AGNES DURER. 75 



better witness against her than Bilibald Pirkheimer, she 

 should be regarded as a loved and lovely woman. It is 

 strange that so many admirers of the great master who 

 have written concerning his life should have been content 

 to follow this old story, told by a man notoriously unfit to 

 express an opinion about a virtuous woman, and do not 

 seem ever to have entertained a notion that his accusa- 

 tions were unworthy credit. If he were otherwise cred- 

 ible, it would tell much against him that he should volun- 

 teer to a stranger a sharp tirade against the character of 

 a woman with whom he confesses his relations have been 

 always unfriendly. What business had this fat egotist to 

 write such a letter about a woman at all ? If he would be 

 guilty of such a letter about the wife of his friend, I can 

 well believe that he would not stop at falsehood. 



" Let us gather all the testimony which exists on the 

 subject of Agnes Diirer's character, and we shall find that 

 Bilibald Pirkheimer is the solitary witness against her. 

 Upon analyzing his evidence, we find this to be the state 

 of facts. After Diirer was dead, Pirkheimer had occa- 

 sion to write a long letter to one Tcherte, in Vienna, and, 

 alluding to Diirer's death and his own relations to him, 

 he breaks out into a tirade against Diirer's widow. He 

 says, in substance, that she had always regarded him as 

 her enemy, and that since Diirer's death she would not 

 see him nor have any thing to do with him ; he ascribes 

 Diirer's death to her, says that she worried him always, 

 and the specific effect which he charges her with produ- 

 cing was that Diirer was dried up, and did not dare to go 

 into society or indulge in gayety; he had often expost- 

 ulated with her, and told her that she would kill her hus- 

 band by keeping him so closely at work; but he only 

 met with her ingratitude ; for whoever was a friend of her 



