may be, the story symbolizes in a
most beautiful and fitting way the part which woman has played in this
Provencal country in the encouragement given to song and poetry. It was
the women who gave the real encouragement to the troubadours and
inspired them to their greatest efforts, and it seems but poetic
justice, at least, that in Toulouse the only existing institution
representative of those old troubadour days should claim a woman as its
greatest patron.

Chapter V

Influence of Women in Early Literature

"Nine times now since my birth, the heaven of light had turned
almost to the same point in its own gyration, when the glorious
Lady of my mind--who was called Beatrice by many who knew not what
to call her--first appeared before my eyes. She had already been in
this life so long, that in its course the starry heaven had moved
toward the region of the East one of the twelve parts of a degree;
so that at about the beginning of her ninth year she appeared to
me, and I near the end of my ninth year saw her. She appeared to me
clothed in a most noble color, a modest and becoming crimson, and
she was girt and adorned in such wise as befitted her very youthful
age. At that instant, I can truly say that the spirit of life,
which dwells in the most secret chamber of the heart, began to
tremble with such violence that it appeared fearfully in the least
pulses, and, trembling, said these words: _Ecce deus fortior me,
qui veniens dominabitur mihi_ [Behold a god stronger than I, who,
coming, shall rule over me]. At that instant the spirit of the
soul, which dwells in the high chamber to which all the spirits of
the senses carry their perceptions, began to marvel greatly, and,
speaking especially to the spirit of the sight, said these words:
_Apparuit jam beatitudo vestra_ [Now has appeared your bliss]. At
that instant the natural spirit, which dwells in that part where
our nourishment is supplied, began to weep, and, weeping, said
these words: _Heu miser! quia frequenter impeditus ero deinceps_
[Woe is me, wretched! Because often from this time forth shall I be
hindered]."

Nowhere in all literature can be found a dearer statement of the
spiritual evolution which was going on in the minds of men with respect
to women, at the close of the Middle Ages, than that given in the
foregoing passage f