WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
a substitute for matrimony in polygyny, and more especially in prostitution.
Dr. Johnson, in spite of his stern piety, recognised fully that inconstancy is a common masculine failing. He had no clemency for the unfaithfulness of wives. When Boswell told the Doctor that a friend, in an argument with a lady, had declared that conjugal infidelity was "by no means so bad in the husband as in the wife," Johnson said: "Your friend was in the right, sir," adding, "Wise married women don't trouble themselves about infidelity in their husbands."
Many men and women of genius have displayed an aptitude for polygyny, but probably not in a greater degree than less gifted persons. The amours of the ordinary man are not recorded, as in the case of the man of genius. Moore, in his "Life of Byron," states that all the greatest artists and poets have been "either strangers or rebels to domestic ties." If constant susceptibility to love is a mark of the polygynous impulse, as it would seem to be, then poets from Ovid to Byron and Burns undoubtedly instance that impulse.
Musicians are notably prone to inconstancy in love, as their biographers show.[1] All creative artists are
- ↑ Beethoven declared that one of his loves, which lasted seven months, was unusual for its duration.
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