ouraged 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-balls 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 passions, insensate devotions, ecstatic
admirations. The epoch was one in which life counted for little, when
balls alternated with massacres; 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 passions--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 noble and pure women such as Elizabeth
of Austria and Louise de Vaudemont."

The whole century seemed to be afire and to tingle with that spirit of
liberty, imitation, and experimentation, which, so often abused, led
to much disaster. In spite of that unsettled and excited condition,
the sixteenth century attained greater development, had more avenues
of intellectual activity opened to it, imitated, thought and imagined
more and produced as much as any other century; in every field,
we find the names of its masters. As M. Faguet says, the sixteenth
century was, in France, the century _createur par excellence_; and in
this, woman's part was, above all, political, her social, moral, and
literary influence being less marked.

Chapter III

The Seventeen