... Vous portez la dame en verde targe Pour démonstrer que de hardi visage Vous vous voulez pour les dames tenir Contre ceulz qui leur porteront dommage!
[33] “Le Musée Jacquemart-André,” _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_, August 1912.
Of the Order of the Rose and its foundation, Christine, in one of her poems, gives most picturesque and interesting particulars, interesting because they are evidently taken from an actual scene, though Christine, in her rôle as poetess, feels it necessary to add touches suggestive of fairyland rather than of real life. A numerous assembly, with goodwill at heart, has met together in the magnificent dwelling of Louis, Duke of Orleans, the King’s brother, Christine being one of the number. Suddenly there comes into their midst one personifying the Goddess Venus, surrounded by maidens garlanded with roses and carrying golden bowls filled with them. The bowls placed on the table, the Goddess proceeds to announce the rules of the Order, above all enjoining those present to avoid envy, and in no way to perjure themselves, since this would be a most heinous and hateful sin. The badge chosen is a fresh rose, but if any member of the Order should happen to be in a country where such is not attainable, or when the season is unpropitious, then a rose fashioned in gold or silver, or one embroidered in silk, will suffice. With pledges of loyalty,
A bonne amour je fais veu et promesse Et à la fleur qui est rose clamée, A la vaillant de Loyauté deesse, Par qui nous est ceste chose informée, Qu’à tous jours mais la bonne renommée Je garderay de dame en toute chose Ne par moy ja femme n’yert diffamée: Et pour ce prens je L’Ordre de la Rose,[34]
[34] “Le Dit de la Rose,” 197-204, _Œuvres poétiques de Christine de Pisan_, t. ii., pub. par Maurice Roy, 1891.
all the company deck themselves with roses. The charter is given by the Goddess into the safe-keeping of Christine, who describes it as written on fine parchment in letters of azure, and fastened with a silken cord of the same colour. From this cord hangs a rare gem, on one side of which their patroness, the Goddess of Love, and on the other Cupid, with his feet on a leopard, are depicted. This moral and literary contest is perhaps the most brilliant of the many discussions that took place in the Middle Ages in honour of women. The highest and the wisest in the land joined in it, but all the honour must be given to Christine for having, by her brave and reasonable attitude, caused the problem, which henceforth was to evolve like truth itself, to be treated on a rational basis. “Toute la foy remaint en une femme,” says Christine. Were not her words, nearly 500 years later, echoed by Renan when he says, “Après Jésus, c’est Marie de Magdale qui a le plus fait pour la fondation du Christianisme”?