"SEULETE suy et seulete veuil estre, Seulete m'a mon doulz ami laissiée, Seulete suy sans compagnon ne maistre, Seulete suy dolente et courrouciée, Seulete suy en langueur mesaisiée, Seulete suy plus que nulle esgarée, Seulete suy sans amis demourée." (Alone am I in the world, and alone would I remain, Alone has my dear love left me, Alone am I, a poor lone woman, without companion or master, Alone am I, stricken with sorrow and anguish of mind, Alone am I, and ill at ease, Alone am I, more lonely than one who has lost her way, Alone have I been left without friends.) This complaint of one who has lost her lover, or been betrayed and forsaken by him, might well have been the lament of France, betrayed by Isabeau de Bavière and left naked to her enemies. But the author of the lament, though one ready enough to find matter for her pen in the condition of her adopted country, had no thought of France in this case; for the little _ballade_ was composed by Christine de Pisan with no other reference than to her own life. The age of the mad king and the bad queen would not have been, one would think, favorable to the advancement of literature; and yet some of the best literature of medieval France was composed while Isabeau de Bavière was still alive. We shall allude at this time to but two writers, Froissart, of whom we have already said something, and Christine de Pisan, both of whom were writing between 1380 and 1400. Christine, the first professional authoress in France of whose life we have record, is well worthy of study both as an authoress and as a woman.