Part 3 (2/2)
She expressed the most modern ideas on the rights of woman, particularly on her relative rights in the married state:
”It is right that man should govern us as our head, but not that he should abandon us or treat us ill. G.o.d has so well ordered both man and woman, that I think marriage, if it is not abused, one of the most beautiful and secure estates that can be in this world, and I am sure that all who are here, no matter what pretense they make, think as much or more; and as much as man calls himself wiser than woman, so much the more grievously will he be punished if the fault be on his side. Those who are overcome by pleasure ought not to call themselves women any longer, but men, whose honor is but augmented by fury and concupiscence; for a man who revenges himself upon his enemy and slays him for a contradiction is esteemed a better companion for so doing; and the same is true if he love a dozen other women besides his wife; but the honor of woman has another foundation: it is gentleness, patience, chast.i.ty.”
Desire Nisard says that Marguerite d'Angouleme was the first to write prose that can be read without the aid of a vocabulary; in verse, she excels all poets of her time in sympathy and compa.s.sion; her poetry is ”a voice which complains--a heart which suffers and which tells us so.” ”It is not so much her own deep sentiment that is reflected, but her emotion, which is both intellectual and sympathetic, volitional and spontaneous.” Her letters were epoch-making; nothing before her time nor after her (until Madame de Sevigne) can equal them in precision, purity of language, sincerity and frankness of expression, pa.s.sion and religious fervor.
In spite of what may be said to the contrary, her life was an ideal one, an example of perfect moral beauty and elevation; n.o.ble, generous, refined, pious, and sincere, she possessed qualities which were indeed rare in her time. She was attacked for her charity, and is to-day the victim of narrow sectarian and biased devotees. Her act of renouncing all gorgeous dress, even the robes of gold brocade so much worn by every princess, in order to give all her money to the poor; her protection of the needy and persecuted; her court of poets and scholars; her visits to the sick and stricken; even her untiring love for her brother and her acts of clemency--all have frequently been misinterpreted.
The greatest poets and men of letters of the sixteenth century were encouraged financially and morally or protected by Marguerite d'Angouleme--Rabelais, Marot, Pelletier, Bonaventure-Desperiers, Mellin de Saint-Gelais, Lefevre d'Etaples, Amyot, Calvin, Berquin.
Charles de Sainte-Marthe says: ”In seeing them about this good lady, you would say it was a hen which carefully calls and gathers her chicks and shelters them with her wings.”
Many critics believe that her literary work was imitative rather than original; even if this be true, it in no measure detracts from her importance, which is based upon the fact that she was the leading spirit of the time and typified her environment. Her followers, and they included all the intellectual spirits, looked up to her as the one incentive for writing and pleasing. Her disposition was characterized by restlessness, haste--too great eagerness to absorb and digest and appropriate all that was unfolded before her. She imitated the _Decameron_ and drew up for herself a _Heptameron_; her poetry showed much skill and great ease, but little originality.
Her extreme facility, her wonderfully active mind, her power of _causerie_, and her ability to discuss and write upon philosophical and religious abstractions, won the deep admiration and respect of her followers, who were not only content to be aided financially by her, but looked to her for guidance and counsel in their own work, though she never imposed her ideas and taste upon others. By her tact, she was able practically to control and guide the entire literary, artistic, and social development of the sixteenth century. Every form of intellectual movement of this period is impregnated with the spirit of Marguerite d'Angouleme.
With her affable and loving manners, her refined taste and superior knowledge, she was able to influence her brother and, through him, the government. Just as her mother controlled in politics, so did Marguerite in arts and manners. In her are found the main characteristics to which later French women owed their influence--a form of versatility which included exceptional tact and enabled the possessor to appreciate and sympathize with all forms of activity, to deal with all cla.s.ses, to manage and be managed in turn.
The writings of Marguerite are quite numerous, consisting of six moralities or comedies, a farce, epistles, elegies, philosophical poems, and the _Heptameron_, her princ.i.p.al work--a collection of prose tales in which are reflected the customary conversation, the morals of polite society, and the ideal love of the time. They are a medley of crude equivocalities, of the grossness of the _fabliaux_, of Rabelais, and of the delicate preciosity of the seventeenth century. Love is the princ.i.p.al theme discussed--youth, n.o.bility, wealth, power, beauty, glory, love for love, the delicate sensation of feeling one's self loved, elegant love, obsequious love; perfect love is found in those lovers who seek perfection in what they love, either of goodness, beauty, or grace--always tending to virtue.
Thoroughly to appreciate Marguerite d'Angouleme's position and influence and her contributions to literature, the conditions existing in her epoch must be carefully considered. It was in the sixteenth century that the charms of social life and of conversation as an art were first realized; all questions of the day were treated gracefully, if not deeply; woman began to play an important part, to appear at court, and, by her wit and beauty, to impress man. From the semi-barbaric spirit of the Middle Ages to the Italian and Roman culture of the Renaissance was a tremendous stride; in this cultural development, Marguerite was of vital importance. In intellectual attainments far in advance of the age, among its great women she stands out alone in her spirit of humanity, generosity, tolerance, broad sympathies, exemplary family life, and exalted devotion to her brother.
Of the other literary women of the sixteenth century, mention may be made of two who have left little or no work of importance, but who are interesting on account of the peculiar form of their activity.
Mlle. de Gournay, _fille d'alliance_ of Montaigne, is a unique character. Having conceived a violent pa.s.sion for the philosopher and essayist, she would have no other consort than her honor and good books. She called the ladies of the court ”court dolls,” accusing them of deforming the French language by affecting words that had apparently been greased with oil in order to facilitate their flow.
She was one of the first woman suffragists and the most independent spirit of the age. In 1592, to see the country of her master, she undertook a long voyage, at a time when any trip was fraught with the gravest dangers for a woman.
She is a striking example of the effect of sixteenth-century sympathy, admiration, and enthusiasm; she was protected by some of the greatest literary men of the age--Balzac, Grotius, Heinsius; the French Academy is said to have met with her on several occasions, and she is said to have partic.i.p.ated in its work of purifying and fixing the French language. Her adherence to the Montaigne cult has brought her name down to posterity.
M. du Bled relates a droll story in connection with her meeting Richelieu. Mlle. de Gournay was an old maid, who lived to the ripe age of eighty. Being a p.r.o.nounced _feministe_, she--like her sisters of to-day--cultivated cats. The story runs as follows:
”Bois-Robert conducted her to the Cardinal, who paid her a compliment composed of old words taken from one of her books; she saw the point immediately. 'You laugh over the poor old girl, but laugh, great genius, laugh! everybody must contribute something to your diversion.'
The Cardinal, surprised at her ready wit, asked her pardon, and said to Bois-Robert: 'We must do something for Mlle. de Gournay. I give her two hundred ecus pension.' 'But she has servants,' suggested Bois-Robert. 'Who?' 'Mlle. Jamyn (b.a.s.t.a.r.d), illegitimate daughter of Amadis Jamyn, page of Ronsard.' 'I will give her fifty livres annually.' 'There is still dear little Piaillon, her cat.' 'I give her twenty livres pension, on condition that Piaillon shall have tripes.'
'But, Monseigneur, she has had kittens!' The Cardinal added a pistole for the little kittens.”
A woman of large fortune, she spent it freely in study, in her household, and especially in alchemy. Her peculiar ideas about love kept her from falling prey to the wealth-seeking gallants of the time.
She was one of the few women who made a profession of writing; she compiled moral dissertations, defences of woman, and treatises on language, all of which she published at her own expense; while they are of no real importance, they show a remarkable frankness and courage.
Mlle. de Gournay was, possibly, the first woman to demand the acceptance of woman on an equal status with man; for she wrote two treatises on woman's condition and rank, insisting upon a better education for her, though she herself was well educated. Following the events of the day with a careful scrutiny and interpreting them in her writings, she showed a remarkable gift of perspective and deduction and an intimate knowledge of politics. The fact that she was severely, even spitefully, attacked in both poetry and prose but proves that her writings on women were effective.
Some writers claim that the founding of the French Academy had its inception at her rooms, where many of the members met and where, later on, they discussed the work of the Academy. Her one desire for the language was to have it advance and develop, preserving every word, resorting to old ones, accepting new ones only when necessary. Thus, among French female educators, Mlle. de Gournay deserves a prominent place, because of her high ideals and earnest efforts in the study of the language, for the courage with which she advanced her convictions regarding woman, and for the high moral standard which she set by her own conduct.
In Louise Labe--_La Belle Cordiere_--we meet a warrior, as well as a woman of letters. The great movement of the Renaissance, as it swept northward, invaded Lyons; there Louise Labe endeavored to do what Ronsard and the Pleiade were doing at Paris. A great part of her youth she pa.s.sed in war, wearing man's apparel and a.s.suming the name of ”Captain Loys”; at an early age, she left home with a company of soldiers pa.s.sing through Lyons on the way to lay siege to Perpignan, where she showed pluck, bravery, and skill. Upon her return, she married a merchant ropemaker, whence her sobriquet--_La Belle Cordiere_.
She soon won a reputation by gathering about her a circle of men, who complimented her in the most elegant language and read poetry with her. Science and literature were discussed and the praises of love sung with pa.s.sionate, inflamed eloquence. In this circle of congenial spirits, ”she gave rise to doubts as to her virtue.” As her husband was wealthy, she was able to collect an immense library and to entertain at her pleasure; she could converse in almost any language, and all travellers stopped at Lyons and called to see her at her salon. Her writings consisted of sonnets, elegies, and dialogues in prose; her influence, being too local, is not marked. Her greatest claim to attention is that she encouraged letters in a city which was beyond the reach of every literary movement. Such were the women of the sixteenth century; in no epoch in French history have women played a greater role; art, literature, morals, politics, all were governed by them. They were active in every phase of life, hunting with men, taking part in and causing duels, intriguing and initiating intrigues.
”In the midst of battle, while cannon-b.a.l.l.s and musket-shots rained about her, Catherine de' Medici was as brave and unconcerned as the most valiant of men. Diana of Poitiers was called the most wondrous woman, the woman of eternal youth, the beautiful huntress; it was she whom Jean Goujon sculptured, nude and triumphant, embracing with marble arms a mysterious stag, enamoured like Leda's swan.”
In general, the women of that century ”liked better to be feared than loved; they inspired mad pa.s.sions, insensate devotions, ecstatic admirations. The epoch was one in which life counted for little, when b.a.l.l.s alternated with ma.s.sacres; when virtue was befitting only the lowly born and ugly (Brantome recommends the beautiful to be inconstant because they should resemble the sun who diffuses his light so indiscriminately that everybody in the world feels it). It was the age of beauty--a beauty that fascinated and entranced, but the glow of which melted and killed; but this glow also reacted upon them that caused it and they became victims of their own pa.s.sions--through either jealousy or their own weaknesses. No age was ever more luxurious, pompous, elegant, brilliant, and wanton, yet beneath all the glitter there were much misery and bitter repentance; amongst the violent wickedness there were n.o.ble and pure women such as Elizabeth of Austria and Louise de Vaudemont.”
<script>