108 AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF FRENCH LITERATURE, 
considered its relation with other nations, and sought to improve its 
policy and extend its power; in short, they felt and bore, with the 
warrior and the statesman, the cares and interests of the community. 
In private and civil affairs, their authority was not less decisive ; they 
were thought to have something divine in their nature, and the names 
of many of them, who were worshipped as divinities, have been handed 
down by history.* To these imaginary virtues, however, they super- 
added the real one of modesty, the violation of which was never par- 
doned. The reserve and coyness of a maiden were her most powerful 
recommendations, and the lover found, in the object of his adora- 
tion, a strict and rigid chastity. But as this equality of the sexes 
could not exist without a reciprocity of merit, the men, on their side, 
aspired to the praise of heroic valour. The reproach of a woman 
filled the coward with the bitterest sorrow, and stamped him with the 
most indelible infamy. ‘‘ Hi,” says Tacitus, “ cutqgue sanctissimt 
testes, hi maximi laudatores.’t These virtues long continued to 
defend, reward, and perpetuate each other; and when the northern 
tribes had made their conquests, these principles, instead of being 
enfeebled by the change of climate and of manners, found ample room 
for growth and expansion in the feudal governments into which all 
these tribes eventually subsided. 
Under the thrice-favoured sky of Provence it was that, amid a 
thousand little baronies, chivalry assumed those forms, alternately 
gay and serious, which are still so fascinating to the retrospective 
observer. And though it is to northern France that we must look 
for the lengthened romarces of chivalry, yet we find that the earlier 
specimens of Provengal poetry display a veneration for its beauties, 
and, amid the degradation of the age, manifest a respect for honour, 
and a love of noble feeling. The women were still looked up to 
with respect and adoration, and were regarded as the judges of per- 
sonal merit; and to some distinguished lady did the valorous knight 
ascribe the glory of his achievements, and dedicate his Jats. The 
praise of his mistress was to the knight the spring of his valour and 
the source of his activity ; her eye lighted in his bosom the fire of 
ambition, and to her were all his trophies consecrated ; for her he 
* “Tnesse quinctiam sanctum aliquid, et providum putant nec aut con- 
silia earum adspernantur, aut responsa negligunt. Vidimus sub Divo Ves- 
pasiano Velledam diu apud plerosque numinis loco habitam. Sed et olim 
Auriniam, et complures alias venerati sunt, non adulatione, nec tamquam 
facerent deas.”—Tacitus, De Mor. Germ. cap. 8. 
+ Tacitus, De Mor. Germ. cap. 7. 
