DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63221#0058
32 THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE
tender passion, much to the scandal of the Queen and the
congregation.
There was, in the next age, a reaction against all this
severity. A distaste for a quiet life seems a generic quality,
common to the half of womankind and no more peculiar to
the nineteenth than the sixteenth century. The Hearth, for
which their sex is made, seldom contents them, and they
carry theii’ nervous energies elsewhere. State busybodies, as
we said, were on the increase, and the meddlesome lady of
Blois had her rivals. By Catherine de Medicis1 day, they
seem to have become a public nuisance. 44 Political women,1-’
she said, 44 behaved as if they possessed the lion’s share of
the world, and were going to inherit it It was not
as if, like men, they gave the sweat of their brows to the
work of life—not they. They allowed themselves a good
time, gossiping in the chimney corner, very comfortable in
their easy-chairs—or else on their cushions and couches
And so they go on chattering at their ease about the world
and the condition of France, as if it were they who did
everything.”
Among the buzzing swarm of dilettantes, however, there
rises up here and there a more impressive figure—especially
earlier in the century, before State-affairs became the fashion.
Like painters, like poets, political ladies had their 44 School ” :
Margaret of Austria and Anne de Beaujeu their pupils.
Such was Louise de Savoie, mother of King Francis and of
his sister, Margaret. She was a real stateswoman, who played
a dominant part and took things seriously. Her politics
were always personal, often passionate, and sometimes wicked
-—but they were not frivolous. She re-adjusted the balance
tender passion, much to the scandal of the Queen and the
congregation.
There was, in the next age, a reaction against all this
severity. A distaste for a quiet life seems a generic quality,
common to the half of womankind and no more peculiar to
the nineteenth than the sixteenth century. The Hearth, for
which their sex is made, seldom contents them, and they
carry theii’ nervous energies elsewhere. State busybodies, as
we said, were on the increase, and the meddlesome lady of
Blois had her rivals. By Catherine de Medicis1 day, they
seem to have become a public nuisance. 44 Political women,1-’
she said, 44 behaved as if they possessed the lion’s share of
the world, and were going to inherit it It was not
as if, like men, they gave the sweat of their brows to the
work of life—not they. They allowed themselves a good
time, gossiping in the chimney corner, very comfortable in
their easy-chairs—or else on their cushions and couches
And so they go on chattering at their ease about the world
and the condition of France, as if it were they who did
everything.”
Among the buzzing swarm of dilettantes, however, there
rises up here and there a more impressive figure—especially
earlier in the century, before State-affairs became the fashion.
Like painters, like poets, political ladies had their 44 School ” :
Margaret of Austria and Anne de Beaujeu their pupils.
Such was Louise de Savoie, mother of King Francis and of
his sister, Margaret. She was a real stateswoman, who played
a dominant part and took things seriously. Her politics
were always personal, often passionate, and sometimes wicked
-—but they were not frivolous. She re-adjusted the balance