Renaissance misogyny, biblical feminism, and Helisenne de Crenne's Epistres familieres et invectives

Renaissance Quarterly, Summer, 1997 by Jerry C. Nash

For Crenne, female beauty and chastity can lead to much more than just ethical behavior. They can be the instruments of political assassination, of biblical good triumphing over evil, of the biblical tradition of God manifesting his power by choosing to work through the "weaker sex," through a woman, in this case a piously retired widow who outwits the overwhelming enemy force that threatens to destroy her people. Through Judith, Crenne shows us how activity in the moral-sexual and political domains can ultimately be seen as functionally and heroically equivalent. For not only does Judith, through her beauty, preserve her chastity, she saves the Jewish people. The biblical scene and text on this subject posit nothing less than the triumph of feminine virtue over brute force, with emphasis on the heroic acts of doing by Judith. Her highly renowned beauty and the "subterfuge" that ensues from it totally captivate the Assyrian enemy soldiers and especially Holofernes, their powerful and ruthless general (Judith 10:1-20). Judith's beauty and apparent sexual conniving are in fact a coverup for her wit and become her very means of serving God. Her hand as the the hand of the Lord will exterminate the enemies of Jerusalem. As she ironically tells Holofernes's eunuch when he comes to invite her to Holofernes's tent as part of the latter's seduction plan: "Who am I, to refuse my lord? Surely whatever pleases him I will do at once, and it will be a joy to me until the day of my death" (12:14). What she does with her hand is cut off the head of Holofernes. The "virtue" or "strength" given to her by the Lord ("car celluy qui est remunerateur de sa chastete l[']a faicte"), and for which she is worthy of praise and of emulation not only by women but also by men ("non seulement digne d'estre imitee des femmes: mais aussi des hommes"), enables her to keep her chastity and to defeat "celluy qui demeuroit invincible de tous." Chastity and beauty as wit and Justice are what she uses to "supedit[er] celluy qui estoit insuperable." And what she "procures" ("supediter") through her beauty and chastity is the severed head of Holofernes and thus the salvation of the Israelite people. Judith also procures Crenne's highest "louenge triumphale" in Epistre invective 3.(15)

There can be no doubt that Judith is, for Crenne, the biblical equivalent of the classical Dido, whose character and accomplishments are the focus of Crenne's writing in Epistre familiere 8. Both of these women are viragoes or heroines (good "virile" women of great stature, strength, and courage, and of great public accomplishments), with narrative emphasis placed on their acts or their doing, that is, as Crenne portrays it, on their "exerceant oeuvres viriles" ("exercising manly tasks"). (Indeed, what Crenne really chooses to highlight in her narrative on Dido, as in Judith, is her "virility," not her succombing to passion and becoming the myth of the tragic heroine. Other Renaissance writers of course stress the latter.) Dido, like Judith, is a woman strong in courage and capable of performing even the most daring of actions. Just as we saw in the passage on Judith, she is a woman whom "l'adverse fortune ne povoit aulcunement superer [surmonter]" (Epistre familiere 8, D v: "adverse fortune could not at all defeat"). Crenne admires Dido the classical virago as a female hero, a virtuous widow, and an effective ruler and especially an achiever. She encourages her female readers to identify with this exemplary role model, just as she had done with the example of Judith. Helisenne writes to one of her friends, emphasizing and explaining Dido's "virile" nature: