Part 4 (1/2)
”_If partial nature has denied me beauty, the charms of my mind amply make up for the deficiency._”
No women upon earth can excel, and few rival them, in their almost native arts of pleasing all who approach them. Add to this, an education beyond that of most European ladies, a consummate skill in those accomplishments that suit the fair s.e.x, and the most graceful manner of displaying that knowledge to the utmost advantage.
Such is the description that may safely be given of the French ladies in general. But the spirit, or rather the _evil genius_ of gallantry, too often perverts all these lovely qualities, and renders them subservient to very iniquitous ends.
In every country, women have always a little to do, and a great deal to say. In France, they dictate almost every thing that is said, and direct every thing that is done. They are the most restless beings in the world. To fold her hands in idleness, and impose silence on her tongue, would be to a French woman worse than death. The sole joy of her life is to be engaged in the prosecution of some scheme, relating either to fas.h.i.+on, ambition, or love.
Among the rich and opulent, they are entirely the votaries of pleasure, which they pursue through all its labyrinths, at the expense of fortune, reputation, and health. Giddy and extravagant to the last degree, they leave to their husbands economy and care, which would only spoil their complexions, and furrow their brows.
When we descend to tradesmen and mechanics, the case is reversed: the wife manages every thing in the house and shop, while the husband lounges in the back-shop an idle spectator, or struts about with his sword and bag-wig.
Matrimony among the French, seems to be a bargain entered into by a male and female, to bear the same name, live in the same house, and pursue their separate pleasures without restraint or control. And, so religiously is this part of the bargain kept, that both parties shape their course exactly as convenience and inclination dictate.
The French girls are kept under very strict superintendence. They are not allowed to go to parties, or places of public amus.e.m.e.nt, without being accompanied by some married female relation; and they see their lovers only in the presence of a third person. Marriages are entirely negotiated by parents; and sometimes the wedding day is the second time that a bride and bridegroom see each other. Nothing is more common than to visit a lady, and attend her parties, without knowing her husband by sight; or to visit a gentleman without ever being introduced to his wife. If a married couple were to be seen frequently in each other's company, they would be deemed extremely ungenteel. After ladies are married, they have unbounded freedom. It is a common practice to receive morning calls from gentlemen, before they have risen from bed; and they talk with as little reserve to such visiters, as they would in the presence of any woman of refinement.
In no country does real politeness shew itself more than in France, where the company of the women is accessible to every man who can recommend himself by his dress, and by his address. To affectation and prudery the French women are equally strangers. Easy and unaffected in their manners, their politeness has so much the appearance of nature, that one would almost believe no part of it to be the effect of art. An air of sprightliness and gaiety sits perpetually on their countenances, and their whole deportment seems to indicate that their only business is to ”strew the path of life with flowers.” Persuasion hangs on their lips; and, though their volubility of tongue is indefatigable, so soft is their accent, so lively their expression, so various their att.i.tudes, that they fix the attention for hours together on a tale of nothing.
The Jewish doctors have a fable concerning the etymology of the word Eve, which one would almost be tempted to say is realized in the French women. ”Eve,” say they, ”comes from a word, which signifies to talk; and she was so called, because, soon after the creation, there fell from heaven twelve baskets full of chit chat, and she picked up _nine_ of them, while her husband was gathering the other _three_.”
French ladies, especially those not young, use a great deal of rouge. A traveller who saw many of them in their opera boxes, says, ”I could compare them to nothing but a large bed of pionies.”
After the French revolution, it became the fas.h.i.+on to have everything in ancient cla.s.sic style. Loose flowing drapery, naked arms, sandaled feet, and tresses twisted, were the order of the day.
The state of gross immorality that prevailed at this time ought not to be described, if language had the power. The profligacy of Rome in its worst days was comparatively thrown into the shade. Religion and marriage became a mockery, and every form of impure and vindictive pa.s.sion walked abroad, with the consciousness that public opinion did not require them to a.s.sume even a slight disguise. The fish-women of Paris will long retain an unenviable celebrity for the brutal excess of their rage. The G.o.ddess of Reason was wors.h.i.+pped by men, under the form of a living woman entirely devoid of clothing; and in the public streets ladies might be seen who scarcely paid more attention to decorum.
ITALIAN WOMEN.
Dr Goldsmith thus characterises the Italians in general:
”Could nature's bounty satisfy the breast, The sons of Italy were surely blest.
Whatever fruits in different climes are found, That proudly rise, or humbly court the ground; Whatever blooms in torrid tracts appear, Whose bright succession decks the varied year: Whatever sweets salute the northern sky, With vernal leaves that blossom but to die: These here disporting, own the kindred soil, Nor ask luxuriance from their planter's toil; While sea-born gales their gelid wings expand, To winnow fragrance round the smiling land.
”But small the bliss that sense alone bestows, And sensual bliss is all the nation knows.
In florid beauty groves and fields appear, Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.
Contrasted faults thro' all his manners rein; Though poor, luxurious; though submissive, vain; Though grave, yet trifling; zealous, yet untrue; And e'en in penance planning sins anew.
All evils here contaminate the mind, That opulence departed leaves behind: For wealth was theirs, not far remov'd the date, When commerce proudly flourish'd thro' the state; At her command the palace learn'd to rise, Again the long fall'n column sought the skies; The canva.s.s glow'd, beyond e'en nature warm; The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.
Till, more unsteady then the southern gale, Commerce on other sh.o.r.es display'd her sail; While naught remain'd of all that riches gave, But towns unmann'd, and lords without a slave; And late the nation found, with fruitless skill, Its former strength was but plethoric ill.
”Yet still the loss of wealth is here supplied By arts, the splendid wrecks of former pride; From them the feeble heart and long fall'n mind An easy compensation seem to find.
Here may be seen in bloodless pomp array'd, The pasteboard triumph, and the cavalcade; Processions form'd from piety and love, A mistress or a saint in every grove.”
Almost every traveller who has visited Italy, agrees in describing it as the most abandoned of all the countries of Europe. At Venice, at Naples, and indeed in almost every port of Italy, women are taught from their infancy the various arts of alluring to their arms the young and unwary, and of obtaining from them, while heated by love or wine, every thing that flattery and false smiles can obtain, in these unguarded moments.
The Italians, like their neighbors of Spain and Portugal, live under the paralyzing influence of a religion that retains its superst.i.tious forms, while little of life-giving faith remains. Like them they have lively pa.s.sions, are extremely susceptible, and in the general conduct of life more governed by the impetuosity of impulse than rect.i.tude of principle.
The ladies have less gravity than the Spanish, and less frivolity than the French, and in their style of dress incline towards the freedom of the latter. Some of the richest and most commodious convents of Europe are in Italy. The daughters of wealthy families are generally bestowed in marriage as soon as they leave these places of education. These matters are entirely arranged by parents and guardians, and youth and age are not unfrequently joined together, for the sake of uniting certain acres of land. But the affections, thus repressed, seek their natural level by indirect courses. It is a rare thing for an Italian lady to be without her _cavaliere servente_, or lover, who spends much of his time at her house, attends her to all public places, and appears to live upon her smiles. The old maxim of the Provencal troubadours, that matrimony ought to be no hindrance to such _liaisons_, seems to be generally and practically believed in Italy.