In this series of detached essays I have tried to gather and group
the most salient and essential facts relating to the character,
position, and intellectual attainments of women in the great ages
of the world. It is not an easy matter to trace with any exactness
the lives of women of classic times, as they were largely ignored by
men who chronicled events. If the historians gave them any place at
all, it was an insignificant one, concerning only their relations to
men, and they were more inclined to sing the praises of those who
ministered to masculine caprices than of those distinguished for any
merit whatever. There were exceptions in the cases of a few women
of very remarkable gifts; but even these were subject to the worst
aspersions, for the simple reason that they had the courage of their
talents and convictions. This fashion of considering women only as
convenient appendages of men may account largely for the space given
to those of more beauty and sensuous charm than decorum--a fact which
has doubtless misled after-ages. It accounts also for the reckless
flings of satirists and comedians, who were even less to be trusted in
early times than they are to-day. Truth compels me to recall more or
less the contemptuous attitude of men, as it was too large a factor in
determining the position of women to be omitted. But in no case has it
been exaggerated, or set down in a spirit of antagonism.
The most striking points in the lives of world-famous women are
sufficiently familiar. True or false, they are often quoted in proof
of one theory or another. But a few isolated facts gathered at random
count for little. It is only in the grouping of many facts of many ages
that the real quality of the old types of womanhood can be clearly
discerned. One is constantly confronted, however, with discrepancies
in the records. This may be readily understood when we consider the
impossibility of getting a correct version of things that happen next
door to us. Reports of events and estimates of character are about as
various as the people who offer them. One can only accept those which
have the most inherent probability, or are given by the chronicler who
has the best reputation for veracity. So far as possible, I have relied
upon contemporary writers for the facts of their own age; but I am also
indebted largely to the research of the great modern historians. In the
few classic or Italian translations, I have usually availed myself of
those nearest at hand, if they had the stamp of authority, though they
might not always be the latest, perhaps not even the best.
These essays are limited mainly to the golden ages of Greece, Rome, and
the Renaissance, with a brief interlude that serves as a transition
from pagan to medieval times. The mantle of the great Italians fell
upon the women of the golden age of France, who reached the summit of
the power and influence of their sex in the past. The personality and
intellectual influence of these women I have considered at length in
“The Women of the French Salons.”
The inevitable “woman question” is not touched except as it may appear
in the effort to show, in a small degree, the intellectual quality
and influence of some of the representative women of the past, and
to vindicate them from charges which are often as untrue as unjust.
Without any pretension to profound learning or philosophic criticism,
I have simply presented the most significant facts available, with
their various settings, and a few plain conclusions which may be
insufficient, but which are at least sincere and carefully considered.
In estimates of people I have taken the most charitable view possible
without sacrificing truth to imagination. It is the safer side in which
to err, as the world has always been much more active in the spread of
calumny than of praise, especially where women are concerned.
There is no pretense to historical continuity, or to a serious study of
present conditions, in the single modern essay. It simply considers one
phase of our own age, which we doubtless claim to be altogether golden.
The work has been a labor of love. If I have succeeded in throwing any
fresh light upon the women of long ago, many of whom are already half
mythical, or in giving a clear impression of what we owe them, my long
and pleasant hours among old chronicles and forgotten records will not
have been in vain.