DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63221#0045
WOMEN OF THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE 19
rison that had conducted the defence. Their white uniforms
are a feminine touch. They said they were for clean ness:
who shall say that they were not for coquetry also ? Per-
haps they wished to form a contrast to their sisters of Italy
—the troop of Signoras who “looked like a moving opal11
when their captains drilled them in the Piazza of Siena. But
neither in France nor in Italy did manoeuvres ever degenerate
into ballets, and wherever women were soldiers real work
was accomplished.
There were, in fact, very few things which the women of
those days did not attempt. There was a feminine architect,
employed on the Tuileries (she bore the appropriate name of
Mademoiselle du Perron); and Catherine de Medicis herself
imposed her own plans on the builders of her palace. But
the typical Renaissance lady did not devote herself to one
art: she achieved a good deal of everything. Universality
was her badge, and all she touched she did creditably-
generally with brilliance. Admirable Crichtons in the fe-
minine gender abounded. Madame de Retz, for instance,
in the latter half of the century, remains a monument of
activity. She had ten children; she educated them herself;
she became a great scholar; she gave herself up to the arts;
she amused herself with many lovers; she cheered the Court
by her jokes; she led forth her troops in the King’s name
against her own son, who had joined the Ligue against the
throne; she routed him completely: and all this with a face
that was not even beautiful. No doubt she also ministered
to starving dependents. Great ladies then acknowledged
responsibilities towards the poor as a matter of course, and
organized charity is by no means the invention of our own
rison that had conducted the defence. Their white uniforms
are a feminine touch. They said they were for clean ness:
who shall say that they were not for coquetry also ? Per-
haps they wished to form a contrast to their sisters of Italy
—the troop of Signoras who “looked like a moving opal11
when their captains drilled them in the Piazza of Siena. But
neither in France nor in Italy did manoeuvres ever degenerate
into ballets, and wherever women were soldiers real work
was accomplished.
There were, in fact, very few things which the women of
those days did not attempt. There was a feminine architect,
employed on the Tuileries (she bore the appropriate name of
Mademoiselle du Perron); and Catherine de Medicis herself
imposed her own plans on the builders of her palace. But
the typical Renaissance lady did not devote herself to one
art: she achieved a good deal of everything. Universality
was her badge, and all she touched she did creditably-
generally with brilliance. Admirable Crichtons in the fe-
minine gender abounded. Madame de Retz, for instance,
in the latter half of the century, remains a monument of
activity. She had ten children; she educated them herself;
she became a great scholar; she gave herself up to the arts;
she amused herself with many lovers; she cheered the Court
by her jokes; she led forth her troops in the King’s name
against her own son, who had joined the Ligue against the
throne; she routed him completely: and all this with a face
that was not even beautiful. No doubt she also ministered
to starving dependents. Great ladies then acknowledged
responsibilities towards the poor as a matter of course, and
organized charity is by no means the invention of our own