Page 244, line 12. And shall I sup where JULIET at the Masque Originally thus: And shall I sup where JULIET at the Masque An old Palace of the Cappelletti, with its uncouth balcony and irregular windows, is still standing in a lane near the Market-place; and what Englishman can behold it with indifference? When we enter Verona, we forget ourselves and are almost inclined to say with Dante, "Vieni a veder Montecchi, e Cappelletti." Page 244, line 14. Such questions hourly do I ask myself; It has been observed that in Italy the memory sees more than the eye. Scarcely a stone is turned up that has not some historical association, ancient or modern; that may not be said to have gold under it. Page 244, line 16. 'To Ferrara ' Fallen as she is, she is still, as in the days of Tassoni, "La gran donna del Po." Page 245, line 1. Would they had loved thee less, or feared thee more! From the sonnet of Filicaja, "Italia Italia!" &c. Page 245, line 2. Twice hast thou lived already; Twice shone among the nations of the world, All our travellers, from Addison downward, have diligently explored the monuments of her former existence; while those of her latter have, comparatively speaking, escaped observation. If I cannot supply the deficiency, I will not follow their example; and happy shall I be if by an intermixture of verse and prose I have furnished my countrymen on their travels with a pocket-companion. Though the Obscure has its Worshippers, as well indeed it may, for ever changing its aspect and now and then, if we may believe it, wearing the likeness of the Sublime; I have always endeavoured, with what success I cannot say, to express my thoughts and my feelings as naturally and as clearly in Verse as in Prose, sparing no labour and remembering the old Adage, "Le Temps n'épargne pas ce qu'on fait sans lui.” ་་ It was the boast of Boileau, and how much are we indebted to him, that he had taught Racine to write with difficulty, to do as others have done who have left what will live for ever. 'Weigh well every word nor publish till many years are gone by," is an Injunction which has descended from Age to Age, the Injunction of One* who could publish only in Manuscript and in Manuscript hope to survive; though now (such the energy of his Genius, such the excellence of his precept and his practice) in every Country, every Language, and in numbers almost numberless, our constant companion wherever we go.t What would He have said now, when many a Volume, on its release from the Closet, wings its way in an instant over the Old World and the New, flying from City to City during the changes of the Moon; and when the words, which are uttered in our Senate at Midnight, are delivered to thousands at Sun-rise and before Sun-set are travelling to the Ends of the Earth? Page 245, line 9. If but a sinew vibrate, There is a French proverb that must sometimes occur to an observer in the present age: Beaucoup de mal, peu de bruit; Beaucoup de bruit, peu de mal. To Lord John Russell are we indebted for that admirable definition of a Proverb, "The wisdom of many and the wit of one." Page 246, line 3. The bat came hither for a sleeping-place; A Mirror in the sixteenth century is said to have revealed a secret that led to less tragical consequences. John Galeazzo Visconte, Duke of Milan, becoming enamoured in his youth of a daughter of the House of Correggio, his gaiety, his cheerfulness left him, as all observed though none knew why; till some Ladies of the Court, who had lived * Horace. Nineteen Centuries have passed away, and what scholar has not now his pocket-Horace ? with him in great familiarity and who had sought and sought but never found, began to rally him on the subject, saying, "Forgive us our presumption, Sir; but, as you are in love, for in love you must be, may we know who she is, that we may render honour to whom honour is due; for it will be our delight no less than our duty to serve her?" The Duke was in dismay and endeavoured to fly, if it were possible, from so unequal a combat. But in flight there is no security when such an enemy is in the field; and, being soon convinced that the more he resisted, the more he would be assailed, he resolved at once to capitulate; and, commanding for the purpose a splendid entertainment, such as he was accustomed to give, he invited them, one and all; not forgetting the lovely Correggia, who was as urgent as the rest, though she flattered herself that she knew the secret as well as he did. When the banquet was over and the table-cloth removed, and every guest, as she sate, served with water for her fair hands and with a tooth-pick from the odoriferous mastic-tree, a Cabinet of rich workmanship was placed on the table, “And now," said he, with a gaiety unusual to lovers, "And now, my dear ladies, as I can deny you nothing, come, one by one, and behold her; for here she is!" As he spoke, he unfolded the doors of the Cabinet; and each in her turn beheld the Portrait of a beautiful Girl. The last to look and to see was Correggia, for so he had contrived it; but no contrivance was wanted; for, shrinking and agitated, she had hung back behind them all, till to her ear came the intelligence that the Portrait was unknown, and with the intelligence came the conviction that her fond heart had deceived her. But what were her feelings when she looked and saw; for at the touch of a spring the Portrait had vanished, and in a Mirror she saw-Herself! Ricordi di Sabba Castiglione, 1559. For this Story, as indeed for many others, I am indebted to my friend Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, President of the Royal Academy; and I am happy in this opportunity of acknowledging my obligatious to him. Page 249, line 12. Still glowing with the richest hues of art, Several were painted by Giorgione and Titian; as, for instance, the Ca' Soranzo, the Ca' Grimani, and the Fondaco de' Tedeschi. Great was their emulation, great their rivalry, if we may judge from an anecdote related by Vasari; and with what interest must they have been observed in their progress, as they stood at work on their scaffolds, by those who were passing under them by land and by water!* Page 250, line 16. That child of fun and frolic, Arlecchino. A pleasant instance of his wit and agility was exhibited some years ago on the stage at Venice. "The stutterer was in an agony; the word was inexorable. It was to no purpose that Harlequin suggested another and another. At length, in a fit of despair, he pitched his head full in the dying man's stomach, and the word bolted out of his mouth to the most distant part of the house." MOORE's View of Society in Italy. - See He is well described by Marmontel in the Encyclopédie. "Personnage de la comédie italienne. Le caractère distinctif de l'ancienne comédie italienne est de jouer des ridicules, non pas personnels, mais nationaux. C'est une imitation grotesque des mœurs des différentes villes d'Italie; et chacune d'elles est représentée par un personnage qui est toujours le même. Pantalon est vénitien, le Docteur est bolonois, Scapin est napolitain, et Arlequin est bergamasque. Celui-ci est d'une singularité qui mérite d'être observée; et il a fait longtemps les plaisirs de Paris, joué par trois acteurs célèbres, Dominique, Thomassin, et Carlin. Il est vraisemblable qu'un esclave africain fut le premier modèle de ce personnage. Son caractère est un mélange d'ignorance, de naïveté, d'esprit, de bêtise et de grâce: c'est un espèce d'homme ébauché, un grand enfant, qui a des lueurs de raison et d'intelligence, et dont toutes les méprises ou les maladresses ont quelque chose de piquant. Le vrai modèle de son jeu est la souplesse, l'agilité, la gentillesse d'un jeune chat, avec un écorce de grossièreté qui rend son action plus plaisante; son rôle est celui d'un valet patient, fidèle, crédule, gourmand, toujours amoureux, toujours dans l'embarras, ou pour son maître, ou pour lui-même; qui s'afflige, qui se console avec la facilité d'un enfant, et dont la douleur est aussi amusante que la joie." Page 252, line 2. A scene of light and glory, a dominion, A Poet of our own Country, Mr. Wordsworth, has written a noble sonnet on the extinction of the Venetian Republic. "Once did She hold the gorgeous East in fee," &c. *Frederic Zucchero, in a drawing which I have seen, has introduced his brother Taddeo as so employed at Rome on the Page 253, line 26. and at once she fell; * There was, in my time, another republic, a place of refuge for the unfortunate, and, not only at its birth, but to the last hour of its existence, which had established itself in like manner among the waters and which shared the same fate;a republic, the citizens of which, if not more enterprising, were far more virtuous, and could say also to the great nations of the world, 'Your countries were acquired by conquest or by inheritance; but ours is the work of our own hands. We renew it, day by day; and, but for us, it might cease to be to-morrow!'-a republic, in its progress, for ever warred on by the elements and how often by men more cruel than they; yet constantly cultivating the arts of peace, and, short as was the course allotted to it (only three times the life of man, according to the Psalmist) producing, amidst all its difficulties, not only the greatest sea-men, but the greatest lawyers, the greatest physicians, the most accomplished scholars, the most skilful painters, and statesmen as wise as they were just.† Palace Mattei, and Raphael and Michael Angelo as sitting on horseback among the spectators below. * It is related that Spinola and Richardot, when on their way to negotiate a treaty at the Hague in 1608, saw eight or ten persons land from a little boat, and, sitting down on the grass, make a meal of bread and cheese and beer. 'Who are these travellers?' said the Ambassadors to a peasant. They are the deputies from the states,' he answered, 'our sovereign lords and masters.'-'We must make peace,' they cried. These are not men to be conquered.' VOLTAIRE. + What names, for instance, are more illustrious than those of Barneveldt and De Witt? But when there were such mothers, there might well be such sons. When Reinier Barneveldt was condemned to die for an attempt to revenge his father's death by assassination, his mother threw herself at the feet of Prince Maurice. 'You did not deign,' said he, to ask for your husband's life; and why ask for your son's?'-'My husband,' she replied, was innocent; but my son is guilty.' De Witt was at once a model for the greatest and the least. Careless as he was of his life when in the discharge of his duty, he was always careful of his health; and to the question, how he was able to transact such a multiplicity of affairs, he would answer, "By doing only one thing at a time.' A saying, which should not soon be forgotten and which may remind the reader of another, though of less |