OF SIX MEDIAEVAL WOMEN 



physical, and does not extend to soul or rational 

 power. She sums up by strongly advocating 

 study and learning, both for self-improvement 

 and as a consolation and possession for all time. 



Of her poetical writings on love and the 

 sexes, perhaps the most enchanting is Le Livre 

 du Dit de Poissy. In it she takes us, on a bright 

 spring morning, with a joyous company, from 

 Paris to the royal convent of Poissy, where her 

 child is at school. She describes all the beauties 

 of the country, the fields gay with flowers, the 

 warbling of the birds, the shepherdesses with 

 their flocks, the willow-shaded river bank along 

 which they ride, the magic of the forest of St. 

 Germain, a little world apart of greenery and 

 shade, filled with the song of the nightingales. 

 Laughing and singing by the way, they reach 

 the convent gate. Then follows a description 

 of the beautiful carved cloisters, the chapter- 

 house, the nuns' dress and their dormitory, the 

 garden scented with lavender and roses, with one 

 part, where small animals are allowed to run 

 wild, left uncultivated, and the ponds well 

 stocked with fish. As the day wanes, they bid 

 farewell to the nuns, who offer them gifts of 

 purses and girdles embroidered in silk and gold, 

 worked by their o,wn hands. They return to 

 the inn where they are to spend the night, and 

 after supper wander forth to listen to the night- 

 ingales, then dance a carole, and so to bed. 

 The ride back to Paris in the morning, during 

 which a discussion on love matters is introduced, 



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