Note 1230 — Chapter IV · PRE-IMPERIAL CAREER OF THEODORA: THE CONSORT OF JUSTINIAN

See Mirecourt (Les Contemporains, Paris, 1855, 78) for an amusing account (with portrait) of Lola Montez, and her bold procedure in dispensing with her maillots, “to the delight of the gentlemen of the orchestra,” when dancing at Paris. Some may still remember the popularity of “the Menken,” as Mazeppa at Astley’s, the result of her having been counselled to turn “to account her fine physique”; see Dic. Nat. Biog., sb. nom., for her career and distinguished associates. Her apology, protesting against the performance being denounced as an exhibition of nakedness, was published, and is extant. This hetaira approached somewhat to her Greek prototypes, and issued a volume of poems, which, if not equal to Sappho’s, had a merit of their own. The same significance cannot, however, be attached to such displays as at the present day. The indiscriminate bathing was only just passing into disrepute, and ingenuous exhibitions of that kind were still possible. See, for instance, Aristaenetus (i, 7), where a “modest” young lady trips down to the beach, coolly divests herself of her clothing, and asks a young gentleman, who happens to be reclining there, to keep an eye on her things while she is in the water. This author, waiting c. 500, could scarcely have deemed such an incident preposterous in his time. As to naked women in the theatre, in addition to the notices already given from Chrysostom, see In Matth. Hom. xix, 4 (in Migne, viii, 120).