The only two known MSS., both early fifteenth century French, of the
love-story here rendered into English prose, are the one in the
Bibliotheque Nationale (836), and that in the British Museum (Harley,
4431).
The MS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale forms one of the treasures of the
famous collection of MSS. made by Jean, Duc de Berry, the Mecaenas of
illuminated MSS. At his death it passed into the possession of his
daughter Marie, who, by marriage, had become Duchesse de Bourbon. When,
in the reign of Francois I., the Connetable de Bourbon, to whom it had
descended, was disgraced, the king seized his books and MSS., and
carried them off to Fontainebleau, well pleased to add by any means,
righteous or unrighteous, to the treasures of the royal library. Here
this MS. and others remained until the reign of Charles IX., when they
were removed to Paris, and placed in the Bibliotheque du Roi, now the
world-famous Bibliotheque Nationale.
The MS. in the British Museum has also had an interesting and chequered
career. It was originally presented by Christine de Pisan to Isabelle of
Bavaria, the queen of Charles VI. of France, whose books and MSS. were,
in 1425, acquired by John, Duke of Bedford, Regent of France. It is more
than probable that this MS. was amongst these and was brought to
England, for the various signatures on the enclosing parchment would
certainly seem to indicate that this was the case. Late in the fifteenth
century the MS. was sold to one of the most celebrated bibliophiles of
the day, Louis of Bruges. After this, there is a blank in its history,
until, in the seventeenth century, we find it once more in England, in
the possession of Henry, Duke of Newcastle, whose grand-daughter married
Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford, the founder of the splendid collection of
MSS. and books purchased in 1754 for the British Museum, and now known
as the Harleian Collection.
The writer of the story, Christine de Pisan, was one of the world's many
famous women, and one who, by her life and work, created an ideal for
womankind--that of sweetness and strength. Born in Venice in 1363, she
was, when five years of age, taken by her mother to Paris, to join her
father, Thomas de Pisan, who had been summoned thither by the king,
Charles V., to serve as his astrologer, in which service he remained
until the king's death. The Court of Charles V. was, in spite of the
constant warfare that troubled his kingdom, at once most cultured and
refined, and it was in such surroundings that Christine was brought up.
At the age of fifteen she was married to the king's notary and
secretary, Etienne de Castel, a gentleman of Picardy, who, however, died
some ten years later, leaving her with three children to provide for.
Like many another, she turned to letters as both a material and a mental
support. She wrote not only purely lyrical poetry, of extraordinary
variety and abundance considering that the subject is almost invariably
the joys and sorrows of love, sometimes, as she tells us, expressing her
own sentiments, sometimes those of others at whose request she wrote,
but she also wrote sacred and scientific poems, and moral and political
prose works, and a kind of romantic fiction, of which the story of The
Duke of True Lovers is an example, although it is quite possible, and
indeed probable, that it has some historic basis.
Christine begins her story by saying that it had been confided to her by
a young prince who did not wish his name to be divulged, and who desired
only to be known as The Duke of True Lovers. It has been suggested, with
much likelihood, that this is the love story of Jean, Duc de Bourbon,
and Marie, Duchesse de Berry, who has already been alluded to as the
daughter of the famous Jean, Duc de Berry, and the inheritor of his MSS.
This Marie had been married, when quite a child, to Louis III. de
Chatillon, Comte de Dunois, and afterwards to Philippe d'Artois, Comte
d'Eu, Constable of France, whose wife she was at the time when the
incidents which have been woven into this story are supposed to have
taken place. Philippe d'Artois only survived the marriage three or four
years, and after three years of widowhood, the already much-married
Marie wedded (1400) our hero, Jean, Duc de Bourbon.
The principal facts which seem to afford strong evidence in favour of
connecting this love story with the two princely houses of Bourbon and
Berry are (1) that the MS. originally formed part of the library of the
Duc de Berry, and subsequently passed on marriage to that of the Duc de
Bourbon; (2) that although Christine's MSS. generally were so copied and
multiplied during her lifetime that they number even now at least two
hundred, there is only one other copy--the one already referred to as
being in the British Museum--known of this particular MS., this alone
seeming to indicate that its contents were regarded as of a private
family nature; and (3) that to add to the mystery, and to ensure
secrecy, there is no definite ending to the romance. The story merely
tells us that the ducal lover, harassed by mischief-makers, and unable
to bear the pain of a separation in his own country which her position
and his own gallantry alike demanded, departs with the army for an
expedition in Spain. For ten years the lovers meet from time to time
during the intervals between journeying and war, and further solace each
other with short love-poems, expressive of pensive longing, and with
these the story ends vaguely. But if we accept the story as being
founded on real life, history supplies a more definite ending. As
already stated, soon after the death of Marie's second husband,
Philippe, the lovers are married, and spend a few happy years in their
castle at Moulins, the chief town of the Duke's domains, surrounded by
and enjoying rare works of art and literature, their happiness only
marred by the unsettled state of France, and by consequent calls on the
Duke to fight for his country. It was on one of such occasions--the
memorable and decisive battle of Agincourt (1415)--that the Duke was
made prisoner, and taken to London, where he died in captivity, and
Marie, his Duchess, was left to mourn, and this time in real sorrow.
Thus ends the story, which Christine has told with her wonderful gift as
painter-poet. Besides making the lovers, and that noxious growth of
civilisation, the inevitable scandal-monger, intensely living through
her womanly sympathy and psychological insight, and introducing, in the
form of a letter, a most comprehensive and remarkable treatise on
feminine morality, the dangers of illicit love, and the satisfaction of
simple wifely duty, she takes us in imagination to a royal castle of the
fifteenth century. There we seem to live the daily life of its courtly
circle, and, through the vivid description of the sumptuous pageant, to
take part in the three days' tournament, and in the merry revels which
bring each day to a close. As we read, we realise the extraordinary
power of this woman, who seems in description to use the exact and
detailed brush of a Meissonier, whilst in her outlook on life she
possesses the broader and freer touch of a Puvis de Chavannes. Truly is
it a master-mind indeed which can see life largely, and see it well!
Much might be written about the interesting and talented Christine, but
we must bid her farewell now and here. Still she must ever be held in
remembrance for her untiring championship of two things very near to her
heart--a patriotic love for the land of her adoption, and an ardent
devotion to the cause of womankind. She had the happiness before her
death, which occurred about 1430 in the Convent of Poissy, near Paris,
to which she had retired, of seeing France aroused to patriotism, and
that, too, by a woman--Joan of Arc.