g predilection among these
writers for blue eyes. Firenzuola said that the eyes must be dark, though
not black. Luigini said that they must be bright and black. Niphus had
previously said that the eyes should be "black like those of Venus" and
the skin ivory, even a little brown. He mentions that Avicenna had praised
the mixed, or gray eye.

In France and other northern countries the admiration for very fair hair
is just as marked as in Italy, and dates back to the earliest ages of
which we have a record. "Even before the thirteenth century," remarks
Houdoy, in his very interesting study of feminine beauty in northern
France during mediaeval times, "and for men as well as for women, fair hair
was an essential condition of beauty; gold is the term of comparison
almost exclusively used."[159] He mentions that in the _Acta Sanctorum_ it
is stated that Saint Godelive of Bruges, though otherwise beautiful, had
black hair and eyebrows and was hence contemptuously called a crow. In the
_Chanson de Roland_ and all the French mediaeval poems the eyes are
invariably _vairs_. This epithet is somewhat vague. It comes from
_varius_, and signifies mixed, which Houdoy regards as showing various
irradiations, the same quality which later gave rise to the term _iris_ to
describe the pupillary membrane.[160] _Vair_ would thus describe not so
much the color of the eye as its brilliant and sparkling quality. While
Houdoy may have been correct, it still seems probable that the eye
described as _vair_ was usually assumed to be "various" in color also, of
the kind we commonly call gray, which is usually applied to blue eyes
encircled with a ring of faintly sprinkled brown pigment. 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 e