[56] Catherine, Duchess of Lancaster, had three sons: the second was the famous Cardinal Beaufort; the eldest (created Earl of Somerset,) was grandfather to Henry the Seventh, and consequently ancestor to the whole race of Tudor: thus from the sister of Chaucer's wife are descended all the English sovereigns, from the fifteenth century; and likewise the present family of Somerset, Dukes of Beaufort. [57] "The King's Quhair," (i.e. _cahier_ or book.) [58] Liberality. [59] Dignity. [60] Knowledge and discretion. CHAPTER XI. LORENZO DE' MEDICI AND LUCRETIA DONATI. To Lorenzo de' Medici,--or rather to the preëminence his personal qualities, his family possessions, and his unequalled talents, gave him over his countrymen,--some late travellers and politicians have attributed the downfall of the liberties of Florence, and attacked his memory as the precursor of tyrants and the preparer of slaves. It may be so:--yet was it the fault of Lorenzo, if his collateral posterity afterwards became the oppressors of that State of which he was the father and the saviour? And since in this world some must command and some obey, what power is so legitimate as that derived from the influence of superior virtue and talent? from the employ of riches obtained by honourable industry, and expended with princely munificence, and subscribed to by the will and the affections of the people? But I forget:--these are questions foreign to our subject. Politics I never could understand in my life, and history I have forgotten,--or would wish to forget,--perplexed by its conflicting evidence, and shocked by its interminable tissue of horrors. Let others then scale the height while we gather flowers at the foot; let others explore the mazes of the forest; ours be rather The gay parterre, the chequered shade, The morning bower, the evening colonnade, Those soft recesses of uneasy minds, whence the din of doleful war, the rumour of cruelty and suffering, and all the "fitful stir unprofitable" of the world are shut out, and only the beautiful and good, or the graceful and the gay, are admitted. There have been pens enough, Heaven knows, to chronicle the wrongs, the crimes, the sorrows of our sex: why should I add an echo to that voice, which from the beginning has cried aloud in the wilderness of this world, upon women betrayed, and betraying in self-defence? A nobler and more grateful task be mine, to show them how much of what is most fair, most excellent, most sublime among the productions of human genius, has been owing to their influence, direct or indirect; and call up the spirits of the dead,--those who from their silent urns still rule the pulses of our hearts--to bear witness to this truth. * * * * *