31. A Deadly Fix
Most women in seventeenth-century Italy were in a deadly fix. Those who did not want to become nuns and join a convent had three options: beg, prostitute themselves, or marry. Most married, but given the state of things, those who ended up with an abusive husband were usually out of luck. Divorce was not an option, and complaints were met by advice to be patient, submit to their spouses, diligently fulfill their wifely duties, and try harder to please their hubbies.
Many women settled for praying that an abusive husband would mend his way, or barring that, prayed for early widowhood. Some were more proactive in bringing about widowhood. For the latter, a dealer in cosmetics named Giulia Tofana must have seemed like an angel of deliverance. A deadly angel, who helped many women free themselves from a toxic marriage, with a toxin that was named after her: Aqua Tofana. When she was finally caught, contemporaries were shocked to learn that Tofana had helped poison more than 600 men.
