beautiful and fonorous in the expreffion. Without this natural advantage of the tongue, their prefent poetry would appear wretchedly low and vulgar, notwithstanding the many strained allegories that are fo much in ufe among the writers of this nation, The English and French, who always use the fame words in verfe as in ordinary converfation, are forced to raise their language with metaphors and figures, or, by the pompoufnefs of the whole phrase, to wear off any littlenefs that appears in the partícular parts that compofe it. This makes our blank verfe, where there is no rhyme to fupport the expreffion, extremely difficult to fuch as are not mafters in the tongue, especially when they write on low fubjects; and it is probably for this reason that Milton has made use of fuch frequent tranfpofitions, latinifms, antiquated words and phrafes, that he might the better deviate from vulgar and ordinary expreffions. The comedies that I faw at Venice, or indeed in any other part of Italy, are very indifferent, and more lewd than thofe of other countries. Their poets have no notion of genteel comedy, and fall into the most filthy double meanings imaginable, when they have a mind to make their audience merry. There is no part generally fo wretched as that of the fine gentleman, especially when he converfes with his mif trefs; trefs; for then the whole dialogue is an infipid mixture of pedantry and romance. But it is no wonder that the poets of fo jealous and referved a nation fail in fuch conversations on the stage, as they have no patterns of in nature. There are four standing characters which enter into every piece that comes on the ftage, the Doctor, Harlequin, Pantalone, and Coviello. The Doctor's character comprehends the whole extent of a pedant, that, with a deep voice, and a magisterial air, breaks in upon conversation, and drives down all before him: Every thing he fays is backed with quotations out of Galen, Hippocrates, Plato, Virgil, or any other author that rifes uppermoft, and all answers from his companions are looked upon as impertinencies or interruptions. Harlequin's part is made up of blunders and abfurdities: He is to mistake one name for another, to forget his errands, to stumble over Queens, and to run his head against every poft that ftands in his way. This is all attended with fomething fo comical in the voice and geftures, that a man, who is fenfible of the folly of the part, can hardly forbear being pleased with it. Pantalone is generally an old cully, and Coviello a fharper. I have seen a tranflation of the Cid acted at Bolonia, which would never have taken, had they not found a place in it for these buffoons. F 2 buffoons. All four of them appear in masks that are made like the old Roman Perfona, as I fhall have occafion to observe in another place. The French and Italians have probably derived this cuftom, of fhewing fome of their characters in mafks, from the Greek and Roman theatre. The old Vatican Terence has, at the head of every fcene, the figures of all the perfons that are concerned in it, with the particular disguises in which they acted; and I remember to have seen in the Villa Mattheio an antique ftatue masked, which was perhaps defigned for Gnatho in the eunuch; for it agrees exactly with the figure he makes in the Vatican manufcript. One would wonder indeed how fo polite a people as the ancient Romans and Athenians fhould not look on these borrowed faces as unatural. They might do very well for a cyclops, or a fatyr that can have no refemblance in human features; but for a flatterer, a mifer, or the like characters, which abound in our own fpecies, nothing is more ridiculous than to represent their looks by a painted vizard. In perfons of this nature the turns and. motions of the face are often as agreeable as any part of the action. Could we fuppofe that a mask reprefented never fo naturally the general humour of a character, it can never fuit with the variety of paffions that are incident to every fingle perfon in the whole course of a play. The grimace may may be proper on fome occafions, but is too fteady to agree with all. The rabble indeed are generally pleased at the first entry of a difguife; but the jeft grows cold even with them too when it comes on the stage in a second scene. Since I am on this fubject, I cannot forbear mentioning a custom at Venice, which they tell me is particular to the common people of this country, of finging ftanzas out of Tao. They are fet to a pretty folemn tune, and when one begins in any part of the poet, it is odds but he will be answered by fome body elfe that overhears him: So that fometimes you have ten or a dozen in the neighbourhood of one another, taking verse after verse, and running on with the poem as far as their memories will carry them. On Holy Thursday, among the several shows that are yearly exhibited, I faw one. that is odd enough, and particular to the Venetians. There is a fet of artifans, who, by the help of feveral poles, which they lay across each others shoulders, build themfelves up into a kind of pyramid; fo that you fee a pile of men in the air of four or five rows rifing one above another. The weight is fo equally distributed, that every man is very well able to bear his part of it, the stories, if I may fo call them, growing less and lefs as they advance higher and higher. A little boy reprefents the point of the pyramid, who, after a fhort space, leaps off, with a great deal of dexterity, into the arms of one that catches him at the bottom. In the fame manner the whole building falls to pieces. I have been more particular on this, because it explains the following verfes of Claudian, which show that the Venetians are not the inventors of this trick. Vel qui more avium fefe jaculantur in auras, Claud. de Pr. & Olyb. Conf. Men, pil'd on men, with active leaps arise, Though we meet with the Veneti in the old poets, the city of Venice is too modern to find a place among them. Sannazarius's epigram is too well known to be inferted. The fame poet has celebrated this city in two other places of his poems. -Quis Veneta miracula proferat urbis, Una inftor magni quæ fimul orbis habet? Salve Italum Regina, alta pulcherrima Roma Emula, quæ terris, quæ dominaris aquis! Tu |