that this transgression was repaired by a Woman, who brought us much
greater gain than the other had done us injury, so that the guilt is
called most fortunate which was atoned by such merits? But I do not now
mean to tell you how inferior in dignity all human creatures are to our
Lady the Virgin (in order not to mingle things divine with these light
discussions of ours); nor to recount how many women have, with infinite
constancy, suffered themselves to be cruelly slain by tyrants for
Christ’s name, nor those who by learned disputation have confuted so
many idolaters. And if you told me that this was a miracle and grace of
the Holy Spirit, I say that no virtue merits more praise than that which
is approved by the testimony of God. Many other women also, of whom
there is less talk, you yourself can see,—especially by reading Saint
Jerome, who celebrates certain ones of his time with such admiring
praises as might well suffice for the saintliest man on earth.[343]
20.—“Then consider how many others there have been, of whom no mention
is made at all, because the poor creatures are kept shut up, without the
lofty pride to seek the name of saint from the rabble, as many accursed
hypocrites do to-day, who,—forgetful or rather regardless of Christ’s
teaching, which requires that when a man fasts he shall anoint his face
in order that he may not seem to fast, and commands that prayers, alms,
and other good works shall be done, not in the market-place nor in
synagogues, but in secret, so that the left hand shall not know of the
right,—affirm that there is no greater good thing in the world than to
give a good example: and so, with averted head and downcast eyes,
noising it abroad that they will not speak to women or eat anything but
raw herbs,—dirty, with cassocks torn, they beguile the simple. Yet they
abstain not from forging wills, setting mortal enmities between man and
wife, and sometimes poison, using sorceries, incantations and every sort
of villainy. And then they cite a certain authority out of their own
head, which says, _si non caste, tamen caute_;[344] and with this they
think to cure every great evil, and with good arguments to persuade
anyone who is not right wary that all sin, however grave it be, is
easily pardoned of God, provided it remain secret and do not give rise
to bad example. Thus, under a veil of sanctity and in secret they often
turn all their thoughts to corrupt the pure mind of some woman; often to
sow hatred between brothers; to govern states; to raise up one and cast
another down; to get men beheaded, imprisoned and proscribed; to be
ministers of the villainies and as it were receivers of the thefts that
many princes commit.
“Others shamelessly delight to appear dainty and fresh, with well-shaven
crown and garments fine, and in walking lift the cassock to display
their neat hose and their comeliness of person in making salutations.
Others use certain glances and gestures even in saying mass, whereby
they imagine they are graceful and attract attention. Villainous and
wicked men, utter strangers not only to religion but to all good
behaviour; and when they are reproved for their loose living, they make
a jest of it and laugh at him who speaks to them of it, and almost make
a merit of their vices.”
Then my lady Emilia said:
“You take such pleasure in speaking ill of friars, that you have entered
upon this subject without rhyme or reason. But you are very wrong to
murmur against ecclesiastics, and you burden your conscience quite
needlessly; since, but for those who pray to God for us, we should have
much greater scourges than we have.”
Then the Magnifico Giuliano laughed, and said:
“How did you guess so well, my Lady, that I was speaking of friars, when
I did not name them? But in truth what I do is not called murmuring, for
I speak very openly and plainly; nor am I speaking of the good, but of
the bad and guilty, of whom moreover I do not tell the thousandth part
of what I know.”
“Do not speak of friars now,” replied my lady Emilia; “because for my
part I esteem it grievous sin to listen to you, and so I shall go away
in order not to listen to you.”
21.—“I am content,” said the Magnifico Giuliano, “to speak no more of
this; but returning to the praises of women, I say that my lord Gaspar
shall not find me an admirable man, but I will find you a wife or
daughter or sister of equal and sometimes greater merit. Moreover, many
women have been the cause of countless benefits to their men-folk, and
sometimes have corrected many a one of his errours. Wherefore, women
being (as we have shown) naturally capable of the same virtues as men,
and the effects thereof being often seen, I do not perceive why,—in
giving them what it is possible for them to have, what they more than
once have had and still have,—I should be regarded as relating miracles,
whereof my lord Gaspar has accused me; seeing that there have always
been on earth, and now still are, women as like the Court Lady I have
fashioned, as men like the man these gentlemen have fashioned.”
Then my lord Gaspar said:
“Those arguments that have experience against them do not seem to me
good; and certainly if I were to ask you who these great women were that
have been as worthy of praise as the great men whose wives or sisters or
daughters they were, or that have been the cause of any benefit, and who
those were that have corrected the errours of their men-folk,—I think
you would be embarrassed.”
22.—“Verily,” replied the Magnifico Giuliano, “no other thing could make
me embarrassed save their multitude; and had I time enough, I should
tell you here the story of Octavia,[345] wife of Mark Antony and sister
of Augustus; that of Porcia,[346] Cato’s daughter and wife of Brutus;
that of Caia Cæcilia,[347] wife of Tarquinius Priscus; that of
Cornelia,[348] Scipio’s daughter; and of countless others who are very
celebrated: and not only of our own, but of barbarian nations; as that
of Alexandra,[349] wife of Alexander king of the Jews, who,—after her
husband’s death, when she saw the people kindled with fury and already
up in arms to slay the two children that he had left her, in revenge for
the cruel and grievous bondage in which the father had always kept
them,—so acted that she soon appeased their just wrath, and by her
prudence straightway won over for her children those minds which the
father, by countless injuries during many years, had made very hostile
to his offspring.”
“At least tell us,” replied my lady Emilia, “how she did it.”
“Seeing her children in such peril,” said the Magnifico, “she at once
caused Alexander’s body to be cast into the middle of the market-place.
Then, having called the citizens to her, she said that she knew their
minds to be kindled with very just wrath against her husband, because
the cruel injuries that he had iniquitously done them deserved it; and
that, as she had always wished, while he was alive, that she could make
him abstain from such a wicked life, so now she was ready to give proof
of it, and as far as possible to help them punish him after death; and
therefore let them take his body, and give it as food for dogs, and
outrage it in the most cruel ways they could devise: but she prayed them
to have mercy upon her innocent children, who could not have either
guilt or even knowledge of the father’s evil deeds. Of such efficacy
were these words, that the fierce wrath before conceived in the minds of
all that people was quickly softened and turned to a feeling of such
pity, that they not only with one accord chose the children for their
rulers, but also gave most honourable burial to the body of the dead.”
Here the Magnifico made a little pause; then he added:
“Do you not know that the wife and daughters of Mithridates showed much
less fear of death than Mithridates?[350] And Hasdrubal’s wife than
Hasdrubal?[351] Do you not know that Harmonia, daughter of Hiero the
Syracusan, chose to perish in the burning of her native city?”[352]
Then Frisio said:
“Where obstinacy is concerned, it is certain that some women are
occasionally to be found who never change their purpose; like the one
who being no longer able to say ‘Scissors’ to her husband, made the sign
of them to him with her hands.”[353]
23.—The Magnifico Giuliano laughed, and said:
“Obstinacy that tends to a worthy end ought to be called steadfastness;
as was the case of the famous Epicharis, a Roman freedwoman, who, being
privy to a great conspiracy against Nero, was of such steadfastness
that, although racked by all the direst tortures that can be imagined,
she never betrayed one of her accomplices; while in the same peril many
noble knights and senators basely accused brothers, friends and the
dearest and nearest they had in the world.[354]
“What will you say of that other woman who was called Leæna? In whose
honour the Athenians dedicated a tongueless lioness (_leæna_) in bronze
before the gate of the citadel, to show in her the steadfast virtue of
silence; because being likewise privy to a conspiracy against the
tyrants, she was not dismayed by the death of two great men (her
friends), and although rent by countless most cruel tortures, she never
betrayed one of the conspirators.”[355]
Then madonna Margarita Gonzaga said:
“Methinks you narrate too briefly these virtuous deeds done by women;
for these enemies of ours, although having heard and read them, yet
pretend not to know them and fain would have the memory of them lost:
but if you will let us women hear them, we at least shall deem ourselves
honoured by them.”
24.—Then the Magnifico Giuliano replied:
“So be it. I wish to tell you now of one who did what I think my lord
Gaspar himself will admit very few men do;” and he began: “In
Massilia[356] there was once a custom that is believed to have been
brought from Greece, which was that they publicly[357] kept a poison
compounded of hemlock, and allowed anyone to take it who proved to the
Senate that he ought to lay down his life because of any trouble that he
found therein, or for other just cause, to the end that whoever had
suffered a too hostile fortune or had enjoyed a too prosperous fortune,
should not drag on the one or change the other. Now Sextus Pompey,
finding himself—”[358]
Here Frisio, not waiting for the Magnifico Giuliano to go on, said:
“Methinks this is the beginning of a long story.”
Then the Magnifico Giuliano turned to madonna Margarita laughing, and
said:
“You see that Frisio will not let me speak. I wished to tell you now
about a woman who, having shown to the Senate that she had good reason
to die, cheerfully and fearlessly took the poison in Sextus Pompey’s
presence, with such steadfastness of spirit and with such affectionate
and thoughtful remembrances to her family, that Pompey and all the
others who saw such wisdom and confidence on a woman’s part in the dread
hour of death, were lost in wonderment and tears.”
25.—Then my lord Gaspar said, laughing:
“I too remember having read a speech in which an unhappy husband asks
leave of the Senate to die, and proves that he has just cause for it in
that he cannot endure the continual annoyance of his wife’s chatter, and
prefers to drink the poison, which you say was publicly kept for such
purposes, than his wife’s words.”
The Magnifico Giuliano replied:
“How many poor women would have just cause for asking leave to die
because they cannot endure, I will not say the evil words, but the very
evil deeds of their husbands! I know several such, who suffer in this
world the pains that are said to be in hell.”
“Do you not believe,” replied my lord Gaspar, “that there are also many
husbands who have such torment of their wives that they hourly wish for
death?”
“And what pain,” said the Magnifico, “can wives give their husbands that
is as incurable as are those that husbands give their wives?—who if not
for love, at least for fear, are submissive to their husbands.”
“Certain it is,” said my lord Gaspar, “that the little good they
sometimes do proceeds from fear, since there are few in the world who in
their secret hearts do not hate their husbands.”
“Nay, quite the contrary,” replied the Magnifico; “and if you recall
aright what you have read, we see in all the histories that wives nearly
always love their husbands more than husbands love their wives. When did
you ever see or read of a husband showing his wife such a token of love
as did the famous Camma to her husband?”
“I do not know,” replied my lord Gaspar, “who the woman was, nor what
token she showed.”
“Nor I,” said Frisio.
“Listen,” replied the Magnifico; “and do you, madonna Margarita, take
care to keep it in mind.
26.—“This Camma was a very beautiful young woman, adorned with such
modesty and gentle manners that she was admirable no less for this than
for her beauty; and above other things with all her heart she loved her
husband, who was called Synattus. It happened that another gentleman,
who was of much higher station than Synattus and almost tyrant of the
city where they lived, became enamoured of this young woman; and after
having long tried by every way and means to possess her, and all in
vain, he persuaded himself that the love she bore her husband was the
sole cause that hindered his desires, and had this Synattus slain.
“So then urging her continually, he was never able to gain other
advantage than he had done at first; wherefore, his love increasing
daily, he resolved to take her for his wife, although she was far
beneath him in station. So, her parents being asked by Sinoris (for thus
the lover was called), they began to persuade her to accept him, showing
her that her consent would be very advantageous, and her refusal
dangerous to her and to them all. After resisting them awhile, she at
last replied that she was willing.
“Her parents had the news brought to Sinoris, who was happy beyond
measure and arranged that the marriage should be celebrated at once.
Both having accordingly come in state for the purpose to the temple of
Diana, Camma had a certain sweet drink brought which she had prepared;
and so before Diana’s image she drank half of it in the presence of
Sinoris; then with her own hand (for thus it was the custom to do at
marriages) she gave the rest to her spouse, who drank it all.
“When Camma saw that her plan had succeeded, she knelt all joyful at the
foot of Diana’s image, and said:
“‘O Goddess, thou who knowest the secrets of my heart, be thou sure
witness for me how hardly I refrained from putting myself to death after
my dear consort died, and with what weariness I bore the sorrow of
remaining in this bitter life, wherein I felt no other good or pleasure
beyond the hope of that vengeance which now I find I have attained.
Joyful and content, then, I go to seek the sweet company of that soul
which in life and in death I have loved more than myself. And thou,
wretch, who thoughtest to be my husband, instead of the marriage bed
give order that thy tomb be made ready for thee, for I offer thee as a
sacrifice to the shade of Synattus.’
“Aghast at these words, and already feeling the effect of the poison
stir pain within him, Sinoris tried many remedies; but they were of no
avail, and Camma had such great good fortune (or whatever else it was),
that before dying herself she knew that Sinoris was dead. Learning which
thing, she very contentedly laid herself upon her bed with eyes to
heaven, continually calling the name of Synattus, and saying:
“‘O sweetest consort, now that I have given both tears and vengeance as
last offerings for thy death, nor see that aught else is left me to do
for thee, I hasten from the world and this life,—cruel without thee and
once dear to me only for thy sake. Come then to meet me, my Lord, and
receive this soul as gladly as it gladly comes to thee.’
“And speaking thus, and with arms opened as if she would already embrace
him, she died. Now say, Frisio, what do you think of her?”[359]
Frisio replied:
“I think you fain would make these ladies weep. But even supposing this
were true, I tell you that such women are no longer to be found in the
world.”
27.—“Indeed they are to be found,” said the Magnifico; “and that this is
true, listen:
“In my time there was a gentleman at Pisa, whose name was messer
Tommaso; I do not remember of what family, although I often heard it
mentioned by my father, who was a great friend of his. Now this messer
Tommaso, crossing one day in a small vessel from Pisa to Sicily on
business, was surprised by some Moorish galleys which had come up so
stealthily that those who commanded the vessel did not suspect it; and
although the men who were in her defended themselves stoutly, yet as
they were few and the enemy many, the vessel fell into the hands of the
Moors, together with all who were in her, both wounded and whole as it
chanced, and among them messer Tommaso, who had carried himself bravely
and slain with his own hand a brother of one of the captains of the
galleys. Wherefore enraged, as you may believe, by the loss of a
brother, the captain claimed him as special prisoner, and beating and
maltreating him every day, carried him to Barbary, having resolved to
keep him there in great misery a captive for life and with grievous
pains.
“All the others got free after a time, some in one way and some in
another, and returned home and reported to his wife (whose name was
madonna Argentina) and to his children, the hard life and sore
affliction in which messer Tommaso was living and was like to go on
living without hope unless God should aid him miraculously. After she
and they were informed of this and had tried several other means to
deliver him, and when he himself was quite resigned to die, it came to
pass that watchful love so kindled the wit and daring of one of his
sons, who was called Paolo, that the youth took no heed of any kind of
danger and resolved either to die or to free his father; and this thing
was brought about in such sort that the father was conveyed away so
privily that he was in Leghorn before it was discovered in Barbary that
he had departed thence. From here messer Tommaso wrote in safety to his
wife, and informed her of his deliverance and where he was and how he
hoped to see her the next day. Overwhelmed with great and unexpected joy
at being (through the dutifulness and merit of her son) so soon to see
her husband, whom she so dearly loved and firmly believed she would
never see again,—the good and gentle lady raised her eyes to heaven when
she had read the letter, and calling her husband’s name fell dead upon
the ground; nor in spite of all the remedies that were employed upon her
did the departed spirit return again to her body. Cruel spectacle, and
enough to moderate human wishes and restrain their over-longing for too
much joy.”
28.—Then Frisio said, laughing:
“How do you know that she did not die of grief at hearing that her
husband was coming home?”
The Magnifico replied:
“Because the rest of her life did not comport with this; nay, I think
that her soul, unable to brook delay in seeing him with the eyes of her
body, forsook it, and, drawn by eagerness, quickly flew whither her
thought had flown on reading the letter.”
My lord Gaspar said:
“It may be that this lady was too loving, for women always run to
extremes in everything, which is bad; and you see that by being too
loving she wrought evil to herself, and to her husband and children, for
whom she turned to bitterness the joy of his perilous and longed-for
deliverance. So you ought by no means to cite her as one of those women
who have been the cause of such great benefits.”
The Magnifico replied:
“I cite her as one of those who bear witness that there are wives who
love their husbands; for of those who have been the cause of great
benefits to the world, I could tell you of an endless number, and
discourse to you of some so ancient that they almost seem fabulous, and
of those who among men have been the inventors of such things, that they
deserved to be esteemed as goddesses, like Pallas and Ceres; and of the
Sibyls,[360] by whose mouth God has so often spoken and revealed to the
world events that were to come; and of those who have instructed very
great men, like Aspasia,[361] and like Diotima,[362] who furthermore by
her sacrifices delayed for ten years the time of a pestilence that was
to come upon Athens. I could tell you of Nicostrate,[363] Evander’s
mother, who taught the Latins letters; and of still another woman,[364]
who was preceptress to the lyric poet Pindar;[365] and of Corinna[366]
and of Sappho,[367] who were excellent in poetry; but I do not wish to
seek out matters so far afield. I tell you, however (leaving the rest
apart), that women were perhaps not less the cause of Rome’s greatness
than men.”
“This,” said my lord Gaspar, “would be fine to hear.”
29.—The Magnifico replied:
“Then listen to it. After the fall of Troy many Trojans fled who escaped
that great disaster, some in one direction and some in another; of whom
one part, who were buffeted by many storms, came to Italy at that place
where the Tiber flows into the sea. Landing here in search of
necessaries, they began to roam about the country: the women, who had
remained in the ships, bethought themselves of a good plan that would
put an end to their perilous and long wandering by sea and give them a
new fatherland in place of that which they had lost; and after
consulting together in the absence of the men, they burned the ships;
and the first to begin the work bore the name Roma. Yet fearing the
wrath of the men, who were returning, they went out to meet these; and
embracing and kissing, some their husbands, some their kinsmen, with
tokens of affection, they softened the first impulse of anger; then they
quietly explained to the men the reason of their wise device. Whereupon
the Trojans, either from necessity or from having been kindly received
by the natives, were well pleased with what the women had done, and
dwelt there with the Latins in the place where afterwards was Rome; and
from this arose the ancient custom among the Romans that the women
kissed their kinsfolk when they met.[368] Now you see how much these
women helped to make a beginning of Rome.
30.—“Nor did the Sabine women contribute less to its increase than the
Trojan women did to its beginning. For Romulus, having excited general
enmity among all his neighbours by the seizure of their women, was
harassed by wars on every side; which (he being a man of ability) were
soon brought to a successful issue, except that with the Sabines, which
was very great because Titus Tatius, king of the Sabines, was very
powerful and wise. Wherefore, a severe conflict having taken place
between Romans and Sabines, with very heavy loss on both sides, and a
new and cruel battle making ready, the Sabine women,—clad in black, with
hair loose and torn, weeping, sorrowful, fearless of the weapons that
were already drawn to strike,—rushed in between the fathers and
husbands, imploring them to refrain from defiling their hands with the
blood of fathers-in-law and sons-in-law. And if the men were still
displeased with the alliance, let the weapons be turned against the
women, for it were better for them to die than to live widowed or
fatherless and brotherless, and to remember that their children were
begotten of those who had slain their fathers, or that they themselves
were born of those who had slain their husbands. Lamenting thus and
weeping, many of them carried their little babes in their arms,[369]
some of whom were already beginning to loose the tongue and seemed to
try to call and to make merry with their grandsires; to whom the women
showed the little ones, and said, weeping: ‘Behold your blood, which
with such heat and fury you are seeking to shed with your own hands.’
“The women’s dutifulness and wisdom wrought such great effect at this
pass, that not only were lasting friendship and union established
between the two hostile kings, but what was stranger, the Sabines came
to live at Rome, and of the two peoples a single one was made. And thus
this union greatly increased the power of Rome, thanks to those wise and
lofty-minded women, who were rewarded by Romulus in such fashion that in
dividing the people into thirty wards he gave thereto the names of the
Sabine women.”
31.—Here having paused a little, and seeing that my lord Gaspar did not
speak, the Magnifico Giuliano said:
“Do you not think that these women were the cause of good to their
men-folk and contributed to the greatness of Rome?”
My lord Gaspar replied:
“No doubt they were worthy of much praise; but had you been as willing
to tell the sins of women as their good works, you would not have
omitted to say that in this war of Titus Tatius a woman betrayed Rome
and showed the enemy the way to seize the Capitol, whereby the Romans
came near being all destroyed.”[370]
The Magnifico Giuliano replied: