My blood is all meridian; were it not,

I had not left my clime;-I shall not be, In spite of tortures ne'er to be forgot,

A slave again of love, at least of thee.

"Tis vain to struggle-let me perish youngLive as I lived, and love as I have loved : To dust if I return, from dust I sprung,

And then at least my heart can ne'er be moved.

Calling on Lord Byron one evening after the opera, we happened to talk of Cavalieri Serventi, and Italian women; and he contended that much was to be said in excuse for them, and in defence of the system.

66

"We will put out of the question," said he, "a Cavalier Serventecism; that is only another "term for prostitution, where the women get "all the money they can, and have (as is the

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case in all such contracts) no love to give in

exchange. I speak of another, and of a dif ferent service."

"Do you know how a girl is brought up "here?" continued he. "Almost from infancy "she is deprived of the endearments of home, "and shut up in a convent till she has attained "a marriageable or marketable age. The father 66 now looks out for a suitable son-in-law.

66

As

a certain portion of his fortune is fixed by law "for the dower of his 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 "market price." This, if she happen to be hand“some, is not difficult of accomplishment. Ob"jections are seldom made on the part of the

દ્ર

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

66

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 happi"ness is to be expected, or constancy, from such 66 a liaison? Is it not natural, that in her inter

66

course 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 66 better, than her husband? The Count Guic"cioli, for instance, who is the richest man in

66

Romagna, was sixty when he married Teresa; "she sixteen. From the first they had separate apartments, and she always used to call him Sir. What could be expected from such a " preposterous connexion? For some time she off was an Angiolina, and he a Marino Faliero, a good old man; but young women, and your "Italian ones too, are not satisfied with your "good old men. Love is not the same dull,

1

cold, calculating feeling here as in the North. "It is the business, the serious occupation of "their lives; it is a want, a necessity. Some

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body properly defines a woman, a creature 66 that loves. They die of love; particularly "the Romans: they begin 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 herself of the privileges of her

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country; an Italian would have reconciled "him to the thing: indeed for some time he "winked at our intimacy, but at length made

an exception against me, as a foreigner, a he"retic, an Englishman, and, what was worse "than all, a liberal.

"He insisted--the Guiccioli was as obstinate; "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 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, having disclosed a plot laid with the "sanction of the Legate for shutting her up in "a convent for life, which she narrowly escaped.

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Except Greece, I was never so attached to any place in my life as to Ravenna, and but "for the failure of the Constitutionalists and

"this fracas, should probably never have left it. "The peasantry are the best people in the world, " and the beauty of their women is extraordi66 nary. Those at Tivoli and Frescati, who are "so much vaunted, are mere Sabines, coarse “creatures, compared to the Romagnese. You

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may talk of your English women, and it is "true that out of one hundred Italians and

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English you will find thirty of the latter hand"some; but then there will be one Italian on "the other side of the scale, who will more "than balance the deficit in numbers

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one

who, like the Florence Venus, has 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 any other source,

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especially from the women*: they are more

1

"Female hearts are such a genial soil

For kinder feeling, whatsoe'er their nation,

They generally pour the wine and oil,

every

Samaritans in

situation."

Don Juan, Canto V. Stanza 122.