Rome.
A few days since I went to call on an artist of my acquaintance. I
met, coming out of his door, an old woman, and a very handsome girl,
remarkably well shaped. I rallied him a little on the subject of his
visitors, and his good fortune in being attended in a morning by
the prettiest girl I had seen since I came to Rome. “I think myself
fortunate,” said he, “in having found a girl so perfectly well made, who
allows me to study her charms without restraint, and at a reasonable
price; but I assure you, I can boast of no other kind of good fortune
with her.” “I am convinced,” rejoined I, “that you take great pleasure
in your studies, and there can be no doubt that you have made a very
desirable progress.” “Of that you shall be the judge,” replied he,
leading me into another room, where I saw a full length painting of
the girl, in the character of Venus, and in the _usual dress_ of that
goddess. “There,” said he, “is the only effect my studies have had
hitherto, and I begin to suspect that they will never produce any thing
more nearly connected with the original.” He then informed me, that the
old woman I had seen was the girl’s mother, who never failed to accompany
her daughter, when she came as a model to him; that the father was a
tradesman, with a numerous family, who thought this the most innocent
use that his daughter’s beauty could be put to, till she should get a
husband; and to prevent its being put to any other, his wife always
accompanied her. “I have drawn her as Venus,” added he; “but, for any
thing I know to the contrary, I should have approached nearer to her
real character if I had painted her as Diana. She comes here merely in
obedience to her parents, and gains her bread as innocently as if she
were knitting purses in a convent from morning to night, without seeing
the face of a man.”
“However innocent all this may be,” said I, “there is something at which
the mind revolts, in a mother’s being present when her daughter acts a
part which, if not criminal, is, at least, highly indelicate.”
“To be sure,” replied the painter, “the woman has not quite so much
delicacy as to starve, rather than let her daughter stand as a model; yet
she seems to have attention to the girl’s chastity, too.”
“Chastity!” answered I, “why this would shock an _English_ woman more
than any thing which could be proposed to her. Every other kind of
liberty must have been previously taken with her. She must be a complete
prostitute in every sense of the word, before she could be brought to
submit to appear in this manner.”
“Your observation is true,” replied he; “but it does not prove that
those who submit to this, to prevent their becoming prostitutes, do not
judge better than those who become prostitutes, and then submit to this.
In different countries,” continued he, “people think very differently
on subjects of this kind. The parents of this girl, to my knowledge,
have refused considerable offers from men of fortune, to be allowed the
privilege of _visiting_ her. They are so very careful of preventing
every thing of that nature, that she actually lies in the same bed with
them both, which is another piece of indelicacy not uncommon among the
lower people in Italy. These parents have the more merit in refusing
such offers, as their acting otherwise would by no means be thought
extraordinary; nor would it raise the same degree of indignation here
as in some other countries of Europe. Breach of chastity, in females of
low rank, is not considered here in the same heinous light that it is
in some parts of Germany and Great Britain; where it is deemed a crime
of such magnitude, as to require expiation, by a public rebuke from the
parson in the middle of the church. I have heard of a clergyman in the
North, who had occasion to rebuke a young woman for having borne a child
before marriage. The accomplice in her guilt had married her immediately
after her recovery; but this did not abate the parson’s indignation
against the wickedness they had previously committed. Magdalen,” said
he, with an aweful tone of voice, to the woman, “you stand before this
congregation to be rebuked for the _barbarous_ and _unnatural_ crime of
fornication.”
“The reverend clergyman, said I, in all probability intended to terrify
his parishioners from such irregularities; and for this purpose imagined
there would be no harm in putting them in the most odious point of view.”
“This is attended, however, by one dreadful consequence,” replied the
artist, “that these unhappy creatures, to conceal a fault of which such a
horrible idea is given, and to prevent the shame of a public exposition
in the church, are sometimes tempted to commit a crime which is in
reality barbarous, and unnatural in the highest degree.”
“There is nothing,” continued he, “which has a greater tendency to
render any set of people worthless, than the idea that they are already
considered as such. The women all over Great Britain, who live in an open
and avowed breach of chastity, are generally more daringly wicked, and
devoid of principle, than the Italian women who take the same liberties.”
“Would you then,” said I, “have women of that kind more respected
in Great Britain, in hopes that it might, in time, make them more
respectable?”
“I express no desire on the subject,” replied he. “I was only going to
remark, that, in avoiding one inconveniency, mankind often fall into
another; and that we are too apt to censure and ridicule customs and
opinions different from those which prevail in our own country, without
having sufficiently considered all their immediate and remote effects.
I did not intend to decide, whether the indulgence with which women of
a certain class are viewed in Italy, or the ignominy with which they
are treated in Great Britain, has, upon the whole, the best effect in
society. But I have observed, that the public courtezans in England
often become quite abandoned, and forget all sense of gratitude or
affection, even to their parents. But in Italy, women who never put any
value on the virtue of chastity, those who sell their favours for money,
display a goodness of character in other respects, and continue their
duty and attachment to their parents as long as they live. Foreigners
who form a connection with a girl in this country, find themselves very
often obliged to maintain the father, mother, and whole family to which
she belongs. The lover generally considers this as a very troublesome
circumstance, and endeavours to inspire his Italian mistress with that
total neglect of her family which prevails among women of her stamp
in other countries; but he very seldom succeeds. An Italian woman is
unwilling to quit her native city and her family, even for a man she
loves; and seldom does, till he makes some provision for her nearest
relations.”
“You seem to have a very great affection for the Italian ladies; and, as
far as I can perceive,” said I, “your passion is universal to the whole
class in question; but you have said nothing to the essential article
of religion. It is to be hoped, they do not allow the duties of their
profession to make them neglect their souls.”
“I see,” replied the painter, “you are disposed to laugh at all I have
said in their favour; but in answer to your question, I will fairly
own, that their religious, or, if you please, we shall rather call
them their superstitious, sentiments, seem to be no way influenced by
their profession; nor are the duties of their profession in any degree
affected by these sentiments. They attend mass, and the ceremonies of
devotion, with as much punctuality as if their lives were regular in all
other respects; and they pass their lives, in other respects, as if they
had never heard of any religious system but that of Epicurus. In some
countries of Europe, women of their stamp often despise every appearance
of decency, assume the disgusting depravity of male debauchees, with all
the airs of affected infidelity, and real profligacy; but _here_ they
always remember they are women; and, after they have lost the most valued
and brightest ornament of their sex, still endeavour to retain some of
the others.”
“After all you have said in their favour,” said I, “”their condition
is certainly not to be envied. If, therefore, you have any regard for
your _young Venus_, you will do well to leave her under the care of her
mother, and never endeavour to introduce her into the community whose
eulogium you have been making.”
When I returned from the house of this artist, I found Mr. —— waiting for
me at our lodgings. He has of late paid his court very assiduously to a
lady of high rank in this place: she is distinguished, even here, for a
punctilious observance of all the ceremonies appointed by the church,
and could not eat meat on a meagre-day, or deviate from the canonical
regulations in any point of equal importance, without remorse; but in
matters of gallantry, she has the reputation of being infinitely more
liberal, both in her sentiments and practice. She has been for some time
provided with a very able and respectable lover, of her own country.
This did not make her blind to the good qualities of Mr. ——, with whom
she formed a very intimate connection, soon after his arrival here; not
that she prefers him to her other lover, but merely from a strong sense
of the truth and beauty of this arithmetical axiom—one and one make two.
The new arrangement with our countryman, however pleasing to the lady,
gave offence to her Father Confessor. The scrupulous ecclesiastic was
of opinion, that a connection of this nature with a heretic was more
criminal than with a man of her own communion. Mr. —— was just come from
the lady to our lodgings; he had found her in worse humour than he had
ever observed before, though her temper is not the mildest in the world.
Mr. —— entered as the Confessor went out; she shut the door after him
with a violence which shook the whole house, muttering, as she returned
to her seat, _Che ti possino Cascar le braccia Vecchio Dondolone_. Mr.
—— expressed his concern on seeing her so much agitated. “No wonder,”
said she, “that stubborn Animalaccio who is just gone out, has had the
insolence to refuse me absolution. As I expected you this morning, I sent
for him betimes, that the matter might have been expedited before you
should come; but here I have been above an hour endeavouring to persuade
him, but all to no purpose; nothing I could say was able to mollify the
obstinate old greasy rascal.” Mr. —— joined in abusing the Confessor’s
perverseness, hinting, at the same time, that she ought to despise it as
a matter of little importance; that she was sure of receiving absolution
sooner or later; and, whenever it happened, all the transactions of
the interval would be comprehended within that act of grace. Upon the
strength of this reasoning, Mr. —— was proceeding to fulfil the purpose
of his visit with as much alacrity as if the most complete discharge had
been granted for all proceedings—“_Pian Piano Idol mio_,” cried the lady,
“_bisogna rimettersi alla voluntà di Dio_.” She then told her lover, that
although she despised the Confessor as much as he could do, yet she must
take care of her own soul; that not having settled her accounts with
heaven for a considerable time, she was determined not to begin a new
score till the old should be cleared; adding, for her principal reason,
_Patto chiaro, amico caro_.