



Produced by Renald Levesque






WOMAN

VOLUME VI

WOMEN OF THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES

BY

JOHN R. EFFINGER, Ph.D.
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN


[Illustration 1:
_BOCCACCIO'S MERRY RACONTEURS
After the painting by Jacques Wagrez
In the meantime, Naples, in the hands of the invaders, had been stained
with blood, and then ravaged by the great plague of which Boccaccio has
given us a picture, and of the idyllic way the rich people passed their
time, in his_ Decameron.]



Woman

In all ages and in all countries


VOLUME VI


WOMEN OF THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES

BY

JOHN R. EFFINGER, Ph.D.
Of the University of Michigan


ILLUSTRATED


PHILADELPHIA
GEORGE BARRIE & SONS, Publishers




PREFACE


No one can deny the influence of woman, which has been a potent factor
in society, directly or indirectly, ever since the days of Mother Eve.
Whether living in Oriental seclusion, or enjoying the freer life of the
Western world, she has always played an important part in the onward
march of events, and exercised a subtle power in all things, great and
small. To appreciate this power properly, and give it a worthy
narrative, is ever a difficult and well-nigh impossible task, at least
for mortal man. Under the most favorable circumstances, the subject is
elusive and difficult of approach, lacking in sequence, and often
shrouded in mystery.

What, then, must have been the task of the author of the present volume,
in essaying to write of the women of Italy and Spain! In neither of
these countries are the people all of the same race, nor do they afford
the development of a constant type