Note 416 — Chapter V · RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE

In her Comédie sur le trespas du Roy the shepherdess Amarissima (that is, she herself) mourns the death of the god Pan; she no longer believes in anything—either human virtue, or human consolations, or even the old-time constancy. She has lost her philosophy! In the end, the Paraclete comes to restore our serenity by the assurance that Pan is tasting Elysian joys in the eternal meadows. At the carnival of Mont-de-Marsan in 1547, the princess, shaking off mournful preoccupations, put another comedy on the stage, in which she brought into opposition a beautiful lady of fashion, a superstitious lady who speaks of death and paradise, and a wise woman who advocates equilibrium of soul and body; then the “Queen of God” (we may guess who she is) upsets it all—the world, superstition, and wisdom—with a philosophic panacea of divine and human love commingled. We shall not be expected, however, to follow Margaret in the meanderings of her thought, nor even in her prayers “of the faithful soul,” or “to Jesus Christ”—earnest appeals to the love and favour and mercy of the Most High, who can save us only by love.