The passions of the two sexes are similar in the main; the distinctions
between them result less from nature than from education. Often we meet
with women, especially the literary sort, who seem veritable men, if not
so, as the lawyers say, 'to all intents and purposes;' and often we
meet with men, especially town-dandies, who can only be compared to very
ordinary women.
Almost all the ancients had the bad taste to speak ill of women; among
the rest even that delightful old Father 'of the golden mouth,' St
Chrysostom.(94) So that, evidently, Dr Johnson's fierce dictum cannot
apply universally--'Only scoundrels speak ill of women.'
(94) Hom. II.
Seneca took the part of women, exclaiming:--'By no means believe that
their souls are inferior to ours, or that they are less endowed with the
virtues. As for honour, it is equally great and energetic among them.'
A foreign lady was surprised at beholding the equality established
between the men and women at Sparta; whereupon the wife of Leonidas, the
King of Sparta, said to her:--'Do you not know that it is we who bring
forth the men? It is not the fathers, but the mothers, that effectually
form the heart.'
Napoleon seems to have formed what may be called a professional estimate
of women. When the demonstrative Madame de Stael asked him--evidently
expecting him to pay her a compliment--'Whom do you think the greatest
woman dead or alive?' Napoleon replied, 'Her, Madame, _WHO HAS BORNE
MOST SONS_.' Nettled by this sarcastic reply, she returned to the
charge, observing, 'It is said you are not friendly to the sex.'
Napoleon was her match again; 'Madame,' he exclaimed, 'I am passionately
fond of my wife;' and off he walked. Assuredly it would not mend matters
in this world (or the next) if all men were Napoleons and all women de
Staels.
If we consider the question in other points of view, have there been,
proportionally, fewer celebrated women than illustrious men? fewer great
queens than truly great kings? Compare, on all sides, the means and the
circumstances; count the reigns, and decide.
The fact is that this question has been argued only by tyrannical
or very silly men, who found it difficult to get rid of the absurd
prejudices which retain the finest half of human nature in slavery,
and condemn it to obscurity under the pretext that it is essentially
corrupted. Towards the end of the 15th century a certain demented
writer attempted to prove that women do not even deserve the title of
reasonable creatures, which in the original sounds oddly enough, namely,
_probare nititur mulieres non homines esse_. Another, a very learned
Jesuit, endeavoured to demonstrate that women have no souls! Some say
that women surpass us in wickedness; others, that they are both worse
and better than men.
That morbid wretch, Alexander Pope, said, 'Every woman is at heart a
rake;' and a recent writer in the _Times_ puts more venom in the dictum
by saying, 'Every woman is (or likes) at heart a rake.' Both these
opinions may be set down as mere claptrap, witty, but vile.
But a truce to such insults against those who beautify the earth;
_THEIR_ vices cannot excuse ours. It is we who have depraved them by
associating them with excesses which are repugnant to their delicacy.
The contagion, however, has not affected all of them. Among our
'plebeians,' and even among nobility, many women remind us of the
modesty and courage of those ancient republican matrons, who, so to
speak, founded, the manners and morals of their country; and among all
classes of the community there are thousands who inspire their husbands
with generous impulses in the battle of life, either by cheering words
of comfort, or by that mute eloquence of duties well fulfilled, which
nothing can resist if we are worthy of the name of men. How many a
gambler has been reformed by the tender appeals of a good and devoted
wife. 'Venerable women!' one of them exclaims, 'in whatever rank Heaven
has placed you, receive my homage.' The gentleness of your souls smooths
down the roughness of ours and checks its violence. Without your virtues
what would we be? Without YOU, my dear wife, what would have become of
me? You beheld the beginning and the end of the gaming fury in me, which
I now detest; and it is not to me, but to you alone, that the victory
must be ascribed.'(95)
(95) Dusaulx, _De la Passion du Jeu_.
A very pretty anecdote is told of such a wife and a gaming husband.
In order to simplify the signs of loss and gain, so as not to be
overburdened with the weight of gold and silver, the French players used
to carry the representation of their fortunes in small boxes, more or
less elegant. A lady (who else could have thought of such a device?),
trembling for the fate of her husband, made him a present of one of
these dread boxes. This little master-piece of conjugal and maternal
affection represented a wife in the attitude of supplication, and
weeping children, seeming to say to their father--_THINK OF US!_....
It is, therefore, only with the view of avenging good and honourable
women, that I now proceed to speak of those who have disgraced their
sex.
I have already described a remarkable gamestress--the Persian Queen
Parysatis.(96)
(96) Chapter III.
There were no gamestresses among the Greeks; and the Roman women were
always too much occupied with their domestic affairs to find time for
play. What will our modern ladies think, when I state that the Emperor
Augustus scarcely wore a garment which had not been woven by his wife,
his sister, or grand-daughters.(97)
(97) Veste non temere alia quam domestica usus est, ab uxore et filia
nepotibusque confecta. Suet. in Vita Augusti.
Although deeply corrupted under Nero and the sovereigns that resembled
him, the Roman women never gambled among themselves except during the
celebration of the festival of the Bona Dea. This ceremonial, so often
profaned with licentiousness, was not attended by desperate gambling.
The most depraved women abstained from it, even when that mania was at
its height, not only around the Capitol, but even in the remainder of
the Empire.
Contemporary authors, who have not spared the Roman ladies, never
reproached them with this vice, which, in modern times, has been
desperately practised by women who in licentiousness vied with
Messalina.
In France, women who wished to gamble were, at first, obliged to keep
the thing secret; for if it became known they lost caste. In the reign
of Louis XIV., and still more in that of Louis XV., they became
bolder, and the wives of the great engaged in the deepest play in their
mansions; but still a gamestress was always denounced with horror. 'Such
women,' says La Bruyiere, 'make us chaste; they have nothing of the sex
but its garments.'
By the end of the 18th century, gamestresses became so numerous that
they excited no surprise, especially among the higher classes; and the
majority of them were notorious for unfair play or downright cheating.
A stranger once betted on the game of a lady at a gaming-table, who
claimed a stake although on a losing card. Out of consideration for
the distinguished trickstress, the banker wished to pay the stranger as
well; but the latter with a blush, exclaimed--'Possibly madame won, but
as for myself, I am quite sure that I lost.'
But if women cheated at play, they also frequently lost; and were often
reduced to beggary, or to what is far viler, to sacrifice, not only
their own honour, but that of their daughters.
Gaming sometimes led to other crimes. The Countess of Schwiechelt, a
young and beautiful lady from Hanover, was much given to gambling, and
lost 50,000 livres at Paris. In order to repair this great loss, she
planned and executed the robbery of a fine coronet of emeralds, the
property of Madame Demidoff. She had made herself acquainted with the
place where it was kept, and at a ball given by its owner the Hanoverian
lady contrived to purloin it. Her youth and rank in life induced many
persons to solicit her pardon; but Buonaparte left her to the punishment
to which she was condemned. This occurred in 1804.
In England, too, the practice of gambling was fraught with the worst
consequences to the finest feelings and best qualities of the sex. The
chief danger is very plainly hinted at in the comedy of _The Provoked
Husband_.
_Lord Townley_.--'Tis not your ill hours that always distract me, but,
as often, the ill company that occasions those hours.
_Lady Townley_.--Sure I don't understand you now, my lord. What ill
company do I keep?
_Lord Townley_.--Why, at best, women that lose their money, and men that
win it; _or, perhaps, men that are voluntary bubbles at one game, in
hopes a lady will give them fair play at another._
'The facts,' says Mr Massey,(98) 'confirm the theory. Walpole's Letters
and Mr Jesse's volumes on George Selwyn and his Contemporaries, teem
with allusions to proved or understood cases of matrimonial infidelity;
and the manner in which notorious irregularities were brazened out,
shows that the offenders did not always encounter the universal
reprobation of society.
(98) History of England, ii.
'Whist was not much in vogue until a later period, and was far
too abstruse and slow to suit the depraved taste which required
unadulterated stimulants.'
The ordinary stakes at these mixed assemblies would, at the present day,
be considered high, even at the clubs where a rubber is still allowed.
'The consequences of such gaming were often still more lamentable than
those which usually attended such practices. It would happen that a lady
lost more than she could venture to confess to her husband or father.
Her creditor was probably a fine gentleman, or she became indebted
to some rich admirer for the means of discharging her liabilities. In
either event, the result may be guessed. In the one case, the debt
of honour was liquidated on the old principle of the law-merchant,
according to which there was but one alternative to payment in purse. In
the other, there was likewise but one mode in which the acknowledgment
of obligation by a fine woman would be acceptable to a man of the
world.'
'The pernicious consequences of gambling to the nation at large,'
says another writer, 'would have been intolerable enough had they been
confined to the stronger sex; but, unfortunately, the women of the day
were equally carried away by this criminal infatuation. The disgusting
influence of this sordid vice was so disastrous to female minds, that
they lost their fairest distinction and privileges, together with
the blushing honours of modesty. Their high gaming was necessarily
accompanied with great losses. If all their resources, regular and
irregular, honest and fraudulent, were dissipated, still, _GAME-DEBTS
MUST BE PAID!_ The cunning winner was no stranger to the necessities of
the case. He hinted at _commutations_--which were not to be refused.
"So tender these,--if debts crowd fast upon her, She'll pawn her
_VIRTUE_ to preserve her _HONOUR!_"
Thus, the last invaluable jewel of female possession was unavoidably
resigned. That was indeed the forest of all evils, but an evil to which
every deep gamestress was inevitably exposed.'
Hogarth strikingly illustrated this phase of womanhood in England,
in his small picture painted for the Earl of Charlemont, and entitled
'_Picquet, or Virtue in Danger_.' It shows a young lady, who, during a
_tete-a-tete_, had just lost all her money to a handsome officer of
her own age. He is represented in the act of returning her a handful of
bank-bills, with the hope of exchanging them for another acquisition
and more delicate plunder. On the chimney-piece are a watch-case and a
figure of Time, over it this motto--_Nunc_, 'Now!' Hogarth has caught
his heroine during this moment of hesitation--this struggle with
herself--and has expressed her feelings with uncommon success.
But, indeed, the thing was perfectly understood. In the _Guardian_ (No.
120) we read:--'All play-debts must be paid in specie or by equivalent.
The "man" that plays beyond his income pawns his estate; the "woman"
must find out something else to mortgage when her pin-money is gone. The
husband has his lands to dispose of; the wife her person. Now when the
female body is once dipped, if the creditor be very importunate, I leave
my reader to consider the consequences.'....
A lady was married when very young to a noble lord, the honour and
ornament of his country, who hoped to preserve her from the contagion of
the times by his own example, and, to say the truth, she had every good
quality that could recommend her to the bosom of a man of discernment
and worth. But, alas! how frail and short are the joys of mortals! One
unfortunate hour ruined his darling visionary scheme of happiness: she
was introduced to an infamous woman, was drawn into play, liked it, and,
as the unavoidable consequence, she was ruined,--having lost more in
one night than would have maintained a hundred useful families for a
twelvemonth; and, dismal to tell, she felt compelled to sacrifice her
virtue to the wretch who had won her money, in order to recover the
loss! From this moment she might well exclaim--
'Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!'
The affectionate wife, the agreeable companion, the indulgent mistress,
were now no more. In vain she flattered herself that the injury she had
done her husband would for ever remain one of those secrets which can
only be disclosed at the last day. Vengeance pursued her steps, she
was lost; the villain to whom she had sacrificed herself boasted of the
favours he had received. The fatal report was conveyed to her injured
husband. He refused to believe what he thought impossible, but honour
obliged him to call the boaster to the field. The wretch received the
challenge with much more contentment than concern; as he had resolution
enough to murder any man whom he had injured, so he was certain, if he
had the good fortune to conquer his antagonist, he should be looked upon
as the head of all modern bucks and bloods--esteemed by the men as
a brave fellow, and admired by the ladies as a fine gentleman and an
agreeable rake. The meeting took place--the profligate gambler not
content with declaring, actually exulted in his guilt. But his triumph
was of short date--a bullet through the head settled his account with
this world.
The husband, after a long conflict in his bosom, between justice and
mercy, tenderness and rage, resolved--on what is very seldom practised
by an English husband--to pardon his wife, conceal her crime, and
preserve her, if possible, from utter destruction. But the gates of
mercy were opened in vain--the offender refused to receive forgiveness
because she had offended. The lust of gambling had absorbed all her
other desires. She gave herself up entirely to the infamous pursuit and
its concomitants, whilst her husband sank by a quick decay, and died the
victim of grief and anguish.(99)
(99) Doings in London.
Of other English gamestresses, however, nothing but the ordinary success
or inconveniences of gambling are recorded. In the year 1776, a lady
at the West End lost one night, at a sitting, 3000 guineas at Loo.(100)
Again, a lady having won a rubber of 20 guineas from a city merchant,
the latter pulled out his pocket-book, and tendered L21 in bank notes.
The fair gamestress, with a disdainful toss of the head, observed--'In
the great houses which I frequent, sir, we always use gold.' 'That may
be, madam,' said the gentleman, 'but, in the _LITTLE_ houses which I
frequent, we always use paper.'
(100) Annual Register.
Goldsmith mentions an old lady in the country who, having been given
over by her physician, played with the curate of the parish to pass the
time away. Having won all his money, she next proposed playing for the
funeral charges to which she would be liable. Unfortunately, the lady
expired just as she had taken up the game!
A lady who was desperately fond of play was confessing herself. The
priest represented, among other arguments against gaming, the great loss
of time it occasioned. 'Ah!' said the lady, 'that is what vexes me--so
much time lost in shuffling the cards!'
The celebrated Mrs Crewe seems to have been fond of gaming. Charles
James Fox ranked among her admirers. A gentleman lost a considerable sum
to this lady at play; and being obliged to leave town suddenly, he gave
Fox the money to pay her, begging him to apologize to the lady for his
not having paid the debt of honour in person. Fox unfortunately lost
every shilling of it before morning. Mrs Crewe often met the
supposed debtor afterwards, and, surprised that he never noticed the
circumstance, at length delicately hinted the matter to him. 'Bless me,'
said he, 'I paid the money to Mr Fox three months ago!' 'Oh, you did,
sir?' said Mrs Crewe good-naturedly, 'then probably he paid me and I
forgot it.'
This famous Mrs Crewe was the wife of Mr Crewe, who was created, in
1806, Lord Crewe. She was as remarkable for her accomplishments and her
worth as for her beauty; nevertheless she permitted the admiration of
the profligate Fox, who was in the rank of her admirers, and she was a
gamestress, as were most of the grand ladies in those days. The lines
Fox wrote on her were not exaggerated. They began thus:--
'Where the loveliest expression to features is join'd, By Nature's most
delicate pencil design'd; Where blushes unhidden, and smiles without
art, Speak the softness and feeling that dwell in the heart, Where in
manners enchanting no blemish we trace, But the soul keeps the promise
we had from the face; Sure philosophy, reason, and coldness must prove
Defences unequal to shield us from love.'
'Nearly eight years after the famous election at Westminster, when she
personally canvassed for Fox, Mrs Crewe was still in perfection, with
a son one-and-twenty, who looked like her brother. The form of her
face was exquisitely lovely, her complexion radiant. "I know not,"
Miss Burney writes, "any female in her first youth who could bear the
comparison. She _uglifies_ every one near her."
'This charming partisan of Fox had been active in his cause; and
her originality of character, her good-humour, her recklessness of
consequences, made her a capital canvasser.'(101)
(101) Wharton, _The Queens of Society._
THE GAMBLING BARROW-WOMEN.
In 1776 the barrow-women of London used generally to carry dice with
them, and children were induced to throw for fruit and nuts.
However, the pernicious consequences of the practice beginning to be
felt, the Lord Mayor issued an order to apprehend all such offenders,
which speedily put an end to such street-gambling. At the present day a
sort of roulette is used for the same purpose by the itinerant caterers
to the sweetmeat and fruit-loving little ones.
GAMESTRESSES AT BADEN-BADEN.
Mrs Trollope has described two specimens of the modern gamestresses
at the German watering-places, one of whom seems to have specially
attracted her notice:--
'There was one of this set,' she says, 'whom I watched, day after day,
during the whole period of our stay, with more interest than, I believe,
was reasonable; for had I studied any other as attentively I might have
found less to lament.
'She was young--certainly not more than twenty-five--and, though not
regularly nor brilliantly handsome, most singularly winning both in
person and demeanour. Her dress was elegant, but peculiarly plain and
simple,--a close white silk bonnet and gauze veil; a quiet-coloured silk
gown, with less of flourish and frill, by half, than any other person;
a delicate little hand which, when ungloved, displayed some handsome
rings; a jewelled watch, of peculiar splendour; and a countenance
expressive of anxious thoughtfulness--must be remembered by many who
were at Baden in August, 1833. They must remember, too, that, enter the
rooms when they would, morning, noon, or night, still they found her
nearly at the same place at the _Rouge et Noir_ table.
'Her husband, who had as unquestionably the air of a gentleman as she
had of a lady, though not always close to her, was never very distant.
He did not play himself, and I fancied, as he hovered near her, that
his countenance expressed anxiety. But he returned her sweet smile, with
which she always met his eye, with an answering smile; and I saw not the
slightest indication that he wished to withdraw her from the table.
'There was an expression in the upper part of her face that my
blundering science would have construed into something very foreign to
the propensity she showed; but there she sat, hour after hour, day after
day, not even allowing the blessed sabbath, that gives rest to all, to
bring it to her;--there she sat, constantly throwing down handfuls of
five-franc pieces, and sometimes drawing them back again, till her young
face grew rigid from weariness, and all the lustre of her eye faded into
a glare of vexed inanity. Alas! alas! is that fair woman a mother? God
forbid!
'Another figure at the gaming table, which daily drew our attention,
was a pale, anxious old woman, who seemed no longer to have strength to
conceal her eager agitation under the air of callous indifference,
which all practised players endeavour to assume. She trembled, till her
shaking hand could hardly grasp the instrument with which she pushed or
withdrew her pieces; the dew of agony stood upon her wrinkled brow; yet,
hour after hour, and day after day, she too sat in the enchanted chair.
I never saw age and station in a position so utterly beyond the pale of
respect. I was assured she was a person of rank; and my informant added,
but I trust she was mistaken, that she was an _ENGLISH_ woman.'(102)
(102) Belgium and Western Germany, in 1833.
GAMING HOUSES KEPT BY LADIES.
There is no doubt that during the last half of the last century many
titled ladies not only gambled, but kept gaming houses. There is even
evidence that one of them actually appealed to the House of Lords
for protection against the intrusion of the peace officers into her
establishment in Covent Garden, on the plea of her Peerage! All this is
proved by a curious record found in the Journals of the House of Lords,
by the editor of the _Athenaeum_. It is as follows:--
'Die Lunae, 29 Aprilis, 1745.--_Gaming_. A Bill for preventing the
excessive and deceitful use of it having been brought from the Commons,
and proceeded on so far as to be agreed to in a Committee of the whole
House with amendments,--information was given to the House that Mr
Burdus, Chairman of the Quarter Sessions for the city and liberty of
Westminster, Sir Thomas de Veil, and Mr Lane, Chairman of the Quarter
Sessions for the county of Middlesex, were at the door; they were called
in, and at the Bar severally gave an account that claims of privilege of
Peerage were made and insisted on by the Ladies Mordington and Casselis,
in order to intimidate the peace officers from doing their duty in
suppressing the public gaming houses kept by the said ladies. And the
said Burdus thereupon delivered in an instrument in writing under the
hand of the said Lady Mordington, containing the claim she made of
privilege for her officers and servants employed by her in her said
gaming house. And then they were directed to withdraw. And the said
instrument was read as follows:--"I, Dame Mary, Baroness of Mordington,
do hold a house in the Great Piazza, Covent Garden, for and as an
Assembly, where all persons of credit are at liberty to frequent and
play at such diversions as are used at other Assemblys. And I have hired
Joseph Dewberry, William Horsely, Ham Cropper, and George Sanders as
my servants or managers (under me) thereof. I have given them orders
to direct the management of the other inferior servants (namely):
John Bright, Richard Davis, John Hill, John Vandenvoren, as
box-keepers,--Gilbert Richardson, housekeeper, John Chaplain, regulator,
William Stanley and Henry Huggins, servants that wait on the company at
the said Assembly, William Penny and Joseph Penny as porters thereof.
And all the above-mentioned persons I claim as my domestick servants,
and demand all those privileges that belong to me as a peeress of Great
Britain appertaining to my said Assembly. M. MORDINGTON. Dated 8th Jan.,
1744."
'Resolved and declared that no person is entitled to privilege of
Peerage against any prosecution or proceeding for keeping any public
or common gaming house, or any house, room, or place for playing at any
game or games prohibited by any law now in force.'
That such practice continued in vogue is evident from the police
proceedings subsequently taken against
THE FAMOUS LADY BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.
This notorious gamestress of St James's Square, at the close of the last
century, actually slept with a blunderbuss and a pair of pistols at her
side, to protect her Faro bank.
On the 11th of March, 1797, her Ladyship, together with Lady E.
Lutterell and a Mrs Sturt, were convicted at the Marlborough Street
Police-court, in the penalty of L50, for playing at the game of Faro;
and Henry Martindale was convicted in the sum of L200, for keeping the
Faro table at Lady Buckinghamshire's. The witnesses had been servants
of her Ladyship, recently discharged on account of a late extraordinary
loss of 500 guineas from her Ladyship's house, belonging to the Faro
bank.(103)
(103) The case is reported in the Times of March 13th, 1797. One cannot
help being struck with the appearance of the Times newspaper at that
period--70 years ago. It was printed on one small sheet, about equal
to a single page of the present issue, and contained four pages, two of
which were advertisements, while the others gave only a short summary of
news--no leader at all.
In the same year, the croupier at the Countess of Buckinghamshire's one
night announced the unaccountable disappearance of the cash-box of the
Faro bank. All eyes were turned towards her Ladyship. Mrs Concannon said
she once lost a gold snuff-box from the table, while she went to speak
to Lord C--. Another lady said she lost her purse there last winter. And
a story was told that a certain lady had taken, _BY MISTAKE_, a cloak
which did not belong to her, at a rout given by the Countess of ----.
Unfortunately a discovery of the cloak was made, and when the servant
knocked at the door to demand it, some very valuable lace which it was
trimmed with had been taken off. Some surmised that the lady who stole
the cloak might also have stolen the Faro bank cash-box.
Soon after, the same Martindale, who had kept the Faro bank at Lady
Buckinghamshire's, became a bankrupt, and his debts amounted to
L328,000, besides 'debts of honour,' which were struck off to the
amount of L150,000. His failure is said to have been owing to misplaced
confidence in a subordinate, who robbed him of thousands. The first
suspicion was occasioned by his purchasing an estate of L500 a year;
but other purchases followed to a considerable extent; and it was soon
discovered that the Faro bank had been robbed sometimes of 2000 guineas
a week! On the 14th of April, 1798, other arrears, to a large amount,
were submitted to, and rejected by, the Commissioners in Bankruptcy,
who declared a first dividend of one shilling and five-pence in the
pound.(104)
(104) Seymour Harcourt, _Gaming Calendar._
This chapter cannot be better concluded than with quoting the _Epilogue_
of 'The Oxonian in Town,' 1767, humorously painting some of the
mischiefs of gambling, and expressly addressed to the ladies:--
'Lo! next, to my prophetic eye there starts A beauteous gamestress in
the Queen of Hearts. The cards are dealt, the fatal pool is lost, And
all her golden hopes for ever cross'd. Yet still this card-devoted fair
I view--Whate'er her luck, to "_honour_" ever true. So tender there,--if
debts crowd fast upon her, She'll pawn her "virtue" to preserve her
"honour." Thrice happy were my art, could I foretell, Cards would be
soon abjured by every belle! Yet, I pronounce, who cherish still the
vice, And the pale vigils keep of cards and dice--'Twill in their charms
sad havoc make, ye fair! Which "rouge" in vain shall labour to repair.
Beauties will grow mere hags, toasts wither'd jades, Frightful and ugly
as--the _QUEEN OF SPADES_.'