All pious purpose has disappeared in the ballads of Villon, where the old courtesan, “la belle heaulmière,” calls to mind her irresistible beauty of former times and is deeply grieved at its sad decline.
“Qu’est devenu ce front poly,
Ces cheveulx blons, sourcils voultiz,
Grant entrœil, le regart joly,
Dont prenoie les plus soubtilz;
Ce beau nez droit, grant ne petiz,
Ces petites joinctes oreilles,
Menton fourchu, cler vis traictiz
Et ces belles levres vermeilles?
| · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · |
Le front ridé, les cheveux gris,
Les sourcilz cheuz, les yeuls estains….”[1]
This inability to free oneself from the attachment to matter manifests itself in yet other forms. A result of the same sentiment is to be found in the extreme importance ascribed in the Middle Ages to the fact that the bodies of certain saints had never decayed—that of Saint Rosa of Viterbo, for example. The Assumption of the Holy Virgin exempting her body from earthly corruption was on that account regarded as the most precious of all graces. On various occasions attempts were made to retard decomposition. The features of the corpse of Pierre de Luxembourg were touched up with paint to preserve them intact until the burial. The body of a heretic preacher of the sect of the Turlupins, who died in prison, before sentence was passed, was preserved in lime for a fortnight, that it might be burned at the same time with a living heretical woman.
The importance attached to being buried in the soil of one’s own country gave rise to usages which the Church had to
- ↑ What has become of this smooth forehead, Fair hair, curving eyelashes, Large space between the eyes, pretty looks, Wherewith I caught the most subtle ones That fine straight nose, neither large nor small, These tiny ears close to the head, The dimpled chin, well-shaped bright face, And those, beautiful vermilion lips? … The forehead wrinkled, hair grey, The eyelashes come off, lack-lustre eyes….
deal, Your beauty will change into ugliness, Your health into obscure malady, And you will only be in the way here below. If you have a daughter, you will be a shadow to her, She will be in request and asked for, And the mother will be abandoned by all.
