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lotesseOur heroine, having read a great deal of misogynistic philosophy of late, becomes depressed and reflects that God must have forsaken her, having created such an imperfect being as woman.
So occupied with these painful thoughts, my head bowed in shame, my eyes filled with tears, leaning on the pommel of my chair's armrest, I suddenly saw a ray of light fall on my lap, as though it were the sun. I shuddered then, as if wakened from sleep, for I was sitting in a shadow where the sun could not have shone at that hour. And as I lifted my head to see where this light was coming from, I saw three crowned ladies standing before me, and the splendor of their bright faces shone on me and throughout the entire room. Now no one would as whether I was surprised, for my doors were shut and they had still entered ....
Then she who was the first of the three smiled and began to speak, "Dear daughter, do not be afraid, for we have not come here to harm or trouble you but to console you, for we have taken pity on your distress, and we have come to bring you out of the ignorance which so blinds your own intellect that you shun what you know for a certainty and believe what you do not know or see or recognize except by virtue of many strange opinions. You resemble the fool in the prank who was dressed in women's clothes while he slept; because those who were making fun of him repeatedly told him he was a woman, he believed their false testimony more readily than the certainty of his own identity. Fair daughter, have you lost all sense? Have you forgotten that when fine gold is tested in the furnace, it does not change or vary in strength but becomes purer the more it is hammered and handled in different ways?"
So occupied with these painful thoughts, my head bowed in shame, my eyes filled with tears, leaning on the pommel of my chair's armrest, I suddenly saw a ray of light fall on my lap, as though it were the sun. I shuddered then, as if wakened from sleep, for I was sitting in a shadow where the sun could not have shone at that hour. And as I lifted my head to see where this light was coming from, I saw three crowned ladies standing before me, and the splendor of their bright faces shone on me and throughout the entire room. Now no one would as whether I was surprised, for my doors were shut and they had still entered ....
Then she who was the first of the three smiled and began to speak, "Dear daughter, do not be afraid, for we have not come here to harm or trouble you but to console you, for we have taken pity on your distress, and we have come to bring you out of the ignorance which so blinds your own intellect that you shun what you know for a certainty and believe what you do not know or see or recognize except by virtue of many strange opinions. You resemble the fool in the prank who was dressed in women's clothes while he slept; because those who were making fun of him repeatedly told him he was a woman, he believed their false testimony more readily than the certainty of his own identity. Fair daughter, have you lost all sense? Have you forgotten that when fine gold is tested in the furnace, it does not change or vary in strength but becomes purer the more it is hammered and handled in different ways?"
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Date: 2010-01-21 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-21 06:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-21 05:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-21 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-21 07:22 pm (UTC)I've been meaning to read this for a long time; maybe it's time I got on that. Hey, there's a Chaucer poem that's all about "good women"--I think he was forced/challenged to write it by a female noblewoman who was sick of the anti-woman stuff in his work, or something. (See how sure I am of all these facts? :-P) I hope that story's true; I really like the idea of some mansplainy dude writer being made to eat his words that way. ;)
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Date: 2010-01-21 09:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-21 10:26 pm (UTC)