The Winter Dress by Lauren Chater

Author:Lauren Chater
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia
Published: 2022-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

The next few weeks pass slowly. Each day, Catharina rises early to read or respond to letters sent by writers, artists and thinkers wanting to either debate a point with her or seek advice for future placement of their work. Sometimes she dictates aloud, her thoughts filling the parchment so quickly Anna’s hand cramps as she struggles to keep up. Catharina’s familiarity with all aspects of classical philosophy is astonishing, her worldly knowledge of matters ethical and theological far outweighing the experience Anna gained from her father’s books. At first, Anna is too busy scribing to register the names of Catharina’s correspondents. They return to haunt her later, crowding into her bedroom like familiar figures materialising through the mist; Birgitte Thott, Queen Christina of Sweden, Queen Elizabeth Stuart, Margaretha van Godewijk. Female artists and noblewomen, translators of religious writings and classical works, people Anna would be afraid to approach, let alone confront the way Catharina does, demanding to know their reasons for choosing one philosophical path over another, or praising the merits of their education, but asking why they have not taken advantage of their elevated position to promote the interests of all women, regardless of status. In her letters, Catharina seems particularly uninhibited, her lively forcefulness channelled into elegant sentences and persuasive metaphors that drip from the nib of Anna’s pen like shimmering droplets of water, reforming and condensing on the page and in her mind. Anna learns more in one week about the history of women’s education on the Continent than she ever gleaned from years spent in her mother’s company, being shown how to embroider cushions and manage the household affairs.

She learns that the key to all sciences – namely grammar, logic and rhetoric – are as valuable to women as they are to men, that theories pertaining to the practice of law, military discipline and oratory in the Church should not be excluded from the scholastic knowledge of the fairer sex but encouraged, for the contemplation of such subjects offers women the opportunity to pursue a higher degree of happiness which in turn promotes a love of God. When corresponding with male acquaintances, Catharina expresses her arguments in more subtle suggestions and promptings. She links her reasoning back to the classics and refers to herself often as their ‘humble servant’ and even once ‘your good virgin’. The contrast between these two approaches is so obvious that, once recognised, Anna finds it difficult to ignore. A few times while she is scribing, she grows distracted and her pen wilts as she stares unseeing through the fog-edged window until Catharina recalls her.

‘Whatever are you dreaming about?’ her mistress says sharply.

Anna hesitates. ‘I was only thinking,’ she says, ‘that it’s clever, the way you present the different facets of yourself in order to achieve your ends.’

Catharina’s mouth works. ‘I don’t understand,’ she says and Anna is surprised to see fear cross her face, although the expression is quickly swallowed up by her trademark scowl.

‘It’s as if –’ Anna wets her own lips, her pulse racing as she tries to corral her wandering thoughts.

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