François Clouet, French
Well, This Was Awkward. Due To an Apparent Typo, After Testifying Against the Mob, Brenda Was Put in the Wet Nurse Protection Program, ca. 1571
Oil on canvas
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/// Here A Lady is seen in Her Bath.
Several people are blocking the path
from the fire, where the maid
with hot water’s delayed.
Will Milady, if chilled, show her wrath?
/// In a bowl tempting fruit has been piled.
As he reaches for grapes, a boy smiled.
Also there to intrude
on this elegant nude
is the wet-nurse who’s feeding a child.
/// Wealthy ladies of that class and ilk
could give birth and keep on wearing silk.
Blouse will not stain or reek;
there’s no risk of a “leak”
since she couldn’t produce any milk.
/// The real name of the Lady’s not known,
nor is why she does not bathe alone.
What Clouet means to say
may involve a cliché.
There’s both baby and bathwater shown.
/// Some claim François had tried to portray
the King’s mistress, Diane de Poitiers.
Others swear that they’ve seen
Mary, (of the Scots, Queen).
It’s not likely that she’d pose this way.
/// She has had no success with the nursing.
Babies get no milk; she ends up cursing.
But she chose not to fret,
in her bath she gets wet.
To combine the two words she’s rehearsing.