New-York tribune., 1922-12-17

maincd devoted 90 her husbands memory
This is not Queen Victoria we are speaking
Of Nor did she blight the surrounding
landscape with her grief. 50 to say. She
loved to have about her youth and beauty,
nirth and song
But perhaps il is AZ a mother she has most
claim TO praise from the sterner moralists
A. S. NJ Hutchinson himself could find no
fault in her conduct in 'hat respect.
She lived in and for her children. Almost
every act Of her l,rg and busy life was
planned with reference TO their welfare and
advancement. She hAo zen, and all were dear
o her.
Also she went to church with exemplary
regularity and gave largely to religious and
charitable institutions. Generally speaking,
he was kind TO her servants, and she never
spared pains when she could do service
'or friend.
withal. her name has coma down 10 pos
.erity as a cursing and by-word horrible
example Of everything evil in lsr period and
in human nature. For her nanio was Cath
crime de Medeis.
To understand how this could and did
happen may be impossible. II would mean
understanding both the Middle Ages and our
own time. both Of which are tough PROPOSE
lions. Catherine was the epitome Of the
inst and the antithesis Of the second.
But Professor Van Dyke has done al that
iny one could do, and all that he aimed TO
10, toward such an understanding. In these
wo large and meaty volumes he lays before
he reader the facts Of the case as uncarthed
y him during ten years OF arduous research.
As GATHERINGS period seems to be tolerabiy
veil documentcd. one may assume that moth
ng vital has escaped him. Certainly be has
resented the chief figures Of the time In tn
ound, made them alive and plausible. What
ie occasionally lacks in distinction Of style
made up in direetness. He has not ar
anged and focused his picture after the
manner Of Lytton straehey. He has let the
fifteenth century speak for itself, as far A.
possible, and allows the reader to draw the
nferenees.
It may be objected that the sixteenth cen
ury does not belong to the Middle Ages.
The Renaissance was in full flower by then.
But that was an artistic movement. Politi-
ally the old order still obtained though 1t
vas beginning to erumble. And Catherine
belonged TO the old order.
CATHERINE was born in Florence in 1872
- heiress Of a long line Of banker-mer-
chants who we're actual IL not titular rulers
Of that city. and niece 10 the reigning Pope.
A pawn and prize in all the political
schemes Of the day, at the age Of fourteen
she was married, for her dowry, 20 the sec
ord son Of the King Of France. great match
FOR merchants daughter, her royal rela-
tives by marriage thought. And they let her
know they thought il. with that delicacy
Ehieh is ever q mark OF high birth and
breeding.
When che was twenty-eight her husband
succeeded to the French throne as Henry H.
This splendor meant anything but happi-
ness. Catherine loved her husband passion
atcly. Henry never loved her. Diana de
Valentinois had his heart, and held IL TO the
end. though Diana was twenty years Henry's
senior. This must have been peculiarly hu-
initiating TO the young bride How she hated
her rival may be guessed from the fact that
she once planned to spoil Dianas face with
a goblet Of acid But she did not do It. She
had considerable self-eontrol, which she
needed. For the FIRST ten years Of her mar
RED life she stood in constant fear Of being
divorced for barrcnness She had no chill
drcn till then.
When she was forty-one Henry was killed
In tournament. Until then Catherine had
bad neither power nor influence. But be-
cause the people and the mobiles were alike
divided into powerful factions, Catherine,
PLAYING both ends against the middle, got