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Abstract
The Grand Tour spawned much interest in Italian cicisbeism in Britain. The responses to cicisbeism have so far gone unexamined as a means to decode British opinion about Italy. This thesis takes four Grand Tour authors, Tobias Smollett, Samuel Sharp, Merry Berry, and Joseph Forsyth, and examines their treatment of cicisbeism with an eye to illuminating their opinions about Italy as a whole. The indignant descriptions of the practice represent deeper criticism of Italian society.