Margery | Page 5

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my own pleasure, and to be of use and comfort to my children and
grandchildren. May they avoid the rocks on which I have bruised my
feet, and where I have walked firmly on may they take example by an
old woman's brave spirit, though I have learned in a thousand ways that
no man gains profit by any experience other than his own.
So I will begin at the beginning.
I could find much to tell of my happy childhood, for then everything
seems new; but it profits not to tell of what every one has known in his
own life, and what more can a Nuremberg child have to say of her early
growth and school life than ever another. The blades in one field and
the trees in one wood share the same lot without any favour. It is true
that in many ways I was unlike other children; for my cousin Maud
would often say that I would not abide rule as beseems a maid, and
Herdegen's lament that I was not born a boy still sounds in my ears
when I call to mind our wild games. Any one who knows the window
on the first floor, at the back of our house, from which I would jump
into the courtyard to do as my brothers did, would be fairly frightened,
and think it a wonder that I came out of it with whole bones; but yet I
was not always minded to riot with the boys, and from my tenderest
years I was a very thoughtful little maid. But there were things; in my
young life very apt to sharpen my wits.
We Schoppers are nearly allied with every worshipful family in the
town, or of a rank to sit in the council and bear a coat of arms; these
being, in fact, in Nuremberg, the class answering to the families of the
Signoria in Venice, whose names are enrolled in the Libro d'Oro. What
the Barberighi, the Foscari, the Grimaldi, the Giustiniani and the like,
are there, the families of Stromer, Behaim, Im Hoff, Tucher, Kresz,
Baumgartner, Pfinzing, Pukheimer, Holzschuher, and so forth, are with
us; and the Schoppers certainly do not rank lowest on the list. We who
hold ourselves entitled to bear arms, to ride in tournaments, and take
office in the Church, and who have a right to call ourselves nobles and
patricians, are all more or less kith and kin. Wherever in Nuremberg
there was a fine house we could find there an uncle and aunt, cousins
and kinsmen, or at least godparents, and good friends of our deceased

parents. Wherever one of them might chance to meet us, even if it were
in the street, he would say: "Poor little orphans! God be good to the
fatherless!" and tears would sparkle in the eyes of many a kindhearted
woman. Even the gentlemen of the Council--for most of the elders of
our friends were members of it--would stroke my fair hair and look at
me as pitifully as though I were some poor sinner for whom there could
be no mercy in the eyes of the judges of a court of justice.
Why was it that men deemed me so unfortunate when I knew no sorrow
and my heart was as gay as a singing bird? I could not ask cousin Maud,
for she was sorely troubled if I had but a finger-ache, and how could I
tell her that I was such a miserable creature in the eyes of other folks?
But I presently found out for myself why and wherefore they pitied me;
for seven who called me fatherless, seventy would speak of me as
motherless when they addressed me with pity. Our misfortune was that
we had no mother. But was there not Cousin Maud, and was not she as
good as any mother? To be sure she was only a cousin, and she must
lack something of what a real mother feels.
And though I was but a heedless, foolish child I kept my eyes open and
began to look about me. I took no one into the secret but my brothers,
and though my elder brother chid me, and bid me only be thankful to
our cousin for all her goodness, I nevertheless began to watch and
learn.
There were a number of children at the Stromers' house--the Golden
Rose was its name--and they were still happy in having their mother.
She was a very cheerful young woman, as plump as a cherry, and pink
and white like blood on snow; and she never fixed her gaze on me as
others did, but would frolic with me or scold me sharply when I did any
wrong. At the Muffels, on the contrary, the mistress was