Page:The whole familiar colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.djvu/348

344 FAMILIAR COLLOQUIES. times, none but persons of high extraction saluted one another with a kiss, and did not permit every one to kiss them, no not so much as their hand; now-a-days a tanner or currier that stinks of the leather shall presume to kiss a lady of the highest quality. Nay, even in marriages there is no regard had to honour noblemen's daughters are married to tradesmen's sons, and tradesmen's daughters to noblemen, so that a sort of mongrels are brought into the world. Nor is there a wench of ever so mean a birth but would presume to use the same paints and washes that the quality use, when ordinary people ought to be satisfied with a little ale yeast, or the fresh juice of a tree that has been barked, or any such thing that costs but little; they ought to leave the fine paints, washes, and cosmetics to women of quality.

To come now to public entertainments and the park, what con- fusion and disorder is there? A merchant's wife shall oftentimes refuse to give place to a lady of noble descent both by father and mother. So that the present posture of affairs calls upon us to come to some resolution as to these matters, and these things may be easily settled among us, because they belong to none but our own sex. But there are also some affairs that we have to settle with the men too, who exclude us from all honourable employments, and only make us their laundresses and their cooks, while they themselves manage everything according to their own pleasure. We will allow them the management of public offices and military concerns. But is it a sufferahle thing that the wife's coat of arms should be painted on the left side of the escutcheon, although her family is twice as honourable as that of her husband's ? And in the last place, it is but just that a mother's consent should be had in putting out the children. And it may be we shall gain the ascendant so far as to take our turns in the administration of the public offices, but I mean only those that can be managed at home and without arms. These are the chief heads of the matters which, in my opinion, deserve our deliberation. Let every one here deliberate with herself upon these matters, that an act may be passed concerning every one of them; and if any one shall think of anything else that is necessary to be debated, let her communicate it to-morrow, for we will sit de die in diem till we have concluded the session. Let us have four clerks that may take down our speeches, and two chair- women, who shall have the power of giving liberty to speak and of enjoining silence. And let this meeting be a sample of what may be expected hereafter.  

Ne. I would have been glad to have met with you to-day, Philyp- nus, but your servants denied that you were at home. Ph. They did not tell you altogether false; I was not at home, indeed, to you, but I was never more at home to myself. Ne, What riddle is this 1 Ph. You know the old proverb, I don't sleep to all, nor can you forget that pleasant joke of Nasica, to whom, when he would have visited his old friend Ennius, the maid, by her master's command, denied him to be 