Part 52

P. 276:

◆Suetonius, Vitellius, cap. ii.: “Messalina petit ut sibi pedes præberet excalceandos.” Brantôme prefers to quote in his own manner.

◆LVIIth Tale.

◆Undoubtedly the grand prior François de Lorraine, who accompanied Mary Stuart to Scotland; however, D’Aumale and René d’Elbeuf also accompanied her.

P. 281:

◆Philip II., of Spain, son of Charles the Fifth, born 1527; died 1588. The husband of Queen Mary of England.

P. 282:

◆Béatrix Pacheco was lady of honor to Eleonor d’Autriche prior to 1544 with several other Spanish ladies; she became Countess d’Entremont through her marriage with Sébastien d’Entremont. Her daughter, the woman in question here, was Jacqueline, the second wife of Admiral de Coligny, against whom the enemies of her husband turned; she was not, however, beyond reproach.

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.”

P. 286:

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

P. 287:

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

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.)

P. 289:

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

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.”

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.

P. 300:

◆This son was Geta.

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.