Yet, in spite of the hatred and ridicule with which these restrictions were received, the Senate went on making

than one string of them, and that had to be not of higher value than two hundred ducats. Even this did not satisfy them. In 1562 they gave the law a corollary sumptuary laws. People were not to that was almost indecent and perfectly put their establishments into mourning adapted to enrage all the elderly ma- for the death of distant relatives. They trons of the city. No women except were not to have silk hangings to their the doge's wife and daughters were to doors, but plain leather ones of a spewear any pearls after the tenth year of cific height. Silk curtains were allowed their marriage; nor were even young to the windows of only the chief salon wives to wear more than a single neck-in a house; though on no account were lace, of an outside value of four hun-silk tablecloths to be used. Twelve dred ducats, the same to be duly stamped and appraised by the authorities.

chairs upholstered in silk or velvet were allowed, but no more than twelve. CarThe Venetian women revolted against pets, gilded benches, boxes covered with certain other restrictions about dress velvet or silk, door-knockers mounted materials. They were so angry that with gold, walnut-wood bedsteads gilded they formed an alliance, and petitioned or adorned with miniatures, mosquito the pope on the subject. It was the curtains with gold embroidery on them, best thing they could do; for his Holi- and gold-hilted swords and daggers, all ness, ever anxious to assert himself in were alike not to be tolerated. Ladies' Venice, annulled the obnoxious decree dresses were not to have buttons over which had emanated from the Venetian a certain value, nor were expensive patriarch. Anon, however, they got to furs to be worn. In 1440 long trains despise the various sumptuary laws were forbidden. The Great Council which came upon them thick as au- even tried to arrest the natural course tumnal leaves. Nearly every one dis- of Dame Fashion. They were vexed regarded them. True, the executive by the constant succession of changes. employed spies, whose business it was Never was there such annoying oldto go about "taking stock" of the peo- womanly intervention. This, too, when ple, measuring with their eyes the the doge himself wore a cap of solid height of the ladies' dresses, and guess-gold, and gems valued at a hundred and ing at their value. Now and again a fifty thousand ducats. prosecution occurred. If the gown was at fault for its sumptuousness, both the owner and its maker were fined. If a lady was found with more pearls on her person than was permissible, she was liable to a penalty of no less than two hundred ducats, of which half went to the informer. But it was by no means light and easy work-this of professional spy. The times had got so much out of joint that there was on an average a homicide daily in the city without mention of the various disappearances which often had a sanguinary significance. A patrician might submit to pay the fine for extravagance; but it would afterwards be excusable in the young bloods of the patrician's family if they waylaid the informer and either perforated him with their rapiers or knocked him on the head and tumbled him into a canal.

The gondolas also in due time were subjected to the cold influences of the law. One can forgive the Great Council their interference with the extravagant tastes of the Venetian ladies; but it was too bad that they should issue their mandate prohibiting the use of colored silk, satin, and embroidery about the gondolas, and making these graceful ornaments of Venice the funereal objects they continue to be. In the sixteenth century there appeared a publication purporting to be written by a Chinaman in Europe for the benefit of his friends in the Celestial Empire. His description of the gondola is in sorrowful contrast with what it would have been had he visited Venice two or three hundred years earlier, when the boats moved about the still waters like small palaces. "Every one," says the China"keeps his equipage at anchor,

man,

and this equipage is a species of black | the creditors of the courtesans themtomb, in which he regularly inters him- selves. self five or six hours daily."

The State wished, in fact, to control the Venetians latterly much as an unwise parent endeavors to keep a tight hold upon his sons when these have long passed the age of discretion. It even prescribed the extreme number of godparents that a child should have (twelve), and the number of pounds of candy (four) they might each send to the new-born infant. Funerals, too, came under its cognizance. These were not to be such as to excite the citizens inordinately with their pomp, unless, of course, the deceased was a doge, or a person who had rendered the State signal service. Spite of this exception, however, it is strange to read how at the obsequies of the doge Alvise Mocenigo, in 1779, nearly eight tons of wax candles were used. But this illumination was not enough to give Venice a new lease of independence. The State was then veritably on its last legs, and there were not wanting Venetians with famous names who, before the French Revolution, inscribed their visiting cards with symbolical figures, among which was the cap of liberty set on the point of a spear.

By and by the numbers of these women became a distinct danger in the city. According to Sanuto, they were in 1509 no fewer than 11,654 in a population of about three hundred thousand. The statute books began to teem with laws about them-laws which to a great extent they disregarded with impunity. They were, for example, forbidden to attend the churches at the hour when these were frequented by other women. They were not to keep domestic servants of a less age than thirty. A law of 1543 forbade them to wear jewels, precious metals, and silk, and from using articles of luxury in their houses. Other enactments were designed to control their movements, to prevent them going out in the evening without a light, from living on the Grand Canal, paying more than a hundred ducats a year for rent, using gondolas alone or in company at the hour of the fresco, when it was the fashion to breathe the cool evening air on the lagoon, wearing masculine dress, or entering the churches in the garb of maidens, married women, or widows.

But, in spite of these nominal restrictions, the courtesans of Venice were a Something must now be said about byeword throughout Europe for their the social condition of the city; nor will magnificence of attire and beauty. it be out of place to mention the Vene- Giordano Bruno mentions them, and tian courtesans at the outset. Even in especially the indescribable gesture of the fourteenth century, these had be- the head, which was one of their allurecome very numerous. By law they ments while they sat at their windows were to wear a yellow handkerchief at in the infamous parts of the city, and the neck, and confine themselves to the sang seductive songs in a low, hoarse Castelletto quarter of the Rialto. Their voice. Thanks to the respectable origin costume, however, varied considerably of so many of them (for they were in course of time, and was naturally recruited from families of high degree affected by their individual circum- as well as from the convents), they stances. Mention has been made of the top-boots which were at one time a characteristic of them; they were also allowed to use a certain quantity of silver ornaments. For the most part they were under the control of directresses, who once a month took their gains to the magistrates known as the Signori di Notte, by whom the money was apportioned between the proprietors of the house, the directresses, and

came into repute for their intellectual as well as their physical graces. Cardinals of the Church found open pleasure in their conversation and society. Pietro Aretino (the most dissolute of men) on one occasion invited Titian and Sansovrino to meet a courtesan as his third guest at supper. Courtesans were the essential spirit of every public festival in which eating and drinking and lively talk had a part. In 1622 the Prince de

and his reasoned misogyny, here all but offered his life to a woman.

Condé fêted twelve of them at a ban-ment. The coldest heart may be sudquet on the Giudecca, though this denly kindled to fervor in Venice. wholesale civility may have been in Schopenhauer, in spite of his philosophy honor of the Turkish ambassador, who sat at table with them. Occasionally the laws were put in force against them, but not often. Thus, in 1618 the Earl of Oxford had the mortification to see the courtesan with whom he was enjoying the fresco sent summarily to prison, and also the gondoliers who were implicated in this infraction of the law; nor were they released except on a special appeal from the British ambassador.

It

If this be so in these well-ordered days (speaking comparatively), can we wonder that the excesses of the patricians and citizens of ducal Venice two or three hundred years ago were such as to surprise even men who had matriculated in the court circles of France ? The Carnival then lasted six months, and masking was a universal habit. has been said that in the beginning the The truth is this. The councillors of mask was a token of fraternal condeVenice conceived that they might, with scension on the part of the rich and advantage to the State, condone the noble towards their inferiors. It levvery immorality which they con- elled all ranks, like the grave, though demned. The high spirits of their in a more agreeable manner. But this youth were checked by indulgence, and Utopian justification of it soon passed diverted from an interest in political out of date. It became instead the very affairs which might have endangered best possible vehicle for intrigue and the position of the hoary, red-gowned social corruption. That in effect was occupants of the ducal chambers! what it was. During Carnival time no Strangers flocked to the city, drawn one thought of going out of doors, exthither by its shameful reputation, and cept in disguise. The maid sent on an spent money which, by one channel or errand must first don her mask — of another, found its way into the coffers which no doubt her lover, or lovers, of the republic. By such sophistical had the key. The mother with a child and dishonoring arguments did the in her arms masked both herself and rulers of Venice salve their consciences the child. It may be imagined that and excuse themselves for the wrong amid these circumstances the they wrought. The notorious Bianco and conversation during the promenade Capello, who as a child left her father's time and subsequently were not always house with Pietro Bonaventuri, and decorous.

scenes

rose by crime upon crime to be grand The evil was especially great in the duchess of Tuscany, is a worthy repre-convents. In the statute books one sentative of Venetian society in the finds law after law for the better regusixteenth century.

lation of these conventual houses. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it was no cachet of respectability, much less of sanctity, to be a Venetian nun. One cannot wonder, for in the first place the majority of the girls were not in the nunneries of their own free will; and, secondly, their facilities of intercourse with the world were greater rather than less than they would have been elsewhere. Fathers of families were wont to make their daughters take the veil to save the expense of their

Without going so far as to aver that the air of Venice is libertine, it may be said that Venetian life and Venetian pastime were and are less conducive to morality than the conditions of life in other towns. The tang of the salt sea across the lagoons strikes home to the blood as it does not else where. The sumptuous gondola is not elsewhere the common vehicle of intercourse and pleasure-seeking. Nor are there many haunts of men which, by the charm of their surroundings, so emphatically dowries, and also to improve the family tempt a man to forget himself and all position in other ways. As for the freeelse in the strong pleasure of the mo-dom of conventual life, it was quite

a nun."

singular. The nuns rose and retired to Englishman, with the aid of a gondolier bed when they pleased, and had such of the British ambassador, stole a nun unstinted opportunities of communion from the monastery of the Convertite with the patrician youths of the city on the Giudecca. De Brosses tells us that they openly declared they preferred that when he was in Venice a new the cloister to their own homes. Their nuncio arrived, and there was keen dress was rather that "of a nymph than competition among the nunneries for One can imagine that they the "honor" of providing him with a were charming in their white dresses, mistress. There is no need to say more cut low, with sleeves to the elbows on the subject. Scores of children were only, white diaphanous lace veils, with sent annually from the convents to the bright ribbons at the shoulders, and Venetian foundling asylums. It could wearing flowers in their bosoms. The hardly have been otherwise. In the last reception-rooms of the convents were days of the Republic matters much imthe favorite resort of the city; and here proved. The nuns were then less free; the sons of the Venetian councillors" they spent their time between serand even the councillors themselves, mons and masses, tarts and chocolate." laughed away the hours with the girls It was rather dull for them, after their and ingratiated themselves with the lively past. But the dulness was better abbesses. Carnival time was more than than licentiousness. commonly agreeable for them. The The same taint was upon the Veneyouths were then allowed to carry off tians of every class. Mothers disposed the nuns of their liking, and entertain of their children without shame, and them for hours in gondolas. Cakes and patricians bought them. Priests and dainties were sent daily to the girls, and the laity bid against each other for the as a matter of course love-letters were daughters of these unnatural mothers. concealed in these conventional vehi- Rich fathers bought mistresses for their cles. Then, at certain seasons the nuns sons at the age of seventeen or eighappeared in the churches, and were teen as an Englishman buys his boy a diverted by their lovers with pseudo-pony. An official of high rank, troubled sacred operas, followed by dances and because his son spent his time with a suppers protracted far into the dark courtesan, bade the lad bring her home hours. The 29th May, 1509, was one with him. Three or four youths, the such occasion. "To celebrate the in- sons of impoverished sires, clubbed tostallation of a new abbess," says Sanudo gether for a courtesan without the least in his diary, "certain young patricians compunction. Husbands thought it no came to the convent with trumpets and particular shame to turn their wives' fifes, and danced with the nuns all beauty to account, and enter their gains through the night." In short, so abso- categorically in the domestic receipt lute was the hold exercised by the nuns book. upon the affections of the Venetians that uncloistered women assumed the garb of the religious, and the courtesans closely imitated it, the better to ensnare admiration.

The State had at length to take cognizance of the numerous scandals which occurred in and outside the convents. A special court of magistrates was appointed to adjudicate upon them. There was no lack of culprits. Youths broke into the convents by night and abducted the nuns. In 1611 a parish priest and a nun, the latter dressed as a friar, evaded a convent. In 1693 an

In the midst of this prevalent infamy, it is quite refreshing to come across a Venetian with the spirit of an old Roman father in him. Sanudo thus briefly commemorates the incident: "Sr. A. Morexini, a lawyer, took his son before the magistrates for having kissed a woman and stolen a jewel, and exclaimed in public, 'Hang him—cut off his head!' and so it was done."

This was in 1500, before matters were at their worst, and before those strong protests against the effeminacy, luxury, and religious disbelief of the age which rendered the sixteenth century the most

remarkable since the death of Christ. | pressions of regard for their clothes, It was the century of Luther and Henry sends them off; and then we can talk VIII., as well as of Raphael, Titian, at our ease. But this does not often Cellini, and Michael Angelo. It was occur, because folks who are wise know also the century in which certain Ger- better than to visit ladies at the toilet mans combined under a vow never to hour, since that is the time either for wash themselves. love or ill-humor. Some ladies choose us for their secretaries and confidants, and then we get heaps of presents and serviceable protection."

In 1668 the Grand Council made the wearing of wigs a penal offence. In the eighteenth century it was the exception to see a rich Venetian who did not wear a wig. Both Venice and its laws were alike becoming impotent. It was as vain for the State to struggle against rich furs, long dresses, enamelled necklaces, English hosiery, embroidered gloves, and expensive fans, as to struggle against the importation of wigs.

The cicisbeo also was an institution that cannot be overlooked. In the eighteenth century he flourished in Venice as perhaps in no other Italian city. We shall not be doing him a wrong if we describe him generically as a being in whom passionate sensibility of a singularly limited kind was the substitute for natural human passions. It is almost impossible for us northerners to take the cicisbeo seriously.

Thus the rule of the barber came in a rule as degrading and singular as anything else in Venetian history. Of course, we do not imply that these was a gentry of the comb and scissors actu- lady's ally deposed the red-gowned patricians, both. or wrote their names in the Golden Register. But they acquired a sort of backstairs influence which was of considerable account in a State vitiated through and through. When ladies were wont to spend seven hours daily in their dressing-rooms, the assistants of their toilet were likely to become a power in their lives. This power did not make itself felt necessarily in the husbands of the Venetian ladies. Venetian husbands did not devote much time to their own wives. It was the lovers of other men's wives who were affected by the influence of these knights of the comb.

He

cross between a pet dog and a maid, and was beneath them Conceive an adult patrician who was satisfied to dance attendance upon his heart's charmer, who even helped her to dress and undress, and was yet content to kiss her hand! Doubtless, in this venal age, the husbands did not mind him. He was a sort of guarantee that they might have liberty to do as they pleased. Goldoni, in his memoirs, shows us distinctly what his role was supposed to be. He tells of a certain married lady who complained to her cicisbeo that one of her servants had treated her with disrespect. "He ought to be punished," said the cicisbeo. "Whose duty is it," retorted the lady, "if not yours, to see that I am obeyed "Our profession," says the barber and respected by my servants?" There in Albergati's comedy, "The Wise were Venetian ladies who had an entire Friend," "is much esteemed every-suite of cicisbei; one gave her his where. I will speak frankly. None arm when she went to church or paid of those ladies disdain to flirt with us, visits, and others held her fan, her and they can see us daily without handkerchief, or her mass book. Nor exciting talk, because the pretext of having their heads tired is ready to hand. Now and then it happens that the business of combing lasts two hours or more, without the chance of getting a word to ourselves. But if the lady knows her business, when I am about to powder her she turns to the tiresome visitors round her, and, with many ex

was it very rare for the cicisbeo to be mentioned in the marriage contract, as an indisputable appanage of the bride.

was

The old energy of spirit seemed to have died out of the Venetian temperament. Little by little Venice clipped of her once great estate, and little by little the Venetians lost those qualities which more than aught else