[151] P. 284:

◆The description which follows was textually taken by Brantôme from account printed at Lyons, in 1549, entitled: “La magnificence de la superbe et triomphante entrée de la noble et antique cité de Lyon faicte au très-chrestien Roy de France Henry deuxiesme.”

[152] P. 286:

◆Brazilian wood, known before the discovery of America. Brésil is a common noun here.

[153] P. 287:

◆The king’s visit to Lyons took place September 18, 1548.

[154] P. 288:

◆La volte was a dance that had come from Italy in which the gentleman, after having made his partner turn two or three times, raised her from the floor in order to make her cut a caper in the air. This is the caper of which Brantôme is speaking.

◆Paul de Labarthe, lord of Thermes, Field Marshal of France, died in 1562. (Montluc, Ruble edition, t. II., p. 55.)

[155] P. 289:

◆Scio (Chios) was the only island in the Orient where the women wore short dresses.

[156] P. 298:

◆Suetonius, Caligula, XXV. “Cæsonia was first the mistress and afterwards the wife of the Emperor Caligula. She was neither handsome nor young when Caligula fell in love with her; but she was a woman of the greatest licentiousness.... At the time he was married to Lollia Paulina, whom, however, he divorced in order to marry Cæsonia, who was with child by him, A. D. 38.... Cæsonia contrived to preserve the attachment of her imperial husband down to the end of his life; but she is said to have effected this by love-potions, which she gave him to drink, and to which some persons attributed the unsettled state of Caligula’s mental powers during the latter years of his life. Cæsonia and her daughter (Julia Drusilla) were put to death on the same day that Caligula was murdered, A. D. 41.”

[157] P. 299:

◆The Emperor Caracalla (M. Aurelius Antoninus) was the son of the Emperor Septimus Severus and was born at Lyons, at the time his father was Governor of Gallia Lugdunensis. Caracalla (like Caligula) is really only a nickname, derived from the long Gaulish cloak which he adopted and made fashionable. Reigned from Severus’ death at York in 211 to his own assassination in 217. His brother Geta was at first associated with him in the Empire. Him he murdered, and is said to have suffered remorse for the act to the end of his life,—remorse from which he sought distraction in every kind of extravagant folly and reckless cruelty.

◆Spartianus, Caracalla, Chap. x.

[158] P. 300:

◆This son was Geta.

[159] P. 301:

◆Béatrix was the daughter of Count Guillaume de Tenda; to her second husband, Phillipe Marie Visconti, she brought all the wealth of her first husband, Facino Cane. In spite of her ripe years, Béatrix was suspected of adultery with Michel Orombelli, and Phillipe Marie had them both killed. As a matter of fact this was a convenient way of appropriating Facino Cane’s wealth.

◆Collenuccio, liv. IV., anno 1194.

◆Filippo Maria Visconti; born 1391, died 1447. Last Duke of Milan of the house of Visconti, the sovereignty passing at his death to the Sforzas.

◆Facino (Bonifacio) Cane, the famous condottiere and despot of Alessandria, was born of a noble family about 1360. The principality he eventually acquired in N. Italy embraced, besides Alessandria, Pavia, Vercelli, Tortona, Varese, and all the shores of the Lago Maggiore. Died 1412.

◆Mother of Frederick II.

◆Pandolfo Collenuccio, famous as author, historian and juris-consult towards the end of the XIVth century. Born at Pesaro, where he spent most of his life, and where he was executed (1500) by order of Giovanni Sforza, in consequence of his intrigues with Cæsar Borgia, who was anxious to acquire the sovereignty of that city.

[160] P. 302:

◆Daughter of Bernardin de Clermont, Vicomte de Tallard.

◆Brantôme undoubtedly aims here at Marguerite de Clermont.

[161] P. 303:

◆Jean de Bourdeille.

◆Renée, daughter of Louis XII., married to the Duke of Ferraro. She was ungainly but very learned.

[162] P. 304:

◆Marguerite d’Angoulème.

[163] P. 312:

◆Meung-sur-Loire, dep. Loiret, on right bank of the Loire, eleven miles below Orléans.

◆ Eclaron, dép. Maute-Marne.

◆ Leonor, Duke de Longueville.

◆ François de Lorraine, Duke de Guise.

[164] P. 313:

◆ Louis I., Prince de Condé.

◆ Captain Averet, died at Orléans in 1562.

◆Compère was the name King Henri II. gave the Constable de Montmorency.

[165] P. 316:

◆Octavius is translated Octavie by Brantôme. Cf. Suetonius, Caligula, XXXVI., and Octavius Augustus, LXIX.

◆Suetonius, Nero, XXXIV.

[166] P. 318:

◆Brantôme undoubtedly refers to Henri III. and to the Duke d’Alençon, his brother.

[167] P. 319:

◆Plutarch names this woman Aspasia and makes her a priestess of Diana. Cf. Artaxerxes-Mnemon, Chap. XXVI.

◆Collenuccio, liv. V., p. 208.

◆Artaxerxes I. (Longimanus), King of Persia for forty years, B. C. 465 to 425; he succeeded his father Xerxes, having put to death his brother Darius.

[168] P. 320:

◆Wife of François d’Orléans.

◆Diane died at the age of 66, April 22, 1566; she was born in 1499.

◆Jacqueline de Rohan-Gié, married to François d’Orléans, Marquis de Rothelin.

[169] P. 321:

◆François Robertet, widow of Jean Babou, whose second husband was Field Marshal d’Aumont.

◆Catherine de Clermont, wife of Guy de Mareuil, grandmother of the Duke du Montpensier, François, surnamed the Prince-Dauphin.

◆Gabrielle de Mareuil, married to Nicolas d’Anjou, Marquis de Mézières.

◆Jacqueline or Jacquette de Montberon.

◆Françoise Robertet, widow of Jean Babon de la Bourdaisière.

[170] P. 322:

◆Paule Viguier, baronne de Fontenille.

◆Françoise de Longwi.

◆The praise of this Toulousean beauty is to be found in the very rare opuscule by G. Minot, De la beauté, 1587.

[171] P. 323:

◆Anne d’Este. She was not exempt from the faults of a corrupt court.

◆This journey occurred in 1574.

◆Louis XII.

[172] P. 324:

◆Jean d’O, seigneur de Maillebois.

◆It is not François Gonzagne, but Guillaume Gonzagne, his brother and successor to the duchy of Mantoue, born in 1538, died in 1587.

[173] P. 325:

◆He returns here to the Duchess de Guise.

[174] P. 326:

◆At the wedding of Charles Emmanuel, married to Catherine, daughter of Philip II. of Spain.

[175] P. 327:

◆Marie d’Aragon, wedded to Alphonse d’Avalos, Marquis del Guasto or Vasto.

◆Henri II., son of Francis I., and husband of Catherine de Medici. Born 1518. Came to throne in 1547; accidentally killed in a tourney by Montgommeri 1559.

◆Paul IV. (of the illustrious Neapolitan family of Caraffa) was raised to the chair of St. Peter in 1558; died 1559.

◆This viceroy was Don Perafan, Duke d’Alcala, who entered Naples June 12, 1559.

[176] P. 328:

◆Claude de Lestrange?

[177] P. 331:

◆Brantôme’s memory fails him. Of the two daughters of the Marquess, Béatrix, the first married Count de Potenza; the other, Prince de Sulmone.

[178] P. 336:

◆His son was François Ferdinand, Viceroy of Sicily, died in 1571.

[179] P. 337:

◆Soliman II.

[180] P. 351:

◆Referring to Montaigne’s Essays.