Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies. Vol 1Brantôme, Pierre de Bourdeille
History
Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies. Vol 1
Brantôme, Pierre de Bourdeille
Erotic literature
Meanwhile the gentleman was so content with what he had seen, and so
full of ecstasy, delight and satisfaction, I have heard him declare an
hundred times over he did wish for naught else his life long but only
to live and dream of this fair sight day by day. And in sooth he was
right for to judge by the fair face that is without a rival and the
beauteous bosom that hath so ravished mankind, there must indeed have
been yet more exquisite dainties. And he did affirm that among these
charms, the said lady did possess the finest figure, and the best
developed, ever he did set eyes on. And it may well be so, for she was
of a very rich and opulent figure, and this must needs be one of the
chief of all a woman’s beauties, and like a frontier fortress, one of
the most necessary and indispensable.
When the said gentleman had told me all his tale, I could only bid him,
“Live on, my friend, live on; with this divine sight to dream on and
this happy contemplation, you should never die. And heaven grant me
before I die, at least to see so fair a spectacle!”
The said gentleman did surely owe an eternal debt of gratitude to the
damsel, and did ever after honour and love her with all his heart. And
he did woo her right eagerly as lover, yet married her not at the last;
for another suitor, richer than he, did carry her off, for truly ’tis
the way of all women to run after the solid good things of life.
Sights like this be fair and right pleasant; yet must we beware they
work not harm, as the view of the beauteous Diana in her nakedness did
to poor Acteon, or yet another I am about to tell of.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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