' Pietro Aretino, in his 'Ragionamenti,' gives us rather
a picture of his own depraved character than of this unhappy class of
women as they really were.
The mistresses of the princes, as has been pointed out, were sung by
poets and painted by artists, and thus have become personally familiar
to their contemporaries and to posterity. But we hardly know more than
the name of Alice Perries; and of Clara Dettin, the mistress of
Frederick the Victorious, and of Agnes Sorel we have only a half-
legendary story. With the concubines of the Renaissance monarchs--
Francis I and Henry II--the case is different.
Domestic Life
After treating of the intercourse of society, let us glance for a
moment at the domestic life of this period. We are commonly disposed to
look on the family life of the Italians at this time as hopelessly
ruined by the national immorality, and this side of the question will
be more fully discussed in the sequel. For the moment we must content
ourselves with pointing out that conjugal infidelity has by no means so
disastrous an influence on family life in Italy as in the North, so
long at least as certain limits are not overstepped.
The domestic life of the Middle Ages was a product of popular morals,
or if we prefer to put it otherwise, a result of the inborn tendencies
of national life, modified by the varied circumstances which affected
them.
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