of the XIVth Century, and one of the greatest Captains of any age,
was born about 1314 near Rennes of an ancient and distinguished
family of Brittany. He was the great champion of France in the wars
with the English, and the tales of his prowess are endless. Died
1380.
[15] P. 21:
◆Béatrix, fourth daughter of Raymond-Béranger IV., Count de Provence.
[16] P. 22:
◆Isabeau de Lorraine, daughter of Charles II., married René d’Anjou.
[17] P. 24:
◆He called himself René de La Platière, lord of Les Bordes, and was
ensign in Field Marshal de Bourdillon’s company; he was killed at
Dreux. He was the son of François de La Platière and Catherine
Motier de La Fayette.
◆Brantôme, in his eulogy of Bussy d’Amboise, relates that he
reprimanded that young man for his mania of killing. The woman whom
he compares here to Angélique was Marguerite de Valois.
[18] P. 27:
◆Brantôme is unquestionably referring again in this paragraph to
Marguerite de Valois and Bussy d’Amboise.
[19] P. 28:
◆_Orlando furioso_, canto V.
[20] P. 30:
◆That is why Marguerite de Valois turned away “that big disgusting
Viscount de Turenne.” She compared him “to the empty clouds which
look well only from without.” (_Divorce satyrique._)
◆This is very likely an adventure that happened to Brantôme, and he
had occasion to play the rôle of the “gentilhomme content.”
[21] P. 32:
◆According to Lalanne, the two gentlemen are Le Balafré and
Mayenne. If the “grande dame” was Marguerite, she bore Mayenne no
grudge, whom she described as “a good companion, big and fat, and
voluptuous like herself.”
[22] P. 37:
◆It is Madeleine de Saint-Nectaire or Senneterre, married to the lord
of Miramont, Guy de Saint-Exupéry; she supported the Huguenots.
She defeated Montal in Auvergne, and according to Mézeray, killed
him herself in 1574. (See Anselme, t. IV., p. 890.) In 1569, Mme.
de Barbancon had also fought herself; she, too, was formerly an
Italian, Ipolita Fioramonti.
[23] P. 39:
◆On the large square with the tower, in the centre of Sienna.
[24] P. 40:
◆Livy, Bk. XXVII., Chap. XXXVII.
[25] P. 42:
◆_Orlando furioso_, cantos XXII. and XXV.
◆Christophe Jouvenel des Ursins, lord of La Chapelle, died in 1588.
◆Henri II.
[26] P. 44:
◆Ipolita Fioramonti, married to Luigi di Malaspina, of the Padua
branch; she was general of the Duke of Milan’s armies. (Litta,
Malaspina di Pavia, t. VIII., tav. xx.)
◆Famous fortified city and seaport on the Atlantic coast of France;
800 miles S. W. of Paris, capital of the modern Department of
Charente-Inférieure.
[27] P. 45:
◆The interview between François de La Noue, surnamed Bras-de-Fer
(iron arm), and the representatives of Monsieur, François, Duke
d’Alencon, took place February 21, 1573. The scene that Brantôme
describes happened Sunday, February 22.
[28] P. 46:
◆What Brantôme advances here is to be found in Jacques de Bourbon’s
_La grande et merveilleuse oppugnation de la noble cité de Rhodes_,
1527.
◆The siege took place in 1536.
[29] P. 47:
◆August 14, 1536. Count de Nassau besieged Péronne at the head of
60,000 men; the population defended itself with the uttermost
energy. Marie Fouré, according to some, was the principal heroine
of this famous siege; according to others, all the honor should go
to Mme. Catherine de Foix. (Cf. _Pièces et documents relatifs au
siège de Péronne, en 1536._ Paris, 1864.)
◆The siege of Sancerre began January 3, 1573; but the rôle of the
women was more pacific than at Péronne; they nursed the wounded
and fed the combatants. The energetic Joanneau governed the city.
(Poupard, _Histoire de Sancerre_, 1777.)
◆Vitré was besieged by the Duke de Mercœuer in 1589. This passage of
Brantôme’s is quoted in the _Histoire de Vitré_ by Louis Dubois
(1839, pp. 87–88).
◆Péronne, a small fortified town of N. W. France, on the Somme and in
the Department of same name. It was bombarded by the Prussians in
1870, and the fine belfry of the XIVth Century destroyed. Its siege
by the Comte de Nassau was in 1536.
◆Sancerre, a small town on the left bank of the Loire, modern
Department of the Cher, 27 miles from Bourges. The Huguenots of
Sancerre endured two terrible sieges in 1569 and 1573.
◆Vitré, a town of Brittany, modern Department Ille-et-Vilaine, of
about 10,000 inhabitants. Retains its medieval aspect and town
walls to the present day.
[30] P. 48:
◆Collenuccio, Bk. V.
[31] P. 49:
◆Boccaccio has arranged this story in his _De claries mulieribus_,
cap. CI. Vopiscus, _Aurelius_, XXVI–XXX, relates this fact more
coolly.
◆Zenobia, the famous Queen of Palmyra, widow of Odena—thus, who had
been allowed by the weak Emperor Gallienus to participate in the
title of Augustus, and had extended his empire over a great part
of Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt. She was eventually defeated by
Aurelian in a great battle on the Orontes not far from Antioch.
Palmyra was destroyed, and its inhabitants massacred; and Zenobia
brought in chains to Rome.
◆The Emperor Aurelian was born about 212 A. D., and was of very
humble origin. He served as a soldier in almost every part of the
Roman Empire, and rose at last to the purple by dint of his prowess
and address in arms, succeeding Claudius in 270 A. D. Almost the
whole of his short reign of four years and a half was occupied in
constant fighting. Killed in a conspiracy 275 A. D.
[32] P. 53:
◆Perseus, the last King of Macedon, son of Philip V., came to the
throne 179 B. C. His struggle with the Roman power lasted from 171
to 165, when he was finally defeated at the battle of Pydna by the
consul L. Aemilius Paulus. He was carried to Rome and adorned the
triumph of his conqueror in 167 B. C., and afterwards thrown into a
dungeon. He was subsequently released, however, on the intercession
of Aemilius Paulus, and died in honourable captivity at Alba.
◆Maria of Austria, sister of Charles V., widow of Louis II. of
Hungary, and ruler over the Netherlands; she died in 1558. It was
against her rule that John of Leyden struggled.
◆Brantôme has in mind Aurelia Victorina, mother of Victorinus,
according to Trebillius Pollio, _Thirty Tyrants_, XXX.
[33] P. 54:
◆In Froissart, liv. I, chap. 174.
◆Henri I., Prince de Condé, died in 1588 (January 5), poisoned, says
the _Journal de Henri_, by his wife Catherine Charlotte de la
Trémolle.
◆Isabella of Austria, daughter of Philip II.
◆Jeanne de Flandres.
[34] P. 55:
◆Jacquette de Montberon, Brantôme’s sister-in-law.
◆Machiavelli, Dell’arte della guerre, Bk. V., ii.
[35] P. 56:
◆Paule de Penthièvre, the second wife of Jean II. de Bourgogne, Count
de Nevers.
[36] P. 57:
◆Richilde, Countess de Hainaut, who died in 1091.
◆Hugues Spencer, or le Dépensier.
◆Jean de Hainaut, brother of Count de Hainaut.
◆Cassel and Broqueron.
◆Edward II. of Caernarvon, King of England, was the fourth son of
Edward I. and Queen Eleanor. Ascended the throne 1307, and married
Isabel of France the following year. A cowardly and worthless
Prince, and the tool of scandalous favourites, such as Piers
Gaveston. Isabel and Mortimer landed at Orwell, in Suffolk, in
1326, and deposed the King, who was murdered at Berkeley Castle,
1327.
[37] P. 58:
◆Eleonore d’Acquitaine.
[38] P. 59:
◆Thevet wrote the _Cosmographie_; Nauclerus wrote a _Chronographie_.
[39] P. 60:
◆Vittoria Colonna, daughter of Fabrizio Colonna and of Agnes de
Montefeltro, born in 1490, and affianced at the age of four to
Ferdinand d’Avalos, who became her husband. The letter of which
Brantôme speaks is famous; he found it in Vallès, fol. 205. As for
Mouron, he was the great Chancellor Hieronimo Morone.
[40] P. 61:
◆Plutarch, _Anthony_, Chap. xiv.
[41] P. 62:
◆Catherine Marie de Lorraine, wife of Louis de Bourbon, Duke De
Montpensier.
◆Henri III., assassinated at Paris, 1589.
[42] P. 65:
◆The _other man_ was Mayenne.
[43] P. 67:
◆Poltrot de Méré was tortured and quartered (March 18, 1563). As
regards the admiral, he was massacred August 24, 1572.
[44] P. 68:
◆Philibert de Marcilly, lord of Cipierre, tutor of Charles IX.
[45] P. 71:
◆On this adventure, consult the Additions au Journal de Henri III.,
note 2.
[46] P. 72:
◆Louis de Correa, _Historia de la conquista del reino de Navarra_.
[47] P. 76:
◆Louise de Savoie.
[48] P. 77:
◆Charlotte de Roye, married to Francis III. de La Rochefoucauld in
1557; she died in 1559.
[49] P. 78:
◆Marguerite de Foix-Candale, married to Jean Louis de Nogaret, Duke
d’Eperon.
[50] P. 79:
◆Renée de Bourdeille, daughter of André and Jacquette Montberon. She
married, in 1579, David Bouchard, Viscount d’Aubeterre, who was
killed in Périgord in 1593. She died in 1596. The daughter of whom
Brantôme is about to speak was Hippolyte Bouchard, who was married
to François d’Esparbez de Lussan. The three daughters whom he later
mentions were: Jeanne, Countess de Duretal, Isabelle, Baroness
d’Ambleville, and Adrienne, lady of Saint-Bonnet.
[51] P. 80:
◆Married subsequently to François d’Esparbez de Lussan, Maréchal
d’Aubeterre.
[52] P. 83:
◆Renée de Clermont, daughter of Jacques de Clermont-d’Amboise,
lord of Bussy; she was married to the incompetent Jean de
Montluc-Balagny (bastard of the Bishop de Valence), created Field
Marshal of France in 1594.
[53] P. 84:
◆Gabrielle d’Estrées.
[54] P. 85:
◆Popular song of the day; Musée de Janequin. See _Recueil_ of Pierre
Atteignant.
[55] P. 89:
◆Renée Taveau, married to Baron Mortemart. François de Rochechouart.
[56] P. 91:
◆There is a copy of this sixth discourse in the MS. 4788, _du fonds
français_, at the Bibliothèque Nationale: this copy is from the end
of the sixteenth century.
[57] P. 92:
◆ Charlotte de Savoie, second wife of Louis XI., daughter of Louis,
Duke de Savoie.
◆Louis XI. is generally supposed not only to have bandied many such
stories with all the young bloods at the Court of Philippe le Bon,
Duke of Burgundy, where he had taken refuge when Dauphin, but
actually to have taken pains to have a collection of them made
and afterwards published in the same order in which we have them,
in the Work entitled “_Cent Nouvelles nouvelles_,” _lequel en soy
contient cent chapitres ou histoires, composées ou récitées par
nouvelles gens depuis naguères_,—“An Hundred New Romances,—a Work
containing in itself an hundred chapters or tales, composed or
recited by divers folk in these last years.” This is confirmed by
the words of the original preface or notice, which would appear to
have been written in his life-time: “And observe that throughout
the _Nouvelles_, wherever ’tis said by _Monseigneur_, Monseigneur
the Dauphin is meant, which hath since succeeded to the crown and
is now King Louis XI.; for in those days he was in the Duke of
Burgundy’s country.” But as it is absolutely certain this Prince
only withdrew into Brabant at the end of the year 1456, and only
returned to France in August 1461, it is quite impossible the
Collection can have appeared in France about the year 1455, as
is stated without sufficient consideration in the preface of the
latest editions of this work. Two ancient editions are known,
one,—Paris 1486, folio; the other also published at Paris, by the
widow of Johan Treperre, N. D., also folio. Besides this, two
modern editions, with badly executed cuts, printed at Cologne, by
Pierre Gaillard, 1701 and 1736 respectively, 2 vols. 8vo.
[58] P. 93:
◆ By _Bourguignonne_ the King meant _étrangère_ (foreigner).
[59] P. 94:
◆See the sojourn of Charles VIII. at Lyons: _Séjours de Charles VIII.
et Louis XII. à Lyon sur le Rosne jouxte la copie des faicts,
gestes et victoires des roys Charles VIII. et Louis XII._, Lyon,
1841.
◆Louis XII. had really been a “good fellow,” without mentioning
the laundress of the court, who was rumored to be the mother of
Cardinal de Bucy, he had known at Genoa Thomasina Spinola, with
whom, according to Jean d’Authon, his relations were purely moral.
[60] P. 97:
◆Francis I. forbade by the decree of December 23, 1523, that any
farces be played at the colleges of the University of Paris
“Wherein scandalous remarks are made about the King or the princes
or about the people of the King’s entourage.” (Clairambault, 824,
fol. 8747, at the Biblilothèque Nationale.) This king maintained,
as Brantôme says, that women are very fickle and inconstant; he
wrote to Montmorency of his own sister Marguerite de Valois,
November 8, 1537: “We may be sure that when we wish women to stop
they are dying to trot along; but when we wish them to go they
refuse to budge from their place.” (Clairambault, 336, fol. 6230,
v^o.)
[61] P. 98:
◆Paul Farnese, Paul III.—1468–1549.
◆The queen arrived at Nice, June 8, 1538, where the king and Pope
Paul III. were. The ladies of whom Brantôme speaks should be the
Queen of Navarre, Mme. de Vendôme, the Duchess d’Etampes, the
Marquess de Rothelin—that beautiful Rohan of whom it was said that
her husband would get with child and not she—and thirty-eight
gentlewomen. (Clair., 336, fol. 6549.)
◆John Stuart, Duke of Albany, grandson of James II., King of
Scotland. He was born in France in 1482 and died in 1536. The
anecdote that Brantôme relates is connected with the journey of
Clement VI. to Marseilles at the time of the marriage of Henri
II., then Duke d’Orléans, with the niece of the pope, Catherine de
Medici. The marriage took place at Marseilles in 1533.
[62] P. 100:
◆Louise de Clermont Tallard, who married as her second husband the
Duc d’Uzes. Jean de Taix was the grand master of artillery.
[63] P. 107:
◆He was called Pierre de La Mare, lord of Matha, master of the horse
to Marguerite, sister of the king. (Bib. Nat., Cabinet des Titres,
art. Matha.) Aimée de Méré was at the court from 1560 to 1564.
Hence this adventure took place during that time. (Bib. Nat. ms.
français 7856, fol. 1186, v^o.)
[64] P. 108:
◆Povided with “bards,” plate-armour used to protect a horse’s breast
and flanks.
[65] P. 109:
◆This Fontaine-Guérin was in all likelihood Honorat de Bueil, lord of
Fontaine-Guérin, gentleman of the king’s bed-chamber, councillor of
State, who died in 1590. He was a great favorite of Charles IX.
[66] P. 112:
◆The lady in question was Françoise de Rohan, dame de La Garnache, if
we are to believe Bayle in the _Dict. Critique_, p. 1817, 2nd. ed.,
though there would seem to be some doubt about it. The “very brave
and gallant Prince” was the Duc de Nemours.
◆A German dance, the _Facheltanz_.
[67] P. 113:
◆Marie de Flamin.
[68] P. 114:
◆The son of this lady was Henri d’Angoulème, who killed Altoviti and
was killed by him at Aix, and not at Marseilles, June 2, 1586.
Philippe Altoviti was the Baron of Castellane; he had married the
beautiful Renée de Rieux-Châteauneuf.
[69] P. 115:
◆_Le Tigre_—a pamphlet by François Hotman directed against the
Cardinal de Lorraine and the Duchesse de Guise, 1560.
[70] P. 116:
◆Philibert de Marcilly, lord of Cipierre.
[71] P. 117:
◆That pamphlet was aimed at Anne d’Este, Duchess de Guise, at the
time of her marriage with the Duc de Nemours.
[72] P. 119:
◆Brantôme alludes to the hatred of the Duchess de Montpensier.
[73] P. 120:
◆Marie de Clèves, who died during her lying-in in 1574.
◆Catherine Charlotte de La Trémolle, Princess de Condé.
[74] P. 122:
◆Not found anywhere in Brantôme’s extant works.
[75] P. 125:
◆Du Guast or Lignerolles. However, it may refer to Bussy d’Amboise.
[76] P. 126:
◆Marie Babou de la Bourdaisière, who married Claude de Beauvillier
Saint-Aignan in 1560.
[77] P. 128:
◆Plutarch, _Sylla_, cap. XXX.
[78] P. 129:
◆Queen Maria of Hungary, ruler of the Netherlands, and sister of
Charles V.
◆Plutarch, _Cato of Utica_, cap. XXXV.
[79] P. 132:
◆The personages in question are Henri III., Renée de
Rieux-Châteauneuf, then Mme. de Castellane, and Marie de Clèves,
wife of the Prince de Condé.
◆Louis de Condé, who deserted Isabeau de La Tour de Limeuil to marry
Françoise d’Orléans. The beauty of which Brantôme speaks can
scarcely be seen in the portrait in crayon of Isabeau de Limeuil
who became Mme. de Sardini.
[80] P. 135:
◆Mottoes were constantly used at that time.
[81] P. 136:
◆Anne de Bourbon, married in 1561 to François de Clèves, Duke de
Nevers and Count d’Eu.
[82] P. 146:
◆The empress was Elizabeth of Portugal; the Marquis de Villena, M.
de Villena; the Duke de Feria, Gomez Suarez de Figueroa, Duke de
Feria; Eleonor, the Queen of Portugal, later married to François
I^{er}; Queen Marie, the Queen of Hungary.
[83] P. 147:
◆Elizabeth, daughter of Henri II.
[84] P. 151:
◆The MS. of this discourse is at the Bibliothèque Nationale (Ms. fr.
3273); it is written in a good hand of the end of the sixteenth
century. It is dedicated to the Duke d’Alençon.
[85] P. 152:
◆_Opere_ di G. Boccaccio, _Il Filicopo_, Firenze, 1723, t. II., p. 73.
[86] P. 159:
◆_La Tournelle_ in the original. This was the name given to the
Criminal Court of the Parliament of Paris.
[87] P. 161:
◆Barbe de Cilley; she died in 1415.
[88] P. 166:
◆Brantôme is undoubtedly referring to Mme. de Villequier.
[89] P. 172:
◆This is again Isabeau de La Tour Limeuil.
[90] P. 178:
◆See XXVth Tale in _Cent Nouvelles nouvelles_.
[91] P. 188:
◆Honoré Castellan.
◆Baron de Vitteau was this member of the Du Prat family; he killed
Louis de Béranger du Guast.
[92] P. 190:
◆Chicot was Henri III.’s jester who killed M. de La Rochefoucauld on
Saint Bartholomew’s Day.
[93] P. 194:
◆_Alberic de Rosate_, under the word “Matrimonium” in his
_Dictionary_ reports an exactly similar instance. _Barbatias_ has
something even more extraordinary, how a boy of seven got his nurse
with child.
[94] P. 195:
◆The Queen Mother Catherine de Medici. The author gives her name in
his book of the _Dames Illustres_, where he tells the same story.
[95] P. 207:
◆Jean de Rabodanges, who married Marie de Clèves, mother of Louis
XII. She was _reine blanche_, that is, she was in mourning; at that
time the women of the nobility wore white when in mourning.
[96] P. 207:
◆These eighteen chevaliers, who were elevated in one batch, caused a
good deal of gossip at the court.
[97] P. 214:
◆Louis de Béranger du Guast.
[98] P. 216:
◆She was thirty-five; she died three years later.
[99] P. 217:
◆It is the Château d’Usson in Auvergne.
[100] P. 218:
◆Louis de Saint-gelais-Lansac.
[101] P. 220:
◆Jeanne, married to Jean, Prince of Portugal. She died in 1578.
[102] P. 225:
◆Sébastien, died in 1578. This passage in Brantôme is not one of the
least irreverent of this hardened sceptic.
[103] P. 226:
◆The portraits of Marie disclose a protruding mouth. She is generally
represented with a cap over her forehead. This feature is to be
found in a marked degree in Queen Eleanore; and her brother Charles
V. also had a protruding mouth. The drooping lip was likewise
characteristic of all the later Dukes de Bourgogne.
[104] P. 228:
◆The entanglements of which Brantôme speaks were: the revolt of the
Germanats, in Spain, in 1522; of Tunis or Barbarie, 1535; the
troubles in Italy, also in 1535; the revolt in the Netherlands,
provoked by the taxes imposed by Maria, in 1540. M. de Chièvres was
Guillaume de Croy.
[105] P. 229:
◆Folembray, the royal residence occupied by François I^{er} and later
by Henri II. Henri IV. negotiated there with Mayenne during the
Ligue.
◆Bains en Hainaut.
[106] P. 230:
◆Claude Blosset, surnamed Torcy, lady of Fontaine Chalandray.
[107] P. 234:
◆Christine of Denmark, daughter of Christian II., first married to
Francesco Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan. In 1540, five years after
her husband’s death, she married Francis I. of Lorraine. Her son
was Charles II. of Lorraine.
◆N. de La Brosse-Mailly.
[108] P. 285:
◆A small plank attached to the saddle of a lady’s horse, and serving
to support the rider’s feet. Superseded by the single stirrup and
pommel.
[109] P. 236:
◆Guy du Faur de Pybrac.
[110] P. 243:
◆Renée, wife of Guillaume V., Duke de Bavière.
[111] P. 246:
◆Blanche de Montferrat, wife of Charles I^{er}, Duke de Savoie; she
died in 1509.
[112] P. 247:
◆Paradin, _Chronique de Savoye_, III, 85.
◆The seneschal’s lady of Poitou was Mme. de Vivonne.
[113] P. 249:
◆Nicolas de Lorraine-Vaudemont, father-in-law of Henri III.
◆Françoise d’Orléans, widow of Louis, Prince de Condé.
[114] P. 250:
◆Louise, daughter of Nicolas de Lorraine-Vaudemont, married in 1575;
she died in 1601.
[115] P. 252:
◆Jean de Talleyrand, former ambassador at Rome.
[116] P. 255:
◆Refers of course to the assassination of Henri III., by the monk
Clément (1589).
[117] P. 256:
◆Marguerite de Lorraine, whose second marriage was with François de
Luxembourg, Duke de Piney.
◆Mayenne, Duke du Maine.
◆Aymard de Chastes.
[118] P. 257:
◆Catherine de Lorraine.
[119] P. 273:
◆Jean Dorat, died in 1588. Louis de Béranger du Guast.
[120] P. 280:
◆Caesar Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI.
◆Thomas de Foix, lord of Lescun, brother of Mme. de Châteaubriant.
◆Piero Strozzi, Field Marshal of France.
[121] P. 281:
◆Jean de Bourdeille, brother of Brantôme. He died at the age of
twenty-five at the siege of Hesdin. It was from him that the joint
title of Brantôme passed on to our author.
◆Henri de Clermont, Viscount de Tallard.
◆André de Soleillas, Bishop of Riez in Provence, in 1576. He had a
mistress who was given to playing the prude, but whose hypocrisy
did not deceive King Henri IV. That Prince, one day rebuking this
lady for her love affairs, said her only delight was in _le jeune
et l’oraison_,—fast and prayer.
[122] P. 282:
◆This widow of a Field Marshal of France was very likely the lady
of Field Marshal de Saint-André. She wedded as a second husband
Geoffroi de Caumont, abbé de Clairac. She called herself Marguerite
de Lustrac. As for Brantôme’s aunt, it should be Philippe de
Beaupoil; she married La Chasteignerie, and as a second husband
François de Caumont d’Aymé.
[123] P. 285:
◆Anne d’Anglure de Givry, son of Jeanne Chabot and René d’Anglure
de Givry. Jeanne married as a second husband Field Marshal de La
Chastre.
◆ Jean du Bellay and Blanche de Tournon.
[124] P. 288:
◆Odet de Coligny, Cardinal de Chastillon, married to Elizabeth de
Hauteville.
[125] P. 290:
◆Henri II., who neglected his wife, the Queen, for the Duchesse de
Valentinois (Diane de Poitiers), who was already quite an old woman
and had been his father, the preceding King’s, mistress.
[126] P. 293:
◆About the year 400 of the Christian era, St. Jerome witnessed the
woman’s funeral, and he it is reports the fact mentioned in the
text. _Epist. ad Ageruchiam, De Monogamia._
◆Charles de Rochechouart.
[127] P. 302:
◆Scio was taken in 1566 by the Turks.
[128] P. 309:
◆It was to her that King Henri IV. said at a court ball by way of
amusing the company, that she had used green wood and dry wood
both. This jest he made at her expense, because the said lady did
never spare any other woman’s good name.
[129] P. 310:
◆L’histoire et Plaisante cronique du Petit Jehan de Saintré, par
Antoine de La Salle. Paris, 1517.
[130] P. 312:
◆XLVth Tale.
[131] P. 314:
◆According to Rabelais, _poultre_ (filly) is the name given to a mare
that has never been leapt. So Bussy was not speaking with strict
accuracy in using the term in this case.
[132] P. 316:
◆An allusion to the affair of Jarnac, who killed La Chasteignerie,
Brantôme’s uncle, in a duel (1547) with an unexpected and decisive
thrust of the sword.
◆Alesandro de Medici, killed, in 1537, by his cousin Lorenzino.
[133] P. 317:
◆Mme. de Chateaubriant.
[134] P. 318:
◆Perhaps Marguerite de Valois and the ugly Martigues.
[135] P. 321:
◆The one-eyed Princess d’Eboli and the famous Antonio Perez.
[136] P. 323:
◆Jeanne de Poupincourt.
[137] P. 324:
◆Anne de Berri, Lady de Certeau, at the court in 1583. Hélène de
Fonsèques.
◆This princess was very ugly.
[138] P. 330:
◆In the sixteenth century it was customary to whip lazy people in
bed. See Marot’s epigram: Du Jour des Innocens.
END OF VOLUME TWO
—————————————— End of Book ——————————————
Transcriber’s Note (continued)
The book contains long passages of older French in which the reader
will notice many flaws in grammar, spelling and accents. These may make
some of the French difficult to read but it will be obvious that this
cannot be fixed without sometimes inadvertently changing the intended
meaning. For that reason all passages in French are presented unchanged
in this transcription.
Similarly with the passages in Italian and Spanish.