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[507] 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[508] 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.”
[509]
“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[510] 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,[511] 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?”
[512]
“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[513] 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.”
[514]
“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,[515] 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[516] 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[517] 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[518] 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.
