René de Sanzay, head of the family at the time in question, had
four sons: René, Christophe, Claude, and Charles. René continued
the line. Claude was his lieutenant in 1569, as colonel of his
forces. Charles married and died only in 1646 (?). Christophe, the
second son, was a prothonotary. It seems that Brantôme had Claude
in mind. Moreover, the constable of Montmorency having died in
1568 and Claude having been a lieutenant of his brother in 1569,
we may conjecture that the adventure of which Brantôme speaks had
happened to him previously, for the constable is concerned with his
ransom. (Bib. Nat., Cabinet des titres, art. Sanzay.)
[39] P. 61:
◆Cicero, _De officis_, Bk. IV., Chap. ix.
◆The second son of Charles V.; he was assassinated at the Gate of
Barbette, at the end of Rue Vieille-du-Temple, in 1407, by the
orders of Jean Sans peur. He had had for a long time adulterous
relations with his sister-in-law Isabeau de Bavière. The woman
in question here was Marie d’Enghien, wife of Aubert de Cany and
mother of the Bâtard d’Orléans. This anecdote has inspired several
story-tellers, such as Bandello, Strappardo, Malespini, etc. See
also the first of the _Cents Nouvelles nouvelles_.
◆“Candaules was the last Heracleid king of Lydia. According to the
account of Herodotus, he was extremely proud of his wife’s beauty,
and insisted on exhibiting her unveiled charms, but without her
knowledge, to Gyges, his favourite officer. Gyges was seen by the
queen, as he was stealing from her chamber, and the next day she
summoned him before her, intent on vengeance, and bade him choose
whether he would undergo the punishment of death himself, or would
consent to murder Candaules and receive the kingdom together with
her hand. He chose the latter alternative, and became the founder
of the dynasty of the Mermnadæ, about B. C. 715.”
[40] P. 62:
◆Jean Dunois, comte d’Orléans et de Longueville, Grand Chamberlain
of France, was his natural son by Mariette d’Enghien, wife
of Aubert de Cany-Dunois, and is famous in history under the
name of the Bastard of Orleans. Born at Paris 1402; died 1468.
Distinguished himself at the sieges of Montargis and Orleans (where
he was seconded by Jeanne d’Arc) and in many other encounters. The
gallant champion of Charles VII. and the great enemy of the English.
[41] P. 65:
◆Henri III., 1574–1589, last king of the House of Valois; succeeded
Charles IX.
◆Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, surnamed _Tête de fer_. He had
married Marguerite, sister of Henri II. It was during this journey
that the Duchess Marguerite tried to obtain from her nephew Henri
III. the retrocession of several fortresses which France still
held. (Litta, t. VI., tav. xiv.)
[42] P. 66:
◆Sainte-Soline abandoned Strozzi at the battle of the Iles Ter
Tercères.
[43] P. 67:
◆Capaneus was one of the mythical seven heroes who marched from
Argos against Thebes (Aeschylus, _Septem contra Thebas_). “During
the siege, he was presumptuous enough to say, that even the fire
of Zeus should not prevent his scaling the walls of the city; but
when she saw his body was burning, his wife Euadné leaped into the
flames and destroyed herself.”
◆Alcestis was a daughter of Pelias, and the wife of Admetus, King of
Pheræ in Thessaly. According to the legend, Apollo having induced
the Fates to promise Admetus deliverance from death, if at the
hour of his decease his father, mother or wife would die for him,
Alcestis sacrificed herself for her husband’s sake. But Heracles
brought her back again from the underworld, and “all ended well.”
The story is the subject of Euripides’ beautiful play of _Alcestis_.
[44] P. 68:
◆Tancred, one of the chief heroes of the First Crusade, was the son
of Odo the Good, of Sicily. Date of his birth is uncertain; he died
1112. Type of the gallant soldier and adventurer and the “very
perfect, gentle knight.”
◆Philippe I.—1060–1108.
◆See Guillaume de Tyr, liv. XI., who tells this anecdote about
Tancrède. Bertrade d’Anjou, the wife of Foulques, had been carried
off by Philip I., to whom she bore, among other children, Cécile,
who married Tancrède.
◆Compare this Albanian savagery with the story of Councillor Jean
Lavoix, who lived with the wife of an attorney named Boulanger. The
wife having decided to discontinue that liaison, the Councillor
grew so furious that he caused her to be slashed and disfigured,
although he could not get her nose cut off. He was pardoned after
having paid his judges. The following song was written about him:
Chasteauvillain, Poisle et Levois,
Seront jugez tous d’une voix
Par un arrest aussi leger
Que fust celluy de Saint-Leger.
Car le malheur est tel en France
Que tout se juge par la finance.
(Bib. Nat., ms. français, 22563, f^o 101.)
[45] P. 70:
◆See the _Annales d’Aquitaine_, f^o 140 v^o.—Jeanne de Montal,
married to Charles d’Aubusson, lord of La Borne. This Charles had
had a liaison with the prioress of Blessac, who bore him four
children. He was tried for theft and robbery in the convents of his
vicinity, and hanged, February 23, 1533. (Anselme, t. V., p. 835.)
A genealogy by Pierre Robert states precisely what Brantôme records
here.
◆See Brantôme in the Lalanne edition, t. VIII., p. 148. There
must be some mistake here. Jacques d’Aragon, the titular king of
Majorca, died in an expedition in 1375, according to the _Art de
verifier les dates_.
◆Charles VII. (surnamed the Victorious), crowned at Poitiers 1422,
consecrated at Rheims 1429; died 1461, the King for whom Jeanne
d’Arc fought against the Burgundians and English, and who really
owed his crown to her.
◆Francis I., 1515–1547.
◆Jeanne I., Queen of Naples, 1353–1381, daughter of Charles Duke of
Calabria and grand-daughter of the wise King Robert of Naples.
[46] P. 72:
◆The proverb says, the ferret. It should be the ermine, which animal
is said to allow itself to be caught rather than soil itself.
◆The opinion that the female ferret would die if it did not find
a male to satisfy her during the mating season was still held by
naturalists at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Lalanne
is mistaken about the ermine, which, on the contrary, dies of the
slightest contamination:
Et moi, je suis si délicate
Qu’une tache me fait mourir.
(Florian, _Fables_, liv. III., fab. xiii.)
[47] P. 78:
◆Nouvelle III.
◆Unhappy husbands were classified as follows:
Celluy qui, marié, par sa femme est coqu
Et (qui) pas ne le sçait, d’une corne est cornu.
Deux en a cestui-là qui peut dissimuler;
Qui le voit et le souffre, celluy trois en porte;
Et quatre cestui-là qui meine pour culler
Chez lui des poursuivans. Cil qui en toute sorte
Dit qu’il n’est de ceux-là, et en sa femme croid,
Cinq cornes pour certain sur le front on lui void.
(Bib. Nat., ms. français 22565, f^o 41.)
[48] P. 79:
◆It was the marriage of Marguerite of France, the Duchess de Savoie,
to Emmanuel Philibert, the Duke de Savoie, which caused the army to
grumble.
◆Boccaccio, Seventh tale of the second day.
◆Brantôme alludes here most likely to Marguerite of France, sister
of Henri II., who was 45 when she married the Duke of Savoy.
[49] P. 80:
◆Mlle. de Limeuil was the mistress of the Prince de Condé. During
the journey of the court at Lyons, in July, 1564, she was confined
in the cabinet of the queen mother, who was so furious that she
had her locked up in a Franciscan monastery at Auxonne. But the
_Confession de Sancy_ and several authors of that time differ from
Brantôme in saying that the child was a son and not a daughter,
and died immediately after birth. The Huguenots wrote verses about
the adventure; but the young lady nevertheless married an Italian,
Scipion Sardini, for whom she soon forgot the Prince de Condé.
Mlle. de Limeuil called herself Isabelle de La Tour de Turenne, and
was Dame de Limeuil.
[50] P. 81:
◆Cosimo I., Duke of Tuscany. Besides, Pope Alexander VI. was also in
a somewhat similar situation.
[51] P. 82:
◆Ferdinand II., King of Naples, 1495–96. Died prematurely at the age
of 26. Ferdinand II. married the sister of his father, the daughter
of the king of Naples and not of Castile.
[52] P. 86:
◆An ancient city of Italy. At the fort of Monte Cimino, in the
Campagna 40 miles NNW. of Rome.
◆_La Nanna_ by Aretino, in the chapter on married women, tells
of similar practices of deception regarding the virtue of newly
married women.
[53] P. 89:
◆Henry IV. of Castile, 1454–1474, a feeble and dissipated Prince,
was a brother of Isabelle of Castile. The young man chosen was not
a nobleman, but simply an Antinous of negligible origin whom the
king created Duke d’Albuquerque. A child, Jeanne, was born of this
complacent match, but she did not reign. Castile preferred Henri
III.’s sister, Isabelle.
◆Fulgosius (Battista Fregose), born at Genoa 1440, of a family
famous in Genoese history, and for a time Doge of his native
City. His chief Work, _Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilium libri
IX_. (Memorable Deeds and Words, 9 bks.), has been more than once
reprinted. This particular statement is to be found in ch. 3. of
Bk. IX.
[54] P. 91:
◆We have here, perhaps, a discreet allusion to Henri IV.’s passion
for Mlle. de Tignonville, who had been unmanageable until she
married. (See the _Confession de Sancy_, and t. II., p. 128, of the
_Journal de Henri III._)
[55] P. 94:
◆François de Lorraine, Duc de Guise, who was killed by Poltrot.
[56] P. 96:
◆The famous Diane de Poitiers, eldest daughter of Jean de Poitiers,
Seigneur de St. Vallier, belonging to one of the most ancient
families in Dauphiné, was born 1499. At the age of 13 she was
married to Louis de Brèze, Comte de Maulevrier, Grand Seneschal
of Normandy. She became a widow in 1531. The story of François I.
having pardoned her father at the price of her honour, as told by
Brantôme and others, is apparently apocryphal. It was not till
after the death of her husband, to whom she was faithful and whose
name she honoured, that she became the mistress of François I. She
was as renowned for her wit and charms of mind as for her beauty.
Died 1566.
◆M. de Saint-Vallier, father of Diane de Poitiers. It is not known
whether he uttered the word, but his pardon came in time. The
headsman had already begged his pardon, according to custom, for
killing him, and was about to cut his head off when a clerk,
Mathieu Delot, rose and read the royal letter which commuted the
capital sentence to imprisonment. The letter is dated February 17,
1523. (Ms. Saint-Germain, 1556, f^o 74.)
[57] P. 97:
◆Duke d’Etampes, chevalier of the order and governor of Brittany,
an obliging and kind husband.—François de Vivonne, lord of La
Chasteigneraie, was among the least meek-minded of the court.
Princess de La Roche-sur-Yon having stupidly asked him one day for
a domestic favor, he called her “a little muddy princess,” which
afforded King Francis I. no little laughter. He was killed by
Jarnac in a famous duel.
[58] P. 98:
◆An allusion to the demon who threw to the ground the archangel
Saint Michael, and who was represented on the collar of the order.
It is rather difficult to know of which lady Brantôme is speaking
here: the collar of Saint Michael had been given to so many people
that it was called “the collar for all animals.” (Castelnau,
_Mémoires_, I., p. 363.)
[59] P. 99:
◆Where did Brantôme get this story? Gui de Châtillon had expended
on banquets the greater part of his fortune and sold his county to
Louis d’Orléans; the latter was merely seventeen at the time. It is
difficult to admit that he could have carried on a liaison with a
woman so ripe in years. After the death of Gui, Marguerite married
an officer of the Duke d’Orléans.
[60] P. 101:
◆Apparently Queen Marguerite de Valois. Marguerite de Valois,
sister of François I., was born at Angouleme in 1492. Married in
1509 to Charles 4th Duc d’Alençon, who died (1525) soon after
the disastrous battle of Pavia, at which François I. was taken
prisoner. In 1527 she married Henri d’Albret, king of Navarre.
She was a Princess of many talents and accomplishments, and the
delight of her brother François I., who called her his _Mignonne_,
and his _Marguerite des Marguerites_; Du Bellay and Clément Marot
were both members of her literary coterie. Authoress of the famous
_Heptameron_, or _Nouvelles de la Reine de Navarre_, composed in
imitation of Boccaccio’s _Decameron_. Died 1549.
◆This is also an allusion to Queen Marguerite. Martigues, one of her
lovers, had received from her a scarf and a little dog which he
wore at the tournaments.
[61] P. 103:
◆Henri III., who had a short-lived affair with Catherine Charlotte
de La Tremoille, the wife of Prince de Condé. But the victory
was too easy; the princess was quite corrupt. Later on, the king
prostituted her with one of his pages, with whom she conspired to
poison her husband. The plot failed. When brought before the Court,
she was pardoned; but a servant named Brilland was torn apart by
four horses. It was also Henri III. who had debauched Marie de
Clèves, the first wife of the same Prince de Condé.
◆May very well refer to Henri de Lorraine, Duc de Guise,
assassinated at Blois.
◆Most probably refers to Marguerite de Valois, the king of Navarre,
the Duc d’Anjou and the St. Bartholomew.
[62] P. 105:
◆Louis de Béranger du Guasi, one of Henri III.’s favorites,
assassinated in 1575 by M. de Viteaux. His epitaph is in the
_Manuscrit français_ 22565, f^o 901^o (Bibliothèque Nationale).
Brantôme, who boasts of being a swordsman, forgets that D’Aubigné
was also one.
◆A small town of Brittany (Dep. Ille-et-Vilaine), 14 miles from St.
Mâlo. Has a cathedral of 12th and 13th centuries; the bishopric was
suppressed in 1790.
[63] P. 107:
◆To take a journey to Saint-Mathurin was a proverbial expression
which meant that a person was mad. Henri Estienne says that this
is a purely imaginary saint; be that as it may, he was credited
with curing madmen, and the satirical songs of the time are full of
allusions to that healing power. (See _Journal de Henri III_, 1720
edition, t. II., pp. 307 and 308.)
[64] P. 108:
◆Lalanne proves by a passage from Spartianus that this anecdote is
apocryphal, or that at least Brantôme has embellished it for his
own needs. (_Dames_, tom. IX., p. 116.)
◆Hadrian (P. Aelius Hadrianus), 14th in the series of Roman
Emperors, A. D. 117–138, succeeded his guardian and kinsman Trajan.
His wife, Sabina, here mentioned, was a grand-daughter of Trajan’s
sister Marciana.
[65] P. 109:
◆Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (“The Philosopher”) succeeded Antonius
Pius as Emperor in A. D. 168. Died 180. His wife Faustina (as
profligate a woman as Messalina herself) was daughter of Pius.
Author of the famous _Meditations_. His son Commodus, who succeeded
him as Emperor, was a complete contrast in character to his father,
being vicious, weak, cruel and dissolute.
◆Another embellished passage. Faustine had died before Antoninus
Commodus was emperor. Moreover, she was only washed (_sublevare_,
says the text) with the blood of the gladiator. (J. Capitolin,
_Marc-Antoine le Philosophe_, Chap. xix.)
[66] P. 113:
◆A discreet and veiled allusion to the amours of Marguerite de
Valois and of the Duchess de Nevers with La Môle and Coconas.
Implicated in the affair of Field Marshals de Cossé and de
Montmorency, La Môle, a Provençal nobleman, and Coconas, a
Piedmontese, were beheaded on the square of Grève towards the end
of April, 1574, and not killed in battle as Brantôme tries to
insinuate. The two princesses, mad with despair, transported the
bodies in their carriages to the place of burial, at Montmartre,
and kept the heads, which they had had embalmed. (_Mémoires de
Nevers_, I., p. 75, and _Le Divorce satirique_.)
[67] P. 114:
◆It is Philippe Strozzi, Field Marshal of France, who was born at
Venice. Made lieutenant of the naval army in 1579 in order to
further the pretensions of Antonio of Portugal, he was defeated,
July 28, 1583, and put to death in cold blood by Santa Cruz, his
rival. (_Vie et mort ... de Philippe Strozzi._ Paris, Guil. Lenoir,
1608.)
[68] P. 119:
◆Thomas de Foix, lord of L’Escu or Lescun, was the brother of Mme.
de Chateaubriant, mistress of François I^{er}. He was captured at
Pavia and carried, mortally wounded, to the home of the lady of
whom Brantôme speaks. It was he who, by the surrender of Cremona in
1522, caused France to lose Italy. (Guicciardini, t. III., p. 473,
Fribourg edition, 1775.)
[69] P. 120:
◆Paolo Jovio, _Dialogo delle imprese militari ed amorose_, 1559, p.
13.
◆Blaise de Montluc, author of the _Commentaires_, a diabolical
Gascon, made Field Marshal of France in 1574. The siege of La
Rochelle, which is here mentioned, took place in 1573. For details
on this personage, see the De Ruble edition of the _Commentaires_,
1854–74, 5 vols.
◆Paulus Jovius (Paolo Giovio), Historian, was a native of Como; born
1483, died 1552.
[70] P. 122:
◆In his _Contre-Repentie_ (fol. 444, A. of his _Works_, 1576).
Joachim du Bellay, the poet, was born about 1524 at Lire in Anjou,
of a noble and distinguished family of that Province. After an
unfortunate youth, his talents ensured him a welcome at the Court
of François I. and his sister Marguerite de Valois, where he spent
some years. Died young, after a life of ill health, in 1560.
◆Francis Rabelais was born about 1483 at Chinon in Touraine, where
his father was an apothecary. After a stormy youth and some years
spent as a Monk in more than one Monastery of more than one Order,
and later wandering the country as a vagabond secular priest, he
was admitted Doctor in the Faculty of Medicine at Montpellier.
Countless stories of his pranks and adventures are told, many no
doubt mythical. He visited Rome as well as most parts of France in
the course of his life. He died Curé of Meudon, about 1553.
[71] P. 123:
◆Chastity-belts of this sort were already in use at Venice at the
time.
◆There is in the Hennin collection of prints at the Bibliothèque
Nationale (t. III., f^o 64) a satirical print representing what
Brantôme relates here. A lady returns to her husband the key; but
behind the bed, the lover, hidden by a duenna, receives from the
latter a key similar to the husband’s. This instrument of jealousy
was the _cingulum pudicitiæ_ of the Romans, the “Florentine lock”
of the sixteenth century. Henri Aldegraver also engraved on the
sheath of a dagger a lady who is adorned with a lock of this kind.
(Bartsch, _Peintre-Graveur_, VIII., p. 437.) These refinements
in jealousy as well as the refinements in debauchery (of which
Brantôme will speak later) were of Italian origin. (See on this
subject _La Description de l’Ile des Hermaphrodites_, Cologne,
1724, p. 43.)
[72] P. 124:
◆Lampride, _Alexandre Sévère_, Chap. XXII.
[73] P. 125:
◆Nicolas d’Estouteville, lord of Villeconnin, and not Villecouvin,
nobleman of the Chambre, died in Constantinople in February, 1567.
He had gone to Turkey to forget a disappointment in love or in
politics. Here is his epitaph:
Le preux Villeconin en la fleur de ses ans,
Hélas! a délaissé nos esbatz si plaisans,
Laissant au temple sainct de la digne Memoire
Son labeur, son renom, son honneur et sa gloire.
[74] P. 127:
◆Dr. Subtil, surname of J. Scott or Duns.
[75] P. 128:
◆Saint Sophronie.
◆See De Thou liv. XLIX. There were, at the court of France, other
women who had escaped from Cyprus and who scarcely resembled this
heroine. Témoin de la Dayelle, of whom Brantôme speaks in the
_Dames illustres_, in the chapter on the Medicis. (_Journal de
Henri III._, 1720 edition, t. II., p. 142.)
[76] P. 132:
◆Guillot le Songeur is, according to Lalanne, Don Guilan el Cuidador
of the _Amadis de Gaule_.
◆“Guillot le Songeur,” a name applied to any Pensive man,—from the
knight Julian le Pensif, one of the characters of the _Amadis of
Gaul_.
[77] P. 136:
◆Danae, daughter of Acrisius, King of Argos, who confined her in
brazen tower, where Jupiter obtained access in the form of a golden
shower.
[78] P. 137:
◆An allusion to Duke Henri de Guise. His wife Catherine de Clèves
had, in addition to her “bed lovers,” many other intrigues. (See
the _Confession de Sancy_, Chap. VIII., notes.)
[79] P. 138:
◆Trajan (M. Ulpius Trajanus), Emperor A. D. 98–117. His wife
Plotina, here mentioned, was a woman of extraordinary merits and
virtues, according to the statements of all writers, with one
exception, who speak of her. She persuaded her husband to adopt
Hadrian who became his successor; but Dion Cassius is the only
author who says a word as to her intercourse with the latter having
been of a criminal character, and such a thing is utterly opposed
to all we know of her character.
[80] P. 141:
◆This refers very likely to Brantôme’s voyage to Scotland. He had
accompanied Queen Mary Stuart in August, 1561, at the time of
her departure from France. Riccio, who was the favorite of “low
rank,” had arrived one year later; but Brantôme, who is relating
something which happened a long time before, is not precise: he is
unquestionably responding to a request of Queen Catherine.
[81] P. 144:
◆In this passage, where Brantôme cleverly avows his wiles as a
courtier, he refers to the Queen of Spain, Elizabeth, the wife of
Philip II. The sister of the princess was Marguerite, Queen of
Navarre. The two young infantas, whose portraits are examined in
detail, were: the first, Isabella Claire Eugenie (later married to
Albert of Austria), who became a nun towards the end of her life;
the other, Catherine, married Charles Emmanuel de Savoie in 1585.
It is difficult to-day to see the resemblance of the two princesses
to their father, in spite of the great number of portraits of all
these personages; in fact, we can say that they were scarcely more
beautiful than their mother. (Cf. the beautiful portrait in crayon
of Queen Elizabeth at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Estampes Na 21,
f^o 69.)
◆The two Joyeuses: M. du Bouchage, and a gay companion.
[82] P. 145:
◆Marguerite de Lorraine, married to Anne (Duke) de Joyeuse, the
favorite of Henri III. The sister-in-law of whom Brantôme speaks
could be neither Mme. du Bouchage nor Mme. de Mercoeur, who were
spared by the crudest pamphleteers; he undoubtedly refers to
Henriette, Duchess de Montpensier.
[83] P. 146:
◆François de Vendôme, vidam of Chartres? (See _Fæneste_, 1729
edition, p. 345.)
[84] P. 148:
◆Ariosto, _Orlando furioso_, canto V., stanza 57:
Io non credo, signor, che ti sia nova
La legge nostra....
[85] P. 149:
◆How can Brantôme, who had friends in the Huguenot camp,
deliberately relate such absurd tales?
[86] P. 150:
◆There is a close likeness between this woman and the Godard de
Blois, a Huguenot, who was hanged for adultery in the year 1563.
[87] P. 152:
◆At that period several persons bore the name of Beaulieu. Brantôme
may have in mind Captain Beaulieu, who held Vincennes for the Ligue
in 1594. (Chron. Novenn. III., liv. VII.) The chief prior was
Charles de Lorraine, son of the Duke de Guise.
[88] P. 154:
◆The Comtesse de Senizon was accused of having contrived his escape,
and brought to book for it.
[89] P. 155:
◆According to his habit, Brantôme disfigures what he quotes. Vesta
Oppia alone has the right to the name of “good woman”; Cluvia was
a profession-courtesan. (Cf. Livy, XXVI., Chap. xxxiii.)
[90] P. 156:
◆This more human reason is probably truer than the one generally
given of Jean’s chivalrous conduct regarding his pledge.
◆Jean (surnamed le Bon), King of France, 1350–1364. Taken prisoner
by Edward the Black Prince at the battle of Poitiers.
[91] P. 159:
◆Proverb marking the small connection that often exists between
gifts of body and good qualities of mind and character.
[92] P. 161:
◆The quotation as given in the text is mutilated and the words
transposed. It should read:
“Si tibi simplicitas uxoria, deditus uni
Est animus: ...
...
Nil unquam invita donabis con juge: vendes
Hac obstante nihil; nihil, haec si nolit, emetur.”
Juvenal, Sat. VI, 205 sqq.
That is to say, “If you are attached solely and entirely to your
wife, ... you will not be able to give a thing away, or sell or buy
a thing, without her consent.”
[93] P. 164:
◆They used to say of those Italian infamies: “_In Spagna, gli preti;
in Francia, i grandi; in Italia, tutti quanti._”
◆Why not let Boccaccio have the responsibility of this baseness?
(Decameron, Vth day, Xth story.)
[94] P. 168: