*

Dame (1414), which is virtually a farewell to the world, Christine was no more heard until after the lapse of fifteen years. The invasion of the English, the defeat of Agincourt (October 25, 1415), the occupation of Paris by the English and Burgundians, and the massacre or flight of all her friends and protectors, were enough misfortunes to discourage a much greater genius than she possessed. She fled from Paris and took refuge in a convent-probably that of Poissy, which her daughter had entered many years before, and the year of Christine's admission was 1418. This is established beyond a doubt by one of those autobiographical references which are so frequent in her works, whether in prose or verse. The one now alluded to occurs in a poem dated July 31, 1429. It is a song of triumph over the successes of the immortal Maid who, about two months before, had compelled the English to abandon the siege of Orleans. The news of the reviving fortunes of the French and their miraculous deliverance reached Christine in her cloister and inspired her last poem.

Whatever may be the exact date of our poet's death, it is certain that she attained a good old age, for if she died in 1429, the earliest possible date of her death, she was sixty-five years old; for she was born in 1364.

At no period since her death has her name been quite forgotten. For many centuries, however, it was known only to the learned few, and even with them this knowledge was by no means precise. Her writings being, for the most part, unprinted, were soon forgotten. It was reserved for the end of the nineteenth century to reproduce her poetical works, which, in the opinion of De Julleville, are inferior to her prose compositions.

That she was highly esteemed by contemporary opinion is proved, not by that lowest of all standards, the monetary value of her compositions,† but by her invitations to foreign courts and the admiration of such a competent judge as the Earl of Salisbury. In addition we have the testimony of Eustache Deschamps, a contemporary poet and the satirist of his time, who addressed laudatory lines to Christine.

I have followed Robineau and Koch in assigning this poem to the year 1414. Paul Meyer, in the introduction to the third volume of the Euvres Poétiques de Christine de Pisan, contends that it was written at a much earlier period, viz., in 1402 or 1403.

In the catalogue of the library of the Duc de Berry, compiled in 1416, the history of Charles is appraised at " 60 sols parisis"! Vide Bibliothéque Protypographique, Paris, 1830.

About a century after her death the celebrated poet, Clément Marot (1495-1544), in a rondeau addressed to Madame Jehanne Gaillard, "femme de bon sçavoir," thus speaks of Christine :

"D'avoir le prix en science et doctrine

Bien mérita de Pisan la Christine

Durant ses jours. Mais ta plume dorée
D'elle seroit à présent adorée." *

The last and most important proof of the contemporary estimate of Christine is the fact that one of her works, Le Livre des Faits d'Armes et de Chevalerie, was translated into English and printed by Caxton, at the command of Henry VII.

The latter-day critics of the works of Christine de Pisan are practically in accord with regard to her standing among the writers of her time. Robineau assigns her a place, as poet, between Charles d'Orleans and Eustache Deschamps, and side by side with Froissart. He draws a striking analogy between her poems and those of the great French chronicler. In both there is the same tendency to allegory, but Christine, while displaying less of art in the form of her poems, is more simple in style than Froissart, more tender and elevated in her sentiments. As historians these two writers are rather to be contrasted than compared. Froissart is an inimitable narrator of facts, whether obtained directly or at second-hand, while with Christine facts are subordinate to the morals to be drawn from them. She is first and foremost a moralist, the first of her own, and one of the most remarkable of any age. She was a writer with a purpose-that of reproving, exhorting, and elevating the people, high and low. If Froissart had any moral purpose in his writings, he sedulously kept it subordinate to the entertainment of his readers, whom he leaves to draw their own conclusions from the facts he narrates. This is perhaps one of the reasons of his continued popularity and, conversely, explains the neglect of the more pedagogical writer. Another reason for the latter fact may be found in the more complicated style of Christine's prose compositions. Simpler in her poetry, she is much more complex than Froissart in her prose. Her more studied works abound in learned and involved phrases which

* This statement may be found in the Voyage d'Allemagne of Dom Mabillon, the celebrated scholar ("diplomatiste ") of the seventeenth century.-See Collection Universelle des Mémoires

CHRISTINE DE PISAN AND ISABELLA OF BAVARIA.

are apparently imitations of the Ciceronian style of eloquence. It has been wrongly supposed, says De Julleville, and still is by some, that this latinistic mode of expression which Rabelais ridicules, while not wholly free from it himself, was not introduced until the Renaissance-i. e., during the second half of the fifteenth century. It is forgotten by these critics that there was a first renaissance which began in France during the reign of Charles V., when the first translators of the classics, among whom were Bersuire and Oresme, had already made current in the vocabulary of literary men a great number of learned neologisms. From that time every one conversant with Latin was anxious to display his learning by the employment, in his vernacular, of the words and phrases alluded to above.* Christine is somewhat dominated by this pedantry. As already stated, she is at her best in her most spontaneous compositions, such as the ballads in which she deplores her unhappy fate and bewails her misfortunes.

The portraits of Christine are contained in the illuminated manuscripts which were doubtless compiled under her direction. They confirm the description she gives of herself when, thanking her Creator for his benefits, she mentions that of endowing her with a body free from all deformity, a pleasant appearance and a good complexion, and they do much more. They exhibit a charming young woman of graceful figure, and with a beautiful and thoughtful countenance. There can be no doubt that these representations of Christine are genuine portraits. Of the two illustrating this memoir, one (Plate 1) is taken from the MS. of the Cent Ballades,† the other (Plate 2) from Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages, by Henry Shaw, F.S.A.

"The accompanying plate," says Shaw, "is taken from MS. Harl. No. 6431, a splendid volume, written in the earlier years of the fifteenth century, filled with illuminations, and containing a large collection of the writings in prose and verse of Christine de Pisan. The illumination represented in our plate is a remarkably interesting representation of the interior of a room in a royal palace of the fifteenth century; the ceiling supported by elegant rafters of wood, the couch (of which we have few specimens at this early period), the carpet thrown over the floor, and several other articles, are worthy of notice. But the picture is valuable in another point of view: it contains portraits of two celebrated women, Christine de Pisan the poetess, and Isabella of Bavaria, the Queen of France, to whom Christine is presenting this identical volume."

Four of Christine's books were printed in the fifteenth century, and are, therefore, classified as Incunabula; viz., (1) Les cent histoires de Troyes, ou l'épistre d'Othéa, déesse de prudence, envoyée à l'esprit chevalereux Hector. This book, although, without name or date, is included by Hain in his list of Incunabula. (2) Le trésor de la cité des dames selon dame Christine imprimé à Paris le VIII jour d'Aoust mil quatre cens quattre vingtz et XVII pour Antoine Verard. (3) The Morale Proverbes. Caxton, 1478. (4) The Fayt of Armes and Chyvalrye. In fine: "Thus endeth this book which Christian of Pise made and drew out of the book named Vegecius de re Militari and out of the Arbre of Battles, with

*Celuy d'avoir le corps sans nulle difformité et assez plaisant et non maladis; mais bien complexionné."

many other things set in to the same, requisite to war and battles, which book, being in French, was delivered to me, William Caxton, by the most Christian king, and undoubted prince, my natural and sovereign lord, King Henry the VII, King of England and of France, in his palace of Westminster the XXIII day of January, the III year of his reign; and desired and willed me to translate the said book, and reduce it in to our English and natural tongue, and to put it in imprint, etc. etc. Whyche translacy on was fynysshed the VIII day of Juyll the said year (i. e., 1489) and emprynted the XIII day of Juyll the next following, and ful fynysshed."

It is interesting to note the factitious value which time has imparted to the early editions of Christine's works, as well as the fluctuations in that value. At the Didot sale a copy of Les cent Histoires de Troye, Paris, 1522, 4°, "in a beautiful binding by Hagué," brought 1,400 francs. At the Téchener sale, in 1865, a copy bound in calf sold for 700 frcs. In a sale which took place in 1836, under the name of Van Berghem, an ordinary copy bound in calf brought 1,150 frcs; but, at a period very unpropitious for possessors of books, in 1849, another copy, bound in morocco, did not bring more than sixty-four francs at the Turner sale." *

1880.

*Bibliomania at the present day in France and England, etc.

N

New York: J. W. Bouton,