Page images
PDF
EPUB

always without fuccefs. You may have obferved that, though many other words would explain his meaning equally well, you may as foon make a faint change his religion, as prevail on a stutterer to accept of another word in place of that at which he has ftumbled. He adheres to his firft word to the laft, and will fooner expire with it in his throat, than give it up for any other you may offer. Harlequin, on the prefent occafion, prefented his friend with a dozen; but he rejected them all with difdain, and perfifted in his unfuccefsful attempts on that, which had firft come in his way. At length, making a defperate effort, when all the fpectators were gap ing in expectation of his fafe delivery, the cruel word came up with its broad fide foremost, and ftuck directly across the unhappy man's wind-pipe. He gaped, and panted, and croaked; his face flushed, and his eyes feemed ready to start from his head. Harlequin unbuttoned the ftutterer's waiftcoat, and the neck of his fhirt; he fanned his face with his cap, and held a bottle of hartfhorn to his nofe. At length, fearing his patient would expire, before he could give the defired intelligence, in a fit of defpair he pitched his head full in the dying man's ftomach, and the word bolted out of his mouth to the most diftant part of the house.

This was performed in a manner fo perfectly droll, and the humorous abfurdity of the expedient came fo unexpectedly upon me, that I immediately burft into a moft exceffive fit of laughter, in which I was accompanied by the D-, and by your young friend

Jack, who was along with us; and our laughter continued in fuch loud, violent, and repeated fits, that the attention of the audience being turned from the ftage to our box, occafioned a renewal of the mirth all over the playhouse with greater vociferation than at firft.

The number of playhouses in Venice is very extraordinary, confidering the fize of the town, which is not thought to contain above one hundred and fifty thoufand inhabitants, yet there are eight or nine theatres here, including the opera-houses. You pay a trifle at the door for admittance; this entitles you to go into the pit, where you may look about, and determine what part of the houfe you will fit in. There are rows of chairs placed in the front of the pit, next the orcheftra; the feats of thefe chairs are folded to their backs, and faftened by a lock. Thofe who choose to take them, pay a little more money to the door-keeper, who immediately unlocks the feat. Very decent-looking people occupy thefe chairs; but the back part of the pit is filled with footmen and gondoliers, in their common working clothes. The nobility, and better fort of citizens, have boxes retained for the year; but there are always a fufficient number to be let to ftrangers: the price of thofe varies every night, according to the feafon of the year, and the piece acted.

A Venetian playhouse has a dif mal appearance in the eyes of peo ple accustomed to the brilliancy of thofe of London. Many of the boxes are fo dark, that the faces of the company in them can hardly

be diftinguished at a little distance, even when they do not wear masks. The ftage, however, is well illuminated, fo that the people in the boxes can fee, perfectly well, every thing that is tranfacted there; and when they choose to be seen themselves, they order lights into their boxes. Between the acts you fometimes fee ladies walking about, with their Cavalieri Serventés, in the back part of the pit, when it is not crowded. As they are masked, they do not fcruple to reconnoitre the company, with their spying-glaffes, from this place when the play begins, they return to their boxes. This continual moving about from box to box, and between the boxes and the pit, must create fome confufion, and, no doubt, is disagreeable to those who attend merely on account of the piece. There muft, however, be found fome douceur in the midst of all this obfcurity and confufion, which, in the opinion of the majority of the audience, overbalances thefe obvious inconveniences.

The mufic of the opera here, is reckoned as fine as in any town in Italy; and, at any rate, is far fuperior to the praise of so very poor a judge as I am. The dra matic and poetical parts of thofe pieces are little regarded; the poet is allowed to indulge himself in as many anachronisms, and other inconfiftencies, as he pleases. Provided the mufic receives the approbation of the critic's ear, his judgment is not offended with any abfurdities in the other parts of the -compofition. The celebrated Metaftafio has difdained to avail himfelf of this indulgence in his operas, which are fine dramatic

compofitions. He has preserved the alliance which ought always to fubfift between fenfe and mufic.

At the comic opera I have fome. times feen action alone excite the higheft applause, independent of either the poetry or the mufic. I faw, a duo performed by an old man and a young woman, fuppofed to be his daughter, in fuch an humorous manner, as drew an univerfal encora from the fpectators. The merit of the mufical part of the compofition, I was told, was but very moderate, and as for the fentiment you fhall judge.

The father informs his daughter, in a fong, that he has found an excellent match for her; who, befides being rich, and very prudent, and not too young, was over and above a particular friend of his own, and in perfon and difpofition much fuch a man as himfelf; he concludes, by telling her, that the ceremony will be performed next day. She thanks him, in the gayeft air poffible, for his obliging intentions, adding, that the fhould have been glad to have fhewn her implicit obedience to his commands, provided there had been any chance of the man's being to her tafte; but as, from the account he had given, there could be none, the declares fhe will not marry him next day, and adds, with a very long quaver, that if he were to live to eternity the fhould continue of the fame opinion. The father, in a violent rage, tells her, that inftead of tomorrow, the marriage fhould take place that very day; to which the replies, non: he rejoins, fi; fhe, non, non; he, fi, fi; the daughter, non, non, non; the fa

ther,

ther, fi, fi, fi; and fo the finging continues for five or fix minutes You perceive there is nothing marvellously witty in this; and for a daus hter to be of a different opinion from her father, in the choice - of a husband, is not a very new dramatic incident. Well, I told you the duo was encored they immediately performed it a fecond time, and with more humour than the firft. The whole houfe vociferated for it again; and it was fung a third time in a manner equally pleafant, and yet perfectly different from any of the former

two.

I thought the houfe would, have been brought down about our ears, fo extravagant were the teftimonies of approbation.

The two actors were obliged to appear again, and fing this duo a fourth time; which they executed in a ftyle fo new, fo natural, and fo exquifitely droll; that the audience now thought there had been fomething deficient in all their former performances, and that they had hit on the true comic only this. last time.

Some people began to call for it again; but the old man, now quite exhaufted, begged for mercy; on which the point was given up. I never before had any idea that fuch ftrong comic powers could have been displayed in the finging of a fong.

-Though the Venetian government is still under the influence of jealoufy, that gloomy dæmon is now entirely banished from the bofoms of individuals. Instead of the confinement in which women were formerly kept at Venice, they now enjoy a degree of freedom unknown even at Paris. Of the two

extremes, the prefent, without doubt, is the preferable.

Along with jealoufy, poifon and the filetto have been banished from Venetian gallantry, and the innocent mask is fubftituted in their places. According to the best information I have received, this fame mafk is a much more innocent matter than is generally ima gined. In general it is not intended to conceal, the person who wears it, but only used as an apology for his not being in full drefs. With a mask ftuck in the hat, and a kind of black mantle, trimmed with lace of the fame colour, over the thoulders, a man is fufficiently dreffed for any affembly at Venice."

Those who walk the streets, or go to the playhoufes with masks actually covering their faces, are either engaged in fome love intrigue, or would have the spectators think fo; for this is a piece of affectation which prevails here, as well as elsewhere; and I have been affured, by thofe who have refided many years at Venice, that refined gentlemen, who are fond of the reputation, though they shrink from the catastrophe of an intrigue, are no uncommon characters here; and I believe it the more readily, becaufe I daily fee many feeble gentlemen tottering about in masks, for whom a bason of warm restora tive foup feems more expedient than the most beautiful woman in Venice.

One evening at St. Mark's place, when a gentleman of my acquaintance was giving an account of this curious piece of affectation, he defired me to take notice of a Venetian nobleman of his acquaintance, who, with an air

[ocr errors]

of myftery, was conducting a female mask into his caffino. My acquaintance knew him perfectly well, and affured me he was the moft innocent creature with women he had ever been acquainted with. When this gallant perfon perceived that we were looking at him, his mask fell to the ground, as if by accident; and after we had got a complete view of his countenance, he put it on with much hurry, and immediately rufhed, with his partner, into the caffino. -Fugit ad falices, fed fe cupit antevideri.

amufements; and although there are coffee-houses, and Venetian manners permit ladies, as well as gentlemen, to frequent them, yet it was natural for the noble and moft wealthy to prefer little apart. ments of their own, where, without being expofed to intrufion, they may entertain a few friends in a more eafy and unceremonious manner than they could do at their palaces. Inftead of going home to a formal fupper, and returning afterwards to this place of amufement, they order coffee, lemonade, fruit, and other refreshments, to the caffino.

That thofe little apartments may be occafionally used for the purposes of intrigue, is not improbable: but that this is the ordinary and avowed purpose for which they are frequented is, of all things, the leaft credible.

You have heard, no doubt, of thofe little apartments near St. Mark's place, called caffinos. They have the misfortune to labour under a very bad reputation; they are accused of being temples entirely confecrated to lawless love, and a thousand fcandalous tales are told to ftrangers concerning them. Some writers who have defcribed Thofe tales are certainly not be- the manners of the Venetians, as lieved by the Venetians themselves, more profligate than those of other the proof of which is, that the caf- nations, affert at the fame time, finos are allowed to exift; for I that the government encourages hold it perfectly abfurd to imagine,..this profligacy, to relax and diffi that men would fuffer their wives pate the minds of the people, and to enter fuch places, if they were prevent their planning, or attempt not convinced that thofe ftories ing any ng against the confti were ill founded; nor can I believe, tution. Were this the cafe, it after all we have heard of the pro- could not be denied, that the Vefligacy of Venetian manners, that netian legislators difplay their pa women, even of indifferent reputa- triotiẩm in a very extraordinary tions, would attend caffinos in the manner, and have fallen upon as open manner they do, if it were extraordinary means of rendering understood that more liberties were their people good fubjects. They taken with them there than elfe- first erect a defpotic court to guard the public liberty, and next they corrupt the morals of the people, to keep them from plotting againft the state. This latt piece of refinement, however, is no more than a conjecture of fome theoretical politicians, who are apt to

where.

The opening before St. Mark's church is the only place in Venice where a great number of people can affen ble. It is the fashion to walk here a great part of the evening, to enjoy the mufic, and other

take

take facts for granted, without fufficient proof, and afterwards difplay their ingenuity in accounting for them. That the Venetians are more given to fenfual pleasures than the inhabitants of London, Paris, or Berlin, I imagine will be difficult to prove; but as the ftate inquifitors do not think proper, and the ecclefiaftical are not allowed to interfere in affairs of gallantry; as a great number of frangers affemble twice or thrice a year at Venice, merely for the fake of amufement; and, above all, as it is the custom to go about in mafks, an idea prevails, that the manners are more licentious here than elfewhere.

finished fashion, as well as the neglected vulgar, feem to prefer the. unconftrained attitude of the Antinous, and other antique flatues, to the artificial graces of a French dancing mafter, or the erea frut of a German foldier. I imagine I perceive a great refemblance between many of the living countenances 1 fee daily, and the fea tures of the ancient bufts and flatues; which leads me to believe, that there are a greater number of the genuine defcendants of the old Romans in Italy, than is generally imagined.

I am often ftruck with the fine character of countenance to be feen in the streets of Rome. I never faw features more expreffive of reflection, fenfe, and genius; in

Of the Modern Romans. From the the very lowest ranks there are

fame.

IN [N their external deportment, the Italians have a grave folemnity of manner, which is fometimes thought to arife from a natural gloominefs of difpofition. The French, above all other na. tions, are apt to impute to melancholy, the fedate ferious air which accompanies reflection.

Though in the pulpit, on the theatre, and even in common converfation, the Italians make ufe of a great deal of action; yet Italian vivacity is different from French; the former proceeds from fenfibili. ty, the latter from animal fpirits.

The inhabitants of this country have not the brisk look, and elaftic trip, which is univerfal in France; they move rather with a flow compofed pace: their fpines, never having been forced into a ftraight line, retain the natural bend; and the people of the moft

countenances which announce minds fit for the higheft and most important fituations; and we cannot help regretting, that thofe to whom they belong, have not received an education adequate to the natural abilities we are convinced they poffefs, and been placed where thefe abilities could be brought into action.

Of all the countries in Europe, Switzerland is that, in which the beauties of nature appear in the greatest variety of forms, and on the most magnificent icale; in that country, therefore, the young landfcape painter has the belt chance of feizing the most fublime ideas: but Italy is the best school for the hiftory painter, not only on count of its being enriched with the works of the greatest mafters, and the nobleft models of antique fculpture; but also on account of the fine expreffive style of the Italian countenance.

B 4

ac

Strangers,

« PreviousContinue »