he whole bearing of a Spanish
lady, and is quite free from that affectation and studied deportment
which are too often considered as the acme of good breeding. This almost
absolute lack of self-consciousness often leads to acts so naive that
foreigners are often led to question their sense of propriety. But with
this naivete and simplicity is joined a great love for dress and
display. Madame Higgin says on this subject: "Spanish women are great
dressers, and the costumes seen at the race meetings at the Hippodrome
and in the Parque are elaborately French, and sometimes startling. The
upper middle class go to Santander, Biarritz, or one of the other
fashionable watering places, and it is said of the ladies that they only
stop as many days as they can sport new costumes. If they go for a
fortnight, they must have fifteen absolutely new dresses, as they would
never think of putting one on a second time. They take with them immense
trunks, such as we generally associate with American travellers; these
are called _mundos_ (worlds)--a name which one feels certain was given
by the suffering man who is expected to look after them. In the
provinces, however, among the women of the peasant class, Parisian
bonnets are neither worn nor appreciated; the good and time-honored
customs in regard to peasant dress have been retained, and there rather
than in the cities is to be seen the pure type as it has existed for
centuries, unaffected and unalloyed by contact with the manners and
customs of other nations."

It is difficult to say what the condition of Spanish women will be as
the years go by, but it is at least certain that they will be better
educated than they are to-day, and better able to understand the real
meaning of life. Now they are often veritable children, who know nothing
of affairs at home or of the world abroad, somewhat proud of their
manifest charms and ever ready for a conquest; but with a better mental
training and some enlarged conception of the real and essential duties
in modern life, the unimportant things will be gradually relegated to
their proper position, and the whole nation will gain new strength from
an ennobled womanhood.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

PART FIRST

I. THE AGE OF THE COUNTESS MATILDA OF TUSCANY
II. THE NEAPOLITAN COURT IN THE TIME OF QUEEN JOANNA
III. WOMEN AND THE CHURCH
IV. THE WOMEN OF THE MIDI
V. INFLUENCE OF WOMEN IN EARLY LITERATURE
VI. WOMEN IN THE EARLY RENAISSANCE
VII. WOME