A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Gonzaga, Lucretia
GONZAGA, LUCRETIA,
An illustrious Italian lady of the sixteenth century, was as remarkable for her wit and learning, as for high birth. She wrote such beautiful letters, that the utmost care was taken to preserve them; and a collection of them was printed at Venice in 1552. There is no learning in her letters, yet we perceive by them that she was learned; for, in a letter to Robertellus, she says, that his Commentaries had shewn her the true meaning of several obscure passages in Aristotle and Æschylus. All the wits of her time commended her highly; and Hortensio Lando, besides singing her praises, dedicated to her a piece written in Italian, "Upon moderating the passions of the soul." They corresponded, and more than thirty of her letters to him have been printed.
We learn from these letters that her marriage with John Paul Manfrone was unhappy. She was not fourteen when she was married to him against her consent; yet she treated him with due respect and obedience, though his conduct gave her great uneasiness. He engaged in a conspiracy against the Duke of Ferrara; was detected and imprisoned by him; but, though condemned, not put to death. She did all in her power to obtain his release; applied to every man of importance in Christendom to intercede for him; and even solicited the Grand Seignor to make himself master of the castle where her husband was kept. But her endeavours were vain, for he died in prison; after having shewn such impatience under his sufferings as made many persons imagine that he had lost his senses. She lived afterwards in honourable widowhood, though several men of rank were her suitors; but she resolutely rejected all such offers, declaring frankly on one occasion, that she had suffered too much in a conjugal state again to subject herself to the yoke, from which God had freed her, even though a husband richer than Crœsus, wiser than Lelius, or handsomer than Nireus, should offer himself. Of four daughters which Lucretia bore to her husband, two only survived, whom he dedicated to a conventual life.
Her writings were held in so much esteem, for the graces of her style, that even the notes she wrote to her domestics were carefully collected, and many of them preserved in the edition of her letters. She was a kind mistress, careful even to the settlement of her domestics in life, as a reward for their services. She wrote many letters to her friends and acquaintances on various subjects, in a strain of admirable morality; and in all her conduct was an example to her sex, and a blessing to society.