irs. I know not whether you ever heard
of those animals. Upon my word, nothing but my own eyes could have
convinced me there were any such upon earth. The fashion began here,
and is now received all over Italy, where the husbands are not such
terrible creatures as we represent them. There are none among them
such brutes, as to pretend to find fault with a custom so well
established, and so politically founded, since I am assured, that it
was an expedient, first found out by the senate, to put an end to
those family hatreds, which tore their state to pieces, and to find
employment for those young men who were forced to cut one another's
throats, _pour passer le temps_: and it has succeeded so well, that
since the institution of Cizisbei, there has been nothing but peace
and good humour amongst them. These are gentlemen who devote
themselves to the service of a particular lady (I mean a married one)
for the virgins are all invisible, and confined to convents: They are
obliged to wait on her to all public places, such as the plays,
operas, and assemblies, (which are called here _Conversations_) where
they wait behind her chair, take care of her fan and gloves, if she
plays, have the privilege of whispers, &c.--When she goes out, they
serve her instead of lacquies (sic), gravely trotting by her chair.
'Tis their business to prepare for her a present against any day of
public appearance, not forgetting that of her own name [Footnote:
That is, the day of the saint after whom she is called.]; in short,
they are to spend all their time and money in her service, who
rewards them accordingly (for opportunity they want none) but the
husband is not to have the impudence to suppose this any other than
pure Platonic friendship. 'Tis true, they endeavour to give her a
Cizisbei of their own chusing; but when the lady happens not to be of
the same taste, as that often happens, she never fails to bring it
about to have one of her own fancy. In former times, one beauty used
to have eight or ten of these humble admirers; but those days of
plenty and humility are no more. Men grow more scarce and saucy, and
every lady is forced to content herself with one at a time.

You may see in this place the _glorious liberty_ of a republic, or
more properly, an aristocracy, the common people being here as arrant
slaves as the French; but the old nobles pay little respect to the
doge, who is but two years in his office, and whose wife, at that