OF SIX MEDIAEVAL WOMEN 



establish that it is Virtue alone that is of worth, 

 and ennobles a man, and then sets forth the 

 qualities of a good sovereign. But as this leads 

 to some difference of opinion, Christine, who 

 was withal a courtly lady, descends to earth in 

 order to ask the King, Charles the Sixth, to 

 decide the matter. This dream - poem she 

 dedicates to her royal master for his diversion in 

 his saner moments, and thus once again intro- 

 duces into high places the subject so near to her 

 heart. She lets it be seen that she herself, like 

 Dante, did not believe in the blending of the 

 spiritual and the temporal powers. And as 

 regards temporal power she adds perhaps 

 borrowing the idea from Dante's De Monarchia, 

 and anticipating Napoleon's dream that in 

 order to ensure peace on earth, it is necessary 

 that one supreme ruler should reign over the 

 whole world. " La sua volontade e nostra pace," 

 sang a soul in Dante's heaven of the Moon the 

 lowest in the celestial system when questioned 

 whether it was content with its lowly place. 

 The poet therefore adds, " ogni dove in cielo e 

 paradise." Christine, echoing these thoughts, 

 would fain apply them to life on earth, giving 

 them their deepest and fullest meaning. 



Though she laboured so unceasingly for the 

 good of her country, she also did her utmost to 

 defend her sex from the indiscriminate censure 

 which had been heaped upon it, for the evil 

 spoken seemed to her far to outweigh the good. 

 A century before, Dante had also idealised 



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