WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
able method of escape are a prolific source of Western polygyny. Most happily-married men are quite content under monogamy, in spite of the variability of male desire. But an enormous number of men, and of women also, live in continual secret revolt against single marriage.
It is dangerous to blind ourselves in this matter. Neither sanctioned polygamy, nor sanctioned monogamy, are adapted to the emotional and passional needs of the whole body of men and women of a race or a nation. There are discontented women, and probably men, in the polygamous societies; but there is probably more dissatisfaction among both sexes living under indissoluble monogamic marriage.
Polygyny is very ancient, and was always widespread in the West, though the moralists, theological and secular, have consistently condemned it for centuries. Among the kings of England, Henry VIII. and Charles II. exhibited strong polygynous instincts. T. H. Jesse, "Memoirs of the Court of England," writes that George I. "had the folly and wickedness to encumber himself with a seraglio." Thackeray in "The Four Georges," refers frequently to the royal mistresses. Monarchs and nobles throughout the whole of Europe, and in all ages, have imitated Eastern polygamy by the maintenance of court mistresses and paramours. This precedent made plural
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