"children, his object is to find some needy "man of equal rank, or a very rich one, the "older the better, who will consent to take "his daughter off his hands, under the mar"ket price. This, if she happen to be handsome, is not difficult of accomplishment. 66 66 Objections are seldom made on the part of "the young lady to the age, and personal or "other defects of the intended, who perhaps "visits her once in the parlour as a matter of "form or curiosity. She is too happy to get "her liberty on any terms, and he her money or her person. There is no love on either "side. What happiness is to be expected, or 66 66 constancy, from such a liaison? Is it not "natural, that in her intercourse with a world, "of which she knows and has seen nothing, "and unrestrained mistress of her own time "and actions, she should find somebody to "like better, and who likes her better, than " her husband? The Count Guiccioli, for in66 stance, who is the richest man in Romagna, 66 was sixty when he married Teresa; she sixFrom the first they had separate 66 teen. apartments, and she always used to call him "Sir. What could be expected from such a 66 preposterous connexion? For some time she 66 66 was an Angiolina, and he a Marino Faliero, young women, and your Italian ones too, are not satisfied with 66 your good old men. Love is not the same a good old man ; but 66 66 dull, cold, calculating feeling here as "in the North. It is the business, the seri"ous occupation of their lives; it is a want, 66 a necessity. Somebody properly defines a 66 woman, a creature that loves.' They die "of love; particularly the Romans: they be 66 gin to love earlier, and feel the passion later "than the Northern people. When I was at "Venice, two dowagers of sixty made love to "me. But to return to the Guiccioli. The "old Count did not object to her availing her"self of the privileges of her country; an Ita"lian would have reconciled him to the thing: "indeed for some time he winked at our in"timacy, but at length made an exception 66 66 against me, as a foreigner, a heretic, an Englishman, and, what was worse than all, 66 a liberal. ،، He insisted-the Guiccioli was as obsti"nate; her family took her part. Catholics "cannot get divorces. But, to the scandal "of all Romagna, the matter was at length “ referred to the Pope, who ordered her a 66 separate maintenance, on condition that she "should reside under her father's roof. All "this was not agreeable, and at length I was "forced to smuggle her out of Ravenna, 66 having disclosed a plot laid with the sanc 66 "tion of the Legate for shutting her up in "a convent for life, which she narrowly "escaped.-Except Greece, I was never so "attached to any place in my life as to Ra66 venna; and but for the failure of the Con"stitutionalists and this fracas, should probably never have left it. The peasantry 66 "are the best people in the world, and the "beauty of their women is extraordinary. "Those at Tivoli and Frescati, who are so "much vaunted, are mere Sabines, coarse "creatures, compared to the Romagnese. "You may talk of your English women, and "it is true that out of one hundred Italians "and English you will find thirty of the lat"ter handsome; but then there will be one "Italian on the other side of the scale, who "will more than balance the deficit in num"bers-one who, like the Florence Venus, has 66 no rival, and can have none in the North. "I have learnt more from the peasantry of "the countries I have travelled in than from 66 any other source, especially from the wo"men*: they are more intelligent, as well 66 as communicative, than the men. I found "also at Ravenna much education and libe"rality of thinking among the higher classes. "The climate is delightful. I was unbroken "in upon by society. Ravenna lies out of "the way of travellers. I was never tired "of my rides in the pine-forest: it breathes "of the Decameron; it is poetical ground. "Francesca lived, and Dante was exiled and Female hearts are such a genial soil For kinder feeling, whatsoe'er their nation, They generally pour the wine and oil, Samaritans in every situation. Don Juan, Canto V. Stanza 122. |