CONCUBINAGE IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMEs.

285

of incongruous marriage are enhanced (and enhanced

they will always most surely be in persons of the great
est sensibility) then the most powerful and the surest
cause of concubinage and courtezanism must be called
into activity.
What, then, does history tell us as to the universal
ity of these vicious practices, in countries where mo
nogamy has prevailed?
The Greeks appear to have had a favourable opinion
of concubinage; it being permitted every where, and
without scandal to keep as many concubines as they
pleased. These were called tallaxlósg; consisted
usually of women either taken captives, or bought with
money; and were always deemed inferior to the law
ful wives, whose dowry, or parentage, or some other
quality, gave them pre-eminence. There is frequent
mention of them in Homer: Achilles had his Briseis,
and in her absence Diomede ; Patroclus, his Iphis;
Menelaus and Agamemnon, and even Phoenix and
Nestor, had their women. Nor, says a respectable
writer, “is it to be wondered that heathens should run
out into such excesses, when the Hebrews, and those
the most renowned for piety, such as Abraham and
David allowed themselves the same liberty.”
In modern times, the conduct of the English and
French is too notorious to require a comment.
In France, we know, that, from the time of Francis
its

the First to the time of Louis the Fifteenth, kings

expended immense sums upon their concubines; and
that the nobles almost universally followed their ex
ample.
“The Henry IV,” says Mr. Bulwer, “is
of

name
hardly more historical than that the fair Gabrielle;
of