prior—and +here she shows herself eminently practical—she +writes: “Thou shalt go every day to the +infirmary, and soothe the sick with the solace +of God’s word, and comfort them bounteously +with earthly things, for God is rich beyond all +richness. Thou shalt keep the sick cleanly, and +be merry with them in a godly manner. Thou +shalt also go into the kitchen, and see that the +needs of the brethren are well cared for, and that +thy parsimony, and the cook’s laziness, rob not our +Lord of the sweet song of the choir, for never +did starving priest sing well. Moreover, a hungry +man can do no deep study, and thus must God, +through such default, lose the best prayers.” +From advice to the priesthood, Mechthild turns +to warning, and pours forth her reproaches +and forebodings with poetic intensity. “Alas, +O thou Crown of Holy Christendom, how +greatly hast thou lost lustre! Thy jewels are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +fallen out, since thou dost outrage and bring +dishonour on the holy Christian vows. Thy +gold has become tarnished in the morass of +unchastity, for thou art become degenerate, and +art lacking in true love. Thy abstinence is +consumed by the ravenous fire of gluttony, thy +humility is drowned in the slough of the flesh, +thy word no longer avails against the lies of the +world, the flowers of all the virtues have fallen +from thee. Alas, O thou Crown of the holy +Priesthood, how diminished thou art, and verily +thou now possessest naught but priestly power, +with the which thou fightest against God and +His elect. For this will God humble thee, ere +thou learnest wisdom. For thus saith the Lord: +‘My shepherds of Jerusalem have become murderers +and wolves, for that they slay before My +very eyes the white lambs, and the sheep are all +sickly for that they may not eat of the wholesome +pasture that grows on the high mountains, +the which is godly love and holy doctrine.’ He +who knows not the way that leads to Hell, let +him give heed to the unholy clergy, who, with +wives and children and many heinous sins, go +straightway thither.”</p> + +<p>Whilst condemning the priesthood, Mechthild +eulogises nunnery life in an allegory entitled +“The Ghostly Cloister,” in which she pictures +the virtues as dwelling. “Charity” is the abbess, +who with zeal takes care of the congregation in +both body and soul; “Godly Humility” is the +chaplain; “The Holy Peace of God” is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +prioress; and “Loving Kindness” is the sub-prioress. +“Hope” is the chantress, filled with +holy, humble devotion, that the heart’s feebleness +may sound beautiful in song before God, so that +God may love the notes that sing in the heart; +“Wisdom” is the schoolmistress, who with all +good-will teaches the ignorant, so that the +convent is held holy and honoured; “Bounty” +is the cellaress; “Mercy” the stewardess; and +“Pity” the sick-nurse. The provost, or priest, +is “Godly Obedience,” to whom all these +virtues are subject. “Thus does the convent +abide in God, and happy are they who dwell +therein.”</p> + +<p>From this spiritual abode of the virtues we +turn to one of Mechthild’s earliest recorded +visions—that of Hell, with its flame and flare. +Whilst Death was perhaps man’s first mystery, +the Hereafter has been his endless pre-occupation. +Whatever his country or his time, he has +ever sought to lift the veil which hides the +future, portraying his vain efforts in symbol. +In Mechthild’s time her world was engrossed +with thoughts and speculations concerning the +Hereafter, for Death, which at the end of +the next century was to take dramatic and +pictorial form in the weird and all-embracing +“Dance of Death,” although its earliest known +poetic form is of 1160, ever hovered near in +pestilence, war, and tumult. Whilst some expressed +themselves in carved stone, or on painted +wall, others, as did Mechthild, realised their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +visions and ideas in a wealth of word-pictures. +Such visions and ideas had accumulated adown +the ages, varying but slightly one from another, +and Mechthild, in making use of this stereotyped +material, only took from, or added to, the general +sum. Yet even so, she contrives to make her +personality felt. She begins: “I have seen a +place whose name is Eternal Hatred.” Lucifer, +farthest removed from the source of Light, forms +the foundation-stone, and around him are arranged +the deadly sins. Above him are the Christians, +then the Jews, and, farthest removed from Hell’s +dire depths, the Heathen. Horror upon horror +follows, like those pictured a hundred years +before by Herrad von Landsperg, abbess at +Hohenburg, in Alsace, and, fifty years later, by +Dante, and when she concludes by saying that, +after seeing the terrors of Hell, all her five senses +were paralysed for three days, as if struck by +lightning, it is significant that Dante tells that, +overwhelmed with sorrow for the lovers, doomed +for ever to be borne upon the winds, he “fainted +with pity ... and fell, as a dead body falls.”</p> + +<p>It is with a sense of relief that we leave such +sad scenes, to glance at her vision of Paradise, +although it does not follow in this sequence in +her recorded revelations, for, as seems fitting, it is +one of the very latest. Calling it “a glimpse of +Paradise,” she says that “of the length and breadth +of Paradise there is no end.” Then she continues—and +this is especially interesting because it is in +this opening that some commentators have seen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +the connecting link with Dante<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a>—that between +this world and it, she came to a spot—the Earthly +Paradise—where she saw trees and fresh grass +and no weeds. Some of the trees bore apples, +but most of them sweetly scented leaves. Swift +streams flowed through it, and warm winds were +wafted from the north. The air was sweeter +than words can tell. Here, she adds, there were +no animals or birds, for God has reserved it for +mankind alone, so that he may dwell there undisturbed. +This seems to strike a strange note +coming from the poetess Mechthild. How +different is her sentiment from that of her +brother-mystic, St. Francis, to whom the birds +were his “little sisters,” and who “loved above +all other birds a certain little bird which is called +the lark.” But though, with apparent satisfaction, +Mechthild saw no birds, she did see Enoch and +Elias, and greeted the former by questioning him +as to how he came there. Holy Writ has supplied +the only answer, “He walked with God, +and he was not, for God took him.” Having +spoken thus of the Earthly Paradise, Mechthild +goes on to tell of the Heavenly, where she sees, +“floating in rapture, as the air floats in the +sunshine,” the souls which, though not deserving +of Purgatory, are not yet come into God’s +kingdom, and to whom rewards and crowns +come not until they enter that kingdom. She +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>then concludes by saying that “all the kingdoms +of this world shall perish, and the earthly and +the heavenly Paradise shall pass away, and all +shall dwell together in God”—the Empyrean +of Dante, where he “saw ingathered, bound by +love in one volume, the scattered leaves of all +the universe; substance and accidents and their +relations, as though together fused, after such +fashion that what I tell of is one simple flame.”</p> + +<p>In her very varied writings many beautiful and +suggestive thoughts are to be found, as, for instance, +when “Understanding” converses with “Conscience,” +and accuses Conscience of being at the +same time both proud and humble, and Conscience +explains that she is proud because she is in touch +with God, and humble because she has done so +few good works. And again, when “Understanding” +and “the Soul” hold converse. Understanding, +desirous of knowing everything, asks +the Soul why such brilliant light radiates from +her, and the Soul replies by inquiring why +Understanding asks this, seeing that she is so +much wiser than the Soul. When Understanding +would still penetrate the unspeakable +secrecy between God and the Soul, the Soul +refuses to answer, since, as she explains, to her +alone is given union with God, to which Understanding +can never attain. Or, again, when +Mechthild, telling how the Soul, no longer led +by the Senses, but leading them to the desired +goal, says, “It is a wondrous journey along +which the true soul progresses, and leads with it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +the senses, as a man with sight leads one who +is blind. On this journey the soul is free and +without sorrow, since it desires naught but to +serve its Lord, who orders all things for the +best.”</p> + +<p>Of Prayer, which to her was “naught else +but yearning of soul,” she says, “It makes a +sour heart sweet, a sad heart merry, a poor +heart rich, a dull heart wise, a timid heart bold, +a weak heart strong, a blind heart seeing, a cold +heart burning. It draws the great God down +into the small heart, it drives the hungry soul +out to the full God, it brings together the two +lovers, God and the soul, into a blissful place, +where they speak much of love.”</p> + +<p>Again, in a spirit of self-examination, she +writes: “What most of all hinders the +spiritually-minded from full perfection is, that +they pay so little heed to small sins. I tell +you, of a truth, that when I abstain from a +laugh that would hurt no one, or hide some +soreness of heart, or feel a little impatience at +my own pain, my soul becomes so dark, and my +mind so dull, and my heart so cold, that I am +constrained to pray heartily and long, and humbly +to make confession of all my faults. Then grace +comes again to wretched me, and I creep back +like a beaten dog into the kitchen.”</p> + +<p>But all these and kindred thoughts pale +before her discourses on love. Love was the +keynote of her life. She was born a poetess; +she became a saint. How sorely she strove<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +towards this end, and spent herself in conflict +between self-control and ecstasy, no words can +tell. It was only when Purgation’s way was +partly trod, and she had “found in Pain the +grave but kindly teacher of immortal secrets,” +that she could say, “Lord, I bring Thee my +treasure, which is greater than the mountains, +wider than the world, deeper than the sea, +higher than the clouds, more beautiful than +the sun, more manifold than the stars, and +which outweighs all the earth.” Then asks +the voice of God: “How is this thy treasure +called, oh Image of my Divinity?”</p> + +<p>“Lord, it is called my heart’s desire. I +have withdrawn it from the world, kept it to +myself, and denied it to all creatures. Now no +longer would I carry it. Lord, where shall I +lay it?”</p> + +<p>“Nowhere shalt thou lay thy heart’s desire +save in My own Divine heart. There only +wilt thou find comfort.”</p> + +<p>Love and knowledge, the two aspirations of +the soul after ultimate truth, are her frequent +theme. Sometimes she contrasts Love with the +knowledge of the understanding: “Those who +would know much, and love little, will ever +remain at but the beginning of a godly life. +So we must have a constant care how we may +please God therein. Simple love, with but +little knowledge, can do great things”; sometimes +with the knowledge of the heart—“To +the wise soul, love without knowledge seems<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +darkness, knowledge without fruition, the very +pain of Hell. Fruition can be reached only +through Death.” In one of her visions she, +in an exquisite simile, describes how love flows +from the Godhead to mankind, penetrating both +body and soul. “It goes without effort,” she +says, “as does a bird in the air when it does not +move its wings.” In the same vision she sees +the Holy Mother, with uncovered breasts, +standing on God’s left hand, and Christ on the +right, showing his still-open wounds, both +pleading for sinful humanity, and she adds that +as long as sin endures on earth, so long will +Christ’s wounds remain open and bleeding, +though painless, but that after the Day of +Judgment they will heal, and it will be as though +there was a rose-leaf instead of the wounds.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> + +<p>Of Love, as she conceived it in relation to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>herself individually, she can never write enough. +“I also may not suffer that any single comfort +move me, save my love alone. I love my +earthly friends in a heavenly fellowship, and I +love my enemies with a holy longing for their +salvation. God has enough of all good things, +save of union with the soul.”</p> + +<p>But where Mechthild seems to strike an +original note for her time is in her insistence +on God’s craving for the soul, as well as the +soul’s craving for God. We find the same +insistence in Meister Eckhart, who followed +her closely in time, and perhaps, in this respect, +in thought also. “God needs man,” says +Eckhart, quite simply. And again, “God can +do as little without us as we without Him.” +With Mechthild it is from ecstasy to ecstasy +that “heart speaks to heart.” Says the soul of +Mechthild: “Lord, Thou art ever sick of love for +me, and that hast Thou Thyself well proved. Thou +hast written me in the Book of the Godhead. +Thou hast fashioned me after Thine own image. +Thou hast bound me hand and foot to Thy side. +O grant it to me, Beloved, to anoint Thee.”</p> + +<p>“Where wilt thou get thine ointment, dear +one?”</p> + +<p>“Lord, I will tear my happy heart in twain, +and lay Thee therein.”</p> + +<p>“It is the most precious ointment thou +couldest give Me, that I should evermore hover +in thy soul.”</p> + +<p>Further God says: “I longed for thee ere<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +the world was. I long for thee, and thou +longest for me. When two burning desires +come together, then is love perfected.”</p> + +<p>Sometimes the loving soul traverses a dark +way, and cries out in desolation and despair: +“Lord, since Thou hast taken from me all that +I had of Thee, yet of Thy grace leave me that +gift which every dog has by nature—that in +my distress I may be true to Thee, without any +ill-will. This do I truly desire more than all +Thy heavenly kingdom.”</p> + +<p>And Divine Love makes answer: “Sweet +Dove, now list to me. Thy secret seeking must +needs find me, thy heart’s distress must needs +compel me, thy loving pursuit has so wearied +me, that I long to cool myself in thy pure soul +in the which I am imprisoned. The throbbing +sighs of thy sore heart have driven my justice +from thee. All is right between me and thee. +I cannot be sundered from thee. However far +we are parted, never can we be separated. I +cause thee extreme pain of body. If I gave +myself to thee as oft as thou wouldst, I should +thus deprive myself of the sweet shelter I have +in thee in this world.”</p> + +<p>Again the soul cries out—but now discomfited +by the Divine Love from whose tireless quest +there is no escape—“Thou hast pursued and +captured and bound me, and hast wounded me +so deeply that never shall I be healed. Thou +hast given me many a hard blow. Tell me, +shall I ever get whole from Thee? Shall I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +not be slain by Thee? Thus would it have +been better for me if that I had never known +Thee.”</p> + +<p>Then answers Love: “That I pursued thee +gave me delight. That I made thee captive +was my desire. That I bound thee was my +joy. When I wounded thee, then did I become +one with thee. Thus I give thee hard blows +so that I may be possessed of thee. I drove +Almighty God from His heavenly kingdom, and +took from Him His mortal life, and have restored +Him with honour to His Father. How canst +thou, poor worm, save thyself from me?”</p> + +<p>Of all Mechthild’s visions, there is none +that seems to reach a greater height of supreme +beauty than that in which the loving soul learns +the way to its Divine Lover. It is strangely +reminiscent of courtly life and courtly poetry, +translated into the ecstatic state, and etherealised +into the very perfume of spirituality as the soul +becomes one with God. Having passed the +distress of repentance, the pain of confession, +and the labour of penance, and having overcome +the love of the World, the tempting of the +Devil, and its own self-will, the soul, weary, +and longing for her Divine Lover and God, +cries out: “Beautiful Youth, I long for thee. +Where shall I find thee?”</p> + +<p>Then says the youth: “I hear a voice which +speaks somewhat of love. Many days have I +wooed her, but never have I heard her voice. +Now I am moved. I must go to meet her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +She it is who bears grief and love together. +In the morning in the dew is the most intimate +rapture which first penetrates the soul.”</p> + +<p>Then speak her Chamberlains, which are the +live senses: “Lady, thou must adorn thyself. +We have heard a whisper that the Prince comes +to meet thee in the dew, and the sweet song of +the birds. Tarry not, Lady.”</p> + +<p>So she puts on a shift of gentle humility, so +humble that nothing could be more so, and over +it a white robe of pure chastity, so pure that +she cannot endure thoughts, words, or desires +which might stain it. Then she wraps herself +in a cloak of holy desire, which she has wrought +in gold with all the virtues. So she goes into +the wood, which is the company of holy people. +The sweetest nightingales sing there, day and +night, of the right union with God. She tries +to join in the festal dance, that is, to imitate +the example of the elect. Then comes the +youth and says to her: “Thou shalt dance +merrily even as my Elect.” And she answers: +“I cannot dance, Lord, if Thou dost not lead +me. If Thou wilt that I leap joyfully, Thou +must first Thyself sing. Then will I leap for +love, from love to knowledge, from knowledge +to fruition, from fruition to beyond all human +senses. There will I remain, and circle evermore.”<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p> +<p>Then speaks the youth: “Thy dance of +praise is well done. Thou shalt have thy will, +for thou art heartily wearied. Come at mid-day +to the shady fountain, to the bed of love. There +shalt thou be refreshed.”</p> + +<p>Then, weary of the dance, the soul says to +her Chamberlains, the senses: “Withdraw from +me, I must go where I may cool myself.”</p> + +<p>Then say the senses: “Lady, wilt thou be +refreshed with the loving tears of St. Mary +Magdalene? They may well suffice thee.”</p> + +<p>“Be silent, sirs; you know not what I mean. +Hinder me not. I would drink for a space of +the unmingled wine.”</p> + +<p>“Lady, in the Virgin’s chastity the great +love is reached.”</p> + +<p>“That may be. For me it is not the +highest.”</p> + +<p>“Lady, thou mightst cool thyself in the +martyrs’ blood.”</p> + +<p>“I have been martyred many a day, so that +I have no need to come to that now.”</p> + +<p>“Lady, bright are the angels, and lovely +in love’s hue. Wouldst thou cool thyself, be +lifted up with them.”</p> + +<p>“The bliss of the angels brings me love’s +woe unless I see their Lord, my Bridegroom.”</p> + +<p>“Lady, if thou comest there, thou wilt be +blinded quite, so fiery hot is the Godhead, as +thou thyself well knowest, for the fire and the +glow which make heaven and all the holy +ones burn and shine, all flow from His divine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +breath, and from His human mouth, through +the wisdom of the Holy Ghost. How couldest +thou endure it for an hour?”</p> + +<p>And the soul answers: “The fish cannot +drown in the water, the bird cannot sink in the +air, gold cannot perish in the fire, where it +gains its clear and shining worth. God has +granted to each creature to cherish its own +nature. How can I withstand my nature? +I must go from all things to God, who is my +Father by Nature, my Brother through His +Humanity, my Bridegroom through Love, and +I am His for ever.”</p> + +<p>Silenced by this wondrous flight of holy +passion, we bid farewell to Mechthild. She +lived for her time, and she lives for us, as one +of “humanity’s pioneers on the only road to +rest.” “Out of the depths,” she cried to Heaven. +We leave her in the music of the spheres.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> P. Gall. Morel, <i>Offenbarungen der Schwester Mechthild von +Magdeburg, oder das fliessende Licht der Gottheit</i>, Regensburg, +1869.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> For the suggestive elaboration of this threefold classification, +see Evelyn Underhill, <i>Mysticism</i>, chap. vi. p. 151 <i>seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Cf. Edmund G. Gardner, <i>Joachim of Flora and the Everlasting +Gospel</i>. Franciscan Essays, Bri. Soc. of Fran. Studies, extra series, vol. i.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> The tendency of present-day Italian scholarship seems in +favour of identifying Mechthild of Hackeborn, rather than +Mechthild of Magdeburg, with Dante’s Matelda.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> The first of these subjects—the Holy Mother and Christ +pleading for sinners—is to be found in a miniature in King Henry +VI.’s Psalter (Brit. Mus. Cotton MS. Domitian. A. xvii. <i>circ.</i> +1430, fol. 205), and the two intercessions separately form two of the +subjects in the <i>Speculum Humanae Salvationis</i> (fourteenth century). +Though the <i>S.H.S.</i> is of later date than the time of Mechthild +the literary source of the subject appears to be a passage in the +<i>De laudibus B.M.V.</i> of Arnaud of Chartres, abbot of Bonneval +1138-1156 (J. Lutz and P. Perdrizet, <i>Spec. Hum. Sal.</i> vol. i., +Mulhouse, 1907), which might quite well have been known to +her, especially if, as Messrs. Lutz and Perdrizet consider, the <i>S.H.S.</i> +was written by a Dominican, who would naturally make use of +Dominican teaching and tradition, and we know that Mechthild, +even if not, as has been suggested, a tertiary of that Order, was +in constant and close touch with it. The second subject, the +reference to rose-leaves and Christ’s wounds, seems to be a purely +original thought, and one amongst the many fascinating ideas that +have centred round the rose ever since Aphrodite anointed the +dead body of Hector with rose-scented oil (<i>Iliad</i>, xxiii. 186).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> It may be recalled that Dante (<i>Par.</i> xxiv.) sees the Saints in +Paradise as circling lights from whence issues divine song, and +again (<i>Par.</i> xxv.) “wheeling round in such guise as their burning +love befitted.”</p></div> +</div> + + +<h2><a name="A_FOURTEENTH-CENTURY" id="A_FOURTEENTH-CENTURY"></a>A FOURTEENTH-CENTURY<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span><br /> +ART-PATRON AND PHILANTHROPIST,<br /> +MAHAUT, COUNTESS OF ARTOIS</h2> + + +<p class="ni"><span class="smcap">It</span> has been well said that “out of things +unlikely and remote may be won romance and +beauty.” Perhaps the truth of this reflection +has never been more signally exemplified than +in the case of Mahaut, Countess of Artois and +Burgundy, the record of whose life, in the +absence of any contemporary biographer, has +been ably deciphered from such commonplace +material as the household accounts of her +stewards.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> This great lady, one of the greatest +patrons of art of her time, lived at the end of the +thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth +century. She was a great-niece of St. Louis. +No poet has sung of her. It is merely through +the prose of daily expenditure that she is made +known to us. She stands before us, not the +ideal creation of the mediæval romancer, but a +real woman, with her virtues and failings, her +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>joys and sorrows, real by very reason of this +union of contrasts, a woman trying to grapple +with difficulties forced upon her by her position, +and by an age when intrigue and cunning were +as freely resorted to, and as deftly handled, as +the sword and the lance.</p> + +<p>Mahaut was the daughter of Robert the +Second, Count of Artois, a valiant and chivalrous +man, and of Amicie de Courtenay, of whom it +was said that she was esteemed whilst she lived, +and mourned of all when she died. Her brother, +Philip, predeceased his father, leaving one son, +Robert. In accordance with local custom, +Mahaut, on the death of her father, inherited +Artois, but her nephew, Robert, on attaining +his majority at the age of fourteen, set up a +counter-claim. This family feud was a constant +source of trouble and vexation to her, since +Robert again and again returned to the attack, +not only appealing to the king to consider his +cause, and fabricating spurious documents as a +means of gaining his end, but also employing +unscrupulous agents to spread false charges +against her. He further took advantage of the +growing discontent amongst the nobles, who +were gradually realising that their power was +waning, to attach them to his cause, and to +induce them to join him in harassing Mahaut +by making raids upon her lands and her +castles. She, however, through her extraordinary +personality, was able to triumph over +all this opposition, which, far from marring,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +only seemed to add lustre to the work she had +set herself to do.</p> + +<p>Mahaut was religious, artistic, and literary. +All these characteristics, together with the +circumstance of wealth, she inherited, and right +well did she make use of her inheritance.</p> + +<p>Being religious, and living in an age when the +frenzy for crusading had subsided and when architecture +was the ruling passion, she expended her +zeal in building religious houses and hospitals.</p> + +<p>Being artistic, she made her favourite castle +at Hesdin, and the town around its walls, a +centre of art life. Here, seemingly, she favoured +all the arts, including to a certain extent music, +then still in its infancy, for although she +apparently had no regular minstrel or minstrels +in her employ as was customary in the houses +of the noblesse, she seems to have engaged them +for Church festivals and sundry fêtes, and we +know that on one occasion she hired a minstrel +to soothe her sick child with the sweet soft +music of the harp, thus suggesting that she +herself had felt the power of music to minister +to both body and soul.</p> + +<p>Being literary, Mahaut collected what MSS. +and books she could, and the list of them serves +to show what might be found in a library of the +early fourteenth century. Her religious books +included a Bible in French,<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> a Psalter, a Gradual, +various Books of Hours for private devotion, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>Lives of the Saints and of the Fathers, and the +Miracles of Our Lady. Philosophy was represented +by a French translation of Boëthius +(probably a copy of a translation made by order +of King Philip le Bel, by Jean de Meun, the +writer of the second portion of <i>The Romance of +the Rose</i>), Law by a verse translation of the laws +of Normandy, History by the Chronicles of the +Kings of France, and Travel by <i>The Romance +of the Great Kan</i>, known to us as <i>The Travels +of Marco Polo</i>. But by far the largest category +consisted of Romances, such as that of Oger le +Danois from the national Epic, and another of +Tancred, a hero of the first Crusade, the Romance +of Troy, Percival le Gallois, Tristan, Renart, and +the Violet, the story which forms the chief +episode in the play of Cymbeline. Of course +there was no great choice, but that Mahaut read +them and loved them we may be certain, since +we know that she took some with her on her +journeyings, and to preserve them from the wear +and tear of travel, had leather wallets made to +protect them. Mahaut was, in truth, the first +wealthy individual of the age to spend her +substance with the express purpose of surrounding +herself with beauty of every kind. The +foremost thought of a man in a like case would +probably have been to add to his power. <i>Her</i> +thought was of beauty, a quality much more far-reaching +and less transient, and one which, even +like Time itself, triumphs over the changes of +fame and fortune.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p> + +<p>Though Mahaut did not live the allotted +three score years and ten, she lived long enough +to see seven kings on the throne of France, two +of whom—Philip the Fifth and Charles the +Fourth—were her sons-in-law. She was a mere +child when her great-uncle, King Louis, died in +1270. In 1285, the year in which Philip the +Fourth, surnamed le Bel, ascended the throne, +she wedded Otho, Count Palatine of Burgundy, +a widower of forty-five, a companion in arms of her +father, and a brave and generous man, who died +fighting for his country, but one absolutely incapable +in administration, and, as a consequence, +always in debt and in the clutches of the usurer. +There are few documents to throw any light on +her life until after Otho’s death in 1303. This +may be due partly to the fact that she only came +into her great possessions on her father’s death in +1302, and partly to the circumstance that the +careless and luxurious expenditure of her husband +in no small degree dissipated her resources, and +naturally prevented, for the time, any material +encouragement of art. Doubtless also much of +her time was spent in superintending the education +of her children—two daughters who were +destined to marry kings of France, and a son who +was born a peer of the realm, and inheritor of +one of its richest territories. But adverse fate, +by the disgrace of one of her daughters, and the +death of her son, intervened to darken these +brilliant prospects, and forms a grey background +to her otherwise wonderful and glorious career.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p> + +<p>The more the life of this remarkable woman +is studied, the more apparent it becomes that +what gives it its peculiar charm and worth is +the sense she possessed of the value of all human +endeavour, whether in great things or in simple. +To her the humblest matters of home life, and +the affairs connected with the administration of +her domains, had each their particular significance. +The ordering of a small grooved tablet +on which her little boy could arrange the letters +of the alphabet claimed her attention equally +with the founding and arranging of a hospital. +In her capacity as ruler we see the same wide +and reasonable outlook on life, for whilst strict +as an administrator, in personal relations she +was charitable and sympathetic. Sometimes a +rebellious baron was deprived of his fief and +banished, or was condemned to expiate his misdeed +by making a pilgrimage to sundry shrines. +But Mahaut was practical withal, and recognised +human frailty, and as the pilgrimage was for +correction, no pardon was granted unless the +offender brought from each of the sanctuaries +a certificate that his vow had been fulfilled. +On the other hand, if any were sick or in +trouble, she was solicitous for their relief, and +even aided them personally where possible. She +thus put into practice the charge of her saintly +kinsman, King Louis the Ninth, who always +counselled those about him to have compassion +on all mental or physical suffering, since the +heart may be stricken as well as the body.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p> + +<p>As Mahaut had no biographer, and contemporary +history merely treats her as if she were +one of many pawns on a chess-board, her +stewards’ entries furnish the only materials from +which we can weave some outline of her life, +an outline, nevertheless, which enables us to +reason somewhat concerning her inner life, the +pattern, as it were, that is not wrought for the +world.</p> + +<p>When, in 1302, Mahaut took over the reins of +government in Artois, Paris was the great centre +of art and literature as well as of the science of +the day, a condition largely due to the genius +of Philip Augustus, and fostered by succeeding +kings. Thither, from far and near, flocked +scholars, poets, and artists alike. Some of these +took up their abode permanently within its +walls. Others passed to and fro, thus creating +that constant interchange of thought which is +essential to vitality, so that it was said that “the +goddess of Wisdom, after having dwelt in Athens +and Rome, had taken up her abode in Paris.” +There, at least twice a year, came Mahaut to +her sumptuous dwelling, the Hôtel d’Artois, +situated near the Temple, and extending with +its gardens and its outbuildings to the walls +built by Philip Augustus. Here all who loved +the arts and learning were made welcome, and it +is interesting to think it possible, nay even probable, +that during one of her many sojourns there +she may have met and talked with Dante.</p> + +<p>Amongst the special treasures to be found<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +there, mention is made of four figure-pictures, +one of which is said to have been of Roman +workmanship, and round in form—certainly, as +far as is known, a rarity at that time. We also +find a record of finely wrought embroideries and +tapestries on the walls, and of windows painted +either with armorial bearings and figures, or with +simple foliage like the delicate ivy and hawthorn +to be seen enriching the pages of Books +of Hours of the fourteenth century. Special +mention is made of a window, evidently over +the altar in the private Chapel, in which was +represented the Crucifixion. In the large hall +were tables on trestles, easily removed before the +dance began or minstrels or jugglers displayed +their skill, dressers to hold the gold and silver +plate and from which to serve the banquet, and +settles with footboards so necessary when the +rushes were only renewed at lengthy intervals. +But if the hall was somewhat sparsely furnished, +its ceiling and walls (the latter on occasions +hung with embroideries carried from castle to +castle as the Countess journeyed) were made +bright with colour, and beautiful with design. +How bright, and how beautiful, we can infer +almost with certainty from examples in the +Castle of Chillon of thirteenth and fourteenth +century decoration lately rescued from under a +coat of whitewash,<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> and from the comparison +made by Brunetto Latini (1230-1294), in his +<i>Tesoro</i>, of the Italian with the French feudal +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>castle, in which he says of the one that it is only +built for war, with ditches, palisades, and high +towers and walls, and of the other that it lies in +the midst of meadows and gardens, <i>with large +painted chambers</i>.</p> + +<p>Mahaut’s cousin, the cold and impersonal +Philip le Bel, was on the throne. For the +most part war had ceased in the land, but still +there was war in high places, for Philip, +avaricious by nature, and finding himself a +king under altering conditions—the Papacy +fallen into disregard, the Nobility weakened, +and the Nation growing, but without any adequate +provision made to meet the needs of this growth—left +no stone unturned to supply this want +and gratify his greed. On the question of the +subsidies of the clergy and the relation between +things spiritual and temporal, he quarrelled with +the Pope, Boniface the Eighth, and brought +about the removal of the Holy See from +Rome to Avignon. He robbed and ruined the +Templars, and despoiled the Jews and Lombards, +the financiers of the day. With him no trickery +was too base, no cruelty too cold-blooded. +Gold was his God. Dante, who was his contemporary, +refers (<i>Purg.</i> vii. 109) to “his wicked +and foul life” (<i>la vita sua viziata e lorda</i>), and +(<i>Par.</i> xix. 118) to his “debasement of the +coinage” (<i>falseggiando la moneta</i>), as well as to +his self-seeking greed. Such, with the added +glamour of art and learning, was the courtly +atmosphere of the Time. The bourgeoisie,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +encouraged by the king who sought to aggrandise +the monarchy at the expense of the nobles, +was growing rich, and politically gaining in +power, and Philip ere long discovered that he +had helped merely to change the centre of +power, and not to crush it.</p> + +<p>But Paris does not seem to have attracted +Mahaut as did her castle at Hesdin. Here she +was in the midst of her own domains, surrounded +by her liegemen and retainers, and able to be in +constant touch with her artificers and workers, +whatever their art or industry. By the thirteenth +century the dwelling of the Noble was no longer +a grim castle, suggestive only of a place of +defence, with narrow slits in the walls for the +admission of air and light and for the discharge +of arrows, but was more like a fortified country-house. +The encompassing walls enclosed a wide +area, within which was sheltered a village and +everything necessary to the growth and development +of a community.</p> + +<p>From Hesdin Mahaut journeyed constantly +through her County of Artois, visiting her +castles, the towns or villages around them, and +the various religious houses and hospitals she +had founded, and attending in general to the +well-being of her subjects. For her it was not +enough that she was born to reign. She realised +that, without administration, reigning through +the accident of birth is mere puppet’s work, and +leads to naught. Her daily life was the visible +expression of this belief, as she herself was an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +example of the woman who comprehends the +just proportion between personal and public +work. That her subjects responded to her +sympathy, and held her in affectionate regard, +is proved by their kindly and sympathetic concern +if she were ill or on a journey, and by the +offerings they made to her on special anniversaries +and other festive occasions. We read of +gifts not only of herrings, sturgeon, game, wine, +dogs, peacocks, swans, pasties, and whipped cream, +but also of the strangely assorted tribute of a +dead bear and twelve cheeses, as well as of one +which must have contrasted pleasantly with this +sundry and singular good cheer—a parrakeet in +a beautifully painted cage. Mahaut, as we have +said, was a constant traveller, and though travelling +was then no easy matter, the roads could +not have been over-much beset with difficulties +seeing that she journeyed in all weathers, either +on horseback or in a horse-litter, or in a chariot +without springs, and with no mean retinue. In +truth, her following was like a glorified Canterbury +pilgrimage. First came the Countess, accompanied +by one or more knights, her ladies-in-waiting, +her chaplain and confessor, her +physician, her secretary, her treasurer and +steward, and sundry petty officers of her household. +Then followed the servants, the cook +with his scullions, the shoemaker who could +also do necessary repairs to the harness, the +laundress riding astride as was the manner of +serving-women, and a score of lackeys and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +dependants of all sorts in charge of the carts +containing the necessaries of travel. These +necessaries were generally packed in wooden +coffers, some of which were simple chests, +whilst others opened like a cupboard and were +fitted with drawers. To preserve such coffers +from damp and damage, they were put into osier +cases covered with cow-hide. And with all this +motley company and baggage, there are but few +records of accidents. The accounts tell of a +small occasional expenditure in consequence of +the breakdown of a chariot, or the fall of a valet +from his horse, or the upsetting into a river of a +cart conveying the Countess’s wardrobe. But +such misadventures were not taken very seriously +by these folk, seasoned to discomfort. Valet or +chariot was mended, or the floating garments +were recovered, and on went the easy-going +company, singing by the way, and with horns +blowing as they neared some castle or village +where a halt was to be made for the night. +The absence of any mention of the removal of +furniture from castle to castle during these +periodical wanderings, save a small bed for +Mahaut’s own use, leads us to infer that greater +luxury then prevailed than in the days of her +great-uncle, Louis the Ninth, when even Royalty +itself thought it no hardship to have beds and +other necessary pieces of furniture carried by +beasts of burden from place to place according +to the movements of the Court. This frugal +and homely custom on one occasion very nearly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +ended in a tragedy. The devout Isabelle, Louis’s +sister, was praying in the early morning, as was +her wont, within her curtained bed, and either +lost in prayer or overcome with fatigue by the +length of her orisons, did not notice the arrival +of the packers, who rolled up the bed without +drawing the curtains, and the praying Princess +within must have been smothered had not her +lady-in-waiting, Agnes de Harcourt, heard her +stifled cries, and hastened to her rescue. This +quaint episode so amused Louis, that he ever +after recounted it when telling of the piety of +his sister.</p> + +<p>Let us now go in imagination to the Castle +of Hesdin, and see something of its treasures and +of the daily life of the Countess Mahaut.</p> + +<p>Soon after her accession to Artois, her two +daughters married sons of King Philip le Bel, +and her little son, Robert, then became her +principal care. A little boy of noble family had +been chosen as his companion to share in his +education and to join with him in play. It would +seem that the two were treated on an absolute +equality, even to having their doublets cut from +the same piece of cloth, and their tunics and +cloaks trimmed with the same fur. Beyond +their ordinary lessons, they were early taught +the games of tables and chess, both of which +were considered essential to a knight’s education. +They also rode to the chase and attended tournaments, +and at the age of fourteen themselves +held the lance as part of their training in the art<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +of war. Robert seems to have been of a most +inquiring and intelligent nature, but when he +had scarce passed his seventeenth year, Mahaut, +with scant warning, saw this her only son +stricken in death just as he was about to enter +the ranks of knighthood. In the archives of +Arras, the Capital of Artois, may be found a +discoloured parchment containing the inventory +of the equipment provided for the youthful +Robert in anticipation of his initiation. What +sorrow is enshrined in these faded pages! It is +not sorrow for death, but the bitterer sorrow for +something that has never lived, or, rather, that +has lived only in the heart, like spring blossom +blighted ere fruiting-time. In the Church of +St. Denis, where modern restoration has but +emphasised the transitoriness and vanity of +human glory, there can still be seen the tomb of +this youth, carved soon after his death by Pepin +de Huy, and once painted, as was all such carved +work. Even to the mere student it is interesting +as being the only existing monument that can +with certainty be attributed to this celebrated +sculptor, and also as being, in Gothic art, one of +the first essays in portraiture in recumbent figures +of the dead, as contrasted with mere effigy. For +the deeper thinker it has even greater significance. +Of all the good and great works that +Mahaut conceived and initiated—the churches, +castles, hospitals, which she built and enriched +for the glory of God and the safety and solace of +mankind—all have passed away. This simple<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +tomb alone remains. But its very simplicity +is eloquent, for around it there seems to hover +that never-dying spirit of love and goodness and +beauty to which, throughout her life, Mahaut +contributed in such large measure, and which +was her real and lasting gift to the world.</p> + +<p>Life as mirrored in the Castle records gives +little else than a pleasing picture of Mahaut’s +relations with all her dependants, as well as with +those with whom she was connected, whether +by ties of friendship, of politics, or of the +common courtesies of life. Her immediate +household was naturally her first care. Twice a +year, at Easter and All Saints, a distribution was +made of cloth and furs. Some of these, fine and +costly, were for those in personal attendance on +the Countess, whilst others were in the nature +of liveries. Others, again, of still coarser make, +such as Irish serge, with sheep or rabbit skin for +warmth in winter, were given to those of lowly +service or who had specially rough work to +perform. Her ladies-in-waiting, of whom there +were always two or three, appear to have received +for their services no money payment, but, over +and above the cloth and fur already alluded to, +gifts, on special occasions, of girdles and satchels +(very often jewelled), gold chaplets, and gold +and silver braid, jewelled, and used for twining +in the hair. In addition to this, presents of +jewels and silver cups were made to them by the +noble ladies who came to stay with the Countess, +just as she, on her part, presented similar gifts to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +those who accompanied her guests. How well +we can picture to ourselves these maidens (for +such is all they were), decking themselves in +their girdles and jewelled braid, comparing their +gifts, and perhaps even standing on some oaken +bench the better to get a view of their finery, +for the mirrors were small, and the girdles were +long, and could not otherwise be seen in all +their glory. When they married, the Countess +made gifts to them without stint, not only of +the beautiful and the needful for their wardrobes, +but also of household goods, and sometimes, +when she knew their parents or kinsmen to be +too poor to provide the usual dowry, even of a +sum of money. To the retainers also we find +the same kind and helping hand held out. If +any were sick they were taken care of, and, if +needs be, sent to some place where they could +the better be cured, as we read of one who, +suffering from gout, was sent to take healing +waters. To another retainer was given the +necessary money to pay for his son on entering +a monastery, another receiving the wherewithal +to go to his native village to attend his mother’s +burial. Old servants, past work, were cared for +in the monasteries or hospitals, or given some +post suitable to their years. To a poor knight +was given money to enable him to buy a good +horse and armour, for poverty of purse was no +disgrace in the thirteenth century. At the +beginning of winter a distribution, organised by +the clergy and stewards of the rural communities<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +in Artois, but superintended by the Countess +herself, was made to the poor of blankets, +garments, and shoes, and so arranged that the +same person did not receive the like gift two +years in succession. In truth, no details seemed +too small, none too onerous, for Mahaut’s untiring +solicitude. She had heart and brain for +everything. It is these intimate touches which +make the time so living and present to us, and +which seem, as it were, to place this wonderful +woman in a charmed and tranquil circle, in spite +of the trouble and turmoil incidental to her life +and her position.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 577px;"><a name="mahaut" id="mahaut"></a> +<img src="images/i099.jpg" width="577" height="400" alt="STATUE OF MAHAUT IN ABBEY OF LA THIEULOYE, NEAR ARRAS, NOW DESTROYED." title="Drawing of the statue of Mahaut" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Photo. Macbeth.</i></p> + +<p class="caption">STATUE OF MAHAUT IN ABBEY OF LA THIEULOYE, NEAR ARRAS, NOW DESTROYED.</p> + +<p class="illoaut">From a Drawing, now in Brussels, made in 1602.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 99.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>Amongst Mahaut’s many good works was +the keeping in repair of existing religious houses, +hospitals, and lazar-houses, and the building and +maintenance of new ones. Of all the religious +houses which she founded, her special care was +for the Dominican convent of La Thieuloye, +near Arras, the equipment of which, as set out +in the accounts, may well serve as an example of +that of the others. The items for the furnishing +and instalment of the house and chapel +include everything needful for the community, +from gold and silver vessels, silver-gilt images of +St. Louis, the Trinity, and St. John, for the +sanctuary, and samite and velvet for chasubles, +down to the bowls and platters for the nuns, +the woollen material for their garments, and all +the simple necessaries of everyday life. In the +chapel of this nunnery was preserved a kneeling +statue of Mahaut, representing her as foundress,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +in the habit of the Order strewn with the arms +of Artois. Jean Aloul, of Tournai, has been +suggested as the sculptor, since it is known +from the accounts that he was working for the +Countess at Arras in 1323. This statue (known +to us through a drawing, now at Brussels, made +in 1602) is of interest to-day because, judging +from the character expressed in the face, it +seems probable that it was a portrait, and not +simply imagery. This conjecture seems all the +more likely when we compare the statue with a +miniature painted more than a hundred years +later by Jean Fouquet in <i>Les Grandes Chroniques +de France</i> (Bib. Nat.), portraying the marriage +of King Charles the Fourth with his second +wife, Marie de Luxembourg. In this picture a +lady, heavily coiffed, and with features suggestive +of those of the statue, but with anguish written +upon them, turns away from the ceremony as if +it were all too painful. If this unwilling guest +represents Mahaut, her woeful look is intelligible +when we recall the sad story connected with +Charles’s first wife, Mahaut’s daughter Blanche, +married when she was but fifteen, and whose +beauty was so dazzling that Froissart records +that “she was one of the most beautiful women +in the world.” Accused of an intrigue with a +gentleman of the Court, she was imprisoned in +the Château-Gaillard, where she remained, with +shorn head, until, shortly after Charles ascended +the throne, the Pope declared the marriage null. +Then, whilst the king wedded another, the sad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +Blanche exchanged her castle prison-house for a +convent one, where she died a year after she had +taken the vows. There is no reason for supposing +that Mahaut was at the wedding of Blanche’s +successor save in the imagination of the artist; +but for him the inclusion of such a tragic figure +would add a dramatic touch to the representation +of an otherwise conventional ceremony.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="lebel" id="lebel"></a> +<img src="images/i100.jpg" width="450" height="542" alt="MARRIAGE OF CHARLES LE BEL AND MARIE OF LUXEMBURG." title="Charles le Bel and Marie of Luxemburg" /> + +<p class="caption" style="margin-top: 0.5em">MARRIAGE OF CHARLES LE BEL AND MARIE OF LUXEMBURG.</p> + +<p class="illoaut">Grandes Chrons. de France, Bib. Nat.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 100.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>It almost takes us aback to read that in +Mahaut’s domain of Artois there were at least +eighty hospitals and thirty lazar-houses, without +counting those attached to the monasteries. But +these numbers will not surprise us so much +when we remember that almost every small +community had its little hospital, used not only +for the sick and as a lying-in hospital, but also +as a shelter for the poor and the pilgrim. In +the towns they were often built and supported +by the Corporations or by rich merchants. +Evidently some were in the nature of hospitals +for incurables, for there were special clauses +in the deeds of gift providing that a certain +specified number of beds were to be kept for +the sick until they were either cured or released +by death. Besides building two hospitals in +the County of Burgundy in fulfilment of the +dying wishes of her husband, Mahaut built and +maintained two in her own County of Artois. +The one at Hesdin was the more important, +and we can get some idea of it from the documents +of the time. The deed relating to it +tells that over the large entrance gate there was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +carved in stone a figure of St. John, the patron +of hospitals and of the needy generally, with a +poor man and woman on either side of him. +The principal ward was 160 feet long and +34 feet wide, with walls 16 feet high ending in +a gabled roof, with two windows in each gable, +and this, coupled with the fact that the sick +were sometimes laid on cushions by the open +windows, goes to show that what we pride +ourselves on as a special discovery in modern +hygiene—the benefit of fresh air—was known +and applied even in what we are wont to consider +a very benighted age in such matters.</p> + +<p>Whilst touching upon such a subject as this, +it may be a surprise to some to learn that in +large towns baths were provided for those who +could not afford to have them in their own +homes, and that there were also professional +women hair-washers.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="sloanems" id="sloanems"></a> +<img src="images/i103.jpg" width="400" height="547" alt="THIRTEENTH-CENTURY TREATISE ON SURGERY, IN FRENCH." title="Treatise on Surgery, Sloane MS." /> + +<p class="caption" style="margin-top: 0.5em">THIRTEENTH-CENTURY TREATISE ON SURGERY, IN FRENCH.</p> + +<p class="illoaut">Sloane MS. 1977.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 103.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>But to return to the hospital. On one side +of the ward were ten windows, each four feet +square, and on the opposite side was a large +door leading into the cloister with its garden, +where the convalescents and the old people, +whilst sheltered, could enjoy the sunshine and +see the flowers and the birds. In addition to +this there was a smaller ward for women, a +chapel, a kitchen, and a room for the matron, +as well as accommodation for the resident doctor, +Maître Robert, and the serving-women. It is +some consolation to think that these poor suffering +folk of centuries ago were even thus well<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +tended, but when we look at contemporary +representations of the surgery of the day,<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> we +tremble at the mere thought of the heroic +methods adopted. Besides the actual necessaries +which she provided for the hospital at Hesdin, +Mahaut constantly sent gifts of fish, game, and +wine. Similar gifts she likewise made to the +hospitals in Artois generally, as well as to those +in Paris, and, on fête-days, to the poorer religious +houses.</p> + +<p>From her beneficence to the sick and sorry, +the aged and the poor, we turn to her hospitality +to her relations and friends, and to all those in +spiritual or temporal authority in the towns +or villages of Artois. The Castle of Hesdin, +destroyed in the sixteenth century—only a few +stones remaining to mark the site,—was situated +a few miles from the present modern town of +Hesdin. It must have been not only a scene +of constant festivity and social intercourse, and +a treasure-house withal, but also a veritable hive +of industry, with workers and workshops within +the Castle enclosure as well as in the town +nestling beneath its walls. Here might be +found artists and craftsmen of all sorts and +degrees—sculptors and workers in stone, ivory-workers, +wood-carvers, carpenters, artificers in +silver and precious stones as well as in copper, +forgers of iron, painters of wall-decoration, +stonework, saddle-bows, and even masquerading-masks, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>illuminators of MSS., workers and +painters of glass, harness-makers, armourers, +tailors, and embroiderers—the whole forming a +rare and remarkable centre of activity for a +woman to have developed and ruled and made +into a living force.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="minstrels" id="minstrels"></a> +<img src="images/i104.jpg" width="500" height="512" alt="BANQUET, WITH MINSTRELS PLAYING, AND ROOM HUNG +WITH EMBROIDERY." title="Banquet with minstrels, MS. Romance of Alexander" /> + +<p class="caption" style="margin-top: 0.5em">BANQUET, WITH MINSTRELS PLAYING, AND ROOM HUNG +WITH EMBROIDERY.</p> + +<p class="illoaut">MS. Romance of Alexander, 14th century, Bodleian, Oxford.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 104.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>It is a fête-day within the Castle. The +horns have sounded. The feast is ready. To +the great hall repair the knights and the ladies, +the esquires and the damsels, two and two, +according to their rank, dipping their hands, +as they pass in, into silver basins of rose-water. +They are gorgeously apparelled in silken garments +and cloth of gold and silver, upon which are +embroidered their coats of arms, for by the +end of the thirteenth century armorial bearings, +which by then had become attached to families, +were used as a sign of nobility and rank. +Mahaut, as hostess, takes her seat last. Adown +the table are specimens of silver-plate, some the +work of her own craftsmen, others the offerings +of friendship or of courtesy. They are fashioned +variously, and used for sweetmeats of all kinds, +spices, almonds, and dainties made of orange +and pomegranate. A favourite form is that of +a ship, such as may be seen in <i>Les Très Riches +Heures</i> of Jean, Duc de Berri, at Chantilly, in a +representation of a feast given by the Duke. +There are, besides, salt-cellars and sauce-boats, +flagons and drinking-cups, and a bowl between +every two guests, from which they eat, handing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +each other dainty morsels. Such, with a knife +and a spoon for each, is their equipment for the +meal, for none, save the carver, has both knife +and fork. In a corner of the hall is a basket +for the broken-meats destined for the poor, a +leathern sack being also provided for foods with +gravy or sauce. Neither at festivals nor in +daily life would a meal have been considered +complete if the poor were not remembered. +Perhaps a messenger arrives during the feast +with the news of a birth or a marriage in +Mahaut’s circle of relations or friends, and he +is rewarded with a gift of money, and possibly +receives a silver cup to carry back to the nurse, +or a jewelled chaplet to take to the bride. +Meanwhile the music of trumpets, drums, viols, +and flutes resounds from the minstrels’ gallery. +Later, when the feast is ended, and before the +company disperses to walk in the garden if it +is spring or summer, or to look at the beautiful +things in the castle, or to dance or sing or play +chess if it be winter, some one perchance chants +a plaintive ditty to the music of the regal, or +some knight tunes his harp and sings of valiant +deeds, or, may be, of some peerless lady.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="harl4425" id="harl4425"></a> +<img src="images/i105.jpg" width="450" height="572" alt="Harl. MS. 4425, Brit. Mus." title="Manuscript 4425" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Photo. Macbeth.</i></p> + +<p class="illoaut"><span class="smcap">Harl.</span> MS. 4425, <span class="smcap">Brit. Mus.</span></p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 105.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>But let us look at the rooms of the Castle +and their beautiful contents—the paintings and +embroideries on the walls, the ivories, and the +illuminated Psalters and MSS. And let us go +first into the Countess’s own room, which doubtless +was near the chapel. We can form some +idea of its decoration and contents from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +accounts, and of its probable arrangement from +contemporary plans, illuminated MSS., and +pictures. Its walls were adorned with a frieze +composed of heads of the kings of France, +moulded in plaster and surmounted by crowns +of gilded or lacquered tin, below which, on a +coloured ground, were fastened fleurs-de-lis, +likewise of tin similarly treated. At the end of +the room was a bed, a large wooden structure +surrounded by a footboard and laced across with +cords on which were laid mattresses, a feather +bed (sometimes, if we may judge from miniatures, +used during the day as a seat on the floor), +many cushions, linen or silk sheets, and a fur-lined +coverlet. From rods on the ceiling hung +curtains which completely enclosed it at night, +but which were drawn back and looped up +during the day, when the bed was used as a +divan. At night a small oil lamp with a floating +wick was hung within the curtains, and +near the bed was a <i>bénitier</i>. At the side, +separated by a narrow space, there were fixed +seats for the accommodation of those who interviewed +the Countess before she rose. There +was a large open fireplace with a bench in front +of it which had a movable back, so that the +occupant could sit either facing the fire or with +his back to it. Close by were wickerwork fire-screens, +capable of being raised or lowered at +will. Against the walls there were carved +chests, enriched with colour, and chairs with +leather seats and wickerwork backs, as well as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +three-legged and folding stools, were placed +about the room. At one side of the room was +a large oak chair of state with a cushioned seat, +and possibly canopied, and close to it a lectern, +with hinged candle-brackets, from which Mahaut +could the more easily read her MSS., which +were often rolled, and difficult to manipulate. +In front of this seat was a table, at which any +messengers or retainers stood when they sought +an interview, or the Countess demanded one. +Here also she transacted with her stewards and +other agents the business connected with her +various castles and her many philanthropic +undertakings. Other rooms were painted in +plain colour, and hung on special occasions with +embroideries and tapestries. Others, again, were +decorated with set designs, square or zigzag, in +imitation of brickwork, such as may be seen in +the Chapel of St. Faith, Westminster Abbey, or +with subjects or colour after which they were +named. Thus we find mention of the “Parrakeet” +room, from the birds painted on the walls, +the “Blue” room, from its colour, the rooms of +“Roses,” of “Vines,” and of “Fleurs-de-lis,” +the room of “Shields,” from its frieze of +armorial bearings, and that of “Song,” from +verses traced on the walls, taken from the +favourite pastoral of “Robin and Marion,” and +probably associated with little scenes from the +same idyll. The ceilings, with beams and joists +painted red, were coloured either green or blue, +and strewn with tin stars coated with yellow or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +white varnish to simulate gold or silver. The +lower portions of the walls were often painted +in imitation of short curtains, sometimes of but +one colour, sometimes gorgeously decorated, +but in either case reminiscent of the real +draperies hung on festal days. Immediately +above there might have been, as in other +examples, a border painted with coats of arms, +or with a foliated design interspersed with +mottoes.</p> + +<p>During Mahaut’s lifetime this decorative +work seems to have been undertaken principally +by one special family or community of artists +from Boulogne, of which a certain “Jacques” +was the leading spirit. In those days artist +and craftsman were one and the same. It was +the quality, and not the particular subject, of +the work that mattered, and thus we find that +the painting of a parrot’s cage, or of the shafts +of a litter, was not considered derogatory for +even the most skilled to undertake. From the +accounts it would seem that linseed oil was used +to mix with the colours, cherry gum or white +of egg being added to make them dry more +quickly. Payment for work was made three +times a year—at Candlemas, Ascension-tide, and +All-Saints—or by the day or piece, the last +being the form preferred by the business-like +Mahaut. Besides such payment, presents were +occasionally given for specially fine work, and, +if a man was married, a gift to his wife of a +gown, or of a cloak with fur, was sometimes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +added. One of this company of Boulogne artists +later on became Court-painter to the Dukes of +Burgundy, and took with him not only his +trained apprentices from the towns and villages +of Artois, and from those bordering on Flanders, +but also, doubtless, certain traditions. It is such +early migrations of artists, when schools were +forming, that have helped to create the difficult +problems which confront the student of all early +schools of art.</p> + +<p>Of embroidery there was such profusion +that it is indeed no exaggeration to say that the +needle vied with the sword. There were not +only wall and bed hangings, embroidered with +flowers to brighten winter days, cloaks, gowns, +and tunics patterned with gold thread and +coloured silks, and beaver hats wrought with +gold lace and pearls and sometimes precious +stones, but also girdles, satchels, purses, and +pennons resplendent with heraldic device, and +caparison and harness for the horses. From the +East were brought velvets, silks, and stuffs interwoven +with gold and silver thread, and used not +only for personal adornment, but also for vestments, +Church-hangings, and the coverings of +litters. As regards tapestry as we understand +it—<i>i.e.</i> woven in a <i>high</i> warp loom—there is +apparently no definite mention of its being made +at Arras before 1313, so that the numerous +allusions to tapestry must refer to stuffs woven +in the <i>low</i> warp loom. These stuffs would +seem to have been of two kinds, the one woven<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +with some simple pattern, the other with +heraldic designs of animals or other conventional +forms copied from Oriental models. Hence the +term “Saracenic” applied to both the workers +and their handiwork.</p> + +<p>In order to realise the Ivories which were +probably to be seen in the Castle of Hesdin, we +must go to the Louvre or the British Museum, +where may be found a few rare examples of the +work of the period, such as caskets carved with +scenes from the life of Christ or the Virgin if +they were to hold some sacred treasure, or with +scenes from some Romance or from daily life if +to contain jewels or other mundane objects. In +addition to such caskets, often painted, Mahaut +had, to hang from her girdle, as was customary +with all ladies in the Middle Ages, a daintily +wrought ivory writing-tablet, and a small mirror +in an ivory case. These mirror-cases were +generally carved with a scene from some love-story, +such as two lovers playing chess, or going +a-hawking, or some detail from the favourite +romance of Tristan and Isolde. Possibly amongst +these treasures was a saddle-bow, with a wondrous +wealth of carving, or chess-men finely modelled, +and inlaid with mother-of-pearl, or a triptych +with scenes from the Passion, represented under +Gothic arches of most superb and delicate workmanship. +But it is perhaps in the Chapel that +we must seek the finest work, for here both +Mahaut and her father, Count Robert, were +lavish with unsparing hand. One Jean le<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +Scelleur, of Paris, a carver of combs and toilet +articles as well as of crucifixes and Virgins, is +named as her principal craftsman. Mention is +made of a Cross carved by him in cedar-wood +with an ivory figure of the Christ, and of two +ivory figures of the Virgin, one under a canopy, +and the other with the Holy Child poised upon +the hip, that sublime motive belonging more +especially to the thirteenth century. The chapel +itself was beautified with carved work in stone. +Over the Altar, and in front of it, were painted +panels, enriched with gold, and translucent +enamel over colour. If we could picture to +ourselves the manner of the sculptor’s work we +may recall the “Vine-Capital” in Rheims +Cathedral, where the very stone itself seems +to have been metamorphosed into tender foliage +by the unknown artist.</p> + +<p>Of wood-carving, the accounts tell of Choir-stalls, +presses for vestments and various vessels +and ornaments, and also of Angels, gilded and +painted and bearing the emblems of the Passion, +for standing round the High Altar. These are +described as being raised on slender columns, +connected by a bar on which were laced fringed +silk curtains, thus forming a recess for the Altar. +We can get some idea of the simple beauty of +this arrangement from a drawing, still preserved +in the sacristy of Arras Cathedral, of the High +Altar in the old Cathedral, and fortunately made +before the latter, with all its contents, was +destroyed in the sixteenth century. It accords<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +in every detail with the inventory record of the +Chapel of Hesdin. We may also compare a +picture (No. 783, “The Exhumation of St. +Hubert”) in the Flemish room in the National +Gallery, where a somewhat similar scheme is +shown.</p> + +<p>Of the MSS. and Illuminations only brief +mention can be made. Surviving examples, and +the records of the time, testify to the splendour +and the sum of them. At the beginning of +the thirteenth century, the French miniature +was influenced in no small degree, both in +technique and in colour, by glass painting. +Towards the end of the century this influence +yielded to the prevailing enthusiasm for architecture +and sculpture, and in Bibles and Psalters +alike there appear scenes with figures as in +bas-relief, with architectural backgrounds and +decorative details. The same spirit that evolved +tender foliage out of the hard stone of cathedral +and church evolved also the delicate hawthorn-leaf +enriching the initial letter of the MS. It +mattered little whether the material worked on +was stone or parchment. Each was but a means +for giving expression to a newly discovered +scheme of beauty—the beauty of Nature. In +the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries a renewed +impetus had been given to the arts of +writing and illumination. This was partly +because a demand had arisen for a secular literature +to supersede the tiresome and time-worn +recitations of minstrels, and partly because, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +the fourteenth century, Books of Hours, instead +of the Psalter alone as had hitherto been customary, +came into general use in private devotion. +This created a fresh want, and at the same time +supplied a number of new subjects in which +the artist could reveal his skill. Arras was one +of the chief centres of this new movement, +a movement which Mahaut continued and +stimulated. She employed artists to illuminate +both sacred and secular works for her own use +as well as for gifts—gifts counted beyond +compare and beside which even precious stones +were deemed of less worth. To Mahaut this +desire for beauty was a very lode-star. To +glance at a list of the gold- and silver-smiths’ +work—the jewelled and enamelled chaplets of +gold, the jewelled girdles, and buckles, and +braids for the hair, and the cups, some of +silver with crystal covers or wrought with +enamel and precious stones, and others of jasper +mounted with silver work—reads like a fantasy +of hidden treasure in some fairy tale. Even her +chess-boards—and she was a devotee of the +game—were of silver or ivory, and one, we read, +was of jasper and chalcedony mounted with +silver and gems, the chess-men being of jasper +and crystal.</p> + +<p>For the younger folk about her there was +tennis, and also games of hazard with forfeits +of girdles and coifs to the ladies. In the Castle +garden were certain mechanical contrivances +which, by their sudden and unexpected action,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +were supposed to amuse the unwary guests. +One sprinkled them with water, another with +black or white powder, as they passed by, and +yet another, in the form of a monkey, struck +them with a stick, whilst in a bower might be +seen a mirror wherein all who looked saw only +the distorted semblance of themselves. These +unwelcome pleasantries were a part of the +miscellaneous borrowings from the East. But +for the easily amused folk of the Middle Ages, +time passed merrily enough in the midst of +such pastimes, and only the shadow on the dial +seemed to mark its flight.</p> + +<p>But Mahaut, amid the manifold claims on +her time and talent, had seen the shadow +lengthening. From time to time she had been +attacked by illness, to which blood-letting and +other remedies of the day had brought relief. +But on the 25th November 1329, when in +Paris, she was seized with a sudden sickness, so +sudden that sinister rumours were noised abroad. +Human aid was of no avail. Two days later +there was general lamentation. The shadow had +lengthened into the night. Mahaut was dead. +In accordance with her wishes, she was buried +at the foot of her father’s grave in the Abbey of +Maubuisson, near Paris, her heart being placed +in the Church of the Franciscans in Paris, +beside the remains of her son, whose tomb there +was afterwards removed to St. Denis. Her +possession of Artois, for which she had laboured +devotedly, became annexed to the Duchy of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +Burgundy through the marriage of her granddaughter +with its Duke.</p> + +<p>Here, though only a tithe has been told, we +must take leave of this cultivated woman of the +fourteenth century, a type of the time and for +all time. Her aim was the aim of all culture—the +attainment of as complete a life as possible. +To this she aspired, and to this in large measure +she attained. What more can be said of even +those we count the greatest?</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Richard (Jules Marie), <i>Une Petite Nièce de S. Louis: Mahaut, +Comtesse d’Artois</i>. +</p><p> +Dehaisnes (M. le Chanoine), <i>L’Histoire de l’art dans la Flandre, +l’Artois, et le Hainaut avant le XV<sup>me</sup> siècle</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> The Bible was first translated into French, and reduced in size +so that it could be carried in the hand, between 1200 and 1250.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> <i>Chillon</i>, Albert Naef, Genève, 1908.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> See Roger of Parma, <i>Treatise on Surgery</i>. French thirteenth +century. Brit. Mus., Sloane MS., 1977.</p></div> +</div> + + +<h2><a name="A_FIFTEENTH-CENTURY_FEMINISTE" id="A_FIFTEENTH-CENTURY_FEMINISTE"></a>A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY FEMINISTE,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span><br /> +CHRISTINE DE PISAN</h2> + + +<p class="ni"><span class="smcap">Christine de Pisan</span>, Italian by birth, French +by adoption, may be regarded not merely as a +forerunner of true feminism, but also as one of +its greatest champions, seeing that in her judgment +of the sexes she endeavours to hold the +scales evenly. Possessed of profound common +sense and of a generous-hearted nature, she +is wholly free from that want of fairness in +urging woman’s claims which is so fatally prejudicial +to their just consideration. Although, +strictly speaking, Christine was not original, she +was representative, and interests us for that very +reason. She was perhaps one of the most +complete exponents of the finer strain of thought +of her time. She stands before us, at the dawn +of the fifteenth century, Janus-headed, looking +to the past and to the future, a woman typical +of a time of transition, on the one hand showing, +in her writings, a clinging to old beliefs, and on +the other hand asserting, in her contact with +real life, independence of thought in the discussion +of still unsolved questions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p> + +<p>Christine was born at Venice in 1363, where +her father, Thomas de Pisan, of Bologna, distinguished +for his knowledge of medicine and +astrology, had settled on his marriage with a +daughter of one of the Councillors of the +Republic. When five years of age, she was +taken by her mother to Paris to join her father, +who had been summoned thither some time +before by the King, Charles the Fifth, to serve +as his astrologer. At the end of the fourteenth +century astrology played a very real and important +part in men’s lives. Before wars or journeys +were undertaken, or additions to castle or chapel +made, or even a new garment put on, the stars +were consulted for the propitious day and hour. +So deeply was Charles the Fifth imbued with a +belief in the efficacy of this occult art that +when he wished to confer some special honour, +or to express his gratitude for some service +rendered to him or to the State, he sought to +enhance his bounty by sending an astrologer +as part of his gift. By the time little Christine +arrived in Paris her father had gained the +confidence and esteem of the King, and was +settled at Court with substantial maintenance. +Here she was brought up as a maiden of quality, +surrounded by much magnificence, for Charles +loved beautiful things, and never stayed his hand +to procure them, even when the gratification of +his desires involved hardship to his people. He +possessed many virtues, but economy was not +one of them. The dismal castle of the Louvre,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +which had been the home of the French kings +since the days of Philip Augustus, found no +favour in his sight as a place of residence, and +he quickly set about building the sumptuous +Hôtel de St. Paul, in what is now known as the +“Quartier de l’Arsenal.” The Louvre he destined +for official functions, for an arsenal, and for his +library. To form a library was no new thing in +Paris. Some thirty years earlier Richard de +Bury, Bishop of Durham (1333) and sometime +Chancellor of England, speaks of his frequent +ambassadorial visits to “Paris, the Paradise of +the World, with its delightful libraries, where +the days seemed ever few, for the greatness +of our love.” And he adds, “unfastening our +purse-strings, we scattered money with joyous +heart, and purchased inestimable books.” But +whilst it is true that Charles’s predecessors had +collected books, none before had thought of +forming a library for public use, and Charles’s +work, as M. Delisle remarks, was really the +first germ of the Bibliothèque Nationale.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> +To collect books was one of his greatest delights, +and he spared no trouble or money to make his +library as complete as possible. This taste for +books he may have inherited from his father, +King John, who, learning to read from a beautiful +Book of Hours, early acquired a love of books +from his mother, Jeanne of Burgundy. Charles +also loved to lend or make presents of books, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>and among his many gifts, one—an offering to +Richard the Second—may be seen in the British +Museum (Royal 20, B VI.). The library was +considerably depleted during the reign of Charles +the Sixth, when it was used as a sort of storehouse +from which presents were made to prince +and prelate, or to any to whom it was desired +to make a gift, or a recognition of services +rendered. On the death of Charles the Sixth, +in 1425, it was bought by the Duke of Bedford, +Regent of France, and doubtless some +of its treasures were transferred by him into +England. Those that were left, and some that +gradually found their way back to France, may +now be seen in the Bibliothèque Nationale and +in other libraries of France, and also in various +libraries in other countries, but out of the 1200 +books collected by Charles the Fifth, rather less +than a hundred are now known to us.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="pisan" id="pisan"></a> +<img src="images/i119.jpg" width="350" height="520" alt="CHRISTINE DE PISAN." title="Christine de Pisan" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Bib. Royale, Brussels.</i></p> + +<p class="caption">CHRISTINE DE PISAN.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 119.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>To increase the usefulness of his library, +Charles employed a number of translators, not +only of Greek and Latin authors, but also of the +most important Arabic writings, thus bringing +both the classics and the science of the day +within the reach of the many students privileged +to make use of it. It was in this library that +Christine spent long days reading and meditating +on the thoughts of the greatest minds, thus fitting +herself for the part she had to play when life +had ceased to be a gay dream. We can get +from a miniature in a Book of Hours, now at +Chantilly, and painted by the brothers Limbourg<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +for Jean, Duc de Berri, a brother of the King, +some idea of what this old residence of the +Louvre was like. In this miniature we see +represented a square grim castle, with a large +tower at each corner and narrow slits for +windows, suggestive more of a place of refuge +in time of war and tumult than the home of a +peace-loving, enlightened king. When Charles +determined to beautify this sombre structure, +statues were set up without and tapestries hung +within. One of the towers was fitted up for the +library, panelled with rare woods and furnished +with some thirty small chandeliers and a large +central silver lamp, kept lighted both night and +day so that work could go on at all hours. In +the courtyard an outside circular staircase (one +of the earliest, if not <i>the</i> earliest, of the kind) +was added to give, as was said, a note of gaiety. +But the idea of gaiety seems somewhat ironical +when we learn that as it was difficult to get a +sufficient number of large slabs quarried quickly, +headstones from the cemetery of the Holy +Innocents were taken for the purpose!</p> + +<p>Christine, as a child, showed an extraordinary +capacity for learning, and this her +father zealously fostered and developed. At +the age of fifteen she married, and married for +love, the King’s notary and secretary, Etienne +de Castel, a gentleman of Picardy. Her happiness +and well-being seemed assured, but Fortune, +whose wheel is ever revolving, though sometimes +so slowly as to lull us into forgetfulness,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +had decreed otherwise. For Christine it revolved +all too quickly. Two years after her +marriage the King died (1380), and her husband +and father lost their appointments. Gradually +anxiety and sorrow crept like some baneful +atmosphere into the once happy home. First +she lost her father, and then, two or three +years later, her husband died, leaving her, at the +age of twenty-five, with three children to provide +for. Like many another, she turned to letters +as both a material and a mental support. Endowed +with an extraordinary gift of versification, +she began by writing short poems, chiefly on +the joys and sorrows of love, expressing sometimes +her own sentiments, sometimes those of +others for whom she wrote. But she tells us +that often when she made merry she would fain +have wept. How many a one adown the +centuries has re-echoed the same sad note!</p> + +<p>“Men must work and women must weep.” +So says the poet. But life shows us that men +and women alike must needs do both. And so +the sad Christine set to work to fit herself, by +the study of the best ancient and modern writers, +to produce more serious matter than love-ballads, +turning, in her saddest moments, to Boëthius +and Dante for inspiration and solace. “I betook +myself,” she says, “like the child who at first is +set to learn its A B C, to ancient histories from +the beginning of the world—histories of the +Hebrews and the Assyrians, of the Romans, the +French, the Bretons, and diverse others—and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +then to the deductions of such sciences as I +had time to give heed to, as well as to a study +of the poets.” Her master was Aristotle, and +she made his ethics her gospel. “Ancelle de +science,” she calls herself, and remains a humble +worshipper at the shrine of knowledge, for +knowledge, she says, is “that which can change +the mortal into the immortal.” We can picture +her to ourselves at work in the library of the +Louvre, amidst its 900 precious MSS., and in +the library of the University of Paris, to which +she had access through her friend Gerson, the +renowned Chancellor. In a miniature at the +beginning of one of her MSS. she is seen seated, +in a panelled recess, on a carved wooden bench, +dressed in a simple blue gown and a high white +coif. She is working at a folio on a large table +covered with tapestry, with a greyhound lying +at her feet. It is quite possible that this may be +either a conventional setting, or one due to the +imagination of the artist, but as the miniaturists +of those days were, as far as they could be, +realists, it is more than possible that we here see +her represented at work in her favourite nook in +the Louvre library, together with the favourite +dog who shared her lonely hours. Gradually +solace came to her through work, and having +found so precious a treasure for herself, she, like +our own modern sage, never tired of preaching +to others the gospel of its blessedness.</p> + +<p>Whilst Christine wrote and lived her student +life—“son cuer hermit dans l’ermitage de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +Pensée”—her fame went forth, and princes +sought, by tempting offers, to attach her to +their courts, but without success. Of these, +Henry the Fourth of England, already acquainted +with her poems, and Gian Galleazo Visconti, +Duke of Milan, were the most importunate, and +particularly the former, who was unaccustomed +to rebuff and failure. But Christine, with +repeated gracious thanks and guarded refusals, +remained firm. No reason for her decision is +recorded, but it may well be believed that her +patriotism would not allow her, even with the +certainty of ease and emolument, to quit France +at that critical time, or to serve the enemy of +her adopted country.</p> + +<p>Although Christine’s reading was very varied +and extensive, there were two subjects—the +amelioration of her war-distraught country, then +in the throes of the Hundred Years’ War, and +the championship of the cause of womankind—which +specially appealed to her as a patriot +and a woman, and for which she strove with +unceasing ardour. In all her writings she so +interweaves these two causes that it is only by +approaching them in the same way that we can +understand her view of their psychological unity. +To Christine these interests were essentially +identical, for she recognised how paramount is +woman’s influence in the making or marring of +the world—how, in truth, in woman’s hand lies +a key which can unlock a Heaven or a Hell.</p> + +<p>There was sore need of a patriot, and in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +Christine one was found. It has been well said +of her, and by a Frenchman too, that “though +born a woman and an Italian, she alone at the +Court of France seemed to have manly qualities +and French sentiments.” France was in a sorry +plight. There was war in the land, there was +war in the palace. The sick King suffered more +and more from attacks of madness, and during +these periods the Dukes of Orleans and Burgundy +fought for the regency. Christine began her +patriotic work by fervent appeals to Isabella, the +Queen (to whom she offered a MS. now in the +British Museum),<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> to use her influence to put +an end to these dissensions which so greatly +added to the troubles of the kingdom. She also +lost no opportunity of proclaiming in her various +writings the duties and responsibilities of kings +and nobles to the people, and the necessity, if +there was ever to be peace and prosperity, of +winning their regard. At the command of +Philip le Hardi, Duke of Burgundy, and uncle +of the King, she wrote in prose, from chronicles +of the time and from information obtained from +many connected with the King’s household, <i>Le +Livre des faits et bonnes mœurs du roi Charles V</i>, +recounting his virtuous life and deeds and their +advantage to the realm, and introducing a +remarkable dissertation on the benefit to a +country of a strong middle-class. She, of course, +reasoned from Aristotle. The subject is a +commonplace one now, but in the case of any +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>one living at the beginning of the fifteenth +century, and brought up, as Christine had +been, at a magnificent Court, it shows rare +independence and breadth of thought to have +grasped and proclaimed with such firmness and +clearness as is displayed in her treatise the germ +of the policy of all modern civilised nations—that +a middle-class is essential to bring into +touch those placed at the opposite extremes, the +rich and the poor.</p> + +<p>To Christine belongs an honour beyond that +of having been a patriot and a champion of her +sex—the honour of having revealed Dante to +France.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> Scattered up and down her writings +are many allusions to the <i>Divina Commedia</i>, +showing how real a place it must have filled in +her soul’s life. She especially recommends it +for profitable study in the place of the “hateful” +<i>Romance of the Rose</i>, concerning which she gave +the warning to her son:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Se bien veulx et chastement vivre,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">De la Rose ne lis le livre.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="ni">Like Dante, sad and lonely—“souvent seulete +et pensive, regretant le temps passé”—like him +she also realised the thirst for knowledge as an +ever-present want of the soul, and that its ultimate +perfection is only to be attained by following +after virtue and knowledge. Although, as +regards profundity, her conception of the world +and of life cannot be compared with that of her +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>great prototype, or even with that of such an +one as St. Hildegarde, still she had read with +unflagging diligence a vast number of profane +and ecclesiastical writers, and seems to have been +well versed in the varied knowledge of her time, +especially history. But whilst it is possible to +criticise her learning, tempered as this was by +her character and the needs of her day, it is +at the same time possible to acknowledge that +in spite of flaws and an often over-elaborated +setting, moral truth sparkles gemlike throughout +her writings. One of her biographers speaks +of her thus: “Her morale is so pure and so +universally human that not only does it remain +true to-day, but it will retain imperishable value +as long as ever human society is based on a pure +and healthy moral foundation.”</p> + +<p>In her poem <i>Le Chemin de long Estude</i>—a +title taken from Dante’s appeal to Virgil at the +opening of the <i>Inferno</i>—Christine begins by +acknowledging her debt to the immortal poet, +saying that much that she has to tell has already +been told by “Dante of Florence in his book.” +Virgil as guide is replaced by the Cumean Sibyl, +who appears to Christine in a dream, and offers +to conduct her to another and a more perfect +world, one where there is no pain and misery. +To this Christine consents on condition that +“sad Hades, whither Æneas once was taken,” is +not included in the journey. The Sibyl therefore +promises to reveal to her, instead, in what +manner misfortune came upon earth, whilst at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +the same time showing her on the way all that +is worth seeing in this world, from the Pillars +of Hercules, “the end of the world,” to distant +Cathay. However exhausting this programme +may appear to us, Christine, knowing the real +passion of the late Middle Ages for travel—for +even those who could not travel in reality did so +in imagination,—makes use of it as a setting for +the introduction of a discussion on the qualities +most necessary to good government. This she +does, even at the risk of incurring displeasure in +high quarters, recalling how Dante’s patriotism +led to banishment and death in exile, but she +adds, “Qui bien ayme, tout endure.” She pours +forth her classical examples in a chaotic stream, +but when she leaves earth, and ascends to the +celestial regions, she not only shows herself +versed in the astronomy of the time, but also +expresses some beauty of thought. The order +of the firmament, where all obey law without +ceasing, so that harmony ensues “like sweet +melody,” reminds her of Pythagoras and Plato, +and suggests to her what life on earth might be +if good laws were made and observed. In +furtherance of her idea, she appeals to Reason, +who presides over the Virtues or Divine Powers, +to interrogate the three earthly disputants, +Nobility, Riches, and Wisdom. In the end +Reason awards the prize to Wisdom, condemning +Riches as the great enemy of mankind. +Thereupon Wisdom appeals to the verdicts of +Juvenal, Boëthius, St. Jerome, and others to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +establish that it is Virtue alone that is of worth, +and ennobles a man, and then sets forth the +qualities of a good sovereign. But as this leads +to some difference of opinion, Christine, who +was withal a courtly lady, descends to earth in +order to ask the King, Charles the Sixth, to +decide the matter. This dream-poem she +dedicates to her royal master for his diversion in +his saner moments, and thus once again introduces +into high places the subject so near to her +heart. She lets it be seen that she herself, like +Dante, did not believe in the blending of the +spiritual and the temporal powers. And as +regards temporal power she adds—perhaps +borrowing the idea from Dante’s <i>De Monarchia</i>, +and anticipating Napoleon’s dream—that in +order to ensure peace on earth, it is necessary +that one supreme ruler should reign over the +whole world. “La sua volontade e nostra pace,” +sang a soul in Dante’s heaven of the Moon—the +lowest in the celestial system—when questioned +whether it was content with its lowly place. +The poet therefore adds, “ogni dove in cielo e +paradiso.” Christine, echoing these thoughts, +would fain apply them to life on earth, giving +them their deepest and fullest meaning.</p> + +<p>Though she laboured so unceasingly for the +good of her country, she also did her utmost to +defend her sex from the indiscriminate censure +which had been heaped upon it, for the evil +spoken seemed to her far to outweigh the good. +A century before, Dante had also idealised<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +woman—even if, as some think, he personified +some abstract quality—and placed her in heaven +beside the Deity. Chivalry had also idealised +woman, but in an exotic, exaggerated manner, +which was bound to reach its zenith, and bound +also to have its darker side. So we find that to +speak good or ill of womankind became a conventionalism +in the Middle Ages. Black or +white was the tone chosen by the artist in +words. There was no blending, no shading. +Women were either deified, or held to be evil +incarnate. The material side of life men understood, +and could depict with some exactness, but +to grasp in any way its subtler aspects required +an education which could be attained only by +slow degrees, since it meant the gradual modification +of the long-cherished illusion that brute +force is the world’s only weapon. A want of +capacity to discern is often responsible for a +depreciatory opinion, and we can but ascribe +this strangely narrow-minded and superficial +attitude towards woman to some such want. +Christine set herself the task of trying to remedy +this evil, not by shouting in the market-place, +but by studying men and women as God made +them and as she found them. Before she began +her work, a new day seemed to be dawning. +Just as, when classicism was in full decadence, +Plutarch wrote <i>De mulierum virtutibus</i> (of the +virtue of women), so, in the fourteenth century, +Boccaccio gave to the world <i>De claris mulieribus</i> +(of right-renowned women). We do not expect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +to find woman treated on a very high plane by +Boccaccio, but we recognise that, in a way, this +work forms a fresh starting-point in the eternal +controversy. Perhaps we should not have had +this curious collection of stories of women, +virtuous and vicious, mythological and historical—stories +which are certainly very inferior as +art to those of the <i>Decameron</i>—had not a +crisis occurred in Boccaccio’s life. One day a +Carthusian monk came to him with a warning +message from the dead, and, much troubled in +mind, he resolved to try to begin life afresh. +But he was a better story-teller than a moraliser. +He would fain save his soul, but he liked and +courted popularity, and knew well the deeper +meaning of the proverb, “A terreno dolce, +vanga di legno.” And so he mingles virtue and +vice, hoping, as he says, that “some utility +and profit shall come of the same.” To us of +to-day, the chief interest of this work is that +Boccaccio’s fame perhaps gave a definite impetus +to the discussion of the sex, instead of +wholesale assertion, and also that it probably +suggested to Chaucer the idea for his <i>Legend of +Good Women</i>. How refreshing to find ourselves +in the atmosphere of the kindly Chaucer! Let +us pause for a moment, and recall what he says +of women, he who was not only a knightly +Court-poet, but also a popular singer, well +versed in the practical wisdom of life. In the +prologue we read, “Let be the chaf, and wryt +wel of the corn,” and in allusion to his library<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> +of sixty books, old and new, of history and love-stories, +he says that for every bad woman, +mention was duly made of a hundred good ones. +Time and experience in no way dull this appreciation, +for when, later, <i>The Canterbury Tales</i> +appear, his estimate has risen ten-fold, since in +the prologue to “The Miller’s Tale” we read, +“and ever a thousand gode ageyn one badde.” +From this time onwards, literature on the subject +increases almost <i>ad infinitum</i>. Treatises and +imaginary debates seem to vie with each other for +popularity. All these make intensely interesting +reading, for these fanciful discussions, which are +supposed to take place, sometimes between a +man and a woman, sometimes between a mixed +company in a garden or villa or some bath resort +where many are gathered together, are really a +record of the intellectual amusements of the late +Middle Ages and the Renaissance. “Que devez-vous +préférer, du plaisir qui va vous échapper +bientôt, ou d’une espérance toujours vive, quoique +toujours trompée?” “Which sex loves the more +easily or can do the better without love?” “It is not +enough to know how to win love, but one must +also know how to keep such love when it has been +won.” Such-like were the subtle problems which +on these occasions folk set themselves to solve.</p> + +<p>But whilst love problems could be treated as +a pastime, they also had their serious side. Of +this there is an example in Christine’s story of +<i>The Duke of True Lovers</i>. Although much in +its narration is evidently the mere invention of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +the poetess, it is quite possible, nay even +probable, that it has some historical basis. +Christine begins her story by saying that it had +been confided to her by a young prince who +did not wish his name to be divulged, and who +desired only to be known as “The Duke of +True Lovers.” It has been suggested, with +much likelihood, that this is in truth the love-story +of Jean, Duc de Bourbon, and of Marie, +Duchesse de Berri, daughter of the famous +Jean, Duc de Berri, and the inheritor of his MSS. +When the story opens, the heroine of it, whoever +she may have been, is already wedded. +Hence all the difficulties of the hero, and indeed +of both. Christine, with her womanly sympathy +and psychological insight, makes all so intensely +real that we are quite carried away in imagination +to the courtly life of the fifteenth century. +We read of the first meeting; of the Duke’s +love at first sight; of Castle daily life; of a +three days’ tournament given in honour of the +lady; of devices for secret meetings and the +interchange of letters; of the inevitable scandal-monger; +of a letter from a former <i>gouvernante</i>—whose +aid as go-between had been sought—containing +a most comprehensive and remarkable +treatise on feminine morality, the dangers of +illicit love, and the satisfaction of simple wifely +duty; of the separation which the position of +the lady, and the gallantry of her lover, alike +demanded; of meetings at intervals; of the +mutual solace of short love-poems; and then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +the story, perhaps to evade identification, ends +vaguely. But as we finish the story, we cannot +help feeling that even if Christine’s setting is +fiction, she yet gives us a glance of real life.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="horse" id="horse"></a> +<img src="images/i132.jpg" width="450" height="545" alt="LADY IN HORSE-LITTER, RETURNING FROM TOURNAMENT." title="Lady in horse-litter, MS. 4431" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Photo. Macbeth.</i></p> + +<p class="caption">LADY IN HORSE-LITTER, RETURNING FROM TOURNAMENT.</p> + +<p class="illoaut">Harl. MS. 4431, Brit. Mus.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 132.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>When Christine turned to her serious work +in the cause of womankind, she began by +attacking two books, Ovid’s <i>Art of Love</i>, and +<i>The Romance of the Rose</i>, both of which, in the +Middle Ages, it was deemed wellnigh sacrilegious +to decry. Her challenge, <i>L’Epistre au +Dieu d’Amours</i>, took the form of an address to the +God of Love, professing to come from women +of all conditions, imploring Cupid’s aid against +disloyal and deceitful lovers, whose base behaviour +she largely attributes to the false teaching +of these two books. This argument appeared +in 1399, and she soon discovered that she had +stirred up a hornet’s nest. But she had attacked +advisedly and fearlessly, and was quite prepared +for any counter onslaught. Her position was +considerably strengthened by the alliance and +co-operation of her staunch friend Gerson, the +Chancellor, who himself, in the name of the +clergy, took up arms against the flagrant scurrility +to be found in the portion of <i>The Romance +of the Rose</i> contributed by Jean de Meun. Other +powerful allies joined the cause, and, to help to +crystallise their efforts, species of “Courts of +Love” were instituted, not alone for discourse +on love, as heretofore, but also in the defence +of women. All who united in this meritorious +fellowship undertook to wear a distinctive badge,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +and thus proclaim their confession of faith. +Among these Orders one was styled “L’Escu +vert à la dame blanche,” another, “L’Ordre de la +Rose,” and so on, suggestive of their purport. +The first-named was founded by the brave +soldier Jean le Meingre, Maréchal de Boucicaut, +whose portrait may be seen in his superb Book of +Hours, painted between 1399 and 1407, now +in the Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> Its +membership was restricted to thirteen knights, +who swore to defend the honour of women +against all detractors. To distinguish them +from others less gallantly disposed, they wore +on the sleeve an ornament in the shape of a +small shield, enamelled green on the outside, +and with the representation, on the underside, +of a woman, enamelled in white.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">... Vous portez la dame en verde targe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pour démonstrer que de hardi visage<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Vous vous voulez pour les dames tenir<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Contre ceulz qui leur porteront dommage!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="ni">Of the Order of the Rose and its foundation, +Christine, in one of her poems, gives most +picturesque and interesting particulars, interesting +because they are evidently taken from an +actual scene, though Christine, in her rôle as +poetess, feels it necessary to add touches +suggestive of fairyland rather than of real life. +A numerous assembly, with goodwill at heart, +has met together in the magnificent dwelling +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>of Louis, Duke of Orleans, the King’s brother, +Christine being one of the number. Suddenly +there comes into their midst one personifying +the Goddess Venus, surrounded by maidens +garlanded with roses and carrying golden bowls +filled with them. The bowls placed on the +table, the Goddess proceeds to announce the +rules of the Order, above all enjoining those +present to avoid envy, and in no way to perjure +themselves, since this would be a most heinous +and hateful sin. The badge chosen is a fresh +rose, but if any member of the Order should +happen to be in a country where such is not +attainable, or when the season is unpropitious, +then a rose fashioned in gold or silver, or one +embroidered in silk, will suffice. With pledges +of loyalty,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A bonne amour je fais veu et promesse<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Et à la fleur qui est rose clamée,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A la vaillant de Loyauté deesse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Par qui nous est ceste chose informée,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Qu’à tous jours mais la bonne renommée<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Je garderay de dame en toute chose<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ne par moy ja femme n’yert diffamée:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Et pour ce prens je L’Ordre de la Rose,<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="ni">all the company deck themselves with roses. +The charter is given by the Goddess into the +safe-keeping of Christine, who describes it as +written on fine parchment in letters of azure, +and fastened with a silken cord of the same +colour. From this cord hangs a rare gem, on +one side of which their patroness, the Goddess +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>of Love, and on the other Cupid, with his feet +on a leopard, are depicted. This moral and +literary contest is perhaps the most brilliant of +the many discussions that took place in the +Middle Ages in honour of women. The +highest and the wisest in the land joined in it, +but all the honour must be given to Christine +for having, by her brave and reasonable attitude, +caused the problem, which henceforth was to +evolve like truth itself, to be treated on a +rational basis. “Toute la foy remaint en une +femme,” says Christine. Were not her words, +nearly 500 years later, echoed by Renan when +he says, “Après Jésus, c’est Marie de Magdale +qui a le plus fait pour la fondation du Christianisme”?</p> + +<p><i>L’Epistre au Dieu d’Amours</i> is an extraordinary +product of worldly wisdom and common sense, +seasoned with satire. One of the complaints +against disloyal suitors, and one which strikes +a singularly modern note, is that they make +protests of love, and false promises, which must +be either paid for dearly, or rejected with scorn. +Then the hero, if he has won the day, proclaims +his victory in taverns and other places of resort, +and even in mixed company. Or if, as is more +often the case, he has lost it, he still tries, by +suggestive hints, to appear to his fellows a +successful gallant. Surely the worldling of to-day +does not seem to differ very essentially from +his brother of the fifteenth century, or to have +progressed any farther along the path of loyalty!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p> + +<p>Christine’s line of argument is that the many +must not be condemned for the shortcomings of +the few, and that even when God made the +angels, some were bad. To the charge that +books are full of the condemnation of women, +she replies with the simple remark that books +were not written by women. Where is the +shade of the worthy Christine to-day? Does +it walk the earth with a flag of triumph or a +laurel wreath whilst its sisters in the flesh are +writing on every subject in heaven and earth +and sea? “De nos jours, le monde est aux +femmes.”</p> + +<p>Is it marvellous, asks Christine, that a +woman—“une chose simplète, une ignorante +petite femmellette,” as she expresses it—should +be betrayed by man, when even the great city of +Troy was, and when all the books and romances +are full of the betrayal of kings and kingdoms? +And if a woman is not constant by nature, why +should Jean de Meun, in <i>The Romance of the Rose</i>, +devise so many tricks to deceive her, seeing +that it is not necessary to make a great assault +upon a feeble place? Then she deftly turns the +tables on the other sex, reminding each that he +is the son of his mother, and that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Se mauvaise est il ne peut valor rien,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Car nul bon fruit de mal arbre ne vient.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="ni">And so on to the end, all is argument and banter. +The repute of her letter must have travelled +quickly, for whilst Christine was still combating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +with dissentients, an epitomised rendering of it +appeared (1402) in English from the pen of +Hoccleve, the pupil of Chaucer, entitled <i>The +Lettre of Cupide, God of Love</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="dames" id="dames"></a> +<img src="images/i138.jpg" width="400" height="565" alt="LA CITÉ DES DAMES." title="La Cité des Dames" /> + +<p class="source">Bib. Royale, Munich.</p> + +<p class="caption">LA CITÉ DES DAMES.</p> + +<p class="toface">To face page 138.</p> +</div> + +<p>Later, Christine, with Boccaccio’s <i>De claris +mulieribus</i> before her, writes <i>La Cité des Dames</i>, +an account of the building of an imaginary city +which is to shelter within its strong ramparts +the women of all times and all countries who +have distinguished themselves by good and +heroic deeds. This has been aptly called “The +Golden Book of Heroines.” It may certainly +be considered her masterpiece on her favourite +subject. She urges that philosophers and poets, +with one accord, have defamed women, and she +appeals to God, asking why such a thing should +be, seeing that He Himself made them and gave +them such inclinations as seemed good to Him, +and that in no way could He err. She maintains +that God created the soul, and made it as good +in woman as in man, and that it is not the sex, +but the perfection of virtue, that is material. +Combating the suggestion that women are not +fit to plead in Court because they have not +sufficient intelligence to apply the law when +they have learnt it, she refers to history to prove +that women who have had the management of +affairs have shown that, far from lacking intelligence +and judgment, they have possessed +both in large measure. At the same time, +whilst defending their capability when necessity +arises, she does not think it necessary for women<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +to interfere in matters which seem essentially +man’s business. Her remarks on the subject of +marriage are certainly practical, and at the same +time disclose a strange unloveliness in contemporary +manners. She is not of St. Paul’s +opinion that it is better not to marry, but all +the same she suggests that, unless without +means, that woman is happier who does not +marry a second time, seeing that the life of a +married woman is often worse than if she were +in the hands of the Saracens—the terror of the +Middle Ages,—and that frequently after her +husband has been out enjoying himself, her only +supper, on his return, is a beating. She counsels +the education of women, and condemns those +who suggest that this will conduce to unseemly +ways. In truth, her wonderful sense of justice, +and her enlightened opinions generally, make it +a marvellous résumé of statesmanship as far as it +goes. It is a real Utopia. Perhaps to Christine +it was a glimpse of the Promised Land! As +we read her views on the education of boys and +girls together, in this happy city, we feel that +she might be discussing with us the problems +of to-day. She says that if boys and girls are +taught the same subjects, girls can, as a rule, +learn just as well, and just as intelligently, as +boys, and so on. In this conclusion she forestalls +the learned Cornelius Agrippa, a doctor +and philosopher of the sixteenth century, and +one of the most original and remarkable men of +his time, who boldly asserts that sex is merely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +physical, and does not extend to soul or rational +power. She sums up by strongly advocating +study and learning, both for self-improvement +and as a consolation and possession for all time.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="poissy" id="poissy"></a> +<img src="images/i140.jpg" width="400" height="572" alt="SETTING OUT FOR POISSY." title="Setting out for Poissy, Harl. MS." /> + +<p class="source"><i>Photo. Macbeth.</i></p> + +<p class="caption">SETTING OUT FOR POISSY.</p> + +<p class="illoaut">Harl. MS. 4431, Brit. Mus.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 140.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>Of her poetical writings on love and the +sexes, perhaps the most enchanting is <i>Le Livre +du Dit de Poissy</i>. In it she takes us, on a bright +spring morning, with a joyous company, from +Paris to the royal convent of Poissy, where her +child is at school. She describes all the beauties +of the country, the fields gay with flowers, the +warbling of the birds, the shepherdesses with +their flocks, the willow-shaded river bank along +which they ride, the magic of the forest of St. +Germain, a little world apart of greenery and +shade, filled with the song of the nightingales. +Laughing and singing by the way, they reach +the convent gate. Then follows a description +of the beautiful carved cloisters, the chapter-house, +the nuns’ dress and their dormitory, the +garden scented with lavender and roses, with one +part, where small animals are allowed to run +wild, left uncultivated, and the ponds well +stocked with fish. As the day wanes, they bid +farewell to the nuns, who offer them gifts of +purses and girdles embroidered in silk and gold, +worked by their own hands. They return to +the inn where they are to spend the night, and +after supper wander forth to listen to the nightingales, +then dance a carole, and so to bed. +The ride back to Paris in the morning, during +which a discussion on love matters is introduced,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +is painted with the same impressionist touch, +and it is with real regret that we take leave of +these happy folk as they alight in Paris city +from their stout nags.</p> + +<p>Another similar discourse, <i>Le Débat de deux +amants</i>, has for setting a gala entertainment, +taking place, like the founding of the “Order of +the Rose,” under the auspices of Louis, Duke of +Orleans, who ever extended a princely protection +to Christine. Louis had married Valentine +Visconti, daughter of Gian Galleazo Visconti, +founder of the Certosa, near Pavia, a princess +well versed in art and letters, and withal in +pomp and splendour. It is on a day in May, +the garden gay with gallants and fair ladies. +We hear the minstrels play, and watch some of +the company, decked with garlands, dancing +under the trees. In the palace there is music +and singing. Christine is seated in a tapestried +hall with one or two esquires who prefer to +discourse of love to joining in the jollity. After +a time the talk turns on fickle men, and Christine +brings forth from her vast storehouse of knowledge +classical and mediæval examples. As she +mentions Theseus, and recalls his baseness to +Ariadne, she points to the tapestry on the wall +before them, where the story is woven. This +little touch makes the scene very real to us, for +the record of the purchase of this tapestry, with +the price of twelve hundred francs paid for it, +may still be found amongst the royal inventories.</p> + +<p>There is such a volume and variety of works<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +from Christine’s pen that it is no easy task to +make a fair selection. One of the most significant, +since it deals with a subject which permeated +mediæval thought, and on which she was wont +to dwell, is <i>La Mutation de fortune</i>, “Fortune +more inconstant than the moon,” says Christine. +In it she writes with her heart in her hand, as it +were, telling first of the sore havoc Fortune has +wrought amongst those most dear to her. Yet +though her own heart has been torn on the +Wheel of Fortune, she stands before her fellow +sufferers like some figure of Hope pointing upward, +where, she says, wrong is surely righted. +And thus she turns to the world in general, not +in the spirit of the pessimist, but rather in that +of the philosopher. She well knows that +Fortune is no blindfolded goddess turning writhing +humanity on a wheel, but a something +rooted in ourselves, and she has pity for “la +povre fragilité humaine.” Though so independent +and advanced in thought, she is still +found clinging in her writings to mediæval forms. +As a setting for her thoughts on Fortune’s +changes, she makes use of the favourite simile of +a castle—here the Castle of Fortune—as representing +the world, wherein the rich and the +poor, the strong and the weak, jostle one another. +She criticises all men, from the prince to the +pauper, but not women, since these have been +sufficiently criticised and decried. It is like the +prelude to a <i>Dance of Death</i>. Then she tells of +the paintings on the walls of this imaginary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +castle, and uses this mediæval fancy, itself +borrowed from the classics (<i>Met.</i> ii. 5. 770), +to give what is really a history of the world +as she knew it, written to demonstrate the instability +of all earthly conditions.</p> + +<p>Once again, with her versatile gifts, she turns +from philosophy to a treatise on military tactics +and justice, <i>Le Livre des faits d’armes et de +chevalerie</i>. However devoid of interest, except +as a landmark in the history of military strategy +and customs, this work may be to-day, it was +thought of sufficient importance in the reign +of our Henry the Seventh for the king to command +Caxton to translate and print it (1489) +with the title of <i>The Book of Faytes of Arms</i>, +a book still sought after by our bibliophiles. +It was further honoured by being quoted as an +authority in the reign of Henry the Eighth. +Considering the nature of its contents, this +seems quite an extraordinary tribute to the +judgment and ability of the writer.</p> + +<p>But the misery of France is ever increasing. +Ceaseless civil war and foreign invasion impoverish +the people, and make desolate the +land. The dissolute Court is extravagant and +filled with discord. Christine, fired with +patriotic fervour, once more makes an effort, +which proves to be her final one, to arouse the +pleasure-loving nobility to some sense of its +obligations to the nation. <i>Le Livre des trois +vertues</i>, and <i>Le Livre de la paix</i>, appear one +after the other. In the former, which she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +dedicates to the Dauphine, Margaret of +Burgundy, she merely adds another to the long +list of discourses for the guidance of women +which, in Christian times, begins as early as +the second century.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> This theme forms the +subject of so considerable a didactic literature +that it can only be hinted at here. Whether +treated from a religious or from a social point +of view, or the two combined, the sum-total +of the teaching is moral training with a view +to self-restraint and subordination. Christine +addresses herself to all women, from the highest +to the lowest, but her principal theme is the +influence a princess may and should have on +Court life. She further counsels not princesses +alone, but all well-born women, not to attach +too much importance to the things of this world, +to be charitable, and to see to the education of +their children, and so to inform themselves +that they may be capable of filling their +husbands’ place when they are obliged to be +absent at war or at the Court. She adds a plea +for the country, that war should be opposed, and +one for the poor, that pity should be shown to +them. Then she addresses herself to the townswoman, +advising her to see to her household, +not to fear to go into the kitchen, and to avoid +all luxury; then to servants, counselling them +on no account to take bribes, adding the practical +touch that as God is everywhere, and only asks +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>of each a good heart, it is not necessary for them +to go to Mass every day; then to the wife of +the labourer, bidding her to guard well her +master’s flocks and to encourage her husband +to work; and, finally, she has a word of sympathy +for the poor, holding out to them hope of +recompense in heaven for misery endured here, +and exhorting them to have patience meanwhile. +From this patriotic and practical advice to +women she turns to men, and in <i>Le Livre de la +Paix</i> sets forth the duties of princes and of those +in power to the people, importuning them to +exercise clemency, liberality, and justice.</p> + +<p>But it is too late. The sand in the hour-glass +is running low. Disaster follows disaster, +until the final blow is struck at Agincourt (1415), +where the flower of the French nation is cut +off, and princes of the blood are carried away +into exile. Christine, with bleeding heart, and +worn with trouble and disappointment, retires +to the convent of Poissy, “un très doux paradis,” +perchance to find peace and consolation within +its tranquil walls, and to implore Heaven’s aid +for her sore-stricken country. For fourteen +years no sound from her reaches the outside +world. Then, inspired by the glorious advent +and deeds of Joan of Arc, with all her old passion +she pours forth a final hymn of praise and +thanksgiving to the woman who has at last +aroused France to patriotism, and so dies in +peace at the solemn moment of Charles the +Seventh’s consecration at Rheims.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O Thou! ordainèd Maid of very God!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Joanna! born in Fortune’s golden hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On thee the Holy Spirit pours His Flood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And His high grace is given thee for dower.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now all great gifts are thine:—O blessed be He<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That lent thee life!—how word my grateful prayer?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—No prayer of thine was spoken fruitlessly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Maid of God! O Joan! O Virgin rare!<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><span style="padding-right: 2em; padding-left: 3em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span>•<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mark me this portent! strange beyond all telling!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How this despoilèd Kingdom stricken lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And no man raised his hand to guard his dwelling,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until a Woman came to show the way.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until a Woman (since no man dare try)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rallied the land and bade the traitors fly.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Honour to Womankind! It needs must be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That God loves Woman, since He fashioned Thee!<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><span style="padding-right: 2em; padding-left: 3em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span>•<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O strange! This little maid sixteen years old<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On whom no harness weigheth overmuch.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So strong the little hands! enduring hold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She seemeth fed by that same armour’s touch,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nurtured on iron—as before her vanish<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The enemies of her triumphal day;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And this by many men is witnessèd;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, many eyes be witness of that fray!<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><span style="padding-right: 2em; padding-left: 3em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span>•<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Castles and towns, she wins them back for France,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And France is free again, and this her doing!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Never was power given as to her lance!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A thousand swords could do no more pursuing.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all staunch men and true she is the Chief,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Captain and Leader, for that she alone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is braver than Achilles the brave Greek.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All praise be given to God who leadeth Joan!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> L. Delisle, <i>Recherches sur la libraire de Charles V</i>, Paris, +1907.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Harley, 4431.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> A. Farinelli, <i>Dante e la Francia</i>, vol. i. p. 192, 1908.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> “Le Musée Jacquemart-André,” <i>Gazette des Beaux-Arts</i>, +August 1912.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> “Le Dit de la Rose,” 197-204, <i>Œuvres poétiques de Christine +de Pisan</i>, t. ii., pub. par Maurice Roy, 1891.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> A. A. Hentsch, <i>De la littérature du moyen âge +s’adressant spécialement aux femmes</i>, Cahors, 1903.</p></div> +</div> + + +<h2><a name="AGNES_SOREL" id="AGNES_SOREL"></a>AGNES SOREL<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></h2> + + +<p class="ni"><span class="smcap">So</span> much glamour has attached, and rightly so, +to Joan of Arc, the soldier-saviour of Charles the +Seventh of France, that another woman, Agnes +Sorel—Charles’s good angel of a less militant +order—has been almost entirely overlooked, and +where she has been remembered, has been treated +by the few with the honour due to her, and by +the many merely as Charles’s mistress. But to +her it was given to be a great inspirer of Charles, +and much of the good that this weak king and +ungrateful man did for his country may assuredly +be in large measure attributed to her influence, +just as the greatest merit that can be recorded of +him personally was his devotion to her whilst +she lived, though the memory of her availed +naught after she had passed away. Agnes Sorel +came as it were between the ebb and flow of the +late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, when +chivalry, not as a passing emotion but as an +education, still lingered in men’s relation with +women. Respect for womankind grew in the +Middle Ages in France under the double influence +of religion and chivalry, of which the cult of the +Virgin and the cult of woman were the outcome.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +In honour of both, men strove in tournament +and fought in battle. With the cry, “For our +Lady,” or “For God and my Lady,” men hurled +themselves into the thick of the strife as if the +goddess, whether divine or human, in whose +name they ventured, had made her champions +invulnerable. And, in a manner as it would +seem of action and re-action, the goddess became +humanised and the woman deified. The former +tendency may be traced in miracles attributed to +the Virgin, and, later, in the “Mysteries,” and +the latter in tales of chivalry, where love is +treated as a gift from Heaven, and the recipients +of it are idealised. Stories which seem to contradict +this, and to refute all accepted ideas of +chivalry and honour, are frequently original only +in details, the bases being borrowed from Oriental +tales. Buddha’s country, the land of the Zenana, +supplied much material of an exaggerated nature +which in the West became mere travesty.</p> + +<p>It is always difficult to determine exactly the +origin of anything so subtle as a sentiment, +especially one which gradually pervades and +influences a people. It is, in its way, at first +like a soft breeze, of which we can only see the +effect. But as we try to discover some definite, +if only partial, reason for this interchange of +simple human relations between the Virgin and +her votaries, we remember that St. Francis, the +embodiment of exalted human sentiment, had +lived, and that scholasticism, in that phase of it +which treated the dialectical subtleties of words<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +as paramount, was on the wane. Hence spirit, +which had so long been restrained, and which is +ever in conflict with form, again prevailed, and +mankind discovered that a loving Mother had +taken the place of a stately Queen in the Heavens. +This attitude towards the Virgin is revealed in +the miracles attributed to her agency. It is also +shown in one of the greatest works of piety of +the thirteenth century, the <i>Meditations on the Life +of Jesus Christ</i>,<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> which, through the medium of +the “Mysteries,” introduced into sacred pictorial +art some of its most dramatic and appealing +scenes. Where is there to be found anything +more tenderly human than the incident of +“Christ taking leave of His Mother” before +His journey to Jerusalem to consummate His +mission?</p> + +<p>This note of the womanly element in its +fairest form, gradually insinuating itself more +and more, and permeating life, art, and literature, +is the key to the right understanding of +the position which woman had attained in the +civilised world.</p> + +<p>Before turning our special attention to Agnes +Sorel, let us recall the condition of France at the +beginning of the fifteenth century.</p> + +<p>When the lunatic King Charles the Sixth +died in 1422, and Charles, his son, at the age +of nineteen, succeeded under the title of “King +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>of Bourges,” Paris was held by the Burgundians, +who were in league with the English. The +Dukes of Burgundy and of Brittany were alike +vacillating in their policy, being at one time +attached to the king’s party, and at another +allied to the English. With the exception of +a few castles, the strongholds of lords loyal to +the Crown, the English possessed the whole of +France north of the Loire, from the Meuse to the +Bay of Mont St. Michel. Hither the Duke of +Bedford was sent as regent for the English king, +Henry the Sixth, then ten months old, who, by +the terms of the Treaty of Troyes (1420), was +the lawful king, the right of succession having +been conferred on his father, Henry the Fifth, +when he married Catherine, the daughter of +Charles the Sixth of France.</p> + +<p>Charles the Seventh divided his time between +Bourges and Poitiers, where the government +was carried on, and Loches, Chinon, and Tours, +the places he dearly loved, and in which he +sought the solitude he craved for. But even in +these seemingly peaceful retreats his lethargy +and indolence were disturbed by perpetual +intrigues, which it must be admitted were +largely fostered by his own caprices and fickle +affections. Meanwhile a cry of misery was +arising from the war-devastated land. Churches +and convents, castles and cottages, were all fallen +into ruin, and brambles grew on the untilled +land where once golden corn had waved. +Peasants hid their horses during the day and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> +brought them out to graze at night. As Alain +Chartier wrote at the time, “Les pays champestres +sont tournez à l’estat de la mer, où chascun a +tant de seigneurie comme il a de force.” Men +of all conditions, from the proudest lord to the +poorest peasant, joined in spasmodic and detached +efforts to drive out the English, but with the +result that they did little else than harass them. +Want of cohesion was the characteristic of the +national resistance until, from a small village in +the east of France, there appeared a deliverer in +the person of Joan of Arc. Instantly, as if her +sword were a magic wand, all the fighting men, +impelled and inspired by the strength of her +personality, rallied around her, and victory was +assured.</p> + +<p>The story of the siege and surrender of +Orleans, of the crowning of Charles in Rheims +Cathedral, of Joan subsequently falling into the +hands of the Burgundians, who sold her to their +allies, the English, of her shameful trial and +cruel death, are facts so well known that they +may well be passed over here as briefly as +possible. Suffice it to say, that, except for a +time, even the triumph of this maiden-patriot +did little to rouse the indolent king, who +speedily returned to his selfish life in Touraine. +War, pillage, and anarchy again devastated +France. But gradually a change came over +Charles. He seemed to awake as from a stupor. +Dissolute and self-seeking favourites were dismissed, +and the king was surrounded by able<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +and high-minded men. He bestirred himself +to make a final peace with Burgundy and +Brittany, and to take part in the war which +was still smouldering, though there were signs +of its approaching end.</p> + +<p>What was the secret of such a change? +That it was due, in the first instance, partly +to the wise influence of his mother-in-law, +Yolande of Aragon, and partly also to that of +his wife, Marie of Anjou, sister of the good +Duke René, seems almost certain, but that it +was intensified when Agnes Sorel came into +his life, there can be no doubt. When we +consider the king’s earlier life, and what it +was whilst he was under the influence of Agnes, +and his relapse into indolence and debauchery +after her death, we can only attribute much +of this change to her sympathetic and wise +guidance. Joan of Arc had represented the +popular element, Agnes Sorel represented the +aristocratic. Joan of Arc aroused the people +to united action by her enthusiasm and success, +Agnes Sorel, in her time, helped to complete +the consolidation of the kingdom, by inspiring +and sustaining the king. Perhaps no one man +could have accomplished such a revolution. It +took two women to do this, and what they +did was not of mere passing worth. Phœnix-like, +France arose from the ashes of the +Hundred Years’ War, and it was Agnes Sorel, +as priestess, who stirred the embers which hid +the new life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p> + +<p>Voltaire, generally more ready to scoff than +to approve, wrote thus of Agnes Sorel:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Le bon roi Charles, au printemps de ses jours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><span style="padding-right: 2em; padding-left: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span>•<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Avait trouvé, <i>pour le bien de la France</i>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Une beauté, nommée Agnes Sorel.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="ni">Was it for the good of France? Let us disregard +prejudices, and examine facts. Even then, if all +that is known of her were written, it could only +bear to this rare personality the resemblance +which a faint reflection does to reality.</p> + +<p>Agnes Sorel was probably born about 1420 or +1422, in the Castle of Fromenteau in Touraine.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> +Her father, Jean Soreau, or Sorel, was Lord of +Coudon, and belonged to the lesser nobility. +It was in this beautiful country of forest and +meadow-land, of silvery rivers and meandering +streams, that Agnes spent her early years, her +education being principally religious, for religion +naturally held the first place in a society which +still retained faith in the supernatural. It was +customary at that time for girls of noble birth +to complete their education either at Court or +at the castle of some princely person, for such +places were considered excellent schools of +courtesy and other virtues for the daughters +as well as for the sons of the nobility.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p> +<p>Though the date is uncertain, it was at the +Court of Lorraine that Agnes became maid-of-honour +to the Duchess Isabelle, wife of René, +Duke of Anjou and Lorraine, and Count of +Provence, a prince distinguished for chivalry +and learning. This intellectual and chivalrous +atmosphere must have been peculiarly congenial +to the sympathetic and versatile nature of Agnes +Sorel. We can picture her listening to the +Duke René reading his latest poem to one or +two of his brother-poets in the castle pleasaunce, +or discoursing on philosophy or statecraft, or +attending some brilliant pageant or sumptuous +fête. Chivalry, though dead as an institution, +still survived as a recreation, and as an appeal +from the past to the cultured imagination, and +René, mediæval knight that he was in sentiment, +dearly loved the gorgeous spectacle of a tournament, +with the knight jousting in honour of his +chosen lady. At this Court Agnes also came +under the influence of Yolande of Aragon, +widow of Louis, King of Naples and Sicily, +great-granddaughter of King John of France, +mother of the Duke René, and mother-in-law +of King Charles the Seventh, a woman renowned +for her extraordinary political capacity. All +these ties, and the remembrance of the French +blood in her veins, emphasised Yolande’s dominant +passion—the love of France,—and it may +well be that in this patriotic atmosphere Agnes +Sorel became imbued with a like passion, which +later she was to develop in all its perfection,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +rivalled only by her devotion to the well-being +and glory of her royal lover.</p> + +<p>Patriotism was a virtue of recent growth in +France, for, in order to thrive, it requires unity +of idea, and during the Middle Ages the only +idea common to all was Christianity, which, +from the nature of its teaching of humility and +fraternity, does not make for patriotism. It +may cement the structure, but it does not form +the basis. It was only after years of suffering +and unrest that men learned to sink their +individual and local interests in those of the +nation as a whole. Then, and only then, could +patriotism arise, and only under such conditions +could it flourish.</p> + +<p>How long Agnes lived at the Court of +Lorraine (one of the most refined and cultured +Courts of the time), and how her first meeting +with the king came about, is uncertain. It has +been considered likely that between 1431 and 1435 +Isabelle of Lorraine went to Chinon to beseech +the king to use his influence to obtain the release +of her husband, imprisoned by his cousin, a rival +claimant to the duchy of Lorraine. It is possible +that Agnes, even if only born in 1422, may have +accompanied her, but even if she did not, this +visit of Isabelle’s may, indirectly, have led to +the meeting between the king and Agnes. +Whilst still a prisoner, René succeeded to the +crown of Naples on the death of his brother, +Louis d’Anjou, and as the country was in a +disturbed condition it was deemed prudent for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +Isabelle, his wife, to act as his substitute, and, +as <i>lieutenante générale</i>, she set forth to establish +his claim. History is silent on the point as to +whether Agnes accompanied her or not. It +may be, as some seem to think, that she +remained in Anjou with Isabelle’s eldest +daughter, Marguerite, afterwards Queen of +England. We should like to think that it +was during this time that she attracted the +notice of Charles, for this would lend additional +interest to the exquisite miniature in the +Musée du Louvre (at one time in the Book of +Hours of Etienne Chevalier, now for the most +part at Chantilly), which it seems probable +represents Agnes Sorel as a youthful shepherdess, +with the Castle of Loches in the background +and Charles the Seventh riding towards her. +As we have already suggested elsewhere,<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> this +may have been a poetical rendering of their +first meeting. However this may be, it seems +probable that it was soon after the year 1435<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> +that she first attracted the notice of Charles, +and that, later, she took up her residence in +Touraine, no doubt gaining her influence over +the king at first by her beauty, which all her +contemporaries proclaim, and afterwards by that +mysterious combination of ability and grace, of +intelligence and physical vitality, which held +him captive for many years. During this time +she, like a true woman, and no ordinary place-hunter, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>made his devotion to her react upon +himself, for the good of his country and to his +own honour. She not only counselled him +wisely herself, but persuaded him to surround +himself with wise counsellors.</p> + +<p>Of these counsellors, and the able and devoted +men who served the king in divers ways, some +few stand out more prominently than the rest, +because of their position of intimacy in the royal +circle, and their special and enduring friendship +with Agnes Sorel. Such were Etienne +Chevalier, Treasurer of France; Pierre de Brézé, +of a noble Angevin family, and Sénéchal of +Normandy after the expulsion of the English; +and Jacques Cœur, the king’s superintendent of +Finance, whose house at Bourges, with its angel-ceiled +chapel, still delights the traveller.</p> + +<p>Etienne Chevalier was for some time secretary +to the king, and after filling one or two smaller +posts connected with finance, was made Treasurer +of France, and member of the Grand Council. +In addition to administrative capacity, he possessed +a brilliant intellect and a great love of +art. It is to his initiative that we owe the +only suggestions in portraiture of Agnes Sorel. +It was to him also that the king confided the +supervision of the erection of the monuments to +her memory at Jumièges and Loches—Jumièges +where she died in 1449, and where her heart +was buried, and Loches her favourite place of +sojourn, and to whose church and chapter she +had made large gifts. To Loches her body was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +borne in royal splendour, and there laid to rest +in the choir of the church in a simple tomb. +We can imagine the loving care with which +Etienne Chevalier watched the sculptor, and +possibly even gave him suggestions, as he +fashioned in alabaster her recumbent effigy +representing her with hands clasped as if in +prayer, her feet resting against two lambs, and +her head guarded by two angels with outstretched +wings. Perhaps this stone effigy was +the one true portrait of Agnes, but the head and +face were partially destroyed during the Revolution, +and restored in their present form in 1806, +so that little of the original now remains.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 572px;"><a name="agnes" id="agnes"></a> +<img src="images/i158.jpg" width="572" height="350" alt="TOMB OF AGNES SOREL." title="Tomb of Agnes Sorel" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Loches.</i></p> + +<p class="caption">TOMB OF AGNES SOREL.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 158.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>This tomb, which to-day may be seen in a +small vestibule of the Château Royale (now the +Sous-Préfecture), has a strange and chequered +history. Perhaps scarce another has suffered +such singular vicissitudes, so many removals, or +more ruthless violations. Soon after the death +of Charles the Seventh (1461), the canons of +Loches, whom Agnes had largely endowed and +of whom she asked naught save to be remembered +in their prayers, petitioned Louis the +Eleventh for its transfer to a side chapel, since +they considered it unfitting for the dust of such +an one to repose in the choir. Louis, using his +subtlety to better purpose than was his wont, +replied that if they removed the tomb, they +must return her gifts. Naturally these worthy +ecclesiastics silenced their consciences and kept +the tomb where it was. However, in the year<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> +1777, in the reign of Louis the Sixteenth, the +priestly conscience again awoke to the enormity +of its presence within the choir, and, with the +king’s consent, it was removed to the nave. +Before re-burial the coffin was opened in the +presence of various church dignitaries and State +officials. Among the latter was a doctor who +left an authoritative account of the proceedings, +from which we can approximately surmise the +height of La Dame de Beauté, and verify the +record of her abundant fair hair. The exterior +coffin of oak was only 5 feet 6 inches long. +Within this, and protected by another of lead, +was a shell of cedar wood in which, after the +lapse of more than three centuries, lay all that +was mortal of Agnes Sorel. Her fair hair was +plaited in a long tress, and two curls rested on her +forehead. As one of those present, more curious +than his fellows, stretched out his hand to touch, +all fell to dust. Death and Time were her +guardian angels. But even this desecration did +not suffice to drain the cup of unmerited +vengeance. In 1793 the tomb was rifled, the +sculptured features, so lovingly wrought, +defaced, and her dust cast to the winds. But +what matter? Agnes had done her work—work +which had to be done, and which she +alone could do.</p> + +<p>Another of the little band of chosen spirits +of which Agnes was the soul and centre, was +Pierre de Brézé, Lord of Varenne and Brissac, +who early showed himself a man of affairs,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +and was admitted to the King’s Council when he +was but twenty-seven. In war, administration, +and finance, he proved himself equally trustworthy +and skilful, and to these qualities he +added others of a brilliant intellectual nature. +He advanced from one post of trust to another, +until the king himself presented him with the +keys of the city and castle of Rouen. Thus he +became Sénéchal of Normandy, an honour which +remained in his family. One of his grandsons, +Louis de Brézé, a son of Charlotte, daughter of +Agnes Sorel and Charles the Seventh, was the +husband of Diane de Poitiers.</p> + +<p>Jacques Cœur, whose life was so intimately +associated with the Court during Agnes’s lifetime, +and so sadly marred and ended after her +death, was the son of a simple merchant of +Bourges. Following in the wake of many +adventurous and ambitious merchants of the +time, he journeyed to the East and amassed a +large fortune, which he placed at the disposal +of the king. This enabled Charles to carry on +the war in spite of his impoverished exchequer, +and to make a final and successful effort against +the English. But, like many another on whom +Fortune has smiled, evil tongues and envious +hearts began, ere long, their vampire work, and +after the death of his friend and patroness, Agnes +Sorel, Charles made no effort on his behalf, but +left him at the mercy of his calumniators in the +same base and heartless way in which he had +abandoned Joan of Arc. Jacques, his goods<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> +confiscated, and his life in danger, was obliged +to fly the country, and died fighting, in the +Pope’s service, against the Turk.</p> + +<p>Of the beauty of Agnes Sorel there can be +no doubt, for all contemporary chroniclers and +poets tell of it. Even the Pope, Pius the Second, +allowed himself to add his tribute of praise to +the general homage. Considering that there +are so many types of physical beauty, appealing +to as many different temperaments, there must +have been something rare and remarkable in +Agnes to have attracted and held bound all who +came in contact with her. We can but conclude +that this unanimous judgment could only have +been the result of that mysterious union, so +illusive, so indefinable, of spiritual with physical +beauty. The records of the time merely tell us +that she had blue eyes, and fair hair in abundance. +The only picture, and this not done from +life, by which we can judge her—for the miniatures +by Fouquet, at Chantilly, from Etienne +Chevalier’s Book of Hours, though exquisite in +delicacy, are too minute for much characterisation—is, +even if we accept it as the original +from Fouquet’s hand, an overcleaned work in +the Museum at Antwerp.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> This, or the original +painting, formed a wing of the so-called diptych +painted to adorn the tomb of Etienne Chevalier +and his wife in the Cathedral of Melun, the +other wing—now in the Royal Museum, Berlin—representing +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>Etienne Chevalier himself, in the +attitude of prayer, his patron saint, St. Stephen, +beside him. There seems reason, however, to +suppose that this offering of Etienne’s was in +fact a triptych, and that the missing wing +pictured his young wife, then lately dead (1452). +If this was so, Etienne and his wife would have +appeared in adoration on either side of the +Queen of Heaven, here personated by Agnes +Sorel, thus bringing the panel with Etienne’s +portrait into harmony with the central panel, +which otherwise it fails to be.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="hours1" id="hours1"></a> +<img src="images/i162.jpg" width="400" height="572" alt="BOOK OF HOURS OF ETIENNE CHEVALIER." title="Book of Hours, Chevalier" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Musée de Chantilly.</i></p> + +<p class="caption">BOOK OF HOURS OF ETIENNE CHEVALIER.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 162.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>Of the miniatures at Chantilly, the whole +series of which forms a most tender and rare +tribute to wife and friend, only brief mention +can here be made of those concerning Agnes. +The most simple and beautiful in sentiment and +design is that of the <i>Annunciation</i>, in which the +seated Virgin, in the likeness of Agnes Sorel, +with bowed head receives the angel’s message. +The scene is laid in a Gothic chapel (perhaps +the Sainte Chapelle with slight adaptations to +suit the artist’s fancy),<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> with statues of the +Prophets all around, and Moses, holding the +Books of the Law, as the central figure of the +group. This assemblage of Old Testament +seers certainly typified the Old dispensation, +whilst the Annunciation prefigures the New, +and to us the whole may not unfitly form an +allegory of the new order which Agnes Sorel +was to help to bring about. In another miniature—the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span><i>Visit of the Magi</i>—Charles the Seventh, +accompanied by his Scottish guard, and with the +Castle of Loches in the background, himself +kneels as one of the kings before the Virgin, +here also represented in the likeness of Agnes. +And so on, throughout the series, in many of +the scenes of the Virgin’s life we find her bearing +the features of Agnes until an older and sadder +type becomes necessary in the <i>Crucifixion</i>, the +<i>Entombment</i>, and the <i>Announcement of the Death</i> +and the <i>Death</i> of the Virgin. When, however, +death has transfigured age and sorrow, the likeness +of Agnes reappears in the <i>Assumption</i>, +and <i>Coronation</i>, and, the crowning glory, the +<i>Enthronement</i> of the Virgin.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="hours2" id="hours2"></a> +<img src="images/i163.jpg" width="400" height="552" alt="BOOK OF HOURS OF ETIENNE CHEVALIER." title="Book of Hours, Chevalier" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Musée de Chantilly.</i></p> + +<p class="caption">BOOK OF HOURS OF ETIENNE CHEVALIER.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 163.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>In a Book of Hours, at Munich, painted +about 1500 <small>A.D.</small> for Jacques Cœur’s grandson +(in part perhaps by Jean Bourdichon, the artist +of the superb Book of Hours of Anne de +Bretagne now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, or +at least by some pupil or follower of his), there +are three miniatures that seem of special interest +in connection with Agnes Sorel. One is a +representation of the Virgin of the Annunciation, +and another that of the Madonna with the Holy +Child. In both these the features of the Virgin +Mother appear to faintly echo those of Agnes as +we know her, as the crowned and ermined queen +in the picture at Antwerp. Still more interesting +is the third miniature, giving a view—here +used as a setting for the <i>Procession to Calvary</i>—of +the front of Jacques Cœur’s stately dwelling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +at Bourges. Here doubtless many a time Agnes +and the king were entertained. Hither Jacques +returned from sundry journeys to the East, laden +with treasures to beautify his surroundings. +Hence he fled, the victim of success. Over the +principal entrance is a canopied recess, once +sheltering an equestrian statue destroyed during +the Revolution. This now empty space once +held a statue of King Charles the Seventh, armed +cap-à-pie on a galloping caparisoned charger, as +he may be seen represented on medals of the +period. It is not a little significant of this +thankless monarch that he here seems to be +turning his back on the house of his faithful +servant and supporter, and to be riding away. +Other details worthy of mention in this Book of +Hours are the realistic background to the picture +of the <i>Visit of the Magi</i>, with its snow-covered +village church, houses, and fields; the Italian +drug-pot in the Magdalen’s hands in the scene +of the Crucifixion, showing the intimate intercourse +with Italy; and the Mater Dolorosa +seated <i>alone</i> at the foot of the Cross,—a tragic +note taken from the <i>Mystery of the Passion</i>.</p> + +<p>There is only one unanimous opinion concerning +Agnes Sorel, and that is as to her beauty. +For the rest, it would seem as if prejudice and +flattery held the scales. The mean is difficult +to discover, and perhaps it is only possible to +get somewhere near it by studying results—the +remarkable change, as already noticed, in Charles’s +life and conduct whilst under her influence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the face of conflicting records it is no easy +matter to determine when Agnes Sorel first +became the king’s mistress. In 1435, when +the Treaty of Arras was concluded between +Charles and the Duke of Burgundy, Cardinal de +Sainte-Croix (afterwards Pope Pius the Second) +was Papal legate at the French Court, and aided +in the negotiations. He tells in his memoirs +that the relation between Charles and Agnes +was known publicly at the time, and that the +king could do nothing without her, even having +her at his side at the royal councils. The trustworthiness +of this statement has, however, been +so questioned, that it seems safer to endeavour to +arrive at the truth from other sources, although, +if the statement can be relied on, it seems to +follow, almost as a matter of course, that Agnes +must have been born earlier than 1422. It is +an admitted fact that between 1433 and 1438 +the manner of Charles’s life entirely changed. +In the year 1433 the infamous and once all-powerful +favourite, La Tremoille, who had been +the king’s evil genius for six years, and was +largely responsible for the king’s treatment +of his wife, Marie of Anjou, was dismissed at +the instance of the politic Yolande. Yet even +so, the king often relapsed into indolence and +apparent indifference to his kingly duties, and it +was not till after 1438, when he summoned a +national Council at Bourges, that Charles showed +himself to be a new man. It is also not long +after this that we read of favours granted by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +king to Agnes’s relations. From that time, +Charles ceased to spend his time in dreamland, +as it were, in the sweet Touraine country, and +engaged himself in affairs of State, listening to +and accepting wise counsels, favouring the +restoration of schools and universities—which, +in the uncertain state of the country, had almost +ceased to exist—and encouraging the final efforts +to expel the national enemy, even at times +personally joining in the fight. If we see in +this, in a measure at all events, the guiding +spirit of Agnes, the secret of her influence is not +very difficult to discover. Apart from her +beauty, which, with Charles, would be a potent +factor, Agnes had a woman’s insight and skill in +her relation with him, ever holding up to him +the glory and obligations of kingship, at the +same time herself entering, with all the vitality +of her extraordinary nature, into his favourite +pastimes. We know that in one or other of +her many residences near Chinon or Loches, she +and the king often spent the evening playing +piquet or chess (the latter being his favourite +game), and then, on the morrow, rode forth +together to the chase. So the days were passed +in work and simple outdoor pleasures, Agnes +taking no recognised public part in the king’s +life, but devoting herself heart and soul to the +task she had in hand. But besides these relaxations +of peace, there was also the reality of war; +for the war still lingered on, though feebly. +The English had lost their ally, the Duke of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +Burgundy, as well as Bedford, the able Regent, +and there was no fit man to take the latter’s +place. Paris opened her gates to Charles in +1436, and in the following year Charles, after +having reigned for fourteen years, made his first +State entry into the capital of his kingdom, +mounted on a white charger, the sign of +sovereignty. In 1444 a treaty was concluded +at Tours with the English, and, to make the +compact doubly sure, Margaret of Anjou, a +niece of the king, was married to Henry the +Sixth of England. For about a month the +Court and its princely visitors gave themselves +up to fêtes and pageants, and it was during this +time of rejoicing that the position of Agnes was +officially recognised. She was made lady-in-waiting +to the queen, and took a prominent +part throughout the festival. Charles gave her +the royal castle of Beauté, on the Marne, near +the Bois de Vincennes, “le plus bel chastel et +joly et le mieux assis qui fust en l’Isle de France,” +desiring, as was said, that she should be “Dame +de Beauté de nom comme de fait.” From the +time of her public recognition she appeared with +the king at all the brilliant festivities celebrated +in honour of treaties and marriages. She also +sat in the royal council, a position which, as a +king’s mistress, she was the first to occupy, +though we know that Henri II. took no step +without first conferring with Diane de Poitiers, +and that Madame de Maintenon sat in Louis +the Fourteenth’s privy council.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span></p> + +<p>The change which came over France after +the Treaty of Tours was marvellous, alike in +its extent and its rapidity. Commerce was +again resumed between the two nations; men +and women once again ventured without the +city walls, to breathe, as it were, the fresh air +of liberty; and those who had been called +upon to fight, returned to their work in the +fields or the towns. We cannot better voice +the feeling of the people than by borrowing the +song of a poet of the day:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Le temps a laissé son manteau<br /></span> +<span class="i0">De vent, de froidure et de pluie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Et s’est vêtu de broderie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">De soleil rayant, clair et beau;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Il n’y a beste ne oiseau<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Qu’en son jargon ne chante ou crie:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Le temps a laissé son manteau.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Now that Agnes had assumed a definite +rôle at Court, she lived principally at Loches, +where the king assigned to her “son quartier de +maison” within the castle, and also gave her a +residence without the walls. Here she shone +like a radiant star; for although the king did +not have much personal influence on the movement +in art and letters, his Court was the +meeting-place of many distinguished and intellectual +men. Among them we find the +name of Alain Chartier, the poet, and sometime +secretary to the king, and one of the ambassadors +who went to Edinburgh to ask the hand of the +little Margaret of Scotland for the Dauphin. +We remember him now chiefly in connection<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +with the charming story told of this girl-wife +of the Dauphin Louis. Betrothed to Louis +when she was a child of three, and sent to +France to be brought up at the Court, she was +married at twelve to this boy of thirteen, who +could not possibly appreciate her simple, sweet +nature which endeared her to all others. One +day as she was passing with her ladies through +a room in the castle, she saw Alain Chartier +lying on a bench asleep. She approached +quietly, and kissed him, much to the surprise of +her attendants that she should “kiss so ugly a +man.” And she made answer: “I did not +kiss the man, but the precious mouth whence +so many beautiful and fair words have issued.” +Poor little poetess! Fortunately her life was +a short one. She died when she was just +twenty-one, with these words on her lips: “Fi +de la vie de ce monde, ne m’en parlez plus.” +The scientific historian of to-day is inclined to +dismiss this story as a pleasing though rather +foolish romance. But even so, Alain Chartier +may be remembered as a poet and philosopher, +as well as a brave and wise patriot during some +of France’s darkest hours—a worthy contemporary +of Agnes Sorel and Joan of Arc. Fearing +neither the nobles nor the people, he blames +the former for their love of luxury and personal +indulgence, and exhorts both to think of the +public good, and to aid in their country’s +defence, instead of allowing themselves to be +engrossed with their private affairs. Then,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +whilst acknowledging that as he has not the +strength to bear arms, it is only with his pen +and his speech that he can serve his country, he +reminds them that it was the historian’s pen +and the orator’s harangue, just as much as the +warrior’s lance, that made the glory of the +Romans.</p> + +<p>Louis the Dauphin, come to man’s estate, and +self-seeking and treacherous, was no friend to +Agnes, who had incurred his hatred by her +fearless disclosure to the king from time to +time of conspiracies against his person, in +which Louis was the prime mover. After +repeated reconciliations, the king in despair +finally banished him to his domain of Dauphiné. +The traitor, quitting the royal presence for +what he deemed exile, swore to be avenged on +those who had driven him forth, and if some +of the records of the time speak truly, four +years later his opportunity came, and he kept +his oath.</p> + +<p>The last scene of Agnes’s life was pathetically +interesting. Her end came almost suddenly. +The king, listening to advice, had +resolved to continue the war in Normandy,<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> +and, at the instigation of Agnes, if we may believe +the words of a courtly writer of the time, had +himself gone to the front. Rouen was taken, +and Charles entered in triumph. The streets +were decked with flowers and branches, and the +houses hung with rich draperies, and everywhere +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>the leopards and quarterings of England had +been replaced by the fleur-de-lis. Charles, +preceded by a gorgeous procession of archers, +each company arrayed in the livery of its lord, +and carrying his special banner, followed, under +a canopy, on a horse caparisoned to the ground +with blue cloth sprinkled with fleurs-de-lis of +gold, surrounded by princes and the principal +captains and officers of the Crown. With his +wonted observance of religious duty, slowly he +made his way to the cathedral through the +shouting multitude, and to the sound of many +fiddles and the fanfare of trumpets. There he +descended, kissed the relics as he knelt beneath +the great portal, and then entered its hushed +and solemn dimness to return thanks. But +scarce had the air ceased to ring with the +plaudits of the people, when the report of a plot +against the king, devised by the Dauphin, is +said to have come to the ears of Agnes, and she +hastened to the king at Jumièges, whither he +had retired for a short rest during the unusual +and inclement winter. Here, stricken by a +mysterious sickness, by some thought to be +typhoid fever, by others attributed to poison +administered at the instigation of Louis, she +died in February 1450, in her manor of Mesnil, +near the Abbey of Jumièges. The king was +with her to the end, and could only be induced +to withdraw when her lifeless form sank back +in his arms. So died this wonderful and fascinating +woman who had lived and laboured for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> +her country through perhaps the most critical +period of its history.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to entirely ignore what has +been written to Agnes’s personal discredit, though +much of it may well be looked upon as exaggeration, +and open to suspicion. That the king +was not her only lover may be true, but in the +absence of satisfactory documentary evidence of +this, perhaps the various intrigues attributed to +her may, for the most part at least, be regarded +as the creations of scandal. Still, bearing in +mind the condition of France at the time of her +accession to power, the extent of the influence +she admittedly exercised in the councils of the +king, and the great change which came over +the royal fortunes and the fortunes of the country +during the years of her ascendancy, it is scarcely +possible to refuse to her some right to share in +the recognition so lavishly bestowed upon the +other great woman of that time—Joan of Arc. +The one may be said to have been the complement +of the other. Both were necessary to +the needs of the day, and the glory of successful +accomplishment should be shared between them.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> These meditations, attributed in the past, and by some even +now, to St. Bonaventura, are considered by other scholars to be +of Cistercian inspiration. P. Perdrizet, <i>La Vierge de Miséricorde</i>, +1908, p. 15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Both the date and the place of her birth seem uncertain. +Some writers suggest 1415, and some 1420 or 1422, as the date; +whilst Froidmantel, in Picardy, is conjectured by some, and +Fromenteau, in Touraine, by others, as the place. (Du Fresne de +Beaucourt, <i>Hist. de Charles VII</i>, t. iv. p. 171, note 4.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> <i>Athenæum</i>, June 25, 1904.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Du Fresne de Beaucourt, <i>Hist. de Charles VII</i>, t. iii. p. 286.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Du Fresne de Beaucourt, <i>Hist. de Charles VII</i>, t. iv. p. 171, +note 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Cf. <i>Grandes Chroniques de France</i>, fol. 292, Bib. Nat.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Lavisse, <i>Hist. de France</i>, vol. iv. part 2, p. 229, footnote.</p></div> +</div> + + +<h2><a name="A_NOTE_ON_MEDIAEVAL_GARDENS" id="A_NOTE_ON_MEDIAEVAL_GARDENS"></a>A NOTE ON MEDIÆVAL GARDENS<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span></h2> + +<p> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span></p> + + +<h2><a name="MEDIAEVAL_GARDENS43" id="MEDIAEVAL_GARDENS43"></a>MEDIÆVAL GARDENS<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span></h2> + + +<p class="ni"><span class="smcap">No</span> one can study French mediæval lore, or +Gothic cathedral, or Book of Hours, without +realising how great a love of Nature prevailed +in the late Middle Ages. The poems tell of +spring, “the season of delight,” of gardens which +suffice “for loss of Paradise,” and of birds “with +soft melodious chant.” In the dim stillness of +the cathedral, Nature is expressed in infinite +variety. Foliage grows in the hollows of the +mouldings, and sometimes, as at Chartres, even +the shafts, as they tower into the gloom, end in +half-opened leaves, suggestive of spring, of hope, +and of aspiration. Many a sunny façade shows +us scenes of rural life—sowing, reaping, vine-dressing, +and so forth—fashioned as a calendar +in stone, and many a peasant must have rejoiced +as he saw himself and his occupation thus +represented in effigy. Fortunately for the poor +toiler, the Church not only taught that “to +labour is to worship,” but further honoured +work by thus representing it at the very entrance +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>to the sanctuary, so making it, as it were, the +“open sesame” to higher things.</p> + +<p>In Books of Hours and illuminated MSS., +before the complete border of flowers, birds, and +small grotesques was developed, we find ornamental +flourishes, like the growth of ivy and +hawthorn, splendidly free in design, and painted +with evident joy even in the minutest bud or +tendril. Everywhere may this love of Nature +striving for expression be seen. But we must +turn to the poems and romances if we would +fully realise it in all its simplicity and truth, +since it is in these alone that we get at the +actual mediæval feeling unalloyed with all that +we ourselves have, perhaps unwittingly, read +into it.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="hours3" id="hours3"></a> +<img src="images/i176.jpg" width="350" height="568" alt="BOOK OF HOURS." title="Book on Hours, French" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Photo. Macbeth.</i></p> + +<p class="caption">BOOK OF HOURS.</p> + +<p class="illoaut">French, 14th Century, Brit. Mus.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 176.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>“All hearts are uplifted and made glad in the +time of April and May, when once again the +meadows and the pastures become green.” So +says one of the old romancers. And this joy +in returning spring seems to have pervaded +mediæval thought and expression. Little is +this to be wondered at when we call to mind the +long dreary winters spent in cold and ill-lit +castles, or in dark, draughty houses and hovels. +Before glass, long regarded as a luxury, came into +general use in dwellings, the only protection +from rain and cold consisted in wooden shutters, +or movable frames with horn slabs (necessarily +small), or varnished parchment. In truth, the +only warm, bright place was the chimney +corner, and here, as near as might be to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +blazing logs, the long days of winter were spent +in chess-playing, broidery, lute-playing, and love-making, +the monotony of this only occasionally +broken by the arrival of some wandering minstrel +who sang of war and love, or of some packman +laden with sundry wares prized of womankind. +But in winter such wayfarers were rare, and life +was, perforce, one of boredom and discomfort. +Thus there was exceeding joy when +“woods and thickets donned their rich green +mantling of resplendent sheen.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="harl2" id="harl2"></a> +<img src="images/i177.jpg" width="500" height="531" alt="Harl. MS. 4425, Brit. Mus." title="Manuscript 4425" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Photo. Macbeth.</i></p> + +<p class="illoaut"><span class="smcap">Harl.</span> MS. 4425, <span class="smcap">Brit. Mus.</span></p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 177.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>It is generally of springtime in a garden—a +garden of green glades and alleys, fruit-trees and +flowers, such as was very dear to the mediæval +soul—of which we read. The <i>Roman de la +Rose</i> opens with a description of a garden, +hemmed round with castle wall—a pleasaunce +within a fortress—and planted with trees “from +out the land of Saracens,” and many others, to +wit, the pine, the beech (loved of squirrels), the +graceful birch, the shimmering aspen, the hazel, +the oak, and many flowers withal—roses and +violets and periwinkle, golden king-cups, and +pink-rimmed daisies. The poet describes with +careful detail the design of the garden:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The garden was nigh broad as wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And every angle duly squared;<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="ni">how the trees were planted:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Such skilful art<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had planned the trees that each apart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Six fathoms stood, yet like a net<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The interlacing branches met;<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="ni">and how “channelled brooks” flowed from clear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +fountains through “thymy herbage and gay +flowers.”</p> + +<p>The debt which the mediæval world owed +to the East is shown both in the fruits and the +spices which are described as growing in the +garden, and in the pastimes said to have been +enjoyed in its cool shade. We read of pomegranates, +nutmegs, almonds, dates, figs, liquorice, +aniseed, cinnamon, and zedoary, an Eastern plant +used as a stimulant. When the poet would tell +of dance and song, he goes by</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A shaded pathway, where my feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bruised mint and fennel savouring sweet,<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="ni">to a secluded lawn. Here he sees one whose +name is “Gladness”:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Gently swaying, rose and fell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her supple form, the while her feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kept measured time with perfect beat:<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><span style="padding-right: 2em; padding-left: 2.5em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span>•<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While minstrels sang, the tambourine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kept with the flute due time I ween.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><span style="padding-right: 2em; padding-left: 2.5em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span>•<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then saw I cunning jugglers play,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And girls cast tambourines away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aloft in air, then gaily trip<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath them, and on finger-tip<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Catch them again.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In every garden there was a fountain or sheet +of water with a small channelled way carrying +the water to the castle and through the women’s +apartment. Sometimes these waterways were +made use of by the lover as a means of communication +with his beloved, as we read in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> +romance of <i>Tristan and Isolde</i>, where Tristan, +to apprise his mistress that he is at their trysting-place +in the garden, drops into the water +small pieces of bark and twigs, which are +quickly carried to the chamber where Isolde is +waiting and watching. And one eventide a +perilous encounter befalls. Tristan has been +banished the Court, for evil tongues have +whispered in King Mark’s ear of his love for +Isolde, and have further whispered of secret +meetings in the garden, beside the fountain. +Now near the fountain is a pine-tree, into which +King Mark resolves to climb, and perchance to +discover the meeting of the lovers. As daylight +fades, Tristan scales the wall, and hastens to +throw into the water the little signals for his +lady. But as he stoops over the pool he sees, +reflected in its clear surface, the image of the +king, with bow ready bent. Can he stop the +floating twigs as they are hurried along on their +mission? No. The water carries them away +out of sight, and Isolde must come. She comes, +but Tristan does not go to meet her as was his +wont, but remains standing by the water. She +wonders at her lover’s seeming unconcern, but +as she approaches him, suddenly, in the bright +moonlight, she, too, sees in the water the +reflection of the king, and the lovers are saved.</p> + +<p>A pine-tree is so often mentioned as a special +feature in a mediæval garden that one is led to +think that its use may either have been a survival +from the days of Tree Worship, seeing that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +tree was sacred to Adonis, Attis, and Osiris<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> (all, +perhaps, varying forms of one and the same +divinity), or have been suggested by some +northern Saga. It makes its appearance in the +<i>Chanson de Roland</i>, which has come down to +us in a thirteenth-century form, incorporating +the earlier Epic of <i>Roland</i>, probably composed +towards the end of the eleventh century. In +this we find mention of it when Charlemagne, +after he is said to have taken Cordova, retires to +a garden with Roland and Oliver and his barons, +the elder ones amusing themselves with chess +and tric-trac, and the younger ones with fencing, +the king meanwhile looking on, seated under a +pine-tree. Later in the day tents are set up, in +which they pass the night, and in the early +morning Charlemagne, after hearing mass, again +sits under the pine-tree to take counsel of his +barons.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Roman de la Rose</i>, the fateful +fountain of Narcissus is described as being +beneath a pine-tree, which is represented as +being taller and fairer than any that mortal eye +had seen since the glorious pine of Charlemagne’s +time, showing that here at least the poet is +making use of tradition.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="flemish" id="flemish"></a> +<img src="images/i181.jpg" width="350" height="533" alt="FLEMISH MASTER." title="Flemish painting" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Photo. Brückmann.</i></p> + +<p class="caption">FLEMISH MASTER.</p> + +<p class="illoaut">Fifteenth Century. Stephenson Clarke Collection.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 181.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>But to make our way into a mediæval +garden, and see all that grows therein, we must +needs get within the precincts of the castle, for +inside its fortified enclosure the castle, like a +small village, was self-contained. And this was +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>no easy matter, if we may judge from the vivid +description to be found in <i>Huon de Bordeaux</i>, +a poem concerning a Bordelais lord of the ninth +century. After sundry adventures, Huon sets +out on a journey to Babylon, and seeks an +audience with the Emir. He tells of his +arrival at what he describes as the castle, and +how, after long parley with the porter, the +drawbridge is let down and the great gate +opened, and he finds himself in an arched way, +with a series of portcullises showing their teeth +overhead. After further parley, and further +opening of gates, he enters a large courtyard, +and goes thence into the garden, which is +planted with every kind of tree, aromatic herb, +and sweet-scented flower. In the garden is a +fountain with its little channelled way, supplied +with water from the Earthly Paradise. This +description may seem a little fantastic, but it is +only the poet’s way of telling us what we might +ourselves experience if we would go in imagination +to some thirteenth- or fourteenth-century +castle, and seek to gain admittance.</p> + +<p>Sometimes the garden was within the castle +fortifications. It was then necessarily circumscribed, +and would, more or less, be laid out +with formal pathways and stone-curbed borders, +also with trees cut in various devices (a reminder +of Rome’s once far-reaching influence), and a +tunnel or pergola of vines or sweet-scented +creepers running the length of the wall to form +a covered walk for shelter against sunshine or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +shower. But where the garden was without the +fortifications, but yet within the castle enclosure, +as was always the arrangement if possible, opportunity +was afforded for wooded dell and flowery +slope, as well as for the orchard with its special +patch for herb-growing.</p> + +<p>The herb-plot was one of the most important +items in a mediæval garden; for here were +grown not only herbs and roots for healing, but +also sweet-scented mint and thyme for mingling +with the rushes strewn on the floors. Sometimes +the rushes themselves were fragrant, and +such, lemon-scented when crushed, may even +to-day be found in the neighbourhood of Oxford, +probably growing in the very place which at +one time supplied many a college hall with its +carpet of fresh green.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;"><a name="alex" id="alex"></a> +<img src="images/i183.jpg" width="550" height="371" alt="MS. ROMANCE OF ALEXANDER." title="Romance of Alexander" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Bodician.</i></p> + +<p class="caption">MS. ROMANCE OF ALEXANDER.</p> + +<p class="illoaut">Fourteenth Century.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 183.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>In the larger gardens might also be found +labyrinths and aviaries, with bright-plumaged +birds from the East. Here, too, were often +enclosures for wild beasts, much prized by the +lord of the castle, to whom they may have been +proffered as peace-offerings, or as friendly gifts +from some neighbouring lord. Strange beasts +were royal gifts; for kings, we read, made such +offerings to each other. Even as early as the +ninth century, Haroun al Raschid sent an +elephant to Charlemagne. It was brought to +Aix-la-Chapelle by Isaac the Jew, and survived +its long walk seven years, and it would be +interesting to know by what route it journeyed +thither in those days. These private zoological<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +gardens may possibly account for the comparative +accuracy with which the early miniaturists +painted such beasts as lions, bears, and leopards, +which otherwise they might have had no chance +of studying.</p> + +<p>One of the greatest delights of the garden +was the bower in which the warm months were +passed. Here meals were taken, and merry +pastimes enjoyed, as long as daylight lasted. +Hither came tumblers and dancing-girls, and +sometimes performing animals. A poor captive +bear would be made to stumble over the rough +roads for miles in order to go through its +grotesque antics before some joyous company +of dames and gallants. But spring and youth +was the time to be gay, and nothing came amiss +to these light-hearted folk.</p> + +<p>The bower was also the “privy playing +place,” and all care was taken to make its leafy +screen grow close and thick. Perhaps one of +the most interesting references to a green arbour—interesting +because of the romance which was +the cause of its mention—is in a poem by King +James I. of Scotland, telling of sad years in prison, +which ended in love and liberty. James, whilst +still a young man, was imprisoned in Windsor +Castle, and writing to solace himself with something +more tangible than the mere contemplation +of his beloved one, and to while away time, +describes the garden with “herbere green,” +which he saw through the barred window of +his prison-house. Leaning his head against the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +cold stone wall, by night he gazed at the stars, by +day at the garden. And weary and woe-begone +as he was, he says, “to look, it did me good.”</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now there was made fast by the tower wall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A garden fair, and in the corners set<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A herbere green, with wands so long and small<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Railed all about: and so with trees close set<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was all the place, and hawthorn hedges knit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That no one though he were near walking by<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Might there within scarce any one espy.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><span style="padding-right: 2em; padding-left: 2.5em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span>•<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So thick the branches and the leafage green.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beshaded all the alleys that there were,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ’midst of ev’ry herbere might be seen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sharp and green sweet-scented juniper,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Growing so fair with branches here and there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That, as it seemed to any one without,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The branches spread the herbere all about.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><span style="padding-right: 2em; padding-left: 2.5em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span><span style="padding-right: 2em">•</span>•<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on the slender green-leaved branches sat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The little joyous nightingales, and sang<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So loud and clear, the carols consecrat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To faithful love.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="ni">This “garden fair” was the scene of the romance +which solaced this royal prisoner, and helped +him to bear his irksome lot, and to be able to +exclaim, after nearly eighteen years’ captivity—a +captivity since boyhood:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thanks be to the massive castle wall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From which I eagerly looked forth and leant.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="ni">Looking from his window he espied, notwithstanding +“hawthorne hedges” and “beshaded +alleys,” Lady Johanna Beaumont (whom he +wedded on his release) walking in the garden. +Neither poet nor historian tells how they found +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>means to communicate with one another, but +tradition, which is sometimes twin-brother to +truth, has handed down the story of a go-between +who conveyed missives and tokens.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="rhen" id="rhen"></a> +<img src="images/i185.jpg" width="500" height="387" alt="RHENISH MASTER." title="Rhenish painting" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Photo. Brückmann.</i></p> + +<p class="caption">RHENISH MASTER.</p> + +<p class="illoaut">C. 1420, Frankfort Hist. Mus.</p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 185.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>In the accompanying picture we see a corner +of a mediæval garden, hemmed round with castle +wall. In it the artist has adapted an everyday +scene to a religious purpose, by giving my lady +a crown, and the baby an aureole, to suggest the +Holy Mother and Child, whilst one of the +gentlemen-in-waiting is provided with wings, so +as to make him more in harmony with such +saintly company. But this is only what might +have been seen on any bright morning in late +spring or summer, in some castle pleasaunce. +My lady reads a book, whilst her maidens amuse +themselves, one holding a psaltery on which the +child tinkles, to its evident delight and wonderment; +another, with a perverted sporting instinct, +seems to be trying to catch fish with a ladle (note +the usual little channelled way, on which a bird +is perched, refreshing itself), whilst a third is +picking fruit. The three squires are doubtless +talking of the chase, for, in my lady’s presence, +love would hardly be their theme. And all +around are beautiful flowers—roses, lilies, and +irises. Over against the enclosing wall is the +usual bank of earth, faced with wood to keep it +the necessary height, and planted with many +flowers. This raised portion enabled those in +the garden to get a view over the surrounding +country, and to have a point of outlook in case of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +attack. It also served as a seat; for at intervals, +between the flowers and sweet-scented herbs, +portions were covered with turf.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="harl3" id="harl3"></a> +<img src="images/i186.jpg" width="500" height="558" alt="Harl. MS. 4425, Brit. Mus." title="Manuscript 4425" /> + +<p class="source"><i>Photo. Macbeth.</i></p> + +<p class="illoaut"><span class="smcap">Harl.</span> MS. 4425, <span class="smcap">Brit. Mus.</span></p> + +<p class="toface"><i>To face page 186.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>Of all the flowers in the garden the rose +“red and pale” was the greatest favourite, and +many different sorts were planted there. To so +many purposes were they put, and so great was +the demand for them, that large quantities of +roses frequently served as the payment of vassals +to their lord. They were used for strewing the +floor at the wedding-feast, or at the entertaining +of some great baron. The fresh petals were +sprinkled over the surface of the water in the +bath, and were distilled to make the rose-water +with which the knights and ladies washed their +hands and faces when they left their much-curtained +beds. Further, they were specially +prized for garlands, the making of which was +one of the favourite occupations of the ladies of +the Middle Ages. Dante, who sums up the +spirit of the Middle Ages from the simplest +reality to the sublimest ideal, alludes to garlands +and garland-making as amongst the joys of the +Earthly Paradise. In his poet’s vision of the +pageant of the Church Militant he sees the last +company wreathed with red roses, emblems to +him of Charity or Love. Boccaccio, in a more +mundane atmosphere and a less august assemblage, +also introduces us to this mediæval love of +garlands. In a preamble to one of his tales he +gives a dainty picture of the manners and pastimes +of the gay folk of his day. Of the merry company,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> +which his fancy makes to quit plague-stricken +Florence for the country, where they tell +stories to prevent monotony, he relates that, after +dining in the cool shade, and before the story-telling +begins, “the gentlemen walked with the +ladies into a goodly garden, making chaplets and +nosegays of divers flowers, and singing silently +to themselves.” Both sexes wore them on festive +occasions, and in summer young girls wore no +head-covering save a garland. The knight at +the tournament decked his helm with a chaplet +of some chosen flower, deftly woven by the fair +one in whose name he made venture; and many +a merry company, wreathed with flowers or +foliage, rode forth on May-day, with trumpets +and flutes, to celebrate the festival.</p> + +<p>Another favourite flower for garlands was the +cornflower, as we learn from the poets, who tell +of ladies dancing the carole (a popular dance in +which all moved slowly round in a circle, singing +at the same time), their heads crowned with +garlands of cornflower. Violets and periwinkles, +and meadow flowers, white, red, and blue, were +also gathered to indulge this pretty fancy.</p> + +<p>The gillyflower is another flower frequently +mentioned. This name has been applied to +various flowers, but originally it belonged to the +carnation, and was used for such in Shakespeare’s +time. In the <i>Roman de la Rose</i> it is called the +gillyflower-clove, thus definitely defining it. One +of its virtues, according to an old writer, was +“to comfort the spirites by the sence of smelling,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>” +and also “to be of much use in ornament.” +But indeed most flowers were not only used +for chaplets, and for strewing on the floor, but +were also painted on the chamber walls, and +embroidered on the hangings, to serve in winter +days as sweet memories and as sweeter hopes.</p> + +<p>Apparently the earliest records of gardens, +after Roman times, date from the ninth century, +and are mostly to be found amongst monastic +archives. A garden was an important, and even +essential, annex of a monastery, not only because +of the “herbularis” or physic garden, from the +herbs of which the monks compounded salves +and potions for the wounded knight or the +plundered wayfarer who might take shelter +within its protecting walls, but also because of +the solace which the shady trees and the gay +flowers brought to the sick, for a monastery was +generally a hospital as well. St. Bernard of +Clairvaux, speaking of an abbey garden, gives +a charming picture of one of these cloistered +pleasaunces for the sick and the aged. He +says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Within the enclosure of this wall many and various trees, +prolific in various fruits, constitute an orchard resembling a +wood, which, being near the cell of the sick, lightens the +infirmities of the brethren with no moderate solace, while it +affords a spacious walking place to those who walk and a +sweet place for reclining to those who are overheated. Where +the orchard terminates the garden begins. Here also a +beautiful spectacle is exhibited to the infirm brethren: while +they sit upon the green margin of the huge basin, they see +the little fishes playing under the water and representing a +military encounter by swimming to meet each other.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p> + +<p>This warlike note seems strange and almost discordant +in the midst of the peace of the cloister; +but many, before seeking shelter there, had been +doughty knights, and St. Bernard, man of the +world as he was, would realise that even this +mimic warfare might bring diversion to their +tranquil seclusion.</p> + +<p>What a contrast to all this joy in the Middle +Ages in gardens and flowers are the sober reflections +of Marcus Aurelius! Philosopher as he +was, he would have us learn from plants the +lesson of cause and effect, the continuity of life. +He says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The destruction of one thing is the making of another; +and that which subsists at present is, as it were, the seed of +succession, which springs from it. But if you take seed in the +common notion, and confine it to the field or the garden, you +have a dull fancy.</p></div> + +<p>It is with a sense of relief that we turn from +the thoughts which a garden suggests to this +stoic, to those not less profound, though perhaps +more simple, of a Chinese writer of the fourth +century:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Ah, how short a time it is that we are here! Why then +not set our hearts at rest, ceasing to trouble whether we remain +or go? What boots it to wear out the soul with anxious +thoughts? Let me stroll through the bright hours as they +pass in my garden among my flowers.</p></div> + + +<p class="center" style="padding-top: 2em; font-size: 70%"><i>Printed by</i> <span class="smcap">R. & R. Clark, Limited</span>, <i>Edinburgh</i>.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> The quotations from the <i>Roman de la Rose</i> are taken from +Mr. F. S. Ellis’s translation, published by Messrs. J. M. Dent & Co. +in the “Temple Classics.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> J. G. Frazer, <i>Adonis, Attis, Osiris</i>, 1906.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> <i>King’s Quair</i>, verse 31 <i>seq.</i></p></div> + +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Of Six Mediæval Women, by Alice Kemp-Welch + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OF SIX MEDIÆVAL WOMEN *** + +***** This file should be named 31843-h.htm or 31843-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/8/4/31843/ + +Produced by Meredith Bach, Irma Spehar and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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