Rom. ix. 13.
of the century, neither young, nor handsome, nor the least lover-like, though there were
Tassini, under ‘Grassi.’
exceptions to the rule. The choice of them was often the occasion of the first conjugal dispute, and a lady of the Condulmer family retired to a convent for life because her husband objected to the cavalier whom she wanted.
The serving cavalier accompanied his lady on all occasions, for the husband never did, and the two were
Rom. viii. 207, 303, and ix. II; Molmenti, Vita Priv.
seen everywhere together, and especially under the felse of the gondola; for ladies never used the gondola uncovered, even on beautiful summer evenings. And they were perpetually out, so that grave historians inform us that they only spent a few hours of the night in their palaces, and during the day the time they needed for dressing. When required, the ‘cicisbeo’ waited on his lady instead of her maid; her smallest caprices were his law, and she dragged him after her everywhere, to mass, benediction, and the sermon. ‘The object of mass is to go to walk,’ said Businallo in one of his satires, after saying that the proper purpose of pilgrimages was to make a great deal of noise.
Not unfrequently the cicisbei were mere adventurers who pretended to be great nobles from other Italian cities, and to have left their homes in consequence of some misfortune.
Goldoni wrote a comedy called ‘Il Cavaliere e la Dama’ on the subject of the ‘cicisbei,’ whom he calls ‘singular beings, martyrs to gallantry, and slaves to the caprices of the fair sex.’ In speaking of this piece, in his autobiography, he observes that he could not have printed the word ‘cicisbeatura’ on the bill for fear of offending the numerous class whom he intended to satirise.
He goes on to say of his play that a man is presented who is the husband of one lady and the serving cavalier of another, and the mutual satisfaction of the two women is exhibited. ‘A married woman,’ Goldoni says, ‘complains to her cicisbeo that one of her lacqueys has been disrespectful to her; the cavalier answers that the man should be punished. “And whose business is it but yours to see that I am obeyed and respected by my servants?” cries the lady.’