From the _Hermaphroditus_ of Beccadeli to the works of Berni and Pietro Aretino, a foul stream of novelle, epigrams, and comedies, from which the serious Dante would have turned his eyes in disgust, overflowed the land.
Even in the less sensual novelle, the first of which was Piccolomini's _Euryalus_, and the less obscene comedies, adultery and derision of marriage are the leading motives.

The harlots were the Muses of belles-lettres during the Renaissance.

They boldly took their place by the side of the saints of the Church, and contended with them for fame's laurels.

There is a manuscript collection of poems of the time of Alexander VI which contains a series of epigrams beginning with a number in praise of the Holy Virgin and the Saints, and then, without word or warning, are several glorifying the famous cyprians of the day; following a stanza on S.Pauline is an epigram on Meretricis Nichine, a well-known courtesan of Siena, with several more of the same sort.

The saints of heaven and the priestesses of Venus are placed side by side, without comment, as equally admirable women.[47] No self-respecting woman would now attend the performance of a comedy of the Renaissance, whose characters frequently represented the popes, the princes, and the noble women of the day; and their presentation, even before audiences composed entirely of men, would now be prohibited by the censor of the theater in every land.
The naturalness with which women of the South even now discuss subjects which people in the North are careful to conceal excites astonishment; but what was tolerated by the taste or morals of the Renaissance is absolutely incredible.