Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/686

672 hand, among other legacies, is 500£. for an almshouse at Bacton. .

protectress of learning, and the delight of every society into which she entered, Anne de Parthenai had a fine voice, and knew music perfectly. She understood Greek and Latin, and took great pleasure in conversing with theologians, and reading the scriptures, which induced her to turn protestant. We are ignorant of the time of her death.

She had a turn for poetry; as appears from some poems published in 1572, when she was not above eighteen years of age. She is generally thought to be the author of the apology for Henry IV. which was printed as hers in the new edition of her journal of Henry III. Daubigny assures us, that the king shewed it him as a piece written in her stile. Bayle declares, that whoever wrote it, is a person of wit and genius. It is in reality a very sharp satire. Catherine wrote also tragedies and comedies, which have not been printed; and the tragedy of Holofernes, which was represented on the theatre at Rochelle, in 1754.

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