THE EMANCIPATION OF THE VENETIAN LADY.

Bush Advocate, Volume VII, Issue 647, 9 July 1892, Page 6

THE EMANCIPATION OF THE VENETIAN LADY.

(IKE NATIONAL REVIEW.) In 1672 the two daughters of the Dopro Giustmiuni effected a complete revolution in the life of Italian women, and this by an act of bold insubordination. These young ladies resolutely refused to wear their ehopptnex •with cork aoles a foot and a half thick, from that time dntes the emancipation of the Venetian lady, and, instead of beingkept in harem-like seclusion, in a few years she became the freest -woman, in Europe, espeoially after marriage. All l the ladies followed the lead of the doge's daughters, cast Bride their badge of slavery, and notwithstanding: tbe elersrr, who loudly protested against the "diabolical wickedness" of their proceedings, adopted mariiinc at'a Francs f (French shoes). To form a fair idea of their mode of life, wo must read the comedies of Iloiii, Gozzi, and Goldoni. " What ahull we <to f " cries Donna Costanza to her friend Felicita in J-t Donne fit liiion Umore. ** Why, let us put ou masks <md run round the town intriguing the Siunor Lelio." This leads to a scheme in which about a dozen ladies disguise themselves in the same coloured bantu or domino, embellished with an identical ribbon ; and the unfortunate Signor Lelio ia tormented to the verg-e of insanity. It must hava been amazing to see the entire population of a great <"ity like Venice masked. In the National Gallery there is an excellent picture by Gu*rdi, representing a regatta in which every budy in the dense crowd, mon and wotneu, rich and poor, wenrs a white- acd-blaek half mHsk ; thero is aUo in t'lo ssime room ii curious picture of three or four masked ladies, in company of a gentleman who wears a mask, watehinjr the autics of a, hippopotamus in a menagerie. Once a Vpuetian woman wag masked fbe was free to do as she listed. Neither hut-band nor brother dared interfere wittj lier, nud it was the worst breeding for a man to speak to a masked woman, before i-ho condescended to notice him. Na wouder Lady Walpolo pieferred Venice to any other city in the world. "It was the freest.'