CHRISTINE DE PISAN
Christine's line of argument is that the many must not be condemned for the shortcomings of the few, and that even when God made the angels, some were bad. To the charge that books are full of the condemnation of women, she replies with the simple remark that books were not written by women. Where is the shade of the worthy Christine to-day? Does it walk the earth with a flag of triumph or a laurel wreath whilst its sisters in the flesh are writing on every subject in heaven and earth and sea? "De nos jours, le monde est aux femmes."
Is it marvellous, asks Christine, that a woman—"une chose simplète, une ignorante petite femmellette," as she expresses—it should be betrayed by man, when even the great city of Troy was, and when all the books and romances are full of the betrayal of kings and kingdoms? And if a woman is not constant by nature, why should Jean de Meun, in The Romance of the Rose, devise so many tricks to deceive her, seeing that it is not necessary to make a great assault upon a feeble place? Then she deftly turns the tables on the other sex, reminding each that he is the son of his mother, and that
Se mauvaise est il ne peut valor rien,
Car nul bon fruit de mal arbre ne vient.
And so on to the end, all is argument and banter. The repute of her letter must have travelled quickly, for whilst Christine was still combating
137
