If such an exchange were offered, They would wish to save their little dog’s life by their husband’s death.

Many of them appear scrupulously religious and holy, indeed, and insist on going to a particular church to hear such a good man, such an excellent man, when their sole purpose, as he continues, is “to see and be seen, to observe the latest fashions, to meet some procurer, bawd, monk or friar, or to entice some lively fellow.”

For they persuade themselves, as Nevizzano shows, “that it is neither sin nor shame to sleep with a lord or a parish priest, if he is a handsome man.” And though she kneels often and prays devoutly, says Platina, “it is not for her husband’s welfare, her children’s good or any friend, but for her sweetheart’s return and her procurer’s health.”

If her husband wants her to go out, she pretends to be ill: “And pretends that her head has suddenly begun to ache.” Her head hurts, and she cannot move. But if her lover asks the same, she is ready for him at any time, at every hour of the night.

In the kingdom of Malabar and around Goa in the East Indies, the women are so cunning that, with a certain drink they give their husbands supposedly to drive away cares, “they make them sleep for twenty-four hours, or so intoxicate them that they remember nothing of what they saw done or heard; then, by washing their feet, restore them again, and so make their husbands cuckolds before their faces.”

Some are unfaithfully disposed at all times towards anyone they like; others are more cautious, restricting themselves to a few people at particular times, as the empress Livia “would take a passenger aboard only when the ship was full.” But as the poet said,

No pen could write, no tongue succeed in telling, By eloquence’s power or art’s assistance, A hundredth part of women’s treacheries.

Both sexes, to tell the truth, are often at fault. Men and women give genuine grounds for this discontent, aggravating it and furnishing matter for suspicion. Yet most of the principal causes arise from other external accidents and circumstances, even when the partners themselves are innocent and both well disposed.

The indiscreet behaviour of some lustful gallant—and, conversely, of some flighty woman—through frequent visits to a house and bold, improper gestures, may cause a breach. By his excessive familiarity he may colour the husband thoroughly yellow, if the husband already inclines that way. If the visitor is poor, of low birth and otherwise unattractive, says Benedetto Varchi, the husband suspects him less. But if he is handsome, like Alcibiades in Greece or Castruccio Castracani in Italy, well born and admired for his accomplishments, the husband grows more agitated and watches his actions.

The emperor Theodosius gave his wife Eudoxia a golden apple when he was courting her. Long afterwards she gave it to a young gallant at court with whom she was particularly acquainted. Seeing the apple in his hand, the emperor immediately suspected his wife of more unchastity than there was, banished the man from court, and from that day onwards ceased to have relations with her.

A rich merchant had a beautiful wife. As usual, he went travelling; in his absence a fellow tried to seduce her. She refused him; nevertheless, when he died shortly afterwards, he left her a legacy because of his love for her. On returning, her jealous husband, because she had gained more on land than he had at sea, cast her out on suspicion.

Now when those other circumstances of time and place, opportunity and persistent solicitation, combine, what will they not accomplish?

A favourable opportunity can win the most reluctant woman, If he chooses his moment so wisely that he is sure not to fail; Then he who loves her playful humour, and skilfully blends his dalliance, Makes the love that swims in her eye dive into her heart.

At plays, masques, great feasts and banquets, for example, one man singles out his wife to dance, another courts her in his presence, a third tempts her, and a fourth slips into her favour with a pleasing compliment and a sweet smile, ingratiating himself with a double-entendre. So did that merry fellow in the satirist with his Glycerium, “sitting beside her and affectionately pressing the inside of her palm,”

You may freely take what my garden contains, If you give me what your garden contains,

and many such things, and so forth. And then, as the poet says,

She cannot long remain chaste Who is assailed on every side.

For after a great feast, “In wine a woman often fails to recognize her own man.” Noah, says Jerome, “exposed in drunkenness the nakedness he had covered for six hundred years in sobriety.” Lot slept with his daughters when drunk, as Cinyras did with Myrrha,

For what does drunken Venus care?

The most sexually restrained may be overcome. Or if, in another way, they keep bad company, those who are modest in themselves and dare not transgress, “encouraged by others, grow shameless and bold, and acquire a bad habit.”

One woman corrupts marriage for the sake of gain; Another, herself transgressing, wants many companions in her disease.

Or if they live in suspect places—an ill-reputed inn, near brothels, near monks or friars, Nevizzano adds—where there are many tempters and solicitors, idle people who frequent their company, it may give reasonable grounds for suspicion. Martial long ago inveighed against women who feigned illness to go to the baths; for in this way, often,

Leaving her husband behind, She arrives a Penelope and leaves a Helen.

Aeneas Sylvius issues a warning against princes’ courts, because there are “so many handsome young men making promises,” so many splendid suitors to tempt her, and so on. “If you leave her in such a place, you will probably find her in company you dislike: either they have come to her, or she has gone to them.”

Kornmann makes a sceptical joke in his lustful Country: “Is a maiden’s chastity considered untouched when scholars frequently visit her?” And Baldus the lawyer continues the mockery: “When a scholar,” he says, “speaks with a girl, he is not presumed to be saying the Our Father to her.” When a scholar talks privately with a maiden or another man’s wife, it is presumed that he is not saying an Our Father.

Or if I see a monk or friar climbing a ladder at midnight into a maiden’s or widow’s bedroom window, I shall hardly think he is going there to administer the sacraments or hear her confession. These are the ordinary causes of jealousy, which intensify or diminish as their circumstances vary.