Reviewing the countless contributions women have made to literature is a
task that can be mastered only by devoting to this subject several
ponderous volumes. Whether such an attempt has even been made we are
unable to say. But the theme is so attractive that I hope that some
competent woman author may be inspired to undertake this task. What more
beautiful mission could she have than to study and analyze all the
scattered evidences of brilliant intellect, rich in imagination, deep
emotion, power of expression, soaring enthusiasm, scintillating wit, and
profound sorrow, to be found in many of the books written by women since
the days of =Sappho= and =Erinna=.
Only fragments remain of the beautiful odes, hymns and love-songs
produced by the poetesses of the classic past. But that they inspired
all Hellas and Rome we know from the testimony of the foremost authors
and critics of their time. When Meleager of Gadara, the famous sophist
and poet, selected the choicest poems of his predecessors and wove them
into that delicious “Garland,” to be hung outside the gate of the
Gardens of the Hesperides, he did not forget Sappho, because “though her
flowers were few, they were all roses.” And a critic, writing five
hundred years after Erinna’s death, speaks of still hearing her
swan-note clear above the jangling chatter of the jays, and of still
thinking those three hundred hexameter verses sung by this girl of
nineteen in “The Distaff” as lovely as the loveliest of Homer. There is
also a report, that =Corinna=, a native of Tanagra, in Bœotia, won five
times in poetical contests the prize in competition with Pindar, the
greatest lyric poet of Greece.
With greater kindness fate treated the works of =Alphaizuli=, a Moorish
poetess, who lived in Seville during the 8th Century A. D. Of her, who
was called “the Arabian Sappho,” two volumes of excellent verses are
preserved in the library of the Escurial. Likewise =Labana= and =Leela=,
two Moorish poetesses, were famous throughout beautiful Andalusia during
the 10th and the 13th Century. Of =Valada=, the daughter of the Moorish
King Almostakeph, of Corduba, her contemporaries report that she several
times contended with scholars noted for their eloquence and knowledge,
and quite often bore away the palm.
That such contests were held in great favor by learned ladies, appears
from the institution of those famous poetical festivals known as “Jeux
Floraux” or Floral Games. They are said to have been established in the
11th or the 12th Century by a gay company of French minstrels, called
“the seven troubadours.” But in time they had become forgotten. It is
due to =Clemence Isaure=, a poetess born in 1464 at Toulouse, that these
festivals were renewed. Fixing the first of May as the day of these
Floral Games, she invited all poets and poetesses to participate in
peaceful contest, assigning as prizes for the victors five different
flowers, wrought in gold and silver. There was an amaranth of gold for
the best ode; a silver violet for a poem of from sixty to one hundred
Alexandrine lines; a silver eglantine for the best prose composition; a
silver marigold for an elegy, and a silver lily for a hymn.
These contests have been held in Toulouse through all the centuries.
They were recognized by the French Government in 1694, and confirmed by
letters-patent from the king. Some twenty-five years ago they were
likewise introduced into Germany, and held first in Cologne.
The brilliant age of the Renaissance produced several women writers and
poets, whose works are still read. The literary annals of Italy shine
with such illustrious names as =Cassandra Fidelis=, the Venetian;
=Veronica Gambara=, of Brescia; =Lucia Bertana=, of Bologna; =Tarquenia
Molza=, of Modena; =Gaspara Stampa=, of Padua; and the great =Vittoria
Colonna=, of Marino, whose sonnets as well as her beauty and virtues
were extolled by all contemporaries.
In Spain =Marianne de Carbajal= and =Maria de Zayas=, during the 17th
Century, the classic period of Spanish literature, became the pride of
their country.
In France =Marguerite d’Angouleme= wrote a delightful book, “the
Heptameron,” similar in plan to the famous “Decamerone” by Boccaccio. In
the middle of the 16th Century =Louise Labbé=, known in French
literature as “La belle cordière,” produced her “Debat de Folie et
d’Amour,” a work full of wit, originality and beauty. Erasmus and La
Fontaine were both indebted to it; the former for the idea of “The
Praise of Folly,” and the latter for “L’Amour et la Folie.” In truth, La
Fontaine’s poem is only a versification of the prose story of Louise
Labbé.
Of the illustrious French women, who during the 16th, 17th and 18th
Centuries made their “salons” the gathering-places for men and women of
letters, several became widely known for their own poems and works of
fiction. As for instance =Madeline de Scudéry=, =Anne de Seguier=,
=Claudine de Tencin=, =Madame de la Sabliére=, =Madeline de Souvré=, and
=Anne Dacier=, of whom Voltaire said, that no woman ever rendered
greater services to literature.
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