2 The Italian Charles, equerry to the King, to whom the
leading part is assigned in Queen Margaret’s tale, may have
been Charles de San Severino, who figures among the
equerries with a salary of 200 livres, in the roll of the
royal household for 1522. The San Severino family, one of
the most prominent of Naples, had attached itself to the
French cause at the time of the expedition of Charles VIII.,
whom several of its members followed to France. In 1522 we
find a “Monsieur de Saint-Severin” holding the office of
first maître d’hôtel to Francis I., and over a course of
several years his son figures among the enfants
d’honneur.—B. J. and Ed.
“What say you, ladies, of this wife? Was she not sensible to make sport of her husband’s sport?”
“‘Twas no sport,” said Saffredent, “for the husband who failed in his purpose.”
“I believe,” said Ennasuite, “that he had more delight in laughing with his wife, than at killing himself at his age with his serving-woman.”
“Still, I should be sorely vexed,” said Simontault, “to be discovered so bravely coifed.”
“I have heard,” said Parlamente, “that it was not your wife’s fault that she did not once discover you in very much the same attire in spite of all your craft, and that since then she has known no repose.”
“Rest content with what befalls your own house,” said Simontault, “without inquiring into what befalls mine. Nevertheless, my wife has no reason to complain of me, and even did I act as you say, she would never have occasion to notice it through any lack of what she might need.”
“Virtuous women,” said Longarine, “require nothing but the love of their husbands, which alone can satisfy them. Those who seek a brutish satisfaction will never find it where honour enjoins.”
“Do you call it brutish,” asked Geburon, “if a wife desires that her husband should give her her due?”
“I say,” said Longarine, “that a chaste woman, whose heart is filled with true love, is more content to be perfectly loved than to have all the delights that the body can desire.”