CHRISTINE DE PISAN 



one living at the beginning of the fifteenth 

 century, and brought up, as Christine had 

 been, at a magnificent Court, it shows rare 

 independence and breadth of thought to have 

 grasped and proclaimed with such firmness and 

 clearness as is displayed in her treatise the germ 

 of the policy of all modern civilised nations 

 that a middle-class is essential to bring into 

 touch those placed at the opposite extremes, the 

 rich and the poor. 



To Christine belongs an honour beyond that 

 of having been a patriot and a champion of her 

 sex the honour of having revealed Dante to 

 France. 1 Scattered up and down her writings 

 are many allusions to the Divina Commedia^ 

 showing how real a place it must have filled in 

 her soul's life. She especially recommends it 

 for profitable study in the place of the " hateful " 

 Romance of the Rose, concerning which she gave 

 the warning to her son : 



Se bien veulx et chastement vivre, 

 De la Rose ne lis le livre. 



Like Dante, sad and lonely " souvent seulete 

 et pensive, regretant le temps passe " like him 

 she also realised the thirst for knowledge as an 

 ever-present want of the soul, and that its ulti- 

 mate perfection is only to be attained by follow- 

 ing after virtue and knowledge. Although, as 

 regards profundity, her conception of the world 

 and of life cannot be compared with that of her 



1 A. Farinelli, Dante e la Francia, vol. i. p. 192, 1908. 

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