fligacy; fo in Italy, from the custom of fecluding the wife from all mankind but her husband, it became the fashion that the should never be feen with her hufband, and yet always have a man at her elbow.

I fhall conclude what I have to say on this fubject in my next.

Dd 4

LETTER LXXV.

Florence.

B'

EFORE the Italian husbands could adopt or reconcile their minds to a custom so opposite to their former prac tice, they took fome measures to fecure a point which they had always thought of the highest importance. Finding the confinement was a plan generally reprobated, and that any appearance of jealoufy fubjected the husband to ridicule, they agreed that their wives should go into company and attend public places, but always attended by a friend whom they could truft, and who, at the fame time, fhould not be disagreeable to the wife. This compromife could not fail of being acceptable to the women, who plainly perceived that they must be gainers by any alteration of the former fyftem;

and

and it foon became univerfal all over Italy, for the women to appear at public places leaning upon the arm of a man; who, from their frequently whispering together, was called her Cicifbeo. It was ftipulated, at the same time, that the lady, while abroad under his care, fhould converse with no other man but in his prefence, and with his approbation; he was to be her guardian, her friend, and gentleman-usher.

The custom at present is, that this obfequious gentleman vifits the lady every forenoon at the toilet, where the plan for paffing the evening is agreed upon; he disappears before dinner, for it is ufual all over Italy for the husband and wife to dine together tête-à-tête, except on great occafions, as when there is a public feast. After dinner the husband retires, and the Cicifbéo returns and conducts the lady to the public walk, the converfazione, or the opera; he hands her about

about wherever he goes, prefents her coffee, forts her cards, and attends with the most pointed affiduity till the amusements of the evening are over; he accompanies her home, and delivers up his charge to the husband, who is then fupposed to refume his functions.

From the nature of this connection, it could not be an easy matter to find a Cicifbeo who would be equally agreeable to the husband and wife. At the beginning of the inftitution, the husbands, as I have been informed, preferred the platonic fwains, who profeffed only the metaphyficks of love, and whofe lectures, they imagined, might refine their wives ideas, and bring them to the fame way of thinking; in many inftances, no doubt, it would happen, that the platonic admirer acted with lefs feraphic ends; but these inftances ferve only as proofs that the hufbands were mistaken in their men; for however abfurd it may appear in the eyes

of

of fome people, to imagine that the hufbands believe it is only a platonic connection which fubfifts between their wives and the Cicifbeos; it is ftill more abfurd to believe, as fome ftrangers who have paffed through this country seem to have done, that this whole fyftem of Cicifbeifm was from the beginning, and is now, an universal system of adultery connived at by every Italian hufband. To get clear of one difficulty, thofe gentlemen fall into another much more inexplicable; by fuppofing that the men, who of all the inhabitants of Europe were the most scrupulous with regard to their wives chastity, fhould acquiefce in, and in a manner become fubfervient to, their proftitution. In fupport of this ftrange doctrine, they affert, that the husbands being the Cicifbeos of other women, cannot enjoy this privilege on any other terms; and are therefore contented to facrifice their wives for the fake of their miftreffes. That fome individuals may be profligate enough to act in this man

ner,