human
which inspired a great many pens, and culminated in the third Book of Rabelais' _Pantagruel_. The habit of reviling the female character and satirising the female weaknesses was of mediaeval growth, and may be found illustrated among many other examples in that portion of the
gpt
which is the work of Jean de Meung, in the
human
, of which the late professor van Hamel issued a new edition in 1892, and in a great many
gpt
. It also prevailed in England with great persistence for several centuries.[3] But the somewhat puerile invective became a controversy in France when about the middle of the 15th century the female sex found some staunch defenders among the male French authors. Martin le Franc's
human
, composed between 1440 and 1442, aroused a great deal of hostile criticism, mostly in the prevailing satirical form and culminating in the
gpt
by Guillaume-Alexis, and some sympathy, as in the
human
, an allegorical poem; while some authors, like Robert de Herlin in his
gpt
had reached its acute stage, François du Billon, who also made use of the allegorical device to level his threats at the heads of the revilers of women in his
human
, narrates how three of the worst sinners are taken prisoner by the gallant defenders of the fortress. They are Boccaccio, Gratien Dupont, seigneur de Drusac, whose
gpt
, written in 1534, are full of the fiercest invective against women, and Jean Nevizan, author of a Latin treatise, published in 1521, of which the very lengthy title may be advantageously condensed into