CHAPTER VI.

The Gardens of Venice—Murano Palace-Villas—Symposia—Pietro Bembo and the Litterati—Ariosto and Aretino—“Venus the Fruitful”—Venetian Dialect—Cristina Pisano and Cassandra Fedele—Two Dogaressas—Gold Regalia—Dresses worth £2000 apiece!—A Connoisseur Doge—Dowries with Conditions—Venice Disgraced—Costly Gifts—Wild Beasts—A Disastrous Fire—A Plague-stricken Dogaressa—A Splendid Funeral—A Terrible Pestilence—Dogal-Fraternal Disputes—Beauteous Slaves—Their Prices and Uses—Discovery and Decline—Duchess Beatrice D’Este—“Great Dolls!”—Nepotism—The Man of the Hour—A Widower Doge—The League of Cambrai—Cream-coloured horses for Henry VIII.—Disasters—No “Marriage of the Sea”—La Pace delle Donne—Spectacular Plays—Gorgeous Madonna Giovanna Emo—The Grimani Breviary—Wild-fowl—The “Osella”—The Dogaressa’s Coronation banned—Doge Andrea Gritti’s pompous Progress—Fat Pork and Onions!—Old Marta—Peep at the Dogaressa in Bed!—Frate Pietro Casola’s Account of Venetian Fashions—“What sort of a wife has he got?” 210–251