Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies/Volume I
Lives
Of
Fair and Gallant Ladies
By
The Seigneur De Brantôme
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL
VOLUME I
Copyright, 1922, by
THE ALEXANDRIAN SOCIETY, Inc.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
This work is strictly limited to twelve
hundred and fifty numbered sets, which are
for sale only to subscribers. The type has
been distributed on publication and no more
will be printed.
Copy No. ……
FOREWORD
This very fine and accurate translation of The Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies was made by Mr. A. R. Allinson and because of its merit must be considered one of the great English translations, equalling in every quality those of the 16th and 17th centuries. The text of Brantôme's great work is given practically complete in these volumes and the only modifications are based upon good taste and not on any fearful prudery. A few of Brantôme's examples that illustrate his points belong more in a treatise on abnormal pathology than in a book of literary or historical interest and value, so nothing of any value is lost by omitting them. The rare charm, shrewd wisdom, amusing anecdote, literary merit and historical and social information will be appreciated by intelligent readers.
BRANTÔME'S HANDWRITING.
(From a fac-simile page of the manuscript
Recueil des Dames. Biblio. Nat: Mss. Nouv. fses.
No. 20-474, folio 163.)
DEDICATION
TO MONSEIGNEUR LE DUC D'ALENÇON
OF BRABANT AND COUNT OF FLANDERS
SON AND BROTHER OF OUR FRENCH KINGS
My Gracious Lord,
EEING how you have full often done me the honour at Court to converse with me in great privity of sundry jests and merry tales, the which are so familiar and ready with you they may well be said to grow apace before men's very eyes in your Lordship's mouth, so great your wit is and so keen and subtile, and your speech the same, and right eloquent to boot,—for this cause have I set me to indite these discourses, such as they be, to the best of my poor ability, to the end that in this wise some of them may please you, making the time to pass lightly and reminding you of me in your conversations, wherewith erstwhile you have honoured me as much as any gentleman of all the Court.
To you then, my Lord, do I dedicate this present book, and do beseech you fortify the same with your name and authority, till that I may find leisure to attend to discourses of a more serious content. Of such I pray you note one in especial, the which I have all but finished, wherein I do deduce a comparison of six great Princes and Captains that be to-day abroad in this our Christendom, to wit: the King Henri III. your brother, Your Highness' self, the King of Navarre your brother-in-law, the Duc de Guise, the Duc de Maine, and the Prince of Parma, making record for each one of you of your noblest deeds of valour and high emprize, of your excellencies and exploits, the full tale and complement whereof I do resign to others better qualified than I to indite the same.
Meanwhile, My Lord, I do beseech God to bless you always more and more in your greatness, happiness and nobility.
And I am for all time
Your very humble and very obedient subject and very loving servant.
REGRETTING
THE DEATH OF THE DUC D'ALENÇON
I had already dedicated this second Part of my Discourses on Women to the aforesaid my Gracious Lord d'Alençon, the while he yet lived,—seeing how he oft did me the honour to be my friend and to converse very privily with me, and was ever right curious to be informed of mirthful tales. Wherefore, albeit his generous and valorous and most noble body hath fallen on the field of honour, I have not thought good for that to recall my erstwhile dedication; but I do repeat and renew the same to his illustrious ashes and noble spirit, of the valorousness whereof and of his great deeds and high achievements I do treat in their turn among those of the other great Princes and Captains. For of a truth he was indeed a great Prince and a great Captain, if such an one there was ever,—the more so considering he is dead so untimeously.
CONTENTS.
| PAGE | ||
| Historical Note. By Henri Vigneau | xiii | |
FIRST DISCOURSE | ||
| Of Ladies Which Do Make Love, And Their Husbands Cuckolds | 3 | |
SECOND DISCOURSE | ||
| On the Question Which Doth Give the More Content in Love, Whether Touching, Seeing, or Speaking | 213 | |
| 1. Of the Sense of Touch in Love | 215 | |
| 2. Of the Power of Speech in Love | 226 | |
| 3. Of the Power of Sight in Love | 233 | |
THIRD DISCOURSE | ||
| Concerning the Beauty of a Fine Leg, and the Virtue the Same Doth Possess | 273 | |
FOURTH DISCOURSE | ||
| Concerning Old Dames as Fond to Practise Love as Ever the Young Ones Be | 293 | |
| Bibliography | 341 | |
| Appendix A. Brantôme, by Arthur Tilley | 345 | |
| Appendix B. Brantôme, by George Saintsbury | 351 | |
| Notes | 355 | |