This dry statement of the
most important event of the artist's life illustrates the ancient
German custom of betrothal, where the bond of wedlock was considered
as a matter-of-fact copartnership, with inalienable rights and duties,
devoid of sentiment or romance. Since the relatives of the contracting
parties were closely affected by such transactions, they usually
managed the negotiations themselves; and the young people, thus thrown
by their parents at each other's heads, were expected to, and usually
did, accept the situation with submissiveness and prudent obedience.
In this case it appears that the first overtures came from the family
of the lady; and perhaps the order for Albert to return from his
wanderings was issued for this reason. Hans Frey was a burgher with
large possessions in Nuremberg and the adjacent country; and his
daughter was a very beautiful maiden. Her future husband does not
appear to have seen her until the betrothal was made.

Most of Duerer's biographers have dwelt at great length on the malign
influence which Agnes exercised upon his life, representing her as a
jealous virago, imbittering the existence of the noble artist. But Dr.
Thausing, in his new and exhaustive history of Duerer's life,
vindicates the lady from this evil charge; and his position is
carefully reviewed and sustained by Eugene Muentz. He points out the
fact that the long story of Agnes's uncongeniality rests solely on
Pirkheimer's letter, and then shows that that ponderous burgher had
reasons for personal hostility to her. The unbroken silence which
Duerer preserves as to home-troubles, throughout his numerous letters
and journals, is held as proof against the charges; and none of his
intimate friends and contemporaries (save Pirkheimer) allude to his
domestic trials, though they wrote so much about him. The accusation
of avarice on her part is combated by several facts, among which is
the cardinal one of her self-sacrificing generosity to the Duerer
family after her husband's death, and the remarkable record of her
transferring to the endowment of the Protestant University of
Wittenberg the thousand florins which Albert had placed in the hands
of the Rath for her support. Pirkheimer's acrimonious letter (see p.
142) gives her credit at least for virtue and piety; and perhaps we
may regard her aversion to the doughty writer as a point in her favor.

It is a singular and unexplained fact, that although Duerer was
accustom