and covered themselves entirely with a black silk mantle having a hood, on the top of which they
Mutinelli, Lessico; G. R. Michiel, i. 283.
placed the three-cornered hat. This garment was nothing, in fact, but a domino. Of course the women soon discovered the advantages of a dress in which they could not only disguise themselves but could even pass for men. The ‘Cendaleto’ remained as the proper dress for going out in the morning, but in the afternoon and evening, at
NIGHT ON THE RIVA
the theatre, at the ridotti, or in the piazza, the mask and domino became indispensable, and men and women wore precisely the same three-cornered hat.
It was soon noticed, however, that the domino did not tend to improve the public morals, and a decree was issued limiting its use to the period between the first Sunday in October and Advent Sunday, and during Carnival and the festivities which took place at the Ascension.
The women, no doubt, amused themselves in various ways, not excepting that form of diversion in which women have such marked advantages over men; but their chief enjoyment, if not their principal occupation, was gambling. Games of chance were played for very high stakes in the ridotti, which were gaming-clubs, not much better than the ‘hells’ of modern cities. The most celebrated was that connected with the theatre of San Moisè, which the government protected as a useful social institution. A patrician, generally a senator, presided in his toga at the tables, in order to see that there was no cheating. The singular rule of admission was that one must be either noble or masked, and the consequence was that the Venetian ridotti were frequented not only by the Venetians themselves, but by half the gamblers, adventurers, and blacklegs in Europe.
King Frederick IV. of Denmark once visited San Moisè disguised in a domino, and won a large sum of money from a Venetian noble who was
Tassini, under ‘Ridotto.’