◆All the satirical authors agree in charging Catherine de’Medici with this radical change of the old French manners. It would be juster to think also of the civil wars in Italy, which were not without influence upon the looseness of the armies, and, therefore, upon the whole of France. [99] P. 179: ◆It is the 91st epigram of Bk. I. [100] P. 180: ◆Isabella de Luna, a famous courtesan mentioned by Bandello. ◆Cardinal d’Armagnac was Georges, born in 1502, who was successively ambassador in Italy and archbishop of Toulouse, and finally archbishop of Evignon. [101] P. 181: ◆Quotation badly understood. _Crissantis_, in the Latin verse, is a participle and not a proper noun. (Cf. Juvenal, sat. iv.) ◆_Filènes_, from _Philenus_, a courtesan in Lucian. ◆The line should read, Ipsa Medullinæ frictum crissantis adorat. [102] P. 184: ◆Brantôme seems to speak of himself; yet he might merely have played the side rôle of confidant in the comedy. [103] P. 187: ◆Brantôme refers to the _Dialogue de la beauté des dames_. Marguerite d’Autriche is not (as he says) the Duchess de Savoie, who died in 1530, but the natural daughter of the Emperor; she married Alessandro de’Medici, and later Ottavio Farnese. [104] P. 189: ◆The famous Church of Brou, at Bourg, was built in 1511–36 by the beautiful Marguerite of Austria, wife of Philobert II., le Beau, Duke of Savoy, in fulfilment of a vow made by Marguerite of Bourbon, her mother-in-law. It contains the magnificent tombs of Marguerite herself, her husband and mother-in-law. Celebrated in a well-known poem, “The Church of Brou,” of Matthew Arnold. [105] P. 190: ◆Jean de Meung, the poet (nicknamed Clopinel on account of his lameness), was born at the small town of Meung-sur-Loire in the middle of the XIIIth Century. Died at Paris somewhere about 1320. His famous _Roman de la Rose_ was a continuation of an earlier work of the same name by Guillaume de Lorris, completed and published in its final form by Jean de Meung. [106] P. 192: ◆Twenty-sixth Tale. It is Lord d’Avesnes, Gabriel d’Albret. [107] P. 194: ◆Claudia Quinta (Livy XXIX, 14). [108] P. 196: ◆Plutarch, Œuvres mêlées, LXXVII, t. II., p. 167, in the 1808 edition. [109] P. 200: ◆The vogue of drawers dated from about 1577; three years later the hoop was in great favor and served to do away with the petticoat. Brantôme probably means that the lady discards the petticoat and wears the hoop over the drawers. [110] P. 212: ◆The pun on _raynette_ and _raye nette_ cannot be reproduced in English. [111] P. 213: ◆Etienne Pasquier, the great lawyer and opponent of the Jesuits, was born at Paris, 1529; died 1615.