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.’ The playwright no doubt heard the speech in actual life. The cavalier was the real master of the house in many families, yet now and then a husband could be jealous, though not in the least in love. Goldoni says that there were husbands who put up with their wives’ cavaliers in a submissive spirit, but that there were others who were enraged [Sidenote: _Goldoni, vol. ii. chap. x._] by those strange beings, who were like second masters of the house in disorganised families. It is certain that the Venetian ladies cared more for gambling than for adornment, or anything else. In the morning they wore a dress of more or less rich stuff, but always black, and when they went out they wore a long scarf, also black, which they disposed with much grace upon their heads, crossed upon their bosom, and knotted loosely behind the waist. This dress went by the general name of ‘Cendaleto,’ and it was the custom to apply the appellation also to those who wore it. They said, for instance, that there were so many ‘Cendaleti’ at a ceremony, meaning that number of ladies. Giustina Renier Michiel, the historian of all that was left of grace and beauty in Venice, says that the scarf had the magic power of making the plainest women pretty. Though dress was simple enough on ordinary occasions, conforming to certain rules, yet on gala occasions the latest fashions were consulted. [Sidenote: _Rom. viii. 303._]