Such eyes are
fairly typical of northern France and frequently beautiful. That this was
the case seems to be clearly indicated by the fact that, as Houdoy himself
points out, a few centuries later the _vair_ eye was regarded as _vert_,
and green eyes were celebrated as the most beautiful.[161] The etymology
was false, but a false etymology will hardly suffice to change an ideal.
At the Renaissance Jehan Lemaire, when describing Venus as the type of
beauty, speaks of her green eyes, and Ronsard, a little later, sang:
"Noir je veux l'oeil et brun le teint,
Bien que l'oeil verd toute la France adore."
Early in the sixteenth century Brantome quotes some lines current in
France, Spain, and Italy according to which a woman should have a white
skin, but black eyes and eyebrows, and adds that personally he agrees with
the Spaniard that "a brunette is sometimes equal to a blonde,"[162] but
there is also a marked admiration for green eyes in Spanish literature;
not only in the typical description of a Spanish beauty in the _Celestina_
(Act. I) are the eyes green, but Cervantes, for example, when referring to
the beautiful eyes of a woman, frequently speaks of them as green.
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