Note 6 — Chapter II · MODERN EMOTIONAL UNREST
Reading edition
The “playmate” is a new term for an old thing, which does not, however, imply that present conditions are exactly the same as those of Sheridan’s day who, in The School for Scandal, makes Lady Teazle say: “You know I admit you as a lover no farther than fashion sanctions,” to which Joseph Surface replies: “True—a mere Platonic cicisbeo, what every wife is entitled to.” And the Century Dictionary defines cicisbeo as “In Italy, since the 17th century, the name given to a professed gallant and attendant of a married woman; one who dangles about women,” and shows that the word is derived from chiche, little, and beau.
“Tame cats” and “house friends” are also names given today, by these discontented women, to the persons who engage in this form of cicisbeism.