There were no gamestresses among the Greeks; and the Roman

women were always too much occupied with their domestic affairs
to find time for play. What will our modern ladies think, when I

state that the Emperor Augustus scarcely wore a garment which had
not been woven by his wife, his sister, or grand-daughters.[97]

[97] Veste non temere alia quam domestica usus est, ab
uxore et filia nepotibusque confecta. Suet. in Vita Augusti.

Although deeply corrupted under Nero and the sovereigns that
resembled him, the Roman women never gambled among themselves

except during the celebration of the festival of the Bona Dea.
This ceremonial, so often profaned with licentiousness, was not

attended by desperate gambling. The most depraved women
abstained from it, even when that mania was at its height, not

only around the Capitol, but even in the remainder of the Empire.
Contemporary authors, who have not spared the Roman ladies, never

reproached them with this vice, which, in modern times, has been
desperately practised by women who in licentiousness vied with

Messalina.
In France, women who wished to gamble were, at first, obliged to

keep the thing secret; for if it became known they lost
caste. In the reign of Louis XIV., and still more in that of

Louis XV., they became bolder, and the wives of the great engaged
in the deepest play in their mansions; but still a gamestress was

always denounced with horror. `Such women,' says La Bruyiere,
`make us chaste; they have nothing of the sex but its garments.'

By the end of the 18th century, gamestresses became so numerous
that they excited no surprise, especially among the higher

classes; and the majority of them were notorious for unfair play
or downright cheating. A stranger once betted on the game of a

lady at a gaming-table, who claimed a stake although on a losing
card. Out of consideration for the distinguished trickstress,

the banker wished to pay the stranger as well; but the latter
with a blush, exclaimed--`Possibly madame won, but as for myself,

I am quite sure that I lost.'
But if women cheated at play, they also frequently lost; and were

often reduced to beggary, or to what is far viler, to sacrifice,
not only their own honour, but that of their daughters.

Gaming sometimes led to other crimes. The Countess of
Schwiechelt, a young and beautiful lady from Hanover, was much

given to gambling, and lost 50,000 livres at Paris. In order to
repair this great loss, she planned and executed the robbery of a

fine coronet of emeralds, the property of Madame Demidoff. She
had made herself acquainted with the place where it was kept, and

at a ball given by its owner the Hanoverian lady contrived to
purloin it. Her youth and rank in life induced many persons to

solicit her pardon; but Buonaparte left her to the punishment to
which she was condemned. This occurred in 1804.

In England, too, the practice of gambling was fraught with the
worst consequences to the finest feelings and best qualities of

the sex. The chief danger is very plainly hinted at in the
comedy of _The Provoked Husband_.

_Lord Townley_.--'Tis not your ill hours that always distract me,
but, as often, the ill company that occasions those hours.

_Lady Townley_.--Sure I don't understand you now, my lord. What
ill company do I keep?

_Lord Townley_.--Why, at best, women that lose their money, and
men that win it; _or, perhaps, men that are voluntary bubbles at

one game, in hopes a lady will give them fair play at another._
`The facts,' says Mr Massey,[98] `confirm the theory.

Walpole's Letters and Mr Jesse's volumes on George Selwyn and his
Contemporaries, teem with allusions to proved or understood cases

of matrimonial infidelity; and the manner in which notorious
irregularities were brazened out, shows that the offenders did

not always encounter the universal reprobation of society.
[98] History of England, ii.

`Whist was not much in vogue until a later period, and was far
too abstruse and slow to suit the depraved taste which required

unadulterated stimulants.'
The ordinary stakes at these mixed assemblies would, at the

present day, be considered high, even at the clubs where a rubber
is still allowed.

`The consequences of such gaming were often still more lamentable
than those which usually attended such practices. It would

happen that a lady lost more than she could venture to confess to
her husband or father. Her creditor was probably a fine

gentleman, or she became indebted to some rich admirer for the
means of discharging her liabilities. In either event, the

result may be guessed. In the one case, the debt of honour was
liquidated on the old principle of the law-merchant, according to

which there was but one alternative to payment in purse. In
the other, there was likewise but one mode in which the

acknowledgment of obligation by a fine woman would be acceptable
to a man of the world.'

`The perniciousconsequences of gambling to the nation at large,'
says another writer, `would have been intolerable enough had they

been confined to the stronger sex; but, unfortunately" target="_blank" title="ad.不幸；不朽；可惜">unfortunately, the women
of the day were equally carried away by this criminal

infatuation. The disgusting influence of this sordid vice was so
disastrous to female minds, that they lost their fairest

distinction and privileges, together with the blushing honours of
modesty. Their high gaming was necessarily accompanied with

great losses. If all their resources, regular and irregular,
honest and fraudulent, were dissipated, still, _GAME-DEBTS MUST

BE PAID!_ The cunningwinner was no stranger to the necessities
of the case. He hinted at _commutations_--which were not to be

refused.
"So tender these,--if debts crowd fast upon her,

She'll pawn her _VIRTUE_ to preserve her _HONOUR!_"
Thus, the last invaluable jewel of female possession was

unavoidably resigned. That was indeed the forest of all
evils, but an evil to which every deep gamestress was

inevitably exposed.'
Hogarth strikingly illustrated this phase of womanhood in

England, in his small picture painted for the Earl of Charlemont,
and entitled `_Picquet, or Virtue in Danger_.' It shows a young

lady, who, during a _tete-a-tete_, had just lost all her
money to a handsome officer of her own age. He is represented in

the act of returning her a handful of bank-bills, with the hope
of exchanging them for another acquisition and more delicate

plunder. On the chimney-piece are a watch-case and a figure of
Time, over it this motto--_Nunc_, `Now!' Hogarth has caught his

heroine during this moment of hesitation--this struggle with
herself--and has expressed her feelings with uncommon success.

But, indeed, the thing was perfectly understood. In the
_Guardian_ (No. 120) we read:--`All play-debts must be paid in

specie or by equivalent. The "man" that plays beyond his
income pawns his estate; the "woman" must find out something

else to mortgage when her pin-money is gone. The husband has his
lands to dispose of; the wife her person. Now when the female

body is once dipped, if the creditor be very importunate, I
leave my reader to consider the consequences.' . . . .

A lady was married when very young to a noble lord, the honour
and ornament of his country, who hoped to preserve her from the

contagion of the times by his own example, and, to say the truth,
she had every good quality that could recommend her to the bosom

of a man of discernment and worth. But, alas! how frail and
short are the joys of mortals! One unfortunate hour ruined his

darling visionary scheme of happiness: she was introduced to an
infamous woman, was drawn into play, liked it, and, as the

unavoidable consequence, she was ruined,--having lost more in one
night than would have maintained a hundred useful families for a

twelvemonth; and, dismal to tell, she felt compelled to sacrifice
her virtue to the wretch who had won her money, in order to

recover the loss! From this moment she might well exclaim--
`Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!'

The affectionate wife, the agreeablecompanion, the indulgent
mistress, were now no more. In vain she flattered herself that