WOMAN'S LONG STRUGGLE 



57 



together at a marriage feast." "In Italy," as Symonds 

 has shown, "the keynote was struck by the Novella, as in 

 England by the drama. ' ' x The supreme exponents of the 

 Kenaissance as manifested in literature were, without 

 doubt, Ariosto in Italy, Rabelais in France, Cervantes in 

 Spain, Camoens in Portugal, Erasmus in the Netherlands 

 and Shakespeare in England. 



Considering the splendid achievements of men during the 

 Kenaissance in every department of intellectual activity, 

 one would imagine that women also would have attained to 

 a somewhat proportionate distinction, at least in literature 

 and the arts. But, outside of Italy, this was far from be- 

 ing the case. In France, Spain, Portugal and England 

 there were, it is true, a certain number of women who won 

 distinction by their talents and learning, but these were 

 the exceptions which but served to throw into greater re- 

 lief the prevailing ignorance of the great mass of their sex, 

 which had few, if any, of the advantages of instruction, 

 even in the most elementary branches of knowledge. 



The Italian women, as we have already seen, had com- 

 manded marked recognition for their talents and learning 

 even before the close of the Middle Ages. The most famous 

 of these were among those who, having obtained the doc- 

 torate, became lecturers and professors in the great univer- 

 sity of Bologna. The existence and accomplishments of 

 some of these may, perhaps, be more or less legendary, but 

 there can be no doubt that many of them, some before the 

 time of the Renaissance, had gained a European reputation 

 for the breadth and variety of their attainments. But it 

 was during the Renaissance that the remarkable flowering 

 of the intellect of the Italian woman was seen at its best. 

 While the women in the other parts of Europe, especially 

 in England and Germany, were suffering the ill effects 

 consequent on the suppression of the convents, which, for 



i A Short History of the Renaissance in Italy, p. 277, London, 

 1893. 



