DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61902#0210
190
THE MAKERS OF FLORENCE.
obey me, and was ready to do so. Then I said to her, ‘She who has
been obedient to her father and mother, donna mia, will soon learn
to obey her husband. Do you know now what we ought to do ? We
should be like those who keep watch by night on the walls of their
city.* If one of them fall asleep, he does not take it amiss if his
companion awakens him to do his duty to his country. I, my wife,
will take it as a favor, if seeing anything wanting in me you will
tell me of it, which will show me that our honor and usefulness
and the advantage of our children is much in your mind ; nor let it be
displeasing to you if I in the same way waken you up and remind
you to provide for all that is necessary ; and that in which I am
wanting do you supply : for thus doing we will advance each other
in love and prudence. These possessions, this family, and the chil-
dren born, or to be born, are ours—yours as well as mine ; and there-
fore it is our duty to think and to do all we can to preserve that
which belongs to both of us. And according, donna mia, as I labor
outside to provide what is necessary, do you take care within that all
is distributed and used well.’ ”
This admirable address is followed by warnings as to
fidelity, onestd, of the very matter-of-fact and outspoken
kind which suited the age, and indeed many subsequent
ages ; to all ot which the sons listen admiringly, with a
curious esprit cle corps, as men with wives of their own to
manage, which obliterates apparently all sense of natural
reverence for their mother. We will quote only one other
portion of the long process of wife-instruction which both
Agnolo and his sons seem to relish more than any other
part of the treatise. It narrates the means by which this
excellent husband cured his wife of the bad habit of
painting her face, of which he speaks as of a custom
universal among the women of the time. After a short
general preamble as to the wickedness of the custom, he
proceeds thus :
* “Per la patria loro? for their country, is the expression. Both
in Italian and French the word signifying “ country ” is still used
for the smallest village in the same strict and limited sense.
THE MAKERS OF FLORENCE.
obey me, and was ready to do so. Then I said to her, ‘She who has
been obedient to her father and mother, donna mia, will soon learn
to obey her husband. Do you know now what we ought to do ? We
should be like those who keep watch by night on the walls of their
city.* If one of them fall asleep, he does not take it amiss if his
companion awakens him to do his duty to his country. I, my wife,
will take it as a favor, if seeing anything wanting in me you will
tell me of it, which will show me that our honor and usefulness
and the advantage of our children is much in your mind ; nor let it be
displeasing to you if I in the same way waken you up and remind
you to provide for all that is necessary ; and that in which I am
wanting do you supply : for thus doing we will advance each other
in love and prudence. These possessions, this family, and the chil-
dren born, or to be born, are ours—yours as well as mine ; and there-
fore it is our duty to think and to do all we can to preserve that
which belongs to both of us. And according, donna mia, as I labor
outside to provide what is necessary, do you take care within that all
is distributed and used well.’ ”
This admirable address is followed by warnings as to
fidelity, onestd, of the very matter-of-fact and outspoken
kind which suited the age, and indeed many subsequent
ages ; to all ot which the sons listen admiringly, with a
curious esprit cle corps, as men with wives of their own to
manage, which obliterates apparently all sense of natural
reverence for their mother. We will quote only one other
portion of the long process of wife-instruction which both
Agnolo and his sons seem to relish more than any other
part of the treatise. It narrates the means by which this
excellent husband cured his wife of the bad habit of
painting her face, of which he speaks as of a custom
universal among the women of the time. After a short
general preamble as to the wickedness of the custom, he
proceeds thus :
* “Per la patria loro? for their country, is the expression. Both
in Italian and French the word signifying “ country ” is still used
for the smallest village in the same strict and limited sense.