Commentary to the Germanic Laws and Mediaeval Documents

Abstract

compares this treatise with that of Luis de Le6n.Mello's work is more practical, but his standpoint is as high, his taste as severe, his manner more courtly and entertaining.He agrees with the Spanish monk in condemning women who painted their faces, and he has little good to say of pet dogs and pet nightingales or of the ladies who are always reading comedies or novels or romances of chivalry, or who enter a church as if they were going to battle, hustling and upsetting people.But he is less caustic in his condemnation, nor does he allow his wit to get the better of his heart.In writing largely from his own experience of life and literature he gives many glimpses into the manners of the day; he describes the motley crowd wont to hang about a great house in Lisbon, hucksters, pedlars, negroes, gypsies and a hundred more, and his experience at a Spanish inn (p.107) is worthy of Don Quixote.His task was to describe the right relations between husband and wife, and it must be remembered that the small degree of liberty of women in Portugal had already attracted attention in Europe.He does succeed in some measure in showing how women might combine these restrictions with the practice of all their natural gifts and graces.And if his anecdotes and examples are of his own time and country his kindly wisdom and keen comments are for all time.In this attractive edition they are likely to entertain and instruct a very large number of readers.

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