w ■^ 35 A N ACCOUNT OF THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS O F I T A L Yj WITH OBSERVATIONS O N T H E MISTAKES OF SOME TRAVELLERS^ WITH REGARD TO THAT COUNTRY. BY JOSEPH BARETTI. VOL. I. II y a des Erreurs qu' il faut refuter ferieufement ; des Abfurdites dont il faut rire } et des Fauffetes qu' il faut repoufi'er avec force. Voltaire. L O N D O Ns PRINTED FOR T. DAVIES, IN RUSSEL-STREET5 COVENT- GARDEN ; AND L, DAVIS AND C. RYMERS, IN HOLBORN. MDCCLXVIII, { iii ] f O THE EARL OF GHARLExVIONT< MY LORD, PON your arrival in Italy feveral years ago, a lucky chance brought me within the fphere of your notice ; and from that fortunate moment a friend/hip began on your Lordfliip's lide, tliat has never fuffered any abatement ; and an at- tachment on mine, which will never ceafd as long as I have life. BeJides my defire of flieivirig, by this tSjily method in my powcf, my gratitude A ^ tcr IV DEDICATION. to your Lordfhip for fo flattering a dif- tindion, I have had another motive for this dedication. In the following work I cenfure with great freedom the accounts given of Italy by feveral Engliih and feveral foreign writers of travels. It will not readily be believed that I venture to do fo upon trivial grounds when I addrefs myfelf to Your Lordfhip. Your know- ledge of its language and manners is hardly lefs than my own, who am a native of that country ;; and your knowledge of its literature much more extenfive. To you therefore, my Lord, as to n judge the beft informed and the mofl candid, I beg leave to dedicate an eifay intended to give your countrymen ideas of Italy fomething more corred than thofe which they have hitherto received from the writers on this fubjedt. Continue, my Lord, to look upon an> old acquaintance with that partiality and afFedion,. DEDICATION. v affedion, which has fo long been my boafl. No kindnefs of yours will ever be wilfully forfeited by. My Lord, Your Lordfhip's moil humble and moil obedient fervant. JOSEPH BARETTL A 3 PREFACE. [ vii ] PREFACE, JL H E following work was not under- taken folely with a defign to animadvert upon the remarks of Mr. Sharp and thofe of other Englifh writers, who after a fliort tour have ventured to defcribe Italy and the Italians. Much lefs would I pafs it upon my reader for a complete and fatis-^ fadtory account of that celebrated coun-? tiy, taken in any one of thofe many points of view, under which it may be con^- lidered, I hope no body will fo much miftake the nature of my defign. I had long obferveci, with feme indignation, that VIU PREFACE. that the generality of travel-writers are apt to turn the thoughts of thofe young people who go abroad, upon frivolous and unprofitable objects, and to habituate them to premature and raih judgments, upon every thing they fee. I have there- fore taken occafion, efpecially from this book of Mr. Sharp, to make them fen- lible, if I can, of the errors they are led into, and to point out to them fome ob- je<^s of inquiry more worthy of the curio- fity of fenfible perfons, and caution them againft being too ready to condeniin every thing but wdiat they have feen pradlifed ^t home. An indilcriminate admiration of foreign manners and cuftoms fhows great folly j but an indifcriminate cenfure is both foolilh and malignant. After having palTed ten years in this kingdom, I returned to Italy in 1760. There I found that my brothers had col- ledted into volumes all the letters I had wrote to thena in that long fpace of time. A natural P R E F a; C E. ix A natural movement of curioHty induced me to run over thofe volumes: but I found them (efpeqially the iirfl and fecond) fo full of ftrange judgments on men and things, taken from fudden and fuperficial impreflions, that I thought myfelf happy in the opportunity I had of tearing td pieces each leaf as I went on in the pe- rufal of this feries of obfervations. I beg pardon for this infignificant anec- dote that favours perhaps too much of egotifm. But v/hat has happened to me, v/ould certainly have happened in fimilar circumftances to Mr. Sharp, and to almofl all the travel-w^riters that ever I read. In the following pages I may be thought prejudiced in favour of my own country; and I am not fure whether I can wholly clear myfelf of this imputation. But I hope my partiality will be thought con- ned:ed with fome knowledge and expe- rience of the matters about which I write. Travellers, though inclined to be candid, are X PREFACE, are but feldom well Informed ; and, of courfe, liable to many miftakes. My reader will at leall reap this advantage from the following difcuffions, that he will thereby have thofe matters more fully before him towards the direction of his fewn judgment. contents: t ^i 3 CONTENTS T Q Y O L U M E I, G H A P. L Jr\Ccounts of travellers not much to be credited, and why. Mr. Sharp not fit .to defcribe the Italians, and why. , CHAP. 11. Mr. Sharp's odd method in accounting for the prefent ftate of Ancona. Defi- cience in the inns of Italy how fup-^ ylied by the hofpitality of the natives. Manners xii CONTENT S. Manners of the Anconitans with regard to Grangers. C H A P. III. Mr. Sharp's odd method in aceounting for the prefent ftate of Sinigaglia. En- tries of merchant{hips at Ancona. Re- marks on the facility of plundering Loretto. C H A P. IV. Confutation of a ftory told of a late Britifh. relident in Venice. Churches in Italy confidered as fand:uaries for criminals. G H A P. V. Great variety in the feveral charac^rs of the Italian nations. Meaning an- nexed to the word ftranger by fome of "thofe nations. Their kindnefs to ilrangers. Their averiion to riots and infurredions. Their behaviour to adtors and lingers on the ftage. Their irafcible temper. Bifhop Burnet's account, of Tufcany oppofed to Mr. Sharp's. . C HA P* t O N T E N T. ^ xiii CHAP. VI. Temerity of Mr. Sharp's remarks about the married people of Italy. Some ac- count of a clever fellow called Antonio, C H A P- VII. Mr. Sharp's favourable opinion of the Ro- • man ladies. His fallacious llynefs with regard to. the populoufnefs and fertility of Italy. CHAP. VIIL Rife, progrefs, and prefent ilate of cicif- beifm in Italy. Mr. de Voltaire's ridi- culous remark on the Englidi. CHAP. IX. Culloms of the Italians in confequence of their fuperfcition. HarmlefTnefs of their rareeihows. Bodily flrength of the Ita- lians. Their numbers throughout the peninfula. Debates in their councils about accepting or refufing an abolition of fome holidays offered by the pope, s Difficulties xiif C;0 N T E N T S. Difficulties and dangers attending inno- vation. CHAP. X. Riches got by Italian muficians in Eng- land. Shallownefs of Mf. Sharp's re- marks on this fubjedt. Voltaire's opi- nion of Englifli literature, and of Shake- fpeare and Dryden's works in particular. French tranflation of the Spediator not fo contemptible as reprefented by Vol- taire or Mr. Sharp. Voltaire's igno- rance in Italian. His ridiculous encO« miums on Goldoni. CHAP. XL Origin, progrefs, and prefent ftate of the Italian ftage. Remarks on the ancient tragedies and comedies of the Italians. Their extempore plays of a very ancient date. Their paftorals, opera's, and bur- letta's. Charadterof Metaflafio's drama's* C H A F. CONTENTS. XV CHAP. XII. Goldoni's character, and theatrical atchleve- ments. Abbot Chiari, and his plays. Carlo Gozzi's plays. CHAP. XIII. Literature. Its revival in Italy. Prefent ftate of it there. Libraries throughout that country. PaiTeroni's and Parini's poetical works. Father Finetti's cha- rad:er. His knowledge of languages. Men of learning adlually living in Italy not undeferving the notice of Englifh travellers. CHAP. XIV. Advantages ariling to the Italians from literature. Phylic, law, and divinity how pradlifed in Italy. Noify manner of pleading peculiar to the Venetian advocates. A lift of the men of learn^ ing that Brefcia has produced of late. Advantages of liberty and flavery. 3 C H AK xvi c b n T 't n V S: C H A P. XY. Some account of the rife snd progrefs- o^ academies in Italy* Crufc^. Charad:er of Arioflo. Charadier of Tafib* Arcadia Romana, and its colonies. MaftroLuca the painter^ how miilaken for St. Luke the Evanffeliil. o CHAP. XVI. Prefent fiate of the polite arts in Italy. Parallel between the polite artifts of Italy and England. Buildings at Madrid and Aranjuez. Englifli artifts and mer- chants in Italy> how treated by the natives. CHAP. XVII. Prefent flate of mufic in Italy. Notions of the Italians about making it a part of female education. Manners of the Italians with regard to their numeroua lingers. Mr. Sharp's mifreprefentations about the notions entertained by the Italians with regard to trade and laborious employments. Serenata's, and other mulical diverfions in Italy. A N AN ACCOUNT O F T A L C H A p. L F EW books are fo acceptable to the greateft part of mankind, as thofe that abound in llander and invedlive. Hence alnfiofl: all accounts of travels, publifhcd within my memory, have quickly circu- lated, and v^ere perufed, at leaft for a while, with great eagernefs, becaufe they have been ftrongly marked with thefe charadlers. Men are fond of the mar- vellous in manners and cuftoms as well as in events ; and a writer of travels, who would make himfelf fadiionable in his own country, is generally politic enough B to [ 2 J to bring from abroad abundant materials: for gratifying, at once, the malignity and the love of novelty, that muil predomi- nate in fo many of his readers ; and he who is fo little converfant in the affairs of his own country, as not to have any of his fpeculations upon domeilic affairs pro- duced without ridicule, may with fafety, and fometimes with reputation, be very wife in thofe of other countries. An author of this caft, after a flight furvey of the provinces, through which he has had ocealion to take a fhort ramble, returns home; and fnatching up his pen in the rage of reformation, fills pages and pages with fcurrilous narratives of pretended abfurdities, intermixed with the moff iliocking tales o-f fancied crimes; very gravely infilling, that thofe crimes and abfurdities were not fingle ad:ions of this and that individual, but general pic- tures of nature in the countries through which he has travelled* Every unexpe- rienced reader will infallibly be pleafed with an opportunity of laughing at the prodigious [ 3 ] |)rodigious folly of him who lives oh the other lide of the fea, and will always be glad to find that he may blefs himfeif for not having been born in the wicked coun-*' try beyond the mountain; Thus falihood is palmed for truth upon the credulous, and thus are men confirmed in a narrow way of thinking, and in thofe local pre- judicesj of which it ought to be the great end of travelling, and books of travels, to cure them. An itinerary lately publiihed by Mr. Samuel Sharp on the cuftoms and man- ners of Italy, feems to me above all others a book of this kind. Whether it is to be confidered as a candid and inftrudtive account of a foreign country, or as the offspring of an ignorant, care- lefsj and prejudiced writer, will be occa- fionally examined in the following fheets : and fhould I prove earnefi: in the defence of my country, of which he has given fo very extraordinary an account, I hope 1 {hall be excufed by the generous fym- B 2 pa^^y i 4 J Jjathy of dl Englifhmen, who are' fb laudably partial to their own. But before I enter into the exameri of Mfi Sharp's hook, it may not be amifs to prove, that he was totally unfit for the tafk lie has voluntarily undertaken jj the difficult tallc of delineating the na- tion that inhabits the peninfula in which 1 was born, as he laid under three mofl capital difadvantages when he entered it ; that is to fay, he was ignorant of the Italian language ; was of no high rank > and was afflided with bodily diforders. That Mr. Sharp was ignorant of the Italian language, may be eafily proved by only obferving, that throughout his work he has fpelt feveral names of fami- lies, of faints, and of towns erroneoufly. His inability in catching founds when orally uttere'd, appears mofl glaringly in his miferable remarks on the Venetian diale(5l ; a dialedl very harfh and difpleaf- ing to his ears, and yet extremely fmooth in itfelf, as it abounds in vowels even more- than the Tufcan, which renders it delightful I s ] delightful to the ears of all the Italians, Comparing this dialed: with the Tufcan, Mr. Sharp affirms, that the Venetians have the words Dudlce, Dulio, Dio'-aejine^ Maniare, and Raio^e; but thefe words, which he writes down all in a firing, he has whimfically coined himfeif, and not one of the five belongs to the Venetian dialed, or to any other dialed of Italy. Let any of my readers aik a Venetian, or any other Italian now in England, and I will venture to be called a calumniator, if any Italian whatfoevei; knows any of thefe five words, either by Mr. Sharp's fpelling, or by any pronunciation that hq may invent for them. Intending to throw a ridicule on the Italians, Mr. Sharp fays, that t/jey give the na?ne of palaces even to their country houfes. But he is himfeif ridiculous in faying fo. XJn falazzo means in Italian the building where the fovereign rejides, or the houfe in ii'hich a ?iobleman lives. Thus Marlborough-houfe or Devonfhire -houfe iyould, in Italian, be didinguiflied from B ? commoji I 6 ] common houfes, and be called palazzos.^ What in England is a private maris habi- tation, or a building in 'which many common families live, in Italian is called una cafa. The leaft knowledge of our language had fhown Mr. Sharp the diftinguifhing pro- priety of thefe two words, and had kept him from ftealing this blunder, along with many others, from MifTon's travels through Italy. MifTon was not able to feparate the idea annexed by the Engliih to their word palace, from that annexed by the Italians to their word palazzo. He thought they both excluded littlenefs, which our word palazzo does not, and betrayed his unfkilfulnefs in our language many years ago, as Mr. Sharp does now. Mr. Sharp is likewife wrong in his aflertion, that what in Rngland is called a little crafi of inujic, compofed of tivo or three injlruments, is, in Italian, called Acca- DEMIA 3 and, that a trifling halfpemiy- errand is called Ambasciata. He has probably overheard fome footman make ^fe of thefe two words in thefe impro- [ 7 1 per fenfes, and acquainted his nation with the ftrange life that the pompous Italians make of their words : but foot- men will often fpeak as improperly in Italy as any where elfe^ and inflead of confulting fuch people about the .mean- ing of words, he .ought to have looked into a dictionary. I could fay much more to prove by his book, that Mr. Sharp underftands near as much Italian as many French barbers underftand Engliih after a month's refi-- dence in London. I could eafily point out the mea^ernefs of his remarks on the gutturality of the Florentine and the Sie- nefe, and laugh at his acutenefs in having difcov&red that 'they pronounce ce and ci as the Englifli do che and chi. I could ioX. in a ftrong light the impertinence of hi^ deciiion as to the place where the befl Italian is to be learned, :But how is it poflible for me to defcend io v:,ery low, as to animadvert on the Italian language with this rare linguift, who talks through rQne fourth of his book of Cicijbeosy and [ 8 ] never once fpells the word right, wrli-- ing for ever Cicejbeos or Cecejkeos ? If his utter ignorance of the Italian language ought to have awed him into filence about the curioms and manners of Italj/, the mediocrity of his rank in life could certainly not contribute much to- wards qualifying him for fuch an under- taking. I will not fay by this, that it is an ab- folute requiiite towards painting nations, to be a man of high rank ; and I am far from intending the leaft difparagement to him, when I fay that he is not a man of high rank. I refped: his profeflion i and if he had given me leave, I would refpe(ft himfeif. I mean only to fay, that liis defariptions of the manners of the Italian nobility, which fill up a conii- derable part of his work, are little to be credited, becaufe his I'ank in life, which in other refped:s was no difparagement and could be of no prejudice to him, kept the Englifli miniflers, as well as the noble Engliih travellers in Italy, from intro- ^ ducing [ 9 ] ducing him to the Italian nobles, anc} confequently from affording him an op-- portunity of being properly acquainted with their true charader. I muft even go a ftep further, and af- Brm, that in Venice Mr. Sharp never entered any nobleman's houfe as a vifitor, though he talks fo much and fo v/ifely about them and their domeflic manners. I take it for granted, that Mr. Sharp is incapable of telling a deliberate un- truth when called upon : therefore T am fure this my alTertion will pafs without the leaft contradiction on his fide ; and I am likewife fure, in fpight of his many let- ters from Rome and from Naples, in which he fpeaks fo difiufely about the manners of the Roman and Neapolitan nobility, that he will never venture to fay he ever entered as a vifitor any Neapolitan or Roman houfe, except that of the mar- chionefs Ceva at Rome, who, upon the fimple recommendation of her hair-dreifer, freated him with much kindnefs, and pro- cured CHited him the means of feeing conve- niently the ceremonies of the holy week» But if Mr. Sharp went to Italy with- out any thing in his rank which could obtain him admittance into any noble- man's houfe, why did he not, at leaft, fpeak with fome diffidence in their dif- paragement, and why did he advance with fuch an eafy confidence, many things to which he neither was, nor could, be an eye-witnefs ? How could he be fo decifive in his calumnies on their domeflic con- dudl, and paint them all as the moft vi^ cious {tt of wretches that ever exifted ? Ought he not at leafl: to have informed his readers, that whatever he related of them was a mere hearfay ? Would an Italian furgeon, perfectly ignorant of the Englifh language, be intitled to any cre- dit, if, after a few months reiidence in England, he took into his head to give, in a printed book, the charader of the Englifli nobility, or even of the Englifli coblers ? I, who have refided many year^ in England i who have vifited the greateft [ " ] part of its provinces ; who am tolerably fkilled in its language, and have kept a great variety of Englifh company, v^^ould find myfelf much embarraffed, was I to give an account of the manners of any clafs of people in this kingdom. I know that fuch a tafk is very difficult to a foreigner; and that, even after a long iludy of any people, we are liable, to miflakes. I ihould, therefore, feel the greateit diffidence, and think myfelf obliged to fpeak with the greatefl: cau- tion, if ever I could prevail upon myfelf to make fuch an attempt, efpecially where I found mylelf diipofed to condemn any general or reigning cuftom, to cenfure a whole fex, a whole profeffion^ or any in- tire body of people. Mr. Sharp obferved, that the Italian nobles do not eafily admit to their fami- liarity thofe foreigners who are not deco- rated by fome great name or title; and becaufe he was not treated with the re- gard that his perfonal merit claims from |he nobility of his own country, he gave vent t 12 ] vent to the moil unwarrantable fpleen, and fpoke of them all in the moil poifoned terms that he could poilibly find in his language. But was it their fault, if they were not apprifed of his great perfonal merit ? Was it their fault if he was not in- troduced to any of them ? As to his third difqualiiication, it is not difHcult to comprehend, that a man in a bad ilate of health is very unfit to make obfervations on nations, and de- fcribe their manners from his own know- ledge. Mr. Sharp went to Italy with a painful aflhma that often threatened his life, and once forced him to keep his bed for near two months at Naples : therefore, when ever he reached any town, he flayed at home, and fcarcely ever converfed with any native or flranger. I am pofitive he will not deny, that, in Venice efpecially, lie feldom vifited the Englifh refident there, though he makes fo free with his name, as to relate a flory of him, which I apprehend cannot be true, as I (hall prove in [ '3 1 in due time. But the man who will play the cenfor upon nations, muft give me leave to tell him, that he has need of fomc ether qualifications befides that of a trou- blefome malady. Together with a good fliare of underftanding, this hard tafk re- quires fome perfonal adtivity, to be able to introduce one's felf every where with eafe and propriety, and take every where a clofe view of the privacies of the high, the middling, and . the low. A difeafed body feldom cloathes a chearful mind ; and the man not enlivened by chearful- nefs v^'ill feldom get admittance to thofe privacies; or, if admitted, will feldom fee objed:s as they are. His fadnefs will diiFufe itfelf over every thing he looks on, and all objects will be mifreprefented by morofenefs and ill-nature, the ordinary concomitants of bad health. Hence Mr. Sharp's afperity and rancour whenever he fpeaks of what he faw or heard in Italy, where he could not poffibly find any ho- neft or knowing man but himfelf, nor any modeil and elegant lady, but thofe really deferving [ H ] deferving ones that he took with hlrd from home. We are therefore riot to wonder if a man thus ignorant of the language, of d rank not impofing with regard to the Italians, and afHi(^ed with a dangerous diforder, has not been able to tell many truths, and has caricatured many fad:s: but we have real reafon for furprife, to fee him, under thefe difadvantages, fetting confidently about fuch a work as that of defcribing a large nation, or rather a clufter of little nations, which differ among themfelves not only in manners and in cuftoms, but in government and in laws, and even in drefs and in lan- guage. "We have reafon for furprife to hear him talk with the greateft affurance about a country, which he only vifited in a curfory manner, flopping only a few days, and often only a few hours, in the greateft part of its cities. Had he con-^ fined himfeif to the bare defcription of vinble obi eels, ^^ dealt only in reprefenta- tioDS of inn-keepers, poflillions, valets- de-^ [ '5 ] de-pkce, and other fuch people, Ms work might perhaps have had fome veracity* and fome ufe. But he was for foaring higher, and would paint the Italians of every rank. A daring genius indeed ! Yet let me give in the next chapter a fmzVt fpecimen of his ftrange method of fur- nifhing himfelf with the neceflary mate- rials for his travelling letters, and let me tell a fhort tale of him, the genuinenefs of which he wiU certainly not venture to deny. CHAP. ir. V/NE Signor Giufeppe Baretti (m^yfelf I mean) went from Venice to Ancona ia the year 1765. I had been there about three months without ever having had the pleafure of feeing an Englifh traveller go through or by the place; when lo ! on a morning betimes, one Signor Cecco Storani came to t i6 i to me In a hiirry, and told me, that late the preceding night an fenglifh gentlemaii with three young ladies had put up at the Poft-houfe ; and as he did not under- ftand Englifli, he defired I would intro- duce him to thefe ftrangers^ that he and his family might fhow them fome civili- ties. This Signor Cecco is the fon of ani Anconitan nobleman, decorated by the pope or the pretender (no matter which) with the title of Engliih conful in that town. The Britifh confulfhip there is certainly not very profitable in point of intereft : but the nobility of Ancona look upon it as very honourable, and they are fond of it, as it gives them fome con- fideration in the place, befides affording them an opportunity of being liberal of their dinners to many flrangers, and efpe- cially the Englifh, of whom they are enamoured to a degree of enthuliafm. If Mr. Sharp knew me perfonally, he would certainly do me the honour to be- lieve me, when I aver that I was much pleafed [ 17 1 jpleafed with this piece of intelligence from Signor Cecco, Now, faid I, I fhalt fee an Englishman again ; and what is ftill infinitely better, fome Englifh wo- men, whofe converfation will renew thofe pleafing ideasj of which I have been fo long deprived. But alas, what a difap- pointment ! Though it was fcarcely eight o'clock^ as far as I can remember^ on my reaching the inn with my friend> I found that the gentleman and the ladies were gone. They had got an hour be- fore into their coach, and were hafl- ing towards Loretto, in their way to Rome. No man in his fenfes can fuppofe that a gentleman who travels with fuch pre- cipitancy along the Romagna and the Marca^ is a fit perfon to meddje with the bufinefs of defcribiiig the maimers and cufloms of their inhabitants. Yet Mr. Sharp has boldly m.eddled with that bufinefs, for the gentleman who travelled with thofe young ladies, was Mr. Sharp himfelf. G On ( i8 ) On his arrival at Loretto^ the fame evening of that day in which he left An- cona, Mr. Sharp fat gravely dov^n to write a long letter to an imaginary cor- refpondcnt in England, and informed him of the difadv ant ages that Ancona lies under ^ from the infinite concefiions made to the church by the commercial and military parts of the 72ation. A line peri-od, and in the true po- litical ftyle ! But did Mr. Sharp under- ftand it himfelf when he had written it ? For my part I do not, as I never heard at Ancona of any commercitil ©r mi* litary parts of the Anconitan nation. The church at Ancona is the abfolute tem- poral fovereign as well as the fpiritual: and what concefjions do abfolute fovereigns want from any part of their fubjed:s \ It is true, that there are at Ancona many commercial people 'j that is, fome dozen^ of merchants : and it is true there are fome miliiary people ; that is, about two fcore of foldiers : but neither of thefe two parts of that nation do, cr can, conflitute fii\y dillin<^ political body endowed, witli •anv ( 19 ) any power independant of the fovereign, as the drift of Mr. Sharp's emphatical period imports, when he fays, that they made concejjions . Yet thefe concellions are injinite by his account. After this woeful affair of the infinite conceflions, Mr. Sharp adds, that Ancona has a Jine citadel and a mole. Yet, what- ever beauty he may have difcovered in a citadel which he did not vifit, and of which he only faw fome outward part, as he was coming along fhore from Fiu-^ micino, I will make bold to tell this ikil- .ful engineer, that the citadel of Ancona is not very fine, if the beauty of a citadel confifts in the ftrength of its walls and the regularity of its parts* Then his f]<:imming lightly on Ancona's mole, and coupling it with the citadel, make me fuppofe, that he heard fomebody at the inn mention fuch a thing as a mole ; and fo he fet the word down in his memoran- dum-book, that he might not forget to clap it in the letter which he was to write about Ancona that fame evening, C 2 or t 20 1 Of next day, at Loretto. But by way of commentary to his text, I will fay that Ancona's mole is one of the grandeft works now carried on in Europe. It is a wall, if I may fo call it, built in the fea, in order to check the impetuofity of the waves, which render that port very nnfafe whenever the wind blows from the oppolite Goaft of the Adriatic. As that wind blows^ very frequently in fummer, and almaft perpetually in winter, the late Pope began this work, after having de- clared Ancona a free port. They began apon the finall remains of an ancient Ro- man mole. The prefent work is to be about two thoufand feet in length, if not more -, and when Mr. Sharp palTed that; way, there was already twelve hundred feet of it finifhed. Its breadth is one hundred feet, and its depth fixty-eight from the water's edge. Many fhips load- ed with that kind of fand called Fozzolana^ go to Ancona every year from the Beighbourhood of Rome, where it is found, and no other fand is admitted in- the • I 21 ] tlie work, as no other will petrify fo well under water when mixed with lime. The ftone at firft came alfo by fea from that part of Iftria which belongs to the Ve- netians : but the Venetians, not being willing to permit large expoTtations of that material for the carrying on a work which was to be detrimental to them in a •commercial view, made the Roman go- vernment think of other means to provide ftone for continuing the mole. A Ro- man archited, called Marchionne, who has the direction of the work, fearched carefully the hills about Ancona, and dif- covered a quarry of very hard ftone, not unlike marble ; and by means of his dif- covery the Anconitans were luckily freed from the neceility of providing themfelves with that material from Iftria. Accord- ing to the plan of the archited: Vanvitelli, purfued by his able fuccefTor Marchionne^ this mole is to be very broad at the end, and to have a fortrefs on it, with a light- houfe. It is adorned with two triumphal arches, one ancient^ the other modern. C 3 The ( 22 ) The ancient, v.'hich is as well preferve^ as any piece of antiquity we have in Italy, was erected in honour of Trajan at the head of the mole : the modern is in ho-^ nour of pope Benedid: XIV. Of all this Mr. Sharp had probably deigned to make fome little mention in his letter about Ancona, if he had had the leaft glimpfe of the town. In all likelihood hq would alfo have beilowed a few lines on the Lazzaretto lately built there, on a inagnificent plan, given by the above- nam'd Vanvitelli *. It is a pentagon, and a work little inferior to the mole itfelf : nor would he have forgot to ridi-. cule the Ancona-people for their devotion to St. Cyriacus, their firft bilhop, who, has a very fine fanduary there. But P4r. Sharp's chief powers lay in defcribing cufloms and manners : there- fore after having informed his country- men of the infinite concejjions rriade by a * Vanvitelli is the Architc£l who built the royal palace at Cafcrta near Naples. [ 23 ] feiv merchants, and by a few foldiers, \.q their fovereign, he falls on the favourite fubjed: of all proteflant writers who vilit Italy, the immenfe poverty of its inhabi- tants 'y and expatiates, with the faddefl folemnity, on the extreme wretchednefs of the inhabitants of Ancona and its neighbour- hood. I fhould be glad to know how, and by whom, Mr. Sharp got this piece of intel- ligence, that thofe inhabitants are ex- treinely wretched. The formidable cenfurer of mother church, that fuifer her fuhjed:s to be fo, probably formed his judgment oi them all^ by half a dozen country boys and girls, who followed his coach barefooted on the Loretto road, tumbling, dropping down, and kifiing the dufl from time to time, repeatedly crofTmg themfelves, and finging fongs in praife of their Madona, in order to excite his liberality. But fuch things are common in all countries ; and a man need not travel many mJles from London, without feeing fimilar lights, perhaps more indecent in their kind than C 4 thofe ( 24 ) thofe on the Loretto road, and indicating a poverty full as blamable in the perfons^ who fuffer it, and the police which per- mits it. Had Mr. Sharp tarried only a lingle day at Ancona, Signor Cecco Sto- rani and I would have had the pleafure. of Ihowing him the town : and v/hatever extreme wretchednefs he may dream of in his gloomy hours, I muft tell him that he would not have been much troubled by extremely wretched beggars in the town, as I fcarce faw one during the fix months I lived there, though there are fome in the adjacent country. He would there have feen fome very good and fightly houfes, the inhabitants of which would have treated him and his fair fellow- travellersy not with a Milanefe or a Nea* polltan profulion, but with elegance, with Tefpe(ft, and with kindnefs. He would then have, by the Anconitan gentlemen and ladies, been oiFered fome letters to their friends along that unfrequented road to Rome, v/ho would have occaiionally accommodated him better than he was at the. ( 25 ) the Inns, where his Vetturino thought proper to carry him -, to which inns few Italians of any note refort, going either to their frienc's, if they have any, or to convents, where hofpitality is feldom de- nied, as at their departure it is cullomary to leave a little money for the celebra- tion of two or three malTes, by way of compenfation for the trouble given to their entertainers. Thefe are the great hardfhips that Mr. Sharp would have beeii forced to undergo, if he had flopped a little while at Ancona. At the very worft, I myfelf, as a kind of demi- Englifhman, would have advifed him to furnifh himfelf with fheets, that he might not lie on that road in beggarly pilgrim-fheets, and often in no fheets at all. But he is very wrong when he la- ments fo woefully his hard fate, that led him through thefe two provinces. This wide world cannot all be alike, and its roads cannot all be fo pleafant and fo convenient for travelling a fay, that, as far as I could obferve^ during my refidenee in Ancona, there has been as much done (and even more) ta promote the trade and profperity of that city^ • a^ was ever done; for any other place I have vifited in my various jour- nies through feveral parts of Europe. That government made it a free port, by which they gave up fome revenue : they were at the expence of a new Lazzaretto, the moft magnificent building of the kind in Europe ; and they have been many year& carrying on that expenfive work of the mole, to which the revenues of the whole province are appropriated. Thefe are fad:s 'j and Mr. Sharp's obfervations. are nothing but loafe talk and common-place declamation. Let me now for a; moment return ta the inns in feveral parts of Italy, and fay, that what is deficient in them, is, to my knowledge, in fome places fupplied by the natural hofpitality of the people. I mull here mention a particular that hap- pened [ 30 J pened to myfelf. On my firfl arrival afi Ancona I was not a little furprized to re- ceive fome prefents of iifh, game, oranges^ and fruits from feveral of its wretched inhabit ant Sy that is, from fome of their beft people. They fent me panniei^ and bafkets full of them, with melTages that exprelTed their defire of becoming ac- quainted with me, as they underilood that I intended to flay a while amongfl them. This I thought a pretty piece of urba- nity ; and this is what many people of Ancona do to every ftranger who flops any time there. I wilh that their en- creaiing trade may not abate the gentle- nefs of their manners, and the warmth of their hofpitality. CHAP. III. R. Sharp came from Sinigaglia to? Ancona in a day ; and, though he flayed but one night in each of thefe two places, yet he decides with his ufual peremptori- nefs. [ 31 ] nefs,. that Sinigaglia is the 07ily rifing town in Italy t and that the occafion of its fiourtjh^ ing conditio?! is the vogue of a fair once a year, which is annually improving. But this peremptory decilion is made at ran- dom. As he was going to alight at the inn there, he could not help feeing many houfes, and even whole flreets, built anew^ and his wonderous fagacity led him imme- diately to conclude^ that Sinigaglia was a rifng town ; which I grant i but not for the reafon he affigns, as the- fair he men- tions, inflead of annually improving, is annually decaying. Sinigaglia owes its rif- ing to its own fmall port, which having been made better within thefe few years, enables its inhabitants to carry on a little trade the whole ye3.r round. Befides, their being fo near the much-improved port of Ancona is likewife of fome advantage to them, as they can fend thither their wheat, turkey-corn, hernp, and iilk, of which their territory produces much, and fliip thefe and other commodities for dif- $ant markets.. But it is not true, that Sinigaglia. ( 32 ) Sinigaglia zs the only rifing town in Italy i and it may eafily be proved that this pe^ remptory alTertion is quite impertinent, as there are many other towns in Italy that have rifen within thefe few years, and rife adually much f after in proportion than Sinigaglia. Amongft thefe, I will only name Turin, Florence, Leghorn and Naples. Turin is become a full fourth more populous, fince the addition of feme provinces, made a few years ago, to the king of Sardinia's dominions. Florence and Leghorn encreafe both in buildings and inhabitants fince their fovereign re- lides no more at Vienna ; and Naples be- gins to be too monftrous a capital for that kingdom, fince it is no more governed by viceroys. If Mr. Sharp had taken the leaft infpe^tion of Ancona^ he would have been convinced that it rifes likewife much fafter than Sinigaglia. I have had an opportunity of examining the entries of the fliips at their cuftom-houfe, and have found, that about twenty years ago the .Anconitans could fcarcely fee twenty 3 merchant- t 33 ] foerchant-ffiips in their port : but lince their mole is far advanced, they f^e more than fix times that number. Their en- creafe of commerce has already enriched Inany of their families, and, among others, that df the marquis Trionfi, (or Francis Trionfi, as his correfpondents call him) who by a trade fkilfully managed, has ac- quired in a little time fuch a fortune, a§ would enable him to make a figure even on the Change of London. If at Sinigaglia they have built much of late, they have built much more at Ancona, where the noblemen do not fcruple to be- come merchants. The marquis Trionfi alone has built himfelf fuch a dweiling- houfe in Ancona, and fo many houfes be- fides in various parts of the territory, that the whole together would almofl form a Sinigaglia. Of thefe two towns Mr. Sharp took but a hafty view, as he was going along in his coach, and then faid rafhly what came uppermofl. He talked t>f the rijing of the one, and of the ex- treme wretchednefs of the other, without 3^ knowing I M 1 knowing a jot of either, having reache^l them both late at nighty and q^uitted them= garly in the morning. However though Mr. Sharp h fome- trmes miftaken in his objed;, I will do him th-e j.uilise of faying, that upon the whole he appears to be a good-natured man 3 and of a country too, where good^ nature is fo utterly engroffedy that many Englishmen think it even impollible to iind an equivalent for the word itfelf iri any other language. Mr. Sharp's immenfe tendernefs' £hows itfelf upon almpfl: every occafion. He is drooping vv^ith fadnefs^- when he erofles any defart fpot,. and re-^ volves in his miifd,. that formerly that felF fame fpot was famous for its fertility and populoufnefs. He feels great compaffion in furveying the bellies of the fat priefls, and the thin guts of the people ; and is ready to weep at both from oppofite mo- tives : he drops a tear when he conliders how ignorant, helplefs, and wretched the Italians arej and gives vent to many deep iighs as he is reverendly kneeling on great Galileo's i 35 ] tjalileo's tomb, who underwent the rack in the inqiiiiition, for having fupported a dodrine which is now univerfally held in Rome herfelf. There is no end of Mr* Sharp's lamentations and parade of good- nature. But where was his good-nature when he betrayed fomewhat like a wifh, in favour of the Barbary pirates> and even gave them a broad hint about the facility of plundering the treafures at Loretto ? Had he forgot that thofe pirates are a gang of Mahometans and Jews, of the very worft kind, to fay nothing of Renegado's ? It is triie, that the Loretto -people are Chriflians of the very worft kind, in Mr. Sharp's opinion : yet one would think, that a good-natured man, and one of the befl kind of Chriflians, could never be pleafed to hear of any goodsj whether wifely or fuperllitibully employed, be- longing to Chriftians of any denomina- tion, carried away to Algiers or Tripoli, to promote the happinefs of infidelity and the triumph of unbelievers. But good- natured Chriflians, whether papifis or C 2 proteilants. [ 36 ] proteflants, when influenced by a reli- gious zeal, are often keener in their aver- fion and hatred than they are themfelves aware of : and fo the good-natured Mr. Sharp has unwarily fliown, that he would not be forry if thofe pirates could run away with the Loretto-treafure, and the miraculous Madona into the bar- gain. Nor did he conlider, that if his hints were taken, the Loretto gold and jewels might enable thofe plunderers to break the peace with Old England, and put her at the expence of flill larger pre- fents to keep them quiet. Any other Chriftian, lefs Simulated by good-nature than Mr. Sharp, would have ad:ed quite differently in his cafe ; and after having taken, from within his coach, fo exadl a furvey of the Adriatic as Mr. Sharp did, he would, on his ar- rival at Rome, have gone flraight to the Pope, and, without mincing the matter, would have told his holinefs of the great eafe with which the Barbary-pirates could laud in that part of his holinefs's domi--. nions. [ 37 ] nions, and fweep away, at once, all the Loretto gold and jewels 5 pointing out, at the fame time, the ireans of fcreenipg his rich Madona againft all attempts ct the Africans, and adviling the poor old man to remove the Adriatic further off, rather than venture to give them fuch a triumph over his faithful fubjedts. Whatever the fagacity of Mr. Sharp may be on this point, he was nctj how- ever, the iirfl who took notice of the great facility with which Loretto might be plundered. Many protellant travel- lers, full as good-natured and fagacious as him, have fpoke of it long before he vifited Italy ^ and the great Addifon him- felf would have the honour of being one pf them. Addifon fays, that fuch an enterprife might prove difficult to the Turks, becaujh the Venetians keep too watchful an eye over their motions ; hut would be an eaj) thing for a Chrijiian prince y who had foips paf- fing too and fro, without Jufpicion, cfpecially D 3 if r 38 ] if he bad a party in the town dtfgujfed li^e pilgrims. Such are the wife obfervatlons the greateft wits are apt to make on their travels, when they infpe(5t countries from their pofl-chaifes, and are otherwife pre* judiced againft the places they vifit. But if Addifon had examined Loretto and the adjacent parts ever fo fuperficially, he w^ould not have expofed himfelf to the ridicule of thofe Roman catholics y/ho, know fomething of the matter. Loretto is a fmall town, tolerably for- tified, that lies on an eminence, near three miles from the fea. The feveral paths, from Loretto to the fea-fide, far frorn being flat and fmooth, are all fo winding and craggy, that a man needs look how he walks, if' he has no mind to dillocate his collar-bone. Betv/een the town and the fea, all along the coaft, there are many country-houfes, and many cottages of peafants and fiiliermen i and within ai^ hour's walk of Loretto, on three different ii4es^ t 39 ] lides, tliere are three towns ; that is, Rc- canati, Ofimo, and Camerano, befides many villages and hamkts. Then the fea-coafl oppoiite Loretto is very high, and almoft perpetidictilar, and the fea un- der it is fo full of ihallows and rocks, as not to be approached by any large fhip without the greateil danger. Let U5 now fuppofe, that an honeft Chriftian prince, at peace with the Pope^ and therefore, as Mr. Addifon expreiTes it, unJer no fufpicion^ forms the holy fchemc ■of robbing" the Pope at Loretto* A fliip is made ready in fome diftant port, and manned with a numerous, bray« and faith- ful Chriftian -crew. The Argofy fails away, and in fo fecret a manner, that no foul is apprifed of its dellinatipn but its captain. This captain fleers towards Loretto, and fkilfully pitches upon a dirk night to anchor oppolite the town>, th-at he may not be difcovered by the feverai guards that watch the coafl, or feen by the nu- pierous filhing-boats that fvvarm there D 4 every [ 40 j every night when the waters are quiet. He then apprifes his crew of the fcheme 3 the boats are made ready ; three or four hundred brave fellows get into them ; row to Ihore, and land in the greateft fafety. There they clamber up the hang- ing cliffs in a moment ; march to Lo- retto fo clofely and fo lilently, that they arc neither heard nor feen ; and reach the town without having awaked any body from his fleep. They fee one of the gates; and it is plain they want to get in; but how is this to be eifedted ? I will give it for granted, that the dif- ficult part of this piece of work begins but there. There the merry men attempt to let the draw- bridge down, and force ppen the gate s and are faluted by a cen- tinel with a lingle mufket-fhot. The alarm has not been raifed before : but now the bells are rung -, the inhabi- tants both in and out of the town get out of their beds, and a garrifon of fifty or fixty foldiers (I will not fay of more than a hundred) ruA to their arms, Yetj, the [ 4t 3 the merry men throw the dra\v-bridge down, force the gate open ; enter the town j kill the garrifon with the inhabi- tants ; and leave neither woman nor child alive, that they may not fling a Angle ftone from window or roof: then they advance to the church. Its gates, or part of its wall, is broke open in an inftant : fo is the iron-gate of the fan certainly -, becaufe murder is punifhed with death in Venice as well as any where elfe ; and a bare furmife that it was not, had been highly ofFenfive and intolerably injurious to the Venetian go- vernment. Did he only declare his in- tention privately ; that is, to the very few people whon^ he knew there on his Jirfi arrival f But how can a private declara- tion, made to three or four acquaintance at mofl, be pompoufly termed a loud pro- clamation, which apprifed the whole body of the Venetian common people of his intention ? And how could the refident think that a private declaration, made to a few, would have efficacy enough to. fright the whole people of Venice out of their [ 49 1 their ftabbiiig nature, and think after- wards that it actually frighted them out of it ? Let us turn the pretended loud proclamation which way v/e pleafe, it will always be impofTible to reconcile it with common fenfe and probability. And if it is impoffible to make it only pro- bable, how could any man have the te- inerity to vouch it as true ? But Mr. Sharp wanted to give a body to the phantoms of his iickly brain. He wanted, in one of his fits of good-na- ture, to blacken the Italians ; and could flick at hothing in order to prove his ca- lumnious poiition, that our low people are all murderers and aflaffins. He was not even aware, that by fuch a falfe; afler- tion he was bringing in queftion the con- fummate prudence and circumfpecStion of an Englifli minifter, who, by his wife condud:, has made himfelf the greateft favourite of the Venetians, both noble and plebeian, and given, at the fame time, fo much fatisfadion to his own court, that he has got himfelf promoted to a E higher [ 50 ] Iiigher employment. It is then an al lute fadt, that no Englifhman was ever aflaffinated in Venice, as far as any living man can remember : therefore it could by no means enter that minifter's head to guard againfl any crime of this kind, hav- ing no imaginable foundation for appre- hending that fuch a thing would ever happen during his refidentlhip ; and he could not have decently thought of any loud proclamation, or even private declar- ation, but iuscafe it had been an eftablifhed fafhion there to murder Engliihmen by way of amufement. That every murderer is punifhed in Venice with death, it would be highly ridiculous to fet earneftly about proving ;. and Mr. Sharp may perhaps have heard, that a very little time before his arrival there, one count Nogarola of Verona was publicly put to death in Venice for mur- der. It may be true, for aught I know,, that a man was hanged at Naples, as Mr. Sharp tells us, for having afTaffinated an Englifliman. But I cannot,, without dif- ficulty^. [ SI ] ficulty, believe him when he adds, that the Englifh envoy there was under a ne- ceffity of being extremely aBive in bringing that criminal to, the gallows; and that the fame envoy gave up five or fix murderers who had taken fanftuary within the pri- vileges of his walls • that they were clap^ fed in jail, and yet found means of being 'difcharged the next day, Mr. Sharp deals fo largely in big words and exaggerations, and his fondnefs for the marvellous be- trays him fo often into mifreprefentations, that I wifh he had added fuch circurri- ftances to his ftories, as to render them probable at leaft,. His refledlions on the Italian government imply fuch atrocious accufations, that he ought to have taken more care to prove his alTertions. It i&, for inftance, a grofs mifreprefentation his fayingj that the church throughout Italy flielters murderers and affaffins. In the Venetian dominions, as well as in forrte others, no church is a fandluary for fuch fcriminals ; and in many places, though the church be a fanduary for petty E 2 debtors. [ J2 ] debtors, it does not even fcreen bank- rupts. But to point out every place, in^ which the church is, or is not, a fandu- ary, and to note dow^n all the different kinds of crimes for which the church (where it is a fandluary) allows or denies a fhelter, would be too prolix a detail in the great variety of Italian governments ► I therefore fay drily, that in the Venetian dominions, the church is no fand:uary at all, and that in Piedmont the church al- lows llielter not even to bankrupts* though it does to petty debtors y and this is enough to prove that Mr. Sharp has been guilty of mifreprefentation on this particular fubjed:. And when he tells us,, that at Florence Ms eyes- were tired with the view of an ajfajjin who. had taken refuge on thefieps before a churchy I muft ftiB fuf- pe(5t, what is very poffible,. that he calls by this name fome pickpocket, or fomc fimple robber,, becaufe I know that the common people at Florence, as well as- throughout the world, are often ignorant of the true import of words, and will often r S3 1 Oiften call ajfajjinds even pickpockets and runaway debtors, as fuch people are often called in England by the general titles of rogues and villains. Mr. Sharp, not be- ing apprifed of the popular meaning of the w^ord ajfajjinoy may have miftaken the fellow on thofe fleps for a murderer. However I give this only as a conjecture of mine, grounded on Mr. Sharp's igno- rance of our language, on his grofs care- lefTnefs of enquiry, and on the malignant propenlity which he betrays at every turn, of prefenting every thing in Italy in the worft light. Mr. Sharp expatiates, in very empha- tical terms, on the great readinefs with which the common people of Italy draw their knives and ilab one another. He goes even fo far, as to call the Neapolitans in particular, A nation diabolical in their nature % though, forgetting himfelf here and there, he acquaints his readers, that the Neapolitans behave peaceably on many occafions, where the common people of England would be outrageous. But how E 3 . far [ 54 ] far he is right or wrong in his account of the general nature of the Italians, I will tell him in the next chapter, and will en-f deavour to give a truer idea of our corny mon people than he could poffibly form in his fhort ramble, totally unprovided, a^ he was, of fure means of information. G H A P. Y- Jl HE common people are far from being all alike throughout Italy; ^nd there is, ibr inftance, a yery remarkable difference between thofe at Naples and thofe of Bologna -, thoie of Rome and thofe of Venice ; thofe of Ancona or Florence, and thofe of Milan, Turin, or Genoa. However, upon the whole, they are, in general, humble, courteous, loving, and of a friendly difpofition. They are civil to fuch a degree, that in towns they will always take care to give the wall to any [ 55 ] l^ody who has a tolerable appearance, and pull off their hats, in the country, when- ever a gentleman goes by. Treat them with kindnefs, and call them often by their chriftian names, and you may depend upon their mod lincere attachment. In- ftead of having any antipathy to ftrangers^ they are fond of them to an unaccountable degree. A Jlranger is no very honourable appellation in England. In fome parts of Spain, and ilill more in Portugal, it is opprobrious : but in fome parts of Italy, A Jlranger means a fine fellow j and in fome others, a wife man : I mean always amoagil: the common people. Let any body with a foreign drefs or accent fpeak in their hearing, the Italians will imper- ceptibly fteal near, and liflen with atten- tion to his words j then go home and tell their wives, children, or friends what they have heard j and fddom omit, in the warm elation of their goodnefs, a little embroidery of their own, in com- mendation of the flranger. They are credulous, becaufe they are ignorant -, and • E 4 ignorant I S6 ] Ignorant they certainly are to a great de-s grecs as few pf them can read or write. They are chearful for the greateft part jj which does not imply a cruel difpofition or temper; and love finging, fiddling, and dancing fo paffionately, that, after church on holidays, no mafler or miftrefs muit think of having their young maids or footmen at home before night, as they will abfolutely go where there is a dance, generally in fome field or other open place adjacent to their towns or villages; and there keep their legs in motion in the merrieft manner till funfet. The men, on fuch occafions, pay the fiddles, giving fome money to them before they begin their minuets, furlana*s, ciaccona's, or corrente's. As fuch dances are conftantly kept in the eyes of the public, you may be fure that the women put always or^ their modeiteft looks ; nor would any married woman be found there, if her hufband were not of the party. This is general. But it is fo hard to fay any thing univerfal of Italy, that I mufi fay [ 57 3 ^n fajfanty that dancing on holidays is not permitted, or not common, in the Pope's dominions. The Italians are no rioters, and hate confufion ; and they are, for the greateft part, total ftrangers to the idea of fedi- tion ; fo that they fcarcely ever rife againft government, not even in time of the greateft hardships. Few of the Italian nations will fuifer themfelves to be feized by a violent and general rage once in a century, except at Naples, when the want of bread grows quite infupportable ; but in the Venetian dominions, in Tuf- pany, in Lombardy, in Piedmont, and in other parts of Italy, I never heard of the leaft popular infurredlion. When they meet in large crowds, they do not turn Jnfolent and ferocious, as it often happens in other countries ; and Mr. Sharp himr felf took notice of vaft multitudes, which behaved with fuch compofure and quiet, that he could not help wondering -, and he owns that it had not been the cafe in London, where, when a large body of th<^ { 58 ] the cammon people come together, fomi' ere Jeen quarrelling, fome fightings fome laughing, one half of them drunks and all noijy : and to complete the confujion, two or three dead cats will be hurled about to one another. When the Italians go to any opera, or play, or any other public fpeftacle, they applaud if they are pleafed ; and, if not, they talk to their acquaintance when $hey have any by, or keep filent; and neyer hifs or pelt the ajftors, and never throw any thing into the orcheftra or the pit, totally ^unacquainted with the brutal manner of annoying or hurting thofe, who neither annoy nor hurt them. At Venice only there is a cuftom no lefs nafty than infamous, that of fpitting from fhe boxes intp the pit. This cuftom certainly arofe from the contempt that |:he haughty nobles originally had, and have ftill, for the people. Yet the peo- ple fuffer moft patiently this infult ; and, what is ftill more furprifing, love thofe l^^ry nobles who treat thern in fuch an outrageous [ 59 ] putrageous manner ; fcarcely giving vent to a little anger with fome fhort and comical exclamation , when their hands and faces feel the confequcnce of this beaftly cuflome The Italians are fo tender-hearted, that they will fhed tears at any mournful ftory ; and when any criminal is exe- cuted, you will fee the lloutefl amongfl; them weep moft cordially, pray moll de- voutly, and give what little money they cap ipare to have malTes celebrated for the repofe of the poor fuffering foul : and I think, that fometimes I called them fools for being fo much afFed:ed on fuch occa- iions i though I own I could not help fympathifing often with men, whom Mn Sharp is pleafed to call diabolical in their patiire. It would ^ be endlefs to tell how our common people are hofpitable to ilrangers, ferviceable to one another, and liberal of whatever they can fpare to the neceffitous ; flill keeping up the old l^iendly cuftpm of prefe^ting each other a little [ 6o ] a little bread when they bakej fitting, walking, chatting, finging, dancing, or ^working together, always in good hu- mour, and always pleafed when in com- pany. They are moft rigidly religious ; or moil foolifhly fuperftitious, as Mr, Sharp would phrafe it; nor would they ever dare to go to bed, without firfl fay- ing loud their rofaries over, or finging their litanies, the whole family together kneeling before an imgge ; never miffing their malTes and benedidions morning and evening every holiday ; making their confeffions and communions generally once a month ; beating their breafts in the fervour of their devout ejacula- tions ; never breaking lent or meagre days, if they are well -, and if they are ill, never without aiking firft leave' for fo doing of their ecclefiaftical fuperiors. Their religion is carried to fuperflition undoubtedly ; but ftill they are reli- gious. However, though the common people ®f Italy be thus humble, courteous, peaceable. I 6t ] peaceable, chearful, hofpitable, compaf- iionate, and religious, they have, on the other hand, fuch quick feelings, that even a difrefpedtful word or glance from an equal w^ill fuddenly kindle a good number of them, and make them fall upon one another with their knives. I fay from an equal ; becaufe from a fuperior, that is, from one who has the appearance of a gentleman, they will bear much before they let their paffion loofe, being from their infancy accuftomed to a very ilridt fubordination . When a gentleman happens to fee any of them quarrelling, he ufu- ally fleps between without incurring any danger, and if he cannot part them di- rectly with expoflulation, he will do it by railing his cane upon them both, and have the thanks of the by-ftanders for it. But if no gentleman interpofes, they will not be cooled in hafte, and fome mifchief will be done ; efpecially if there is any matter of love at bottom, which is gene- rally the only great fource of quarrels amongfi: our common people. In matters 3 of t 62 ] of love they mull mutually beware ho^ they deal ; for he that has firfl declared himfelf the inamorato of a maiden, muii have her all to himfelf; nor will he brook to hear a rival play on the guitar, or fing ibngs at night under her window with- out his previous leave, which however is always granted when afked ; and the afking, as well as the granting, confidered by both parties as a civility to be returned upon occaiion. Without that previoiis leave, the reientment of a common Ita- lian flames out, and is not limited to his rival only -, for, if he has room to fuiped: his miftrefs of ficklenefs, after fhe has given her confent to his courtfhip, fhe will be herfelf in danger. Howeter the teader mufl not think that girls in Italy are frequently flabbed by their fweef- hearts, bccaufe, in general, they piqiie themfelves of as much fidelity to their lovers, as their lovers to them. Yet the tafe comparatively fpeaking, will happen in Italy oftener than in any of the countries I have vifited ; and it ad:ually happened la [ H 1 In the neighbourhood of Ancona whfle' I was there, that a young peafant got him* felf into the gallies by giving a danger^ ous blow to a pretty wench 5 and enquir- ing after the opinion that people of their rank had of this affair, I found, that botk men and women were, upon the whole, rather favourable to the fellow, who had given her no motive for ficklenefs, and thought his fentence too hard 5 not pity- ing the girl much, as Ihe had proved a. jilt. This touchy temper in our low people I am far from commending. Yet, if any thing was to be faid in extenuation of the few crimes that it caufes, one might fay, that as foon as a common Italian has fet his heart upon a maiden, fhe is fure, when married, that he will do his beft as long as he lives to maintain her, and never fwerve from his conjugal fidelity. And here I muft remark, that whatever Mr. Sharp may affirm of the unparalleled indolence and fluggifhnefs of the common people in Italy, a point which he. knows i in- i 64 J itt his confcienCe he never was at trouble of examining, I may affirm, ori the contrary, tha;t it is not uncommon to find in the cottage of an Italian peafant the implements of agriculture along with the net and the loom > and that a great many of them are, at once, hulbandmen, fifliermen, and weaverSo See them work in the field, or any other place, they will redouble their diligence if they perceive that you mind what they are doing. There is a fpirit of glory, or, if yoii pleafe, of vanity in them, which I have not obferved in Englifhmen of the fame clafs : and when you depart, they will never do as peafants and all forts of work- ing people do in England, where they fo very frequently afk you fomething to drink. The Italians afk nothing ; and the greateft part of them would refufe, if you were to offer; and even defire you not to miflake them for beggars. Mr. Sharp has taken notice, that f6e tvbole face ofT'ufcany is covered with farm"- hoiifes and cottages^ which are not as in France ( 65 ) prance or in England, thatched huts with *walls of tHud', 'but huilt with jione or brick : that the feafantry looked jlorid, lively, con^ tented, and are fmdrtly drejjed. If Mr. Sharp had looked carefully through other parts of Italy as he did in Tufcany 3 or rather, if in other pkrts of Italy he had met with fuch judicious gentlemen as his friend the abbot Nicolini, (who having been a long while iii England, kneW which way td turn an Eriglifhman's eyes) Mr. Sharp Would then have feen the pea- fantry live much after the fame manner in the Venetian provinces^ in all Lom- bardyi in the ftate of Genoa, in Pied- mont, and even in fome diftricfis of the papal and Neapolitan dominions. Mr. Sharp puzzles himfelf in fearching fbr the reafori why the Tufcan peafants live, in all outward appearance, well, and drefs fmartly ^ and is pleafed td dream, that their air of opitlence is derived from the time of the Medici s family -, being loth to attribute th&efFe(5l to its true caufe; that is, to their fobriety and love of labour. F 1£ [ 66 J If thefe are not the true caufes oi their air of opulence, we mufl think that each pea- fant in Tufeany has inherited an eflate,. which is come down to hirrl unimpaired from a progenitor, who got it in the happ}^ days of the Medici's family -, which fup- poiition would be too abfurd. Sobriety and love of labour make the peafants of Tufeany live in the manner Mr. Sharp faw them live 3 (if it is true that he has minded them) and if many of the Ge- noefe peafants inhabit houfes that are often miftakerf for gentlemen's habita- tions, it is to be attributed to- a degree of both thefe qualites in them, which is almofl incredible. They will cut flat a fharp rock -, cover it with earth,- fetched fometimes from a conliderable diilance y and there plant a vine or fig-tree, or fow it with fallad at leafi: -, fo that it is pro- verbial there, that the peafants eat fiones^, fi contadini majigiano fqffi) alluding to this piece of their huHmndry. I have feea peafants in Italy work even part of the- Bight in their vineyards and fields by moonfliine^ [ 6; ] mbonllilne, while their wives and chil- dren -were alleep ; and, by the bye, I have taken notice of the fame thing in the kingdom of Arragort and in Catalonia : iand yet the Spaniards in general are mofi mercilefly run down for the greatefl idlers iand fluggards, by many fuch accurate travellers as Mr. Sharp. But fince Mr. Sharp has brought me on the banks of Arno, I beg of him to let me take no- tice, that his account of Tufcatiy does not quite agree with that of bifhop Burneto Burnet fays, that as one goes over Tufcajiy, it appears fo difpeopled, that one ca?2not but wonder to find a country that has been d fiene of fo much aBion and fo many wars, now fo forfaken and fo poor, that in many places the foil is quite negleSied for want of hands to cultivate it ; and in other places, where there are more people, they look Jo poor, and their houfes are fuch miferahle ruins, that it is fear ce accountable how there fiould be fo much poveHy in fo rich a- coun^ try, which is all full of beggars. And a few lines after. All the way from Florence^ F 2 through [ 68 1 through the great dukes country ^ looked fo fad, that I concluded it mufi be the mojl di/peopled of all Italy. Here is a picture ! and how well do thcfe travel - writers contraft with each other I But let u& come back to our diabolical afTaffins, as- Mr. Sharp exprefles it. I own, and agree, that murderers in' Italy are not brought quickly enough to- punifhment, through a want of adlivity in their profecution. Excepting Pied- mont, where juftice, in cafe of murder, is exerted with tolerable difpatch, in all the parts of Italy I have vilited, the exe- cution of the laws is too remifs, in my opinion ; and in Venice and Rome moil particularly, where a criminal of this kind is kept many months in jail before his trial be over. But there is an invincible caufe why in Italy fome murderers will fometimes avoid the ^^dlows ; and this is, the facility of efcape out of the Hate where they of- fend. Every I 69 ] Every body knows that Italy is par celled out into many fovereignties. A criminal, who happens to be a little dif- tant from the center of any of them when he commits his crime, needs but run a Kttk away, to be out of the circumference too. And how can the magiftrates, be they ever fo vigilant, fend after people, who in a few hours are quite out of their reach ? Then an Italian is not fo eafily arrefted as an Englifhman ; for, when he is con- fcious that he will be hanged or fent to the gallies, if he falls into the hands of juftice, he will not peaceably furrender to any man unarmed, but will fight in his own defence moft defperately till he dies. The Englilh have lately had an in- flance of the Italian fury in fuch cafes ; and cannot, as yet, have forgot the ter- rible refinance made by two Italian failors, that broke from Maidftone jail. Then our people, from a miftaken principle of humanity, and flill more miftaken point tof honour, will not play the Jbirri's, or F 3 catchpoks^ ( 7° ) ^atchpoksf and give the leaft afliftance tq, the officers of juilice in the execution o£ their duty 5 and you might fooner bring an Italian to fufFer martyrdom, than force, him to flop any man purfued by them. The magiftrates are therefore obliged to fend many of thofe officers, or Jhirris, well provided v^^ith fire-arms, in quell: of runaway delinquents. The affembling and directing a troop of thofe officers cannot often be done in a moment ; and in the mean tinie a criminal haftens away, towards a neighbouring ftate.. It is true that the Italian fovereigns reciprocally give up their criminals to each other, if they are caught i and count Nogarola, who had made his efcape into Piedmont, after having committed a murder in Ve- rona, Vv-as arrefled near Turin, and fent to the Venetians, who put him to death, as I faid already. But a very little reflec- tion will Ihow any thinking man, that this expedient cannot be of any great ef- ficacy againfl this evilj in a country con** llituted as Italy is. I 71 ] Thefe remarks ought not to have ^fcaped Mr. Sharp, when he fpoke o£ the great facility with which murderers often avoid puniiliment in Italy, and not ca/l his oblique refle(5tions upon all our inagiftrates indifcriminately, as if they were guilty throughout Italy of the greateft fupinenefs in the moil: atrocious rafes. It happened once in Venice, that a. baker was found near a man who had heen ilabbed. A knife was fticking into the corpfe, and the baker happened to have a fcabbard in his pocket which fitted that knife moii exad:ly-. Upon this the poor fellow was condemned and hanged, though quite innocent of the murder, as it wa« proved a little time after his exe- cution. From this accident, a cuilom ^rofe in Venice *, that before lentenc€ was palTed upon any convicted criminal, ^n officer, appointed for that purpofe,, * This cuftom lafted mniiy centuries ; but of late k |]^s cciifed, which it ought iiot to have.j in my cninio]i. .F 4 cried E 7-2 ] cried to the judges, Ricordatevi del povero^, Jbrnaro, Rememl?er the poor baker. Hence the judges in Venipe, and in miiny other parts of Italy, are not ealily fatisfied with proofs, though ever fq evident, when a man's life is at ftake -, and hence the ge- neral flownefs of profecution, and long, delays of puniihments, as we are early taught, that we never can be too cautious in pronouncing about life and death. But flrangers will ealily indulge theiif va- nity, and make a parade of wifdom, by. Ending fault, taking very feldom th^ trouble of invefligating the reafons of things. Mr. Sharp has then no other, flandard for his judgments but his owr^ country. Whatever in any other country is not done after the planner of England, you rnay be fure he will diredly, and with furprifing fagacity, find out to be wrong, abominably wrong. But though, his way of arguing may prove hijn a very good Englifhman, yet it will not intitle him to any juft claims to the character of an impartial obferver of other countries. t 73 1 ^nd though fome Italian may fometims^ be apt to give a flab to his rival or to his miftrefs in a fit of angry jealoufy, yet Mr. Sharp had no reafon to reprefent th^ common people of Italy as haying all the diabolical nature of murderers. To be naturally inclined to murder ^ implies a dif- pofition naturally cruel. But the Italians ar^ not of a difpofition naturally crueh On the contrary, they have undeniably fomQ of thofe characSteriilics which can- not abfolutely fubiift with cruelty ; namely chearfulnefs^xiA corupajion. There- fore they are mt naturally cruel, though their quick feelings may make fome of them refent an injury with an a6t that has, the appearance of cruelty. They fhuddcr at murder, as well as the common people of England, or any other common people. By Mr. Sharp's outrageous logic, an Ita- lian would have a right to call the people of England all incendiaries, becaufe he happens to read fometlmes in the Ga- jzette of rewards offered for the difcovery gf the authors of anonymous incendiary IctterSc t 74 ] letters. What a number of bitter reflec- tions would he have cafl: upon us, if he had happened to hear in Italy of a daugja- ter poifoning her father, a niece her uncle, or a wife her hufband ? If he had heard of four thief-takers infernally com- bining fo, as to bring fifty or fixty poor jdevils to the gallows, for the fake of a paultry reward, and not one of them put to death by public juftice, for want of a law pointing out that particular cafe ? If he had heard of a man murdering his concubine, though with child ; or of an elderly matron beating to death fome little girls, that fhe might rob an hofpital of a few pounds ? Yet fuch fhpcking accidents will happen amidft the beft and mofl po- Jifhed nations : and writers muft be looked upon as very difingenuous, when they attribute to the general charader of na? tions the few hpllifli doings of a very few individuals. No fociety could long fubiilT:, if the plurality were Jiorribly v^icked, ^x\d diaholkal in their nature^ Let [ 75 ] Let me then conclude this chapter with pbferving, that I have now been for feventeen years a conflant reader of the Engli/h news-papers : that in this long fpace of time more tharf ten thoufan(i Englifli (maflers and fervants) have beeix running up and down Italy, and the. greateft part of them certainly not the befl men that this country produces with regard to morals and prudence. Yet caii any of my reader^ recoiled; of having ever read in the news-papers of any jEngliHiman treacheroujly murdered in that land, fo famous for its frequent murders and cuilomary alTaffinations ? Would this have been the cafe in any country, if ten thoufand Italians, fluflied with youth and money, and lovers of the bottle into the bargain, had run up and down it, with icarcely any other view but that of giving themfelves up to all manner of lewdnefs and debauchery, CHAP, I 76 I C HAP. VI. X F the low people of Italy are by nq means indebted to Mr. Sharp for the cha- racter he has drawn of them in his good- natured way, thofe pf rank are ftill lefs beholden to him upon the fame account, as he has likewife infifted that, both male arid female, they are all plunged in the jiioft vile and Shocking immorality. His manner of introducing his fubjedt is really artful enough. He fets out with informing his readers, that in ancient days wives were immured in Italy, and bujbands were jealous \ hut that no women on earth are now under fo little rejiraint as thofe of Italy, where the word jealoujy is now. become obfolete. I fhall leave to others the trouble of (examining how juilly this fine proena ftjuares with the notions that philofophers ^ntertair\ [ 77 ] entertain of the origin, progrefs, and ef^ feds of our natural paffions ; nor will I attempt to prove, that love, and its atten- dant, jealoufy, as well as all other hu-* man aiFedions, are pretty equally diftri- buted amongft mankind, and their conffe-^ quences pretty uniformly the fame wher- ever there are men. I might as well fet about proving that lions and rats are only lions and rats in particular diftridts, and that they are cats and owls in other places. Let me then only infped into that vaft treafure of cuftoms and manners, with re- gard to matrimony, brought over to Eng- land by Mr. Sharp, together with his vaft colledlion of murders and afTaffinations. In Italy then, according to this acute obferver, every lady that is married has a cicijheo ; that is, ihe has a young gentle- man, whofe chief employment is that of difhonouring her hufband whenever ihe chufes. A ciciibeo is kept by every lady for this purpofe ; and hi fo notorious a manner^ f 78 ] inanner, that every body ivho knows hef^ knows him of courfe likewife. The cicifbeo, befides this noble em- ployment,- is obliged to Jit with her alone in the opera-box, hardly feen by the fpec^ tatorSf as the opera-houfes in Italy are very dark ; and after the opera, he is to have a tete-a-tete at her cafine, where they Jlay fometimes the whole night, taking mafs in the morning in their way home, 'The cafine is a room * hired (Mr. Sharp forgot to tell whether hired by the cicifbeo or the lady) at a difiance from the ladys houfe, and hired for the whole year. A cafne is always facred to the lady and her cicijheo ; and the ladys hujband never approaches it. Was the huf band ever to vift it, he would be laughed at by every Sody, becaife in Italy it is fo * Mr Sharp has never Entered a cafine, otherwife he would have faid, that it is an apartment of many fmall rooms, and often a whole fmall houfe, taken, for the fake of convenience, by the Venetian noblemen, in the neighbourhood of St, Mark's, where the fenate and all the magiftrates affemble, and where every thing of bufmefs or pleafure is tranfaded. ridiculous [ 79 J fidiculous for hujbands and wives to be feen together, that there is no injianee of fuch a fhenomenon, Should any married lady think of being true to her hujband, and be averfe to the taking a cicifbeo into fervice, Jhe would be obliged to live for ever at home, and no ether lady would ever dare to appear with her any where. 'The republic of Venice is a fecond Cyprus, where all are votaries to Ve^ nus. There parents have very little fond^ nefs for their children j there the boys are looked upon as children of the republic, and there the girls are early fent to convents^ where they are feldom or never vifited by fathers and mothers. The cicijbeo's are partly Jlaves and partly tyrants to their ladies -, and the ladies are as jealous of their cicijbeos, as, in other countries, of their hujbands. It is impojfible to refrain from laughter, feeing men of the graveji charaSters going to the cqfine : men that you would have fufpeBed of hypocrify, fuperjlition, andfana" ticifm, rather than of gallantry. One would thiak, that, after having gone fo far with fuch a defcription of the 3 manners t 8° i manners and cufloms of a country^ ^ writer might ftop> and even begin to be afraid to pafs for a drunken flanderer, everi in the opinion of the moft credulous. But Mr. Sharp, far from harbouring any fuch unmanly fear, only fetches his breath a while; then goes on moft undauntedly, and with ftill greater and greater ferocity. He has even the boldnefs of protefting in a moft folemn inanner, that his afFertions are to he depended upon^ and true, upon his honour, as he /peaks upon good grounds, and not from a fpirit of detraBion, ^he affe5lion between hujbands and wivei ( continues Mr. Sharp ) in the clhnate of Italy, is an unknown pafion. In Italy men and women are always tied together in wed-^ lock without the leaji participation of their 6wn ', and it happens very feldom ihat the parties know one another before fnarriage^ feldom 'vifiting twice before the day of eon- fimmation, the bride being to that moment locked tip in a convent. 'There (that is, throughout Italy) the abominable and infernal fajliion of takljig a Cicifoto into fervice ijnme-^ diately [ 8. ] Sately after having quitted the altar , is the caufe that ejiranges ail matrimonial affediion* Inhere children have very little tende7icy to fupport the friendjhip and harmony of the married fate, as the certain k?:oiv!edge every hujhand has of his wife's atfachw,ent to a lover, extinguiffdes all facial love and fond- nefs to the offspring, 'There young unmarried ladies are never invited to any dinner, as their innocence a7id fprightlinefs is a pleafure utterly unknown, or negle^ed^ in Italy, 'There a hiijband is fare, that the eldefi born only belongs to him, provided he has bee7i born in the firft year of his marriage. Should o?ie half of the married ladies deny them- fehes cicijheos, or live innocently with them, the other half would defpife them, I have feen myfelf at Naples (where he never entered a Tingle nobleman's or gentleman's houfe) princeffes and ducheffs, with their cicijbeos at their fides, vifitirjg their friends with the great eft unconcernedjiefs. When you ijivite five ladies to dinner, you lay ten plates of courfe, as each lady brings her cicifico with her, The nature of the climate makes G kujbands [ 82 ] hujhands fo fickle, (this he was told by a grave Neapolitan gentleman, a great me- teorologift, I fuppofe) that they cannot continue confiant to their wives many months \ fa that the poor women are driven into this meafure of taking cibipeo's into fervice. This is the pidlure Mr. Sharp has drawn of the culloms and manners of Italy ; and to give it the laft ftroke in the true Michelangelo way, he concludes, that the difiinBion of good and bad ; that is, of chafe and dijolute, is hardly known there ; (Z7id that the generality of ladies in Florence have each cf them three cicifbeos-, the firfi, called the cicipeo of dignity ; ■ the fecond, the licefbeo who picks up the gloves and the fan when the lady drops them 3 and the third, the fuhfla7itial cicijbeo. I (liould certainly have been furprized at the temerity of thefe remarks, if I had not been made acquainted with the man- ner by which Mr. Sharp came by his in- formation. At Naples, it feems, he got a very, fine fellov/ for a temporary fervant, whofe n:,me was Antonio. A true teuv , porary [ 83 ] pot^ry fervant^ fit for any Engliiliman da his travels. This Antonio, who, by what I have heard of him, piques himfelf much upon his good education, upon his extenlive knowledge of men and manners, and upon his having written comedies, as he fays, full as good as Goldoni's, was the chief oracle confulted by his good mafter about the cuftoms and manners of Italy. Mr. Sharp enjoyed, as I faid, very little health all the time he was at Naples, where he wrote the greateft part of the above ribaldry about hufbands, wives, and cicilbeo's. As he knew no native there> and feldom faw any of his countrymen, the clever Antonio was almofl the only perfon, befides his family^ that he could converfe with. With An- tonio therefore he ufed to clofet over night, and hold a private conference of fome hours. When the conference was over, Antonio went down to the kitchen, and there entertained his fellow-fervants with the Account of the book that his G 2 mailer [ 84 ] mailer was compofing with his afiiftance^ ** How ? A book with your affiilance ?" " Yes, upon my honour, replies Antonio s- ** and my mailer liflens eagerly to what ** I tell him of our lords and ladies ; and " holds his quill in his lingers, and fui^ *' pends my talk every minute, that he *' may make memorandums of every par- ** ticular I relate : but be fure I tell him " nothing, that is difhonourable to our ** country, as I am, you know, always- ** an Italian in my heart *." Out of thofe noble memorandums it is very probable that Mr. Sharp formed his itinerary letters, not entertaining the leafl doubt about the abilities and veracity of his valet-de-pkce -, and thus was he led into an immenfe chaos of inconfiftency * What Antonio had occafion to tell often to his fellow-fervants at Naples, he freely repeats now in Endand. I never faw him- to this day, O^ober 16, / 3767 ; but his afHrmations came feme months ago to my knowledge, as well as to that of almoft all the Italians nov/ in .London. Antonio, I hear, is but lately come from Italy with a new Englifh mafter. and' [ 85 ] and abfurdity well deferving to be ex- pofed, as it is by no means pardonable in a man of his age, of his character, and of his knowledge. That Mr. Sharp had at Naples this Antonio for a fervant, I am fure he will not deny : and he will not deny neither, that he ufed to clofet often with him, his quill in his hand for fome hours, taking down memorandums of what the fellow was pleafed to tell him. Mr. Sharp will perhaps deny his having got the chief things he has faid about ciciibeo's from Antonio, though he held his pen while Antonio prattled away in their nightly tete-a-tetes. But how will Mr. Sharp be able to convince any fendble man, that he had from higher people than Antonio, the unnatural and impoffible things he has told in the pafTages quoted above from his book ? How will he be able to perfuade, that there is a vaii tra<5l'of land in a Chrif- tian country, where fome hundred thou- fands of huibands are mofl: regularly and G 3 xnolk [ 86 ] mofl infamoufly wronged by their wives immediately after marriage ? That this is a fafhion ? That thofe hufbands know for certain they are thus treated, and yet put up with it mofl: unconcernedly, and with a perfect acquiefcence, only withdrawing their Jbdal love from their wives, and their paternal tender nefsixovsi their children, cour tinuing however to live with them under the fame roof? Hulbands and wives in Italy ufe no fe- parate beds, not even in the hotteft months : this is a notorious fad:. How then can any reafonable perfon be brought to believe, that all the hulbands of a large country, or thofe of the better fort only, (if Mr. Sharp will have it fo) are fo utterly infenlible to honour, as to re- ceive to their beds the warm harlots juil come from the caline towards morning ? And hov/ can he make any one believe, that fome hundred thoufands of wives become all harlots immediately after hav- ing quitted the altar r And that this hap« pens [ 87 ] pens In a country, according to his own ac- count, overwhelmed with bigottry and iuperftition, which implies an exuberance of religion ? And that this happens in a country, where women (ftill according to his own account) are all fliut early in convents, where it is to be fuppofed that religion is the chief ingredient in their education ? What ? No religion in wo- men who have been taught almoft nothing elfe from their childhood to the years of matrimonial maturity ? No fear, no Ihame, no modefty, no continence in that part of mankind, which nature has ori- ginally made fearful, fhameful, modefl, and continent ? And then no jealoufy, no anger, not the leafl refentment in men, made originally by nature fo proud, fo irafcible, fo impetuous ? Ha \ Nothing but an infamous proilltution on one ildc, and nothing but a perfect apathy on the other ? And this in a country famed for the quick temper and hot imagination of its inhabitants ? And Mr. Sharp will G 4 have [ 88 ] have it a phenomenon never feen there ^ that of a hufband and wife (hewing them- felves together in public ? And that wicked wives will think themfelves dif- honoured by keeping company with good wives ? If this is not all Antonio's ftufF, whofe fluff can it be ? But pray, good Mr. Sharp, is this the true courfe and general progrefs of nature ? Or are the men and women in Italy of a different fpecies from thofe of other coun- tries ? You may anfwer in a fober hour, that nature is pretty uniform every where, and that the Italian men and women are jufc fuch creatures as the men and women of other cpuntries. But if they are of the fame fpecies, how do they come to a6l fo diametrically oppofite to all the men and women of all other countries in marriage \ that is, in the moil critical bufmefs of life ? In a buiinefs, which in- terefls the generality of human beings in- finitely more than any other ? You an- fwer again, that it is the climate ivhich. makes [ 89 1 makes all Italian hujbands fickle : and do you not fee, my Britifh philofopher, that you attribute to the climate a power of making fo many automatons of hu- man beings, and that you are abfurd be- yond abfurdity in faying fo ? That Anto- nio himfelf would blufh with fhame, if he was accufed of being fo pitiful a rea- foner on human nature ? But if the cli- mate makes fo many automatons of the Italians, and if their affedlions and adtions ^re in the power of the climate, and not in their own, to what end do you repre- fent them as moft abominably wicked, and endeavour, with all your might, to raife an abhorrence of them in your countrymen ? You might as well have endeavoured to render odious to them all thofe peculiar produ(5i:ions of Italy, which owe their exiflence to that climate. I can allow, without any great difficulty, that the generality of the ladies in England behave with more referve and circumfpec- tlQn than thofe of Italy j and I can eafily be [ 90 ] he brought to believe, that neither the opera nor the play, neither Ranelagh nor Vauxhall, neither Almack's nor madam Cornely's, can taint, in the leaft, the purity of Englifh female virtue, and throw any lady off her guard. I will even allow, that Venice in particular is a town infinitely more corrupted in point of chaftity than London itielf ; and that in Venice, as well as in a few other capital towns in Italy, there are fome women of rank, who have forfeited all claim to the title of virtuous by their unconcealed de- bauchery. But while I allow this, Mr. Sharp mull Ukewife allow me, that the ladies of thofe towns in Italy, who have rendered themfelves infamous in the eye of reafon and of religion, may eafily be named in every one of thofe towns : and the eafy poflibility of naming them im- plies, that their clafs is not very numer- ous. Mr. Sharp muH allow me farther, that the number of the ladies who keep their character un(la,ined, is fo large, a,s to [ 91 ] to render his general accuiations a vile heap of calumnies. Add to this, that whatever the manners may be of a few ladies (or of many, if Mr. Sharp will have it fo) in a few of the large towns of Italy, yet the ladies in the fmall towns all over the country are neither better nor wprfe than thofe of the fmall towns all over Europe, where the want of finful opportunities, the infrequency of bad ex^ ample, the fear of idle tongues, the fa^ cility of detedion, together with other motives of a higher nature, which ope^ rate more in fmall than in large places, keep women in very good order. Had Mr. Sharp been able to make fuch refledions, he would certainly have been aware, that the charadler of a nu- merous nation does not depend on a few individuals fcattered about half a dozen large towns ; but that it depends on the many millions contained in two or three hundred fmall ones, and in their terri- tories. Had Mr. Sharp faid, that fuch a ^entildonn(i [ 93 ] gentlUonna In Venice, and fuch a princi^ peJJ'a in Naples are univerfally pointed out there for their immoral condud, I might quickly have agreed with him. But when Mr. Sharp makes ufe of colledlive terms ; when he fays the Venetian ladiesy the "Neapolitan ladies^ the Florentine ladies^ and, what is flill worfe, the Italian ladies, lie muft give me leave to tell him, that he vomits llander all the time he thinks himfelf fpeaking oracles ; for in the cor- rupted city of Venice itfelf, there are very many ladies pofieiTed of the moil exalted virtue. It is true that they are not commonly known to the Englifh travellers : but was Mr. Sharp by, I could name to him fome of the beft female be- ings that ever adorned his country, whom I myfelf brought acquainted with fome Venetian ladies, who certainly gave them no reafon to be afliamed of their acquaint- ance. And how could then Mr. Sharp affirir, without taking {harne to himfelf, that no Italian [ 93 J Italian parent loves his children, when I am fure he has feen innumerable times innumerable Italian fathers and mothers handing about their little ones, prettily dreiled in various fanciful ways, and feen them oftener than in any other part he evei" vifited ? Burnet fays, that the Italians have a pajfion for their families, which is not known in other f laces ; and his obfer*- vation is certainly juft, as in the corrupted city of Venice itfelf the graver fort of people often find fault with the general fondnefs of parents, even thofe of the higheft quality, becaufe they take too much delight in leading their boys and girls about St. Mark's fquare, dreffed like little huffars and fultana's, or like little fiiepherds and fhepherdelTes, and carrying them themfelves from houfe to houfe. The reproaches that our numerous fond parents often hear upon this article, are juftly grounded on the danger of making thofe boys and girls too early in love with fliow and parade^ with drefs and vanity, 3 And t 94 ] And Iiow could Mr. Sharp fay that tiii pleafure of maiden innocence and fpright- linefs is utterly unknown, or negled:ed, in Italy ? Did he not fee that this affirma- tion is incompatible with nature, as it implies a degree of brutality in a nation, whofe predominant charadter, according to his own and all travellers accounts, is love and fenfibility of heart ? And how could he fay, that young folks in Italy fee one another but once or twice before the celebration of their marriages, when in Venice itfelf it is a general cuftom, even among the chief nobility, to delay in- tended nuptials many months, and fome-^ times a whole year, that the young couple may conceive an affection for one another ? jud a little before Mr. Sharp's arrival in Venice, an intended marriage was fud- denly broke between a young lady of the Barbarigo*s, and the eldeil fon of the ProcuratorefTa Zen, (two of the greatefl families there) though the parties had been betrothed a full twelvemonth, though all [ 95 ] all the wedding-preparations were made, and though the very epithalamium was printed and ready for publication : and this happened for no other reafon but becaufe the bride took a difguft to the young man for his negled;ing to court her with the ufual daily regularity. Thefe, Mr. Sharp, thefe are the cuftoms in Ve- nice with refped: to marriages ^ and mar- riages in all other towns of Italy are con- tracted jufl as they are in all other Chrif- tian countries. The great generally marry for the fake of alliance or intereft, with- out much confulting inclination ; and the little do as well as they can, 'exad;ly as people do in England j nor is it true, as Mr. Sharp affirms, that we put all our girls in convents, and keep them there until they marry, as I fhall prove in ano- ther place. For fhame then. Sir, thus to miftake for indifputable fads all the non- fenfe and waggery of your temporary footman in Naples ! It v/as your clever Antonio, withoii? any doubt, v/ho mads vou [ 96 ] you write down in one page, that the 'Neapolitans never dine together, and that there is no fuch cujiom as to invite each other to dinner -, then in another page, that at Naples when you invite Jive ladies to dinner, you muji lay ten plates of courfe, becaufe each of them brings her cicijbeo with her. How could you be fo dull as not to fee, that Antonio led you here in a flat contradi(5tion ? And how could you fufFer you|;felf to be plunged by him into an odean of nonfenfe, and fet upon paper the itory of the three cicifbeo's at Florence, the fubftantial, the dignified, and the fan- picker ? You meant with your book to make the Italians afhamed of their country 5 but I am much more afhamed of you. Sir, who could fwallow fuch ftories, and yet walk upon two legs as well as any of them. CHAP. t 97 1 CHAP. VIL X O all the above charges of ill-nature> of abfurdity, of fallhood, and even of dovi^nright calumny, Mr. Sharp will per- haps plead, that he gave a good word to the Roman ladies (in favour, I fuppofe, of his gentle friend the marchionefs of Ceva) ; that he did obliquely let us under- ftand, that they are f^e chajieji women m Chrijlendom ', and that even their cicijbed's are fufpe^ted to be innocent. Mr. Sharp may urge belides, that he has alfo protefted, in the mildcfl terms, that // hurts him a little that his accounts JJoould feem fever e ; (Jlanderous had been a properer word) and that he deiired his correfpondent to remark, that his cenfures regarded only the morals of the lower people, and the gallantry of the great. But to thefe benign anfwers, which really imply fome fort of recantation, I muft reply, that whenever in his book he H fays i 98 1 fays any thing in favour of the Italians, he Ikips it over vi^ith two or thr6e lines, which have no effed: upon -the mind of his reader, and cannot cancel the hor- rible idea he has given them of the Ita- lians : but v/hen he fpeaks in their dif- praife, he fearches carefully for the iiariliefl expreffions that his language caii afford, in order to deftroy even the little ctfcSi that his few and meagre praifes could have produced. In order to per- fuade his countrymen, that Italy is the niofl: abominable country. in the worlds and that its inhabitants have more than one ftanding fyflem of wickednefs and iniquity, he heaps accufations upon ac- cufations, and deriiion upon derifion, in a hundred pages. What then lignifies his gently faying here and there, that the Italians are fober, that they are peaceable, that they are civil to Grangers, or other fuch things ? What iignifies his faying, that the ciciibeo's of the Roman ladies are fufpeited^ to be innocent, when he has I 99 ] has already given his honour, that through- out the dominions of the Venetian comr- monweahh every individual is a votary to Venus ? when he has already given us to underfland, in a hundred places, that all married ladies throughout Italy are adul- trelTes ?. What lignifies his telling in one page, that his cenfures regard only the morals of the lower people, and the gal- lantry of the great, if in another he in- sinuates, that in Italy there are fev/ or no people of a middling condition r What fi2;nifies his commending, towards the end of his book, in a line or two, the plea- fantnefs and fertility of the country from .Bologna to Turin, when he has already exerted his utmofl eloquence in order to make us believe, that the whole of Italy is uncultivated and unpeopled, and that even the climate of Naples is worfe than that cf England ? Mr. Sharp is guilty of many fallacies of this kind, partly through ignorance, partly through carelefihefs, and partly through m.alignity. I had heard H 2 of [ 100 ] of him long before my laft vifit to. my native country, from fome of my friends, who are likewife his friends 3 and his name was one of the Englifh names that once I moft refpecled. But I am forry to fay, that the reading of his book has forced me to change my opinion, and that he has forfeited with me that cha- racter of goodnefs and candour which I had former ly conceived of him, as his performance is abfolutely not that of a good and candid man, but the produftion of a mind unjuftly exafperated againft a people, whofe individuals either knew him not, or, if they knew him, treated him with benevolence and civility, as they do all the Englifh, and all other ftrangers who viiit their country, without any narrownefs on account of different tenets, though they be in general much attached to their own. CHAP. t loi ] CHAP. VilL XS Y the feveral palTages above quoted out of Mr. Sharp's book, and by many- more which It is needlefs to quote, it plainly appears, that to the word cicijbeo he annexes the idea of an adulterer^ and that he makes both words perfed:ly fynonimous. But Mr. Sharp is certainly wrong as ufual, as the Italians are far from giving fuch a definition of that word. Ckijbeo is a cant term, which ori- ginally fignified no more than a whifperer. Every body that knows Italian but tole- rably, muil; know* that the letters b and c occur very frequently in it, followed by an e or an /, This frequent occurrence of be and bi, and of ce and ci, is the caufe that when a perfon whifpers, it feems that he does almoil: nothing: elfe but repeat fuch fyllables. HQn.c& ta wbif- H 3 fer ■per is now bifoigliaret and was formerly cicljbeare. And becaufe lovers and inti- mate friends are apt to whifper, the dif- pleafure that v/hifpering in company always gives, procured them the appel- lation of deified Si that is, whifperers. So much for the harmlefs etymology of the word, which we may eaiily conceive how, in procefs of time, came to be indiffe- rently beilowed both upon lovers, and, upon thofe who, in all outward appearance, a(3: as fuch, attending on ladies with as much attention and refped: as if they were tlieir lovers. The Italian cuilom of almofl every man attending on a lady with a lover's, attention and refpedl:, is then of a very old date, and not a late introducTrion into our manners, as Mr. Sharp infinuates, when he fays, that our women were for* merly immuredy and that fiow they are -under no kind of reftralnt, A fpirit of gallantry, derived from the ages of chi- valry, much heightened and refined by I the [ 103 ] the revival of the Platonic philofophy in. Italy about the thirteenth century, and ftill much cultivated in our univerfities, and in our numerous poetical academies, has been fo long incorporated in our man- ners, that almofl every polite individual, in the fouthern parts of Italy efpecially, is actuated by it in fome degree. Witnefs the celebrated volume of Italian verfes by Francis Petrarca, whofe amorous, and yet moft chafte Platonic fentim.ents for the beautiful Laura, have rendered him the mofl favourite poet of Italy for thefe four iaft centuries ; and witnefs the cata- logue of his imitators, which would amount to many thoufands if it were ex- actly madcj amongll whom many famous names would be included, as thofe of Angelo Poliziano, Lorenzo de Medici, Pietro Bembo, Monfignor Delia Cafa, Jacopo Sannazzaro, Annibale Caro, Ber- nardo TaiTo, Torquato Taflb, Euftachio Manfredi, and a great many more both ancient and modern. Let us liilen to the H 4 Arcadians [ 104 ] Arcadians of Rome, or let us read the colledions publiflied on almoll every marriage of the great in Italy, and you will find them abounding with fentiments of chafte Platonic love. Almoft all the polite Italians imbibe fuch fentiments as foon as they acquire the power of reading, and learn that the cojttemplation of earthly beauty raifes an honeft mind to the contem- plation and love of the heavenly y There is no need now to enter Into the difcuilion whether thefe Platonic notions be true or falfe, ridiculous or reafonable. It is fufficient to our prefent purpofe, that fuch notions are very univerfal in Italy ^ that they are adopted and continually diifeminated by the Italian poets, or by thofe whom the Italians commonly call poets ; and that they have been adopted and facceffively diifeminated through Italy, both in common fpeech and in writing, both in profe and verfe, for thefe four hundred years at leafl. Open but the <;olle^ion of our minor poets, chronolo'- gically [ i°5 1 gically, compiled by Agoftino Gobbi and his continuator, in fix or feven odtavo volumes, thickly printed, and you will find a long fucceffion of them, from the earlieft beginning of our language to our very days, who have uninterruptedly rhimed to fuch notions. Hence that re- verential idea which almoft every polite individual in Italy entertains of female beauty: hence that cuflom^ almoft uni- verfal, of killing in a mofi: humble man- ner our ladies' hands when we enter their rooms : hence that other cuftom, almofl; univerfal likewife, of our fervants bearing the train of their miftrelTes when they walk on foot : and hence the power that every polite woman has amongft us, of cornmanding as many adorers as ilie lifts, who love her with this kind of myftic love, and never difunite the idea of her beauty from that of her virtue, Thofe adorers, from the vulgar that know little or nothing of all this Platonic fluff, (call it fo> if you pleafe) have got the appella- tion [ io6 ] tion of cicifbeo's, which appellation, how- ever, though bordering upon the ludi- crous, never implies the leafl difparag- ing reflection either upon them or the ladies -, fo that any body, without the leaft fear of offending, may not only befbow it on men, but on women likewife, and en- quire after the conftant attendant on a lady, or after a lady conftantly attended, by the words of cicilbeo and cicifbea. Che fa il 'vojiro cicifieoy Signora f How does your adorer. Madam ^ Come fiete in grazia della vojira cicijhea ? How are you in the good graces of your lady "^ If fuch ap- pellations were any way offeniive, one may eafily imagine, that the Italians would not have them as common in their mouths as the Engliih have thofe of humble fer'viant, friend, adorer, and other fuch in their familiar fpeech. By this account, which I could make flill more circumilantial, were I not afraid of proving too tedious, it may be feen that Mr. Sharp knew nothing of the matter^ [ 107 I matter, when he fet about his remark on our cicifbeo's, as he had not the key to our general cuftoms and manners, which is, and never can be other, but a thorough knowledge of our language, and peried; acquaintance with our poetry. Not be- ing able to comprehend, in the leaft, our peculiar way of thinking, through his utter ignorance of what he ought not to have been ignorant, when he ailumed the chara not at the deformity of our vicesj but at the childifhnefs of our conceits. And yet this had not totally debarred him from, failing very farcaflically upon many of them^ who, forgetful of their anceftors' ways> and their methods of adoring the fair, carry on the moft lawlefs paffions under the deceitful veil of guiltlefs friendfhip ; jQieltering themfelves under the fhade of Platonic bowers, which ought to be for ever facred to innocence and purity* But while I aiii honeftly telling Mr* Sharp all I know of this part bi our con- dudt, of which I certainly mull know more than he, having myfelf been, in my bright daySj both a ciciibeo and an humble imitator of Petrarch's poetry ; and while I fet open a new door for him to rudi 1 2 forth [ ii6 ] forth and difcharge his fpleen at the immo- rality of the higher order amongft us -, let him ftill keep in mind, that the failings of an inconfiderable number of indivi- duals are never to be confidered as national corruption ; and that a fmall hellifh gang of Engliflimen, who once cut off the head of one of their fovereigns, conferred no right upon foreigners to call the col- lective body of this loyal nation a fet of fanatical regicides. C H A P, IX. J\ F T E R the tw^o heavy charges of murder and adultery, Mr. Sharp loads the Italians w^ith that of fuperjlition. It is ftrange to hear him, in the heighth of his wifdom, revile them for keeping a great inany fejiival days throughout the year y and how defperately angry he is with the innumerable rareejhows exhibited every where r "7 ] where throughout their towns, villages, and hamlets without exception. To underftand well what Mr. Sharp means by his pretty word rareeJJjowsy I muft give my curious reader a fhort fketch of our cufloms, of which Mr. Sharp has declined to give an account. Know then, that on Sundays, and other holidays, of which we have a good many, in almoft all places where there is any church adjoining to a clufter of houfes, our priefts are ufed, both in the morning after the great mafs, and in the afternoon after the vcfpers, to drefs themfelves in pontifi^ calikiSj and make a proceffion^ This proceffion is formed by little lefs than all the inhabitants in the neigl^bour- hood. The good creatures, as foon as they fee the priefts ready, quickly join in pairs, men with men, women with wo- men, and children with children. The crofs precedes, and the priefts follow them^ and the proceffion is clofed by a wooden crucifix, a Madona, or fome tutelary I 3 faint j[ n8 J faint placed on a large and heavy fcafFold^ and born b.y fome of the moft lufty of the company, who are always willing to fweat under the enormous weight, having ^ notion that .the carrying it about does a deal of good to their foujs. The priefts generally have lighted torches in their right haiid, and thofe.pf the people who can afford it, have wax-candles. As foon as the image is lifted up frorn one fide of the church, where it is placed on holidays, the priefls, with the mpft for norous voice they can fetch, begin to fing ^ pfalm, or the litanies, or fome othe-r thing, in Latin; and the people that form the proceilion, knowing thofe things by heart, though none pf them underfland a word pf Latin, anfwer by turns to the linging of the priefis. In this order, and with this noife, formed by 4 good many ^ifcordant voices, the procefTion makes a laroe tour, and then returns to the church. There the rareefiow ends with a benedic- tipn given by the curate, or fome other prief| r 119 3 prieft of the parifli; after which, if the evening be not rainy, the old and the young divide. The old go and lit down to chat among themfelvesj and the young ,run as faii as they can to fome known |}'lace, where a dance is prefently fet a going, as the fiddlers always take care to i>e there beforehand. There they caper -away till they are tired, and generally till it is time to go and get a bit of bread and cheefe by way of fupper. Thefe proceffions are the very capital rareejhows exhibited through Italy, and moft particularly in little towns and vil- lages; and againfi: thefe many proteflant travellers have vented a good deal of reli- gious fpleen. They are all, as well as Mr. Sharp, very angry at fuch raree- Jhows ; and all firmly of opinion, that all proceflions are very foolifh, very abfurd, very idolatrous, very impolitic, and every way ridiculous and detrimental. Their arguments againfi; thefe are indeed fo '^fongj as always to ' have puzzled my I 4 logic [ 120 ] logic whenever I attempted to prove them harmlefs ; and always forced me to think, that inflead of going about in proceilion on holidays, our people would do much better to get into inns or brandy-fhops, and there get moil glorioufly drunk, and fwear, and quarrel, and talk politics or religion; or elfe pick up fome chance- girl, and fo fit themfelves for a few months retirement in fome fuch place as the Lock- hofpital. However, as fomething may always be faid pro and con in every conteft, I have a mind to difcufs a little this affair of our rareeJhowSf and offer Mr. Sharp a few rea- fons in their favour, when confidered, not in a religious, but in a political light. Yet before I launch into this difficult difquilition, I muft put him in mind of two things : the firft is, that the Italians in general are at leaft as robufl a race of mortals as any in Europe , and the fecond is, confidering the extent of Great Britain and [ 121 ] and that of Italy, that the Italian is a much more numerous nation than the Britifh. There are a great number of very wife mortals in this metropolis of England, who taking up their notions from the Fa- rinello's and Guarducci's they heard melo- dioufly warbling in the Haymarket, are ready at all times to alfert, that the Ita- lians are in general a very puny people, becaufe the heat of the climate makes them perfpire their vigour away. And it is not long fince a moil grave man, who is both a phylician and a knight, reminded me of the effeminacy of Capua, which was the deflrud:ion of the great Hanni- bal and his valiant foldiers j and yet thofe fame foldiers were born and bred in the warmeft climates of Africa. In fpite however of thefe very wife mortals, I take it for granted that Mr. Sharp will not much conteft with me the firfl: of thefe two points. He has obferved, that in Venice men are remarkably tall , and tallnefs generally implies ftrength and vigour [ 122 ] vigour af limbs. Look ^f -any elafs among {} themj fay s he, and you %mll find a i^eryfew Jhortmen amongji them. He has obferved likewife at Naples, that the vcitnfeemed m his eyes more robiijt and athletic than the run of mankind in London. Thefe two obfer- yations are almoft the only ones on this fubjed:, that efcaped froni his pen in fome unguarded moment , and I wonder how he could liifFer them to efcape, conlider- ITi^ his invincible relucftance to grant any advantage, though ever fo fmall, to the Italians, wh^n he brings them in compe- tition with the Englifli. However he faid as much of the Venetians and the ^Neapolitans, adding even, that the Nea- folitan porters will carry ftill greater bur-- dens than the EngUJh porters. As to the reft of the Italians he has been filent, and neither fpoke of their labourers, nor of their foldiers, nor of any of thofe other clafTes of people, whofe trades require 0rength of body. But as he did not tax them any where in his book with feeble- lieis [ 123 ] nefs and effeminacy, I take it for granted that he was alhamed to ftrengthen the falfely received opinion, that the Italians are a womanifh race of people, only fit for fiddling and finging, becaufe they arc born under too warm a fun. Mr. Sharp may perhaps be willing to conteft the fecond point, and deny the fuperiority of populoufnefs of Italy, when compared to that of Great Britain, as he mufi: be fei)fible that he has woefully de- plored the unpopuloufnefs of many ipots there, which in the days of old Rome fwarmed with numberlefs human crea- tures ; and to give a ponderofity to his arguments, he may perhaps quote the .refpe€tible authority of bifliop Burnetg who, though a natiive of Scotland, faid Xt is amazing to fe^ the defolation of Italy ^ md how miferably it is unpeopled, Meverthelefs, in fpifce of the defolation and depopulation obferved by the biihop throughout Italy, and by Mr. Sharp in z few parts only of the papal and Neapo- litan [ 124 ] litan dominions 5 let Mr. Sharp firft con- fider, that the whole fuperficies of Italy is not larger than the fuperficies of Great Britain ; and then let him remember that he has given us a lift, which he had rea- fon to believe authentic, of the inhabitants of Hufcany, who according to that lift (exclufive of the ftate of Lucca) amount to nine hundred and forty odd thcufand, though Tufcany be fcarcely the twelfth part of Italy, and though it be, for the greatefl part, mountainous, and confe- quently thinly peopled when compared to Piedmont, Lombardy, and many other flat provinces in feveral parts of our pe- ninfula. Then let him recolledt the po- puloufnefs of the whole Italian coaft for about lixteen hundred miles, and remem- ber in particular that ftreak of habitations on the border of the Ligurian fea, from Nice to Genoa, which part of our coaft is one hundred and twenty miles in length ; and yet looks like one continued town through all that fpace, containing 4 ten [ '25 ] ten or eleven towns, and about three- fcore villages, befides a vaft many clufters of houfes between thofe towns and vil- lages. Let him recolledt what number- lefs habitations, fcarcely interrupted by empty fpaces, are on either lide of the vallies of Ponfevera and Bifagno, which reach from Genoa to the foot of the Bocchetta, for about twenty miles. Let him recoiled: how thick are the towns and villages throughout the king of Sar- dinia's dominions, and in Piedmont efpe- cially, which, though a large province, looks almoft like one fingle city. Let him recoiled: what a number of towns, villages, and houfes may be feen from Turin to Milan, and from Milan to Ve- nice : how numerous are the people of Chivaflb, Crefcentino, Trino, Cafale, Ver- celli, Novara, Bufalora and Magenta; and then thofe of Lodi, Cremona, Pizzghi- tone, Gera d'Adda, Bozzolo, Mantova, Bergamo, Brefcia, Verona, Vicenza, and Padua, all lying almofl in a line of little more t J2^ 1 more than two hundred and thirty tiiiiesf^ with a great many confiderable villages and little towns interfperfed. Then let him recoiled:, in the pope's dominions only, that row of towns from Bologna to Macerata -, that is, Bologna, Imola, Fa- enza, Forli, Forlimpopoli, Cefena, Savi- niano, Rimini, Cattolica, Pefaro, Fano, Sinigaglia> Ancona, Camerano, LorettOj Recanati, and Macerata, which are all in a line of little more than a hundred and fifty miles, and all furrounded with popu- lous territories. Let him then turn Back towards Lombardy, and look on the numberlefs towns and villages fcattered all about the Monte di Brianza, juft under the mountains of Switzerland, perhaps the moil populous and the mofl: delight- ful province in all Italy, and yet very fel- dom vifited by Englifh travellers. Let him then confider the fmall, but thickly inhabited, flates of Lucca, Parma, and Modena, and the infinite number, fcarcely Lnowri to the v/orld, who live on the long ( 127 )i I'on^r range of the Apennines, for die {pace of about fix hundred miles j among which there is a fmall nation never mentioned by any Englifli traveller, betwixt Verona aiid the Alps beyond Roveredo, where a language is fpoke of unknown origin 5 which nation is fuppofed by the marquia Maffei, in his Verona Illufirafa, to be de- fcended from the Cimbri, defeated by Marius. Then let Mr. Sharp give me leave to inform him, that L have been af- fured by his friend, the late Englifh reli- dent in Venice, that the Venetians have more than two millions and a half of fu^b- jedis in Italy only, though the Venetians amongft the It-alianf fovereign^ hold but the fourth rank. Add to all this, the king of Naples' dominions, which take up near one third of Italy, excluiive of Sicily, From this account let Mr. Sharp, if he can, ftrike out a calculation, approaching to exadtnefs, and he will find, that it would be ridiculous to compare the num^ bers contained in Great Britain with thofe 3 ©f [128 ] of Italy ; where, upon a moderate com- putation, and exclufive of its three great iflands, (Sicily, Sardinia, and Corfica) there are very near fourteen millions of people ; when in all Great Britain, that is, in England, Wales, and Scotland, it is faid, that there are little more than feven millions *. * Many Italians pretend that Italy contains more than fixteen millions of people. However the fol- lowing is an account of its inhabitants, as far as my beft enquiries could go : The king of Naples, exclufxve of Sicily, 3,800,000 The pope, - -_---.-- 1,350,000 The grand duke of Tufcany, according to Mr. Sharp's lift, leaving out the odd numbers, _______> 940,000 The republic of Lucca, - - - - - 140,000 The duke of Modena, _ _ _ . - 330,000 The duke of Parma, _--__- 330,000 The Venetians, ------- 2,600,000 State of Milan, -..----_ 1,060,000 State of Mantua, ------- 170,000 10,720,000 The .-^.^ [ 129 1 Having ftated thefe two points, I will now fay fomething of the fuperjtitton of the Italians, and of thc'u fijiival-days and rareejhows, which include not only their frequent proceffions, but their high and low mafTes -, the great ornaments beflowed on their churches ; their ceremonies at chriftmas, in the holy week, at eafter, and on many other occafions -, the various and rich accoutrements of their priefls, of all ranks, from the pope down to the curate, when on their duty j and number- lefs other things of this kind, which Brought over 10,720,000 •f- The king of Sardinia, excluflve of Sardinia and Savoy, ----- 2,700,000 The republic of Genoa, exclufive of Corfica, - - - --_-- 470,000 13,890,000 t /n 1729, KdyJIer reckoned two milUons only^ exclu- Jive of Sardinia : but it muft now be confidered, that fince Keyjler's time^ a large traSf of Lombardy^ and a large part of Aiontferrat, have been added to that king's domi- nions. Then agriculture^ and efpecially the planting of mulberry trees., has been greatly encouraged within thcfe forty years ^ ivhicJ: has encreafed its popidoifnefs confiderably. K render [ n^ 1 fender religion grand and , magnificent iii its outward appearance, efpecially in the ravifhed fight of our common people,,^ who are thofe that mofl want to be im- prelTed with awful ideas. With thefe rareelhows, which are cer- tainly fuperflitious in a great meafi|re, fhe Italians have been reproached ever fince the great fchifm that took place in the Chriilian religion about the time of Henry VIII. This reproach has beeri- handed down to us from one proteftant traveller to another -, and they have all' expatiated, if not with great wifdom, at leaft with great afperity and mockery, on- the folly of thofe Italian politics, which allow of fuch enormous intervals and means of diffipation. Nor has any of thefe all -knowing politicians ever feemed to. entertain the leaft fufpicion,- that there ean be arguments produced in favour of thefe feftivals and rareeihows, and fuch- argumcnts too, as will overbalance theirs, atleall with regard to^ fuch pradtices which are [ '3' 3 af e cef*tainly derived from thofe of the Ro«^ mans, who, like the modern Italians, were very fuperftitious, and as fond of feftivals and rareefhows as their faccelTors of to-day. But dunces feel lb rapturous a joy when they can make a parade of their furprifing quicknefs in finding out glaring abfurdities among their neigh- bours, that it is no wonder if they are always ready to reprefent their cuftoms and manners in a ridiculous light. You may tell dunces, that general cuftoms form themfelves by imperceptible degrees, and that, when they are formed, it is not only extremely difficult to alter them, but extreniely dangerous even to attempt it. They will flill go on with mockery upon mockery, and with declamation upon declamation ; and every new at- tempt to bring them to reafon is but a renovation of their abfurdity. However, to give Mr. Sharp fome fmall notion of Italian politics relative to rarce- fiows, he mull permit me to inform hini, that K 2 the [ IS2 ] the late Pope Benedid: XIV. once ofFered all the Italian pripces an utter abolition of all holidays, Sundays excepted; which offer procured him the appellation of Papa proteftante, the protefiant Pope, Had that abolition taken place, it would certainly have demoliflied a large portion of thofe fuperflitious rarelhows fo naufeated by proteftants in general, and by Mr. Sharp in particular. But, after long debates and confultations, every one of thofe princes rejeded his holinefs* oiFer, and chofe rather to go on in the old way. The reafons urged for accepting the offered abolition may eafily be gueffed by any fliop-keeper in England, let him be ever fo dull. Wc have lately got in Italy a pretty numerous fet of young gentlemen, who can talk as glibly about political matters as any old member of the Robinhood fo- ciety, and defcant, with as much elquence and pcrfplcuity, upon arts, manufactures, :ihd commerce, as any Britilli grocer ox- ii„berdallier [ 133 ] haberdaflier of them all. Our young men of quality not only read Voltaire^ Roufleau, the marquis d'Argens, Montef- quiou, and other modifh French writers, but likewife many Englifh books tran- llated into Italian from the French. By means of fuch ftudies, it is inconceivable how our young men of quality encreafe in wifdom and fcepticifm every day. Counfellors of this call:, v/e may well fuppofe, when the great queftion con.- cernins; the offered abolition was apitated, launched out, with great force of ratio- cination, upon ** the prodigious advantages ** that would infallibly accrue to arts, ** manufactures and commerce, by ex- '* ploding thofe ufelefs and noxious ieiii- ** vals ; upon the large additions which *' might be made to the prefent flock in ** trade, by the united labours of feveral *' millions of hands in the fpace of forty ** or fifty days gained by the abolitioii ** every year; and on the ftrong poba- ** bility of underfellinc^ our neighbours K 3 at [ 134 ] !^« at foreign markets in a very fhort time, *' which would quickly make us mailers *' of the v/hole commerce of the coun- " tries round, give us numerous fleets in ^* a few years, and render the Italian " name refpedtable once more to the *' v/hole world." After havijig opened this enchanting profped:, we may likewife eafily conceive, that thofe young counfellors pointed out with great acutenefs of obfervation, *' the s'' innumerable evils produced by idlenefs, ** the great parent of vicej and enlarged *' moil pompoufly on the inexpreffible *' happinefs which a nation enjoys, whofe ** poor are fo induflfiouHy inclined as to *? employ every moment of their time in ?* incelTant labour." Tliefe, and other £uch. ailoniihing argu- ments v/ere probably confirmed by the example of the Engli(h in particular, " v/ho by their unparalleled indoflry and '* natural love of labour, are all become f^' ysry rich and very happy, the greatefl '* i3ar| C 135 T ^«^ part of them being lords and fquircB, " who hot knowing what to do with ** their bags of money, run in fhoals -*' about the world to fcatter it away, and -** efpecially about Italy, where, amongft ** other fatisfadtions, they obtain that of ** hearing fongs, fung in the trueft tafte^ ** and of contemplating the molTy ruins ** of ancient Rome, together with the *' half-defaced works of Michelangelo ** and Raphael/' But now, Mr. Sharp, let us turn the leaf, and fee what is contained in the next page ; thaf is, , let us hear the anfwer given to thofe learned and wiie counfel- lors by an old^fafhioned flauncfi Machi- velian, and his reafbns j^gainfl accepting the offered abolition. The fellow began his fpeech with this ' old, very old obfervation, that *' the plu^ *' rality mujl needs be ever fcor^ let their ** indiijlry be ever fo great, and their labour ^* ever fo incejjhnt,'' He then went on in thl^ fcf ain : . K 4. "If [ '36 ] «^ If this be true, as it is without doubt, that labour is the greateft mur- derer of men, as it appears by the fhort fpace that the labourious part of mankind live, when compared to the long time lived by the idle, why fhould we be fo uncharitable as to fhorten the lives of our countrymen with an incre ^ ment of fatigue ? What is there in the world that deferves the getting, if it muft be got at fo dear an expence ? Pray, gentlemen, what do we want farther than what we have ? Does not Italy, one year with another, produce corn for us all ? It certainly does, fince we fend many {liip-loads of it to Spain and Turkey when the crop proves tolerable, befides furnifliing Switzer- land with almofl all the bread that is eaten there ? Then Italy produces a threat deal more wine than we could polnbly drink, if we were all turned into fponges. We have cattle enough to ?'' fiirnini the whole peninfula vvith meat: [ ^37 ] ♦« wc have horfes, alTes, and mules in ** abundance : the whole land fwarms <* with fowls, both wild and tame^ and ** the fea, which encompafles us on three <* fides, and our rivers and lakes, are *' very liberal to us of very good iifli. *' As for cheefe, we have fuch quantities^ " and fo good, that all the nations of ** Europe will tafte qf it, as likewife of ** our Bologna-faufages, and macaroni's, ** and vermicelli's, and other fuch good *' things, Tben we have very lufcious *' grapes, and melons, and apples, and ** pears, and figs, and plums, and oranges, '* and lemons, and all other forts of ** fruits in an aftonifhing abundance. Our ** gardens give us cabbages, and fallad, *' and all kinds of pot-herbs twenty ** times more than we need. You all ** know what prodigious quantities of oil " we fend abroad, befides what we ufe ** at home : you all know what plenty of ** good rice fome of our provinces yield, f^ and turkey- corn, and chefnqts, which ** make I i3« JJ *^ make up the chief food of our low '*' people. You kno^v what quantities *' of beans and peas, and mother kinds of *' pulfe, we may confume of our own ** gtowth. Our mountains yield near as *« much iron and copper as we want, be- ** fides fo much fine marble of all forts, '* both for ufe and ornament, that we *' might build new cities, if we thought ** it necelTary. We have no need of buy- ** ing any kind of timber from abroad, as ** We have oaks, and elms, and fir-trees, ^* and walnut-trees, more than our car- ** penters will ever Want, befides black •* and red ebony, and many other fine " Woods for cabinet-making, We have ** fewel for firing, flax to make linen, " and hemp enough to hang us all, if vi^e '* had a mind to it. We have wool ^' enough to cloath all the lower part of *' our people, and hides and fkins enough ^* for our fhoes and gloves ; and a thou- *' fand other bleflings, for which we ^* ought to be thankful i and above all 3 the *' the nations in .the world, except pe?- f' haps theChinefe, we have an immenfe ff quantity of {ilk, which our grounql ** produces every where. This article .« alone, good Sirs, is more than equi- <« valent to all the fuperfluities whicl^i *' our ptefent general luxury and corrup- <« tion makes us dream we want frorqi f' other countries. Gur filk alone will ** procure us coffee from Arabia, fugar *« from Martinico, pepper, cinnamon, <« cloves, and nutmegs from the Eall:- ^' Indies -, pilchards, herrings, and falmon f' from Falmouth, Yarmouth, and Car- ** rickfergus -, and as much gold and filver *' from Peru and Potoli as will facilitate ** all kinds of mercantile bufinefs amon^ *' us -y and yet the balance of trade be ^* ftill in our favour. We have already *' fo much tobacco of our own growth, ** that if we improve a little farther the *' cultivation of it, we il:iall in a little .«* time want no more either ffom Vir- • ^' einia I 140 ] ** g'niaor from Salonicchlo. What then, " in the name of confulion, do thefe *« gentlemen want more ? What need *« have we to encreafe our natural riches *' with papal abolitions ? Are we not a ** nation numerous enough, and as ftrong ** and as healthy as any other nation ? ^' And what do thefe beardlefs gentry f' talk about the Englifh, and bring their ** example to fupport their ultramontane ** reafoning ? The Englifh, we allow, <•* are a very ingenious and induftrious *' people, as we fee by their cloaths, their *' watches, and their Birmingham-wares. *•'« They are a people that hate idlenefs as *« much as they hate the French and *' the Devil. But is it pofitively true, ** that they ar^ all lords and fquires, *' becaufe they hate idlenefs and love ** hard work ? Yet, fuppofe this w^s ** true, what would it lignify f What ** bufmefs have we to make lords and ^' fquires of all our poor ? Is it not bet- ?■* ter for them to live a loni:r life in idle- nefs. [ HI ] «* nefs, than to be for a few years labotif- ** ing lords, and hard-working fquires ? " Then our idle poor propagate much " fafler than the laborious Englifh, if it <* be true, that the country of the Eng- *' lifh, though ibmewhat larger than " ours, fcarcely contains half as many ** inhabitants ; and you all know, gentle- ** men, that propagation has been the *' chief end of our creation. But alas, *' gentlemen ! let us faddle an additional " weight of labour on our poor, and de- " prive them at the fame time of their '* rejoicing feftivals and rareefhows, what ** will be the confequence ? The confe- *^ quence will be, that they will work " their own deftrudlion. It is true, that " our flock in trade v/ill certainly grow ** a little larger, for a while, after the ** abolition, and bring perhaps fome few '* cart-loads of money into our country ** from foreign parts. But then the ** cheapnefs of money will caufe dearnefs ** of provifions, and encreafe much the " price I t4z ] ^^ price of all the neGeffaries of life: aricl " then our poor will be poor indeed, as ** ifcis certain they have as good backs as " any poor in^Chriilendom to undergo' " labour 5 . but : havev on the other hand, ** no . more wit than - the other poor in •' Chriftendom to "make their profit of *' their labour, and get their lliare of ** the aforefaid cart-loads of money. Skil- ** ful computers, who are felddm of their " clafs, will get all that money to them- ** felves; and a few will have plums and '* large eftates, while thoufands" fliall be ** obliged to labour, pine, and ftarve. *' Then dearnefs of provifions and other <* neceiTaries will often make them angry, '« and upon the leafl: ground of complaint ** they will alTemble riotoufly, and burn " and deflroy granaries and mills, and *' throw corn and eheefe into ponds and '* rivers to make them cheap ; and fedi- ** tiouily farround the dwellings of our ** nobility and chief people, whom they ** fhall dream to be .the authors of their *' wants J t 143 1 ^* wants ; and create great confufion in. ** all parts of the country; and thus we " fhall bring upon us fuch evils and cala* ** mities as we are flill total ftrangers , «' to. Let us therefore fuiFer the good. *' creatures to live on as they have done «* thefe many ages -, let them gaze with , ** wonted fuperftition on their wooden *' faints and pafte-board Madona's ; let ** them enjoy their feftivals and raree- ^ (hows; and a fig for thefe outlandifli ** politics imported in French books, that <* turn the heads of all our reading youth, ** and never will do Italy any good !" Now, Mr. Samuel Sharp the politicians, what reply would you have made to this fpeech of our Machiavelian ? Did you not fay, that the gondoliers of Venice are better fed and better dreffed than your boatmen on the Thames ? that the low people at Naples look as athletically as Milo in times of yore ? that the beggars of Tufcaiiy are better clad and more cleanly lodged than your beggars through Middle- fex r 144 ] ftx and Surry ? Yoii certainly fald of hinted fomething in yoiir book to tfiis purpofe ; and heaven knows what you would have faid if you had ever entered the chearful and hofpitable habitations of the Lombard, the Piedmontefe, and the Genoefe peafantry 1 Will you ndw ilill fay. Sir, that their feftivals and rareefhows are totally impolitic as well as fuperfti- tious, and that the princes of Italy were not fo wife as your worfhip^ becaufe they did not accept of the abolition as you would have done ? Thefe feflivals and rareefhows, Mr, Sharp, are fuperftitious, I grant it over and over ; and the vulgar of Italy are very credulous when they believe, that their falvation partly depends on their de- votion to thofe feftivals and rareefliows, But while you upraid your neighbours for their fuperftition and credulity, do not forget your friends at home, and obferve, that abfurdities are not all on the other fide of the water. Remember, Sir, that in [ 145 ] in your days and mine fome of your countrymen were tried, and one of them fairly hanged, for having drowned a poor old woman, becaufe fhe was a witch. This lingle fad ought to perfuade you, that the low part of mankind are naturally fuperftitioiis and credulous every where. And we men of bright underftandings may ealily rail at credulity and fuperfti- tion ', but to root them out of the world is beyond the power of our wit ; and I know fome people, who would not think it very advantageous neither, if it was even poffible. Changes are not made without inconvenience, even from worfe to better, as one of your beft divines has obferved : and the abolifhing of feftivals and rareefhows in Italy would in all likeli- hood prove juft as eafy as to hinder the Englifli freeholders from felling their votes at eledtions. Mr. Sharp may feoff as long as he pleafes at the fuperftition and credulity of the Italians : he is very wel- come 3 but he muft not forget, that cre- L dulity [ 146 ] dulity and fuperllition are no vices : that it is no crime to run and fee a man in a bottle in the Haymarket, or a ghoft in Cock^lane : to buy dying-fpeeches of people who died without uttering a word: to be dupes of News-paper-quacks, and Grub-ilreet politicians : to be averfe to fit thirteen at table : to croud Whitfield and Wefley's tabernacles, and be metho- difls, quakers, or anabaptifts : to eat crofs buns at Eafler, and flaughter tur- kies at Chriilmas : to wonder at the French, that can live upon frogs and foop, and be furs of the exiflence of giants in Patagonia, C H A P- [ ^M ] C H A P. X. J. Think it already proved to the reader's fatisfadtion, that Mr. Sharp underftands not a word of Itahan. Were any farther evidence necelTary, I would inftance his childifh remarks on our theatres, on which he has beftowed five full letters, and his profound lilence about the prefent {late of our literature. Of our theatrical abilities, as poets, he fays nothing. He only defcribes the ex- tent of our flages ; the width of the boxes ', their price and difpolition -, the gaudinefs of the fcenery, ; its illumina- tion, or no-illumination j the falary of the lingers? the length of the dances j the inattention of the audience, and other fuch miferable trifles, which prove not only tedious, but erroneous for the greateft L 2 part. [ hs ] part. He fays, for inftance, In one line, that the opera-ferjormers are not paid fi, liberally at Naples as at London-, and in the next line, that Gabrieli had, for one year only, nine hundred Englijh pounds. Would then Gabrieli be more liberally paid if fhe was engaged for the Hay- market ? There £he would fcarcely be paid more than a thoufand pounds, and be at the expence of coming and going, befides the greater expence that fhe would be put to for living, which is, at leail, thrice dearer in London than in Naples. Mr, Sharp feems firmly perfuaded, that the Italian muficians get vaft heaps of guineas here, and buy large eftates with Englifli money when they go back to their homes : but let him, if he can, name more than one Italian finger who ever grew rich in England fince Senefino. I have feen for ten years the operas in the Haymarket carried on to the great fatisfaclion of the Englilh mufical ladies ; but J have likewife {qqvi almoft all the chief [ H9 3 chief Italian performers there return hom^ very poor, or with very fmall favings ia their pockets, in fpight of their enormous falariesy 2x1^ prodigious benefits. Vifeonti, Serafino, Mattei, and one or two more, carried away, it may be, four or five hundred pounds each, one with another : but Mingotti, Potenza, Cornacchini, Ric- ciarelli, and many more went away moneylefs ; as they chofe to fubmit to an unjuft abatement in their falaries^ rather than truft twice to thofe jurymen^ who made ftrange mouths on hearing that people were paid a thoiifand pounds for a fong. Then the fingers of lefs note are io poorly paid, confidering the dearnefs of every thing in London, that they ftruggle under great difficulties all the time they ftay here ; get themfelves into jail pretty often for debt ; and at laft return home as poof as they came. As to the fiddlers and other Italians, who come here to play or to teach mufic, fooliflily attraded by the great renown of L 3 Englifh f i5» J Englifli riches, they perform at the Opera and at Madam Comely' s, and trot about from houfe to houfe every morning, to give lefTons for two guineas a dozen, while the winter lafts : but fcarcely one irt twenty has found himfelf twenty pounds the better at the year's end for thefe twenty years paft. I will not expatiate farther on this low fubjedt, of which, low as it is, Mr. Sharp tnows but very little, notwithHanding his pretty comparifon between Chabran and Giardini, and his encomiums on the two BifouctSy as he calls them ; or Befozzi, as he ought to have called them. Inllead of being fo diffufe as he is on thefe trifles, Mr. Sharp would' have done much better to have given us fome criti- cal fynopfis or analylis of fome of the co- medies, tragedies, farces, or operas, which he pretends to have feen in feveral of our towns, to enable us to compare them with the works of the fame kind written in the Engiiili language. But inftead of doing [ «5t ] doing any thing of this fort, he touches, and does but touch, upon our Harlequins and Don Faftidio's, and takes not the leaft notice of our extempore'-comedies : a Angu- larity Ariking enough for any flranger to note amongft the moft peculiar charadler- iflics of the Italian theatre. What de- light can an Englifh reader find in hear- ing Mr. Sharp talk of the white or black drawers worn by the Italian dancers on the ftage ; of lemonades drank in the boxes by Italian ladies -, or of the alter- nate lofs and gain made by Italian manar gers ? What do we care whether induftry or mere accident threw thefe particulars in his way ? Had Mr. Sharp been able to conflrue ever fo little of our language, he would, in all likelihood, have touched upon the merits of our poets and men of l^rning j and would have faid fomething, good or bad, right or wrong, of the great number of books continually publifhed in many of our towns. Was this a topic to be over- L 4 looked [ 152 ] looked by fuch a fkilful cenfurer ? By a man who has refided about a year amongft us, without having any thing to do ? By a man, who has been an author himfelf before he went his journey, and did in* tend ftill to keep that character on his return ? This was a topic not to be pafl unnoticed by Mr. Sharp, who betrays a ftrong defire to be ranked amongft the modifh writers of the age in the very firft pages of his work, giving a minute detail of his memorable vifit (juft as he was going to enter Italy) to the famous monlieur de Voltaire, and pluming him- felf on his early acquaintance with that extraordinary genius. On feeing Mr. Sharp enter upon the defcription of his Italian ramble, with a lively ftridlure on that Frenchman's opi- nions and works, I certainly expected he would not have mifled the opportunity of gratifying the curiolity of his learned countrymen, by telling them fomething worthy notice of the learning of Italy : but [ 153 i but I was foon aware I fhould be difap-* pointed. Yet perhaps he has done better to omit this fruitful fubjecSt, as the little he tells us of Voltaire is fo jejune, fo trifling, fo uninterefting, and fo erroneous, that it makes us the lefs regret fo great an ©million. I wijh, for the honour of ?ny country ^ fays Mr. Sharp moft patriotically, that a Frenchman could tafte the language of Shake-^ fpear. Ay ! fo would every Englifhman that the Mogul himfelf could; and fo would all men in all countries be pleafed, if foreigners could tafle the language of their befl: poets. As far as fuch a wifli can go, every fenfible native of any coun- try is a very laudable patriot. Every Frenchman would be glad to fee even the inhabitants of the moon tafte thofe dra- matic performances which fill his heart with pity, or convulfe his face with laughter ; and every Italian would be fu- premely rejoiced to fee the whole univerfe delighted by Pulci, animated by Ariofto, and [ 154 ] and melted by Metaflafio. But thefe are idle wifhes, that never will be gratified. Too large a part of a man's life muft ne- celTarily be fpent in acquiring that infinite alTociation of ideas, which is indifpenfibly required to tafte, as a native, the language of any foreign poet. Few men enjoy leifure enough for fo difficult an acquifi- tion : and it is owing to the want of this leifure, as well as to their arrogance and felf-conceit, that fo many critics of all nations blunder at every word, whenever they fit in judgment on this and that foreign poet. I am prefumptuous enough to think myfelf a tolerable mafter of the Englifh; but I am likewife humble enough to abflain from pronouncing, that many paiTages in Milton and Shakefpeare are not ftriking, becaufe they do not flrike me when I read them : and this my referve and timidity arifes from an obfervation I have had many times occafion to make, that many of thofe pafiages which did not flrike me v^hen I read them myfelf, have ftruck [ 155 ] flruck me very forcibly when 1 heard theiti read by thofe who knew how they are to be read, Mr. Sharp is then quite out of the way when he fays, that Voltaire has prefented his countrymen with fome fpecimens of Shakefpeare's works, with a view to make thein admire the manner of writiftg of that poet. Had Mr. Sharp read or underftood Voltaire's works, he would certainly have given another account of Voltaire's real views, when he gave thofe fpecimens. Voltaire, on one fide, never knew Englifh enough to conftrue a page of limple profe; and is actuated, on the other hand, by a vanity bordering upon phrenzy, to appear poffefTed of all the modern polite lan- guages : to jfhew his ikill in Englifh, he he has given the world fome random criti- cifms on a few. Britifh poets, Dryden and Shakefpeare efpecially. Of Dryden's po- etical works he approves a tenth fart only, without fpecifying the one that he ap- proves, and the nine he difapp roves. An ingenuous [ '56 1 and' fatisfadory judgment! On Shake- Ipeare he has beflowed, here and there, a few meagre praifes when he was in Eng- land. But as foon as he was gone, he changed his tone, and made lepeated en- deavours to render him ridiculous. Let us but read his tranflation of Hamlet *^ and we fhall be convinced, that this was hh only view, and that the Engiifh> in his opinion, are intirely without tafte and judgment in their extravagant admiration of this favourite poet. It may be true, that Voltaire, in his converfation with Mr. Sharp, called the French tranflation of the Spectator du/l writing. I will not bring in queftion Mr. Sharp's recolledlion of Voltaire*s words, and much lefs Mr. Sharp's veracity in this particular. But as I could ipeak French from my infancy, I will venture to tell him, that the French tranflation * Seehzs ouvrages pofthumes de Guillaurne Vade. of [ '57 1 of the Spe<^ator is very faithful, as to the fenfe, and very elegant, as to the lan- guage. It is true, that the French read it not with that relifh, with which the Englifh read the original; and the reafon is plain. The Spedator's papers are, in a great meafure, local : therefore cannot equally intereft foreign readers. The French tranflator, well aware of this, has even omitted fome of thofe papers which were applicable to the Englifh manners only. Were the Spectator tranflated ever fo well into Arabic, it would pleafe the Arabs ftill lefs than it does the French. But if Voltaire has really depreciated the French tranflation of the Spedator to Mr. Sharp, Voltaire has been as unjuft to Monfieur Cofte, as he has to many other of his countrymen. His warmefl admi- rers cannot deny, that he had wronged old RoufTeau the poet, the Abbe des Fon* taines, Freron, the journalifts of Trevoux, and many more, of whom he has repeat- / «ily, and with the greatefl malice, endea- voured [ 158 ] voured to give a much worfe char-ader than they deferve. And was any man to model his opinions on Voltaire's alTertion with regard to the French writers, the king of Pruflia himfelf would fmile at his credulity. But if Mr. Voltaire has been unjuft to many of his countrymen, he is flill more fo to many who are foreigners in refped: to him. See him play the critic on the Englifh, the Italians, the Spaniards, and the Portuguefe, there is no end of his miftakes, of his difingenuity, of his fop- pery, and of his arrogance. Whether he commends or difapproves, his cenfure is the offspring of envy, and his praife the child of affectation. In the above- mentioned tranllation of Hamlet, he has turned into burlefque what was ferious, and metamorphofed folemnity into buf-- foonry. Yet, both by his tranllation, and his remarks on the original, he wants to impofe himfelf fox a mighty connoiffeur in Englifli language and poetry. Nay, he 1 has [ '59 ] has fo far fucceeded in his malignant fcheme of depreciating Shakefpeare, that immberlefs of his countrymen think the EngHfh bard many degrees below the worft dramatic writer ever produced by France. This is actually the prevalent opinion in • that kingdom concerning Shakefpeare : and this opinion is fo far ipread, that I myfelf was cenfured in print, by a fcribbling friar of Bologna, for a favourable account I gave my countrymen of Shakefpeare ; and the friar's argument refted upon this lingle point, that Voltaire had been long in England as well as I, and had given an aecount of that fame poet very diiferent from mine. But was it poflible to make Voltaire underfland Engliih as well as a native, and infufe into him fome fenfe of ihame at the fame time, I am of opinion he would curfe himfelf for the greateH: literary importer that ever exifted, on his giving a new perufal to his abfurd tranf- lation of Hamlet. Yet let us be juft to this r '60 ] this impoilor, and fay, that his dilinge- nuity in criticifm, and his ignorance in foreign languages, do not take all literary merit from him. We fhould be unjuft, not to admire the great beauty of his Zaire, and the noble fimplicity of his Charles XII. But fince I am fallen on the fubjedt of Voltaire's great ignorance of the Engliih language, let the reader indulge me with a fingle fpecimen of his ftill greater igno- rance in the Italian. This affair concerns not only Mr. Voltaire, but Mr. Sharp : the one, for endeavouring to miflead all Europe moft grofly in its opinion of one of our theatrical writers, and the other, for having, when he fpends fo much time on theatrical matters, paiTed over wholly in filence a writer, who raifed himfelf (however unworthily) to a high degree of tranfitory eminence. Indeed the contro- verfy which was carried on about this writer, when Mr. Sharp was in Italy, muil have led Mr. Sharp to form fome judgment t i6i ] judgment on him, if he meant to give his countrymen the leafl notion of the Italian ftage above the ideas of a property-mart in a playhoufe. This writer, fo magnified by Mr. Vol- taire, and fo negledled (with all other,; good and ba.d) by Mr. Sharp, is Goldoni. Goldoni is a ve/y voluminous playmonger^ having pubUfhed no lefs than thirty vo- lumes of comedies. As his chief fcope is always buflle and fhowj he has ftunned the ears and captivated the heart of the vulgar^ and of the Venetian gondoliers efpecially, to whom he has paid fo many fine compliments in many of his plays> praifing them for their aftonifhing know- ledge, tafte, arid morality, that they proved his beft friends for a long while. But his language is the mofl naufeous medley of words and phrafes, taken from feveral of the Italian dialefts, and tufcanized in a moft ridiculous manner, befides being feafoUed with abundance of gallieifms. His fentiment^ are conftantly M fa [ l62 ] lb trite and fo vulgar, whether he makes a duchefs or a footman fpeak, that thofe of one may full as well fit the other. Goldoni knows no art, no fcience. His blunders in law and in ethics, in phylic and anatomy, in geography and natural hiflory (for the fellow talks of every thing) are numerous be/ond conception. In one of his plays, he makes a Londoner hint at the canals of London, imagining London to be fuch a town as Venice; and makes another Englifhman talk of a mofl: dreadful and unfrequented forefti within twenty miles of London, when an outlawed Scotch lord hid himfelf in a' mountainous cave for many years. The manners of his country he paints after the life indeed, making the cofFee-houfe men in Venice draw their fwords and fight duels in their own fhops^ or before them, and difarm gentlemen, whofe livery they wore for many years before they took to the trade of felling coffee. He makes aj ,c;entleman go to befiege in a military] fen [ "63 ] form the houfe of his neighbour in a populous town, with a fquadron of his domeftic fervants. He makes ladies, dif- guifed like pilgrims, go in fearch of their runaway huibands, or fight bravely with fword and dagger either men or other ladies. As he has been ufed from his childhood to that flaviih meannefs and total dependance, in which the Venetian nobility keep their fubje(5ts, he has the idea of nobility fo flrongly impreffed upon him, and reveres him with fuch an abjec- tion, that he conflantly gives it the pre- ference to virtue itfelf. II decor o delle fa- miglie, fays he very gravely in one of his prefaces, non deve ejfere facrijicato al merito della virtu. ** The dig?iity of high defcent " ought not to be projfitiited to the merit of ** virtue," Full of thefe vile notidns he draws his low felf in all his charaders, and renders an Englifh peerefs outrage- oully mad at the thought of her brother's marriage wdth a virtuous woman of low rank. Then he fends an Engliih lord to M z the [ 1^4 ] the houfe of another, with pofitive orders from the king to try him in a fummary way, his majefty having heard that his lordfhip is jealous of his new bride, and deiirous that fhe fuffer no injury in his kingdom, if her guilt is not proved : but if it (hould appear on the other hand, that ihe has violated her fidelity to her huf- band, he is refolved to punifh her. Then the notions of right and wrong are fo entangled together in Goldoni's head, that he miftakes very frequently one for the other, virtue for vice, or vice for virtue ; propofing to our imitation the moil abominable charad;ers, and miftak- ing them himfelf for excellent patterns of good parents, good hulbands, good wives, good children, and good friends. "What can I fay more of this Goldoni, but that he is the author of the two Biwna Figliuolas ? Yes ; he is the author of thefe two ilupendous burletta's, which the Engliili have lately fo much admired in the Haymarket ; not on account of the r 165 3 words to be fure ; for the words they da not underlland : and if they did, ta0 rnere fuppofition of their approbation would be too great an affront to their tinderftandings -, but on account of Pic- cini's mulic, which might render Hurlo- Thrumbo a mafter-piece of harmony ; and on account of Lovattini's power of hiding dulnefs and animating {lupidity with his voice, his adion^ and his hu- mour. This heterogeneous Italian wit, who, as I faid, has rendered himfelf the idol of the Venetian canaille j this chief object of contempt with all thofe Italians that .are not canaille ; this fame Goldoni is one of the greateft men of the age v/ith Monfieur De Voltaire. Goldoni, if you y/ill take Voltaire's word *', is the fon * Here is a letter, in very bad It^li^n, by Veltairs to Goldoni. Sig-iior ?nJo, pittore e figlh della natv.ra^ vl amo dal tempo d/io vi kggo. Ho veduta la vojlr' anlma nelle M 3 'i^QfP'e [ '66 I and the painter of nature. Nothing can cope with Goldoni's genius. The god- defs of comedy has whifpered wit in his ear, after having impregnated his fancy with humour. Goldoni, the immortal Goldoni, has refcued Italy from harlequins and Gothic barbarity, and brought back once more the happy days of Plautus and njojlre opere. Ho detto : ecco un norao enefto e huono^ che ha purifcata la fcena Italia'na, che Inventa coUa fantajia., e fcrivc col fennc. Oh che fecondita ! ?mo fignore^ che purita ! A-vete rifcattato la voftra patr'ia dalle mani degli Arlecchin'i. Vorrei intitolare le voftre coramedle : V Italia llherata da Gotl. La •vojtra amlcl%la tnonora^ m incanta'. Ne Jono ohbltgato al SigJior Senatore Albergati^ e voi dovete tutti i mlet fenthnenti a vol folo. Vi augur o^ tnig Jignore, la vlia la piu lunga^ la piu fellce, giacche non potete ejfere immortale come il voftro no7ne. Intendete di farmi un grand' onore, e gia m avete fatta il piu gran piacere. This letter,"with fome other things written by Vol- taire in praife of Goldoni, are printed in one of Gol- doni's volumes, and I have been fhown the original of this very letter by the nobleman named in it, who is heartily afhamed of having, when too young, pr3ife fpeaks with fuch volubility and propriety, that his audience never can diftinguifh between his extempore and his written, parts. Had Mr. Garrick heiard Sacchi and Fiorili in Italy, I will venture to fay, that he would have received from them full as much fatisfadtion as he did from the Harlequin and the Pantaloon at Paris. But the delight given by thefe extem- pore performances depends chiefly on the abilities of the ad:ors ; and able adlors in this way cannot be many, efpecially in a country where there are no fuch immenfe towns as London and Paris, that can af- ford a maintenance to numbers of them at once, out of which many v/ill be brought by emulation to apprQach more or lefs to excellence. The Italians there- fore, in order to help the middling a6lors, have introduced mulic upon the ftagc about the beginning of the lafl century, N which [ '78 ] which brought about the formation of thofe mulical drama*s now called opera's. when they are ferious, and opera buffds or burlettciSy when they are bm-lefque. Of the firfl writers of opera's, whether ferious or hurlefque,, fcarcely any have efcaped oblivion, and none of them really merited to have their names- preferved. Zeno. and Metaftafio are the only two, who are entitled to this honour. Apoftolo Zeno found the opera quite rude and imperfed:, and he brought it within the jurifdi^lion of the Ariftotelian precepts. As he was a great mafter of Greek, he endeavoured to give it a Greek caft, and crouded it with duo's, trio's, and chorufTes, imitating as much as he could the ftrophe, antiftrophe, and epode of the antient Greek tragedies. But though Zeno's invention Be great,, his characters various, his fentiments juft,. and his plots well contrived, yet his dic- tion has fo little livelinefs and elegance,, and his verfification is fo uncouth, that his. [ 179 ] ills opera's are ftill read by many, but fet to mufic by few or none: and I have often fancied, that if his dramatic perfor- mances were well tranflated into another language> they might be read with greater pleafure than any of Metaftafio's* as the fentiments are more thick-fown, his in- vention greater, and his characters better marked than Metaflafio's. Metaftaiio's operas upon the whole are far from having all Zeno's dramatical per- fedtions ; but they are likewife far from having his chief defedts. The elegance, livelinefs, and rapidity of Metaftalio's dic- tion are not to be paralleled, and his num- bers are enchanting. His airs, duo's, and choruiTes run into mulic with fur- prifing facility, and our compofers have but little trouble in cloathing them with harmony 5 fo that it is chiefly to him, that they owe that honour of mulical pre- eminence which they have inconteftably enjoyed throughout Europe for thefe many years. N 2 As^ [ i8o ] As for our opera buffo's or burlettd^^, though we have a multitude of them, yet not one is worth reading. Abfurdity, meannefs, and a little ribaldry too, are their chief ornaments. Yet our mulical compofers know at prefent their trade fo well, that they render them pleafmg to the numerous vulgar. Every fenfible Ita- lian is afhamed of them, and looks with -contempt and indignation on thofe verfe- mongers who write them. But their^ fhame, contempt, and indignation are o| no fervice to their country, as not onh the low minded Italians are delighted with them, but even the nations that boaft of politenefs and tafte fuperior to ours, make it a point to encourage fuch mongrel compofitions. The commedie delV arte, the opera s, and the burlettdsy were not the only theatrical entertainments fubftituted by the Italians to the comemdie antiche. They invented likewife two other drama's, one called commedie '■^^ [ i8i ] cammedie pajlorali^ pajloral playj, the other commedie rujiichey rujlic plays. Of paftoral plays fome hundred are ftill to be found in the coUcdions of the cu- rious. But as paftoral life never exifted but in the innocent imagination of love- fick girls, paftoral plays could never allure the many, and fupport themfelves long. Hone of them, for aught I know, has been exhibited in Italy within thefe fifty years, and our young people only ftill read a few of them -, namely, Aminta by Taflb, Pajior Fido by Guarini, Filli di Sctro by Bonarelli, and Alceo by Ongaro ; to which our harmlefs nuns join the FiJarmindo, the author of which I do npt at prefent recoi- le6t. But our critics ^nd people of tafte look upon thefe and other f^ch compofi- tions with much lefs efteem than pur forefathers did, as they find them abound- ing with imaginary manners, unnatural fcntiments, puerile conceits, and epigram- matical turn;-. The fafhion of paftoral plays is now io atierly exploded through- N 3 out t 183 } out Italy, that the revered name of PoU- tian himfelf cannot refcue his Orfeo * from total difregard 3 and the learned them- felves fcarcely know the exiftence of that performance » As to rujiic flays we never had many, and of them only the Tancia is generally known to polite readers. This l^ancia was written by Michelangelo Bonaroti, a nephew of the famous Michelangelo. It is a regular drama in rhyme ; and its perfonages are Florentine peafants. The neatnefs of its language, and the truth of its manners are delightful. For my part I look upon it as one of the moft capital pieces that Italy ever produced 5 and was only a lingle play of ours to be faved from oblivion, I would give my vote for the Tancia. However it is aded no more, as it would not be eafy to find • This was the firft paftoral play written in Italian. The firft edition of it has no date : the fecond was printed In Fene?iia per Nicolo Zopphto, 1524. a number ( j83 1 a number of a(5t:ors fit to reprefent it ; and it is only brought fometimes on the pri- vate flages of our colleges by way of entertainment to young ftudents in the autumnal vacancies, or the carnival- time. To this ihort account of the Italian jflage I have only to add, that within thefe forty or fifty years the commedie delV arte, together with the opera s both ferious and burlefque have greatly prevailed over all other theatrical entertainments. However in thefe late years fome new and confiderable additions have been made to our flock 5 and a fhort account of thofe additions I hope will not prove difagreeablc in the next chapter. N 4 CHAP. [ l^ ] CHAP. XII. VV HEN the names of the French tragic writers, and efpecially thofe of Corneille and Racine, began to be com^ monly known in Italy, fome of our wits thought of giving us tragedies modelled after the French manner. Many fuch were therefore written in a little time, amongfl which the Merope by the marquis Maffei, the U/i/fe by Lazzarini, the Elettra by count Gafparo Gozzi, and a few more met with much approbation on feveral flages of Italy; and it is probable they will not foon be forgotten, as they are not written with that humility of language and weaknefs of veriification which pre- dominate in all our ancient tragedies. We have like wife feen reprefented of jate J)y pur ac5tors almpft ^11 the tragedies of [ i8s ] of Corneille, Racine, Crebillon, and Vol- taire, tranflated into blank verfe. But our polite people cannot fill a play-houfe by themfelves, and our vulgar cannot as yet be brought to relifh fuch compofitions. They are ftill ftrangers to the pleafure of weeping, and would ilill have kept inva- riably faithful to their Harlequins, Panta- loons, Brighella's, and the other mafks, if Goldoni and Chiari had not fuddenly made their appearance about eighteen or twenty years ago. Of Goldoni I have already faid enough to giye a fufficient idea of the man as a compofer of plays. And of the abbot Pietro Chiari I have nothing elfe to fay, but that he is, if poffible, ftill worfe than Goldoni in every particular. Thefe two ftrange mortals were both in the fame year accidentally engaged to com- pofe comedies for two different ilages at Venice. It is not to be conceived how pro- digioufly popular they both became after having exhibited two or three of their fantaftical [ i86 ] fantaflical and abfurd compofitions, and how quickly they brought ihow, and noife, and nonfenfe into vogue : the like has never been feen in any country. How- ever it muft be obferved, that part of their rapid popularity they owed to their fati- rizing one another upon the ftage in a mofl unmerciful manner ; and the Italians are notlefs pleafed with bull- baiting than the Englifh. It was by this means chiefly, that our tyvo combatants divided our peo- ple into parties, fome countenancing one, and fome fupporting the other ; nor need my Engliih readers be told what the confequence of parties is, let their objed: be ever fo unimportant. None of Goldoni's and Chiari's pro- dudtions can really fland the teft of cri- cifm. They both were born without wit, and educated without learning. Yet an epidemical phrenzy in their favour feized the Venetians, both high and low, and quickly fpread itfelf from Venice to aimoft all parts of Italy. That phrenry was { i87 ] was then much encreafed by the pre- poflerous praifes lavifhed by Monfieur de Voltaire on Goldoni, as they contributed much to his getting fome fuperiority over his antagonift. Thefe fruitful geniufles in the fpace of about ten years fupplied our many itages with feveral hundred of plays -, and Gol- doni in particular boafted in one of them, intitled // Tea fro Comico, that he had compofed Jixteen comedies in a year, of which he produced the titles from the mouth of an ad:or. Such a rapidity of entertainments ren-^ dered the two pfcudo-poets abfolute fove- reigns of the ftage^ and no body knows how long their empire would have lafted, if fome learned men, tired with their double deluge of nonfenfe, had not begun to harrafs them both with criticifm. One Carlo Gozzi, younger brother to count Cofparo Gozzi already mentioned, was the firft that fell hard upon Goldoni and Chiari^ and many others foon fol- lowed. [ i88 ] lowed. The two bards, finding them- fclves attacked very clofely, thought pru- dent to fufpend their mutual animofity, dapped up a hafty peace, and joined to oppofe their cenfurers. Chiari was a great profe-fcribbler as well as a comedy- monger j fo that a brilk paper- war was quickly commenced, which grew hotter and hotter by rapid degrees. It happened one day, that Carlo Gozzi met with Goldoni in a bookfeller's fhop. They exchanged (harp words ; and in the heat of the altercation Goldoni told his mercilefs critic, that it was an eafy tafk to find fault with a play ; but defired him to obferve, that to write a play was a very difficult one. Gozzi replied, that to find fault with a play was really eafy ; but that it was ftill eafier to write fuch plays as would pleafe fo thoughtlefs a nation as the Venetians > adding with a tone of contempt, that he had a good mind to make all Venice run to fee l^he ^ak of the ^bree Ora?iges formed into a comedy* [ i89 ] comedy. Goldoni, with fome of his par- tizans then in the (hop, challenged Gozzi to do it if he could ; and the critic thus piqued, engaged to produce fuch a co- medy within a few days. Who could ever have thought that to this trifling and cafual difpute Italy fliould owe the greateft dramatic writer that it ever had ! Gozzi quickly wrote a comedy in five adts, intitled / tre Aranci, 'The three Oranges^ formed out of an old wo- man's tale, with which the Venetian chil- dren are much entertained by their nurfes. The comedy was adted, and the three beautiful princeffes born of the three en- chanted oranges made all Venice croud to the theatre of St. Angelo. It may eafily be imagined, that Goldoni and Chiari were not fpared in the Tre Aranci. Gozzi found means to introduce in it a good many of their theatrical ab- furdities, and expofed them to public de- rifion. The Venetians, like all other Italians, do not greatly care for the labour of [ ^90 ] of fearching after truth, and their imagi- nation runs too often away with them, while their judgment lies dormant. But point out fenfe to them, and they will in^* itantly feize it. This was remarkably the cafe on the firft night that the comedy of the Three Oranges was adted. The fickle Venetians forgot inftantly the loud accla- mations with which they had received the greatefl part of Goldoni and Chiari's plays, laughed obftreperoufly at them both, and applauded the Three Oranges in a moft frantic manner. This good ficcefs encouraged Gozzi to write more 3 and his new plays changed in a little time fo intirely the tafte of the Vene- tian audiences, that in about two feafons Goldoni was utterly ftripped of his the- atrical honours, and poor Chiari totally annihilated. Goldoni quitted Italy and went to France, confiding much in Mr. Voltaire's intereft and recommendations, which, as I have heard, procured him the place of Italian mafl«r to one of the 4 princelTes [ 19' ] princeiTes at Verfailles, and Chlari retired to a country-houfe in the neighbourhood of Brefcia. In the years 1764 and 1765 I have feen adled in Venice ten or twelve of Gozzi's plays, and had even the perufal of tv^o or three of them in manufcript j and no works of this kind ever pleafed me fo much : fo that, when I faw Mr. Garrick there, I lamented that he did not come in carnival-time, that he might have {qcr fome of them a6:ed ; and I am confident lie would have admired the originality of Gozzi's genius, the moft wonderful, in my opinion, next Shakelpeare, that ever any age or country produced. The caft of Gozzi's mind leads him to ftrike out many characters and beings not to be found in nature, like that of Caliban in the Tempeft ; and yet moft natural and true like Caliban's. To his aftonifhing power of invention,, fo rare amongft modern poets, Gozzi joins great purity and force of lauguage, harmony [ 192 ] harmony of verfificatloii, intricacy of* plot, multiplicity of incidents, probabi^ lity of cataftrope, variety of decoration, and many other excellencies expedled in the modern drama. It is a pity that this author could never be prevailed upon to publifli his 'plays. He has refifted the ffcrongeft folicitations of his friends, with- out giving any fatisfad:ory reafon for his averfion to fuch a publication. Some at- tribute it to his partiality for an adtrefs, to whom he leaves the profits arifing from their exhibition : but this I can fcarcely believe, as her profits from fuch a publi- cation would be much more confiderable than thofe which fhe reaps by her adling. I rather think that having no great value for his audience, Gozzi fets likewife but little value on the things that pleafe them : and perhaps it was a fimilar reafon, that kept Shakefpeare from publifliing a cor- re(5t and complete edition of his plays while he lived. May the good genius of the Italian Hage befriend Gozzi's compo- fitions, r 193 ] iitions, and not fuffer it to be robbed of them. I hope they will meet with a better fate than Shakefpeare's, and that future commentators will not be put to the trouble of reftoring his palTages, redi- fying his fentences, e5:plaining his obfcu- rities, and adjufting his orthography. Such was the origin and progrefs, and fuch is the prefent ilate of the Italian ftage. I will not fay that Mr. Sharp ought to have given fuch a circumftantial account of our theatrical abilities and per- formances. A ftranger, as I faid before, has need to live the beil part of his life in a foreign country to qualify himfelf for fuch narrations 5 and any man may ftand ealily excufed when he palTes lightly over fuch fubje(51:s in his travelling accounts. But no flranger can avoid the imputation of felf-conceit when, on his return home after a fliort ramble over any country, ha launches out into fuch ample and multi- farious fubjeds, and pretends to give his countrymen true ideas of things, of which O he [ 194 ] lic knows nothing, and could know no- thing. Let any man unacquainted with Italy read Mr. Sharp's Five Letters' on the. Italian fcage, and he will prefently con- clude that the Italians are a people moil miferably ignorant of theatrical matters ^ that they have banifhed all fenfe and pro- priety from their drama's -, and that they cannot be pleafed with any thing but far- cical buffoonry. But is this giving a true idea of the Italians and of their ilage ? Certainly not. The mighty cenfurer ought to have got better information be- fore he wrote on fuch a fa bjed: ; and fince he' pretends to fuch fkill in Italian, as to knov/ even the Venetian dialeft, he ought to have mentioned Carlo Gozzi and Meta- flafio, as they are dramatic writers not to be equalled by any of modern England and France. What fliall we then call Mr. Sharp's Five Letters ? ■ C H A F. f ^95 ] C H A P- XIIL J F Mr. Sharp is guilty of the moA ri- diculous felf-conceit when he fpeaks at large of the prefent flate of the Italian llage, he likewife incurs the fufpicion of difingenuity when we take notice, that he has pad over in the moft profound lilencc the prefent ftate of Italian literature. How could this man, who lays the ftrongeft claims to literary honours, ne- gle(5t a topic wh'ch above all others mull prove interefting to the moft fenfible part of the Englifh readers ? How could he be fo fevere when he expatiated on our ignorance and follies, and then be fo for- getful of cenforial juftice as not to fpeak a fingle word of our knowledge and our wifdom ? To what end did he give an account of his travels through Italy, if he did not vifit our feveral univerlities, and O 2 enter t 196 1 enter our numerous libraries ? If he was not even felicitous for the Icaft informa- tion or perfonal acquaintance with any one of the many men of learning that live at prefent amongft us ? Let us fuppofe for a moment, that all memorials of the prefent Italians were to be deftroyed, and only the account given of them by Mr. Sharp was kept in being, what a judg>^ jnent would pofterity form of them! Poor folks, how they would be wronged ! I will not here enquire whether in the celebrated age of Leo X. there was more real knowledge in Italy than there is at prefent. Such a difcuffion would lead me too far 'j and I am withal afraid, that itj would prove too hard for my abilities.^ Let us fuppofe befides, that after a long examen I fliould at lafl declare for th( prefent age, have I not reafon to thinfe i that my contemporaries would never fuffer themfelves to be convinced by my argu- ments ? Mankind in general are fuch laudator es tern forts a5li ; they are fo bigot- ted [ 197 1 ted to ancient times, that even the moil learned men of Leo's age frequently com- plained of the ignorance of their times, and fet the preceding centuries far above their own, both for fcience and arts. Avoiding therefore a difcuffion which might be deemed invidious, or at leail prove fruitlefs, I (hall only obferve, that learning cannot procure in our days that veneration to its pofTelTors from all clafles of people, and efpecially from princes and great lords, which it procured them foon after its refloration. Learning there- fore is now cultivated both in Italy and in other parts of Europe, more out of regard to its ufe and convenience in common life, than for any great hopes of arriving by its means at confiderable advantages or univerfai reputation. Our flock of books on all forts of fubjedls is fo ample at this day, that learned and ingenious men can- not now have that facility which our pre- deceflbrs had, of making themfelves known to their contemporaries, and O 3 recommending T 198 ] recommending themfelves to public no^ tice by handling a new fubjedt. We have not, like our predeceflbrs, any very power-« ful incentives from honour or from inte-- jeft to encreafe the number of quarto's and folio's ; and this is one of the reafons why many perfons at prefent, in Italy as well as in England and in other coun^ tries, cultivate the fields of literature in privacy and humble content ; and yet have laid in much greater ilores of know- ledge than ever Bembo or Sadoleto ; but keep them to themfelves, or fhare them only with the beft and moft intimate of their friends, without ever, thinking of carrying them to any public market by means of the prefs« A cardinal's hat is not now to be grafped at by climbing up the ladders of Greek aiid Latin; and a learned man in thefe days may indeed ob-^ tain by. induflry or chance fome petty ad-? vantage j but a biihopric in Italy as well as in England, is feldom the reward of mere merit and learning. Whatever a i 5 iludiou^ t ^99 ] fludious reclufe furrounded by his books may think of the illuftrious age of Leo, when I confider the wonderful progrefs that all fciences have made all over Eu- rope within thefe three laft centuries, I ' am almoil tempted to think, that, exclu- live of the knowledge of learned languages, the real knowledge of the prefent Englifli women alone, v/ere it poiilble to bring it all together, would prove not much in- feriour to the real knowledge of that illuf- trious age, with which fliallow fatirifls and peevi(h poets of all countries reproach the degeneracy of their own. Granting however that the modern Italians are not upon the whole fo fludi- ous and fo learned as their cinque centijii *, their ancejlors of Leo's age -, yet it is wrong * The Italians give this colle(3:ive name to the learned who flourifhed in the fixteenth century, ?s they call Trecent'iji'i^ ^uattrocenttfti, and Secentifti thofe wh© jRourifned in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and feventeenth centuries, — - O 4 in [ 200 ] in foreigners to fuppofe, that they are quite deflitute of literary merit. Let any Englifhman enter the public libraries of Italy, and he will boafl no longer of thofe of Oxford and of Cam- bridge, of Grefham and the Mufeum. I have looked with due reverence on thofe four, as well as on many more in feveral parts of this kingdom both public and private : but none of them raifed my wonder, as they naturally brought back to my remembrance the Ambrofiana at Milan, that of St. Mark at Venice, the Magliabechiana and the Laurentiana at Florence, and the Vaticana at Rome. Thefe iland in no need of additional fhelves to vie with the moft famous Eng- liili libraries. In Turin, Pavia, Parma, Padua, Pifa, Modena, Bologna, and Naples, there are likewife ample collec- tions of books for public ufe* : and there * MifTon in his travels reckons fourteen in Veriice ©nly, feme of which are larger than St, Mark's; and almofl oil public. r 201 ] IS fcarce a town, or even a convent throughout Italy without a private or a public library. Many people alfo have their private ones, and fome of them very confiderable. I will only mention that of count Pertufati at Milan, which contains above one hundred thoufand volumes, and for which twenty-five thoufand Englifh pounds were once offered by the late emperor. It would be endlefs to enumerate all the treafures of learning thus accumulated in numberlefs parts of Italy ; and the Italians are not to be fuppofed fo abfurd, as to keep their libraries for mere fhow, or only for the pleafure of feeding moths and mice. Many men are to be found in them, whofe lives were early devoted to the acquifition of knowledge. Ambi- tion and curiofity ad: upon the inhabitants of Italy with full as much force as they do upon thofe of other countries, and ipany of the prefent Italians were made great [ 202 J great fchokrs either by one or the other of thefe two powerful movers. But few are the cultivators of fcience, whofe names are wafted by fame fo dif- tant regions, efpecially during their .lives; and the greateft part of them muft be con- tented to enjoy renown only in thofc places that gave them birth. They can- not all have a king of Pruffia for a patron and a panegyrift, who will deign to take the trouble of gilding all Voltaire's filver, and all Algarotti's copper. However, though extended literary reputation be fcarce attainable by the fons of learning while they live, and though the ap- DiOachcs towards it be very gradual and flow, yet the names of fome living Italians have reached England and other parts of Europe, and thofe of Metaftalio the poet, Morgagni the anatbmift, Frilio the ma- thematician, and father Beccaria the elec- tric philofopher, are names no longer con- fined to their fide of the Alps. Vallifnieri, Muratori, Maifei, Cocchi, Poleni, Gori, Giannonia [ 203 ] Gianndni, Buonamici, and Beccari, who died but lately, were not names unknowa in other countries. Bianchi and Batarra of Rimini, Lami of Florence, Manfi the prefent archbifhop of Lucca, Delia Torre and Mazzocchi of Naples, the marquis Fagnano of Sinigaglia, are likewife names with which many profefTors of fcience are acquainted throughout all Europe. To thefe and fome others, I might without any great impropriety add thofe of Eofco-* vich * the aftronomer, and Aflemanno the oriental linguift, who have had their education and acquired their knowledge amongfl us. But though only a few of the learned of Italy have been fo happy as to have their names known beyond their mountains and their feas, yet there are many who do honour to their country with their mental acquiiitions. In poetry, tefides Metaftalio and the tw^o Gozzi's, * Father Bofcovlch is a Ragufean, and raonfignor i\l^ernann<^ an Affyrian,^ [ 204 ] we have PalTeroni at Milan, who ha« printed a kind of fatirical epic poem in thirty-^three canto's, which abounds in wit, humour, and learning. Under the pretence of relating Cicero's life, this fanciful poet lafhes the vices, and points out the foibles that predominate now amongft his countrymen : and, making due allowance for poetical exaggeration, it is in Pafleroni's poem that foreigners ought to look for fure information con- cerning our cuftoms and manners, and not in the idle and ihallow performances of Mr. Sharp and other fuch conceited and ignorant travellers. At Milan likewife, there is one Parini, who will certainly prove a very eminent poet, if he continues to write. His Mat- tino and Mezzodi have filled me with hopes, that he will foon be the Pope or the Boileau of Italy, as he is already almoft equal to them in juflnefs of think- ing, ind exadfcnefs' of expreffion, and feems to [ 20S ] to furpafs them in richnefs of imagery and fecundity of invention. Many other followers of the mufes fwarm all over Italy, and fome of them are in high repute in the places where they refide: but I cannot much praife any of them, as I know none pofTefTed of much invention : and what is a poet without invention ? Some of my readers will be ready to fay here, that I do not offer much in com- mendation of my country when I reckon but five poets in it at this time. But can many centuries boaft of many more ? and can England, or France, or any other country now mufler up a much larger number? The number of our men well verfed in fcveral parts of fcience, is certainly much larger than that of our poets. In all our mniverfities every kind of literature is much cultivated, and every one of them can boaft of fome eminent profelTor. In fome [ 206 ] fome of them the eaftern languages efpe-* cially, may be learned with much greater eafe and expedition than in any other univerlity in Europe, as their libraries are more amply furniihed with eaftern books and manufcripts, and our profeflbrs of thofe languages multiplied by the reli- gious neceffity of keeping up a large body of miffipnaries. In Venice and in Rom© one may meet every day with men deeply fkilled in oriental literature. Let me only mention here one, who is the moffc aftoniiliing linguiil in my opinion that ever exiftcd. I mean father Bonifacio Finetti, a I>ominican friar, who in the year 1756 publifhed ten differtations on the Hebrev/ language and its derivatives ; that is, the Rabbinical, the Chaldaic, the Syriac, the Samaritan, the Phenician or Punic, the literal Arabic, the vulgar Ara- bic, and the Amharic. Thefe ten diifer- tations were given in a volume * by father . * This book is intkled Trattato della lingua Ehraka e fue affini^ del -^adre Bonifacio Finettl dell or dine f 207 ] FInetti as a fpecimen of a larger work, which he intended to write upon all lan- guages both antient and modern. My learned reader will perhaps ilart to hear of a man, who intended to write a work on all languages, both ancient and modern j and I muft fay, that v/hen I iirft caft my eye on the title page of Finetti's fpecimen, the firft thought that occurred was, that its author could be no better than a literary quack or a madman. But the reading of his Ten Diflertations gave me reafon to alter my hafty judgment 5 and I had then no reft until I procured myfelf the honour of his perfonal acquaint- ance. This friar is now near eighty years old, of which he has employed iixty at leafl in ftudying languages. As in the courfe of his life he fcarcely ever ftirred from de* predicatori, offerto agli eruditi per Saggio delV opera da iu'i intrapprefa fopra i linguaggi dt tutto il tnondo. In Venezia 17563 apprejjb Antonio Zatta, his his cell, he is not commonly known, not even in Venice, though it be the place of his birth and coriflant refidence. How-* ever he has found means in his long foli- tude to have from the miffionaries fent in fartibus infidelium by the college of the propaganda at Rome, and from all corners of the world, all forts of books and manu- icripts that could facilitate the ftudy of the remotefV tongues. I have myfelf brought many Englifh travellers acquainted with him, and they were as much pleated with the converfa- tion of the reverend old man, as furprifed at his odd library, which confifts chiefly of grammars, dictionaries, bibles, cats* chifms, prayers, memorials, letters, trea- ties of peace or commerce, itineraries, and other things of this fort, written in the mofl obfcure languages of Europe, Alia, Africa, and America. Being about feventy years of age, he formed the defign of communicating fome part of his imm^nfe knowledge to the world. [ 209 ] world, and publilhed his Ten Differtations on the Hebrew language and its deriva^ tives for a fpecimen, as I faid, upon all languages, ancient and modern. This is a tranflation of part of his preface to that Ipecimen. *' T!he FIRST CHAPTER of my work, * fays he, Jhall he this very fpecimen a ' little enlarged. We Jhall thus begin our * great language -journey Jrom the eaflp « where the Hebrew tranfports us direBly : ' and running over the eajlern countries, we * Jhall only Jlep a while from Arabia into * Africa to pay a vijit to the Ethiopic and Amharic languages, becaufe thefe are both * daughters of the Hebrew, From Africa * we Jhall then return immediately to Afia, ' and even enter fome parts of Europe, ' that we may fpeak of other orie7ital * tongues which have likewife fome affinity * with the Hebrew. Our second chap- * TER therefore Jhall give an account of all * thofe other eajiern languages that reach * from the eajiern part of Europe to the river P " Indus, [ 210 ] *' Indus, and owe fome part of their origm ** to the Hebrew tongue -^ that is, the Greek, *' the Armenian, the-HurkiJh, and the Per^ '* Jfan, Then without turning our back to ** the rifing fun, we will run through the ** Eajl 'Indies, and give an account m our " THIRD CHAPTER of the Eafl-Indian ** tongues; that is, the Indojlanic, the *' Malaccan, the Malabar ical, the Malc' ^* jamic, the Tamulic, the T^elugic, the Sia^ " mfe, and fome others, Continuhig then *' our journey the fame way; we Jhallfpeak " in the fourth chapter of the Ian- '* guages of the furthermoft eajl ; that is, of ** the Anamitic, which comprehends the ** Chinefe, the Cochinchinefe, the Japanefe, *' the Formofan, and fome others. *The7T we " will turn our fleps to the north, and ** entering the mofi eaftern Tartary, we will ^* go a journey retrogade to out'- firji ; that *' is, we will turn to the wefl, for to come ** back again to Europe, after having vifted '* thofe vaji regions. Therefore the fifth '* Chapter Jlmll be of the Tartar- «* languages 'y t 211 ] ** languages ; and as far as our few books in *^ them can lead us ^ we Jhall fay fomething ** of the Majuric tongue, which is fpoke by ** the Chinefe Tartars -, and of the MongU'* " lefei the Thibet tan or Tanguttan, the Cal-- *' mucic, the Crimean^ and fome others, *' From the Greater 'Tartary contifiuing our ** journey to the weft we enter into Muf- '* covy, and frojTi the LeJ/'er Tartary into ** Poland. Both in Mufcovy and Poland «« we meet with the tongue commonly called «' Sclavoniani though it ought to be Slavo^ <* nian or Slavijh) which fome call likewife ** Illyrici Our sixth chapter fiall " then treat of the ancient Sclav onian tongue, *' and of its derivatives ; that is, [the Mif- . ** covite, the Polijh, the Bohemian, the Van- ' " dalic, the Illyric or Dalmatian, the Cor- ** niolan, and others. To the weft of the " countries where the Sclavonian tongues " are fpoken^ there is Germany and other '* countries, where we meet many languages • ** of Germanic origin. The ancient language , '* of Germany is by fome called Old Gothic^ P 2 '^ by [ 212 ] *' by others Teutonic ^ and fiill by othert (« 2sforre?te, Norman, or Northerti.. The *' SEVENTH CHAPTER therefore Jball treat ** of the ancient Germanic tongue, and of its *' federal derivatives ^ both ancient and mo-' " dern. The modern, beginning ffem tht *' farther north, are phe Icelandic, to which ** we will join the GreenlandifJo, as we Jh all ** have no properer place for it than this ; *' then the Swedifh, the Norvegian, the Da* " nijh, the Englijh, the Low-Dutch^ and " the High-Dutch i and this lafi will be ** thefirjl of which we jhallfpeak,. Amongfi *' the ancient Germanic tongues there are the *' Runic, the Anglo-Saxon, the Mefogothic, ** the Teotifk, andfome others^ From Ger^ ** many,, turning our Jleps to the wejl, we- " will enter France, and there fnd one of ** th& prettieji daughters of the Latin. ** tongue ',^ then the Italian, the Spanijh, ** afid the Portugueje, with a few Others of «< inferiour rank,. In the eighth ghap- " TER therefore we jldall dwell a while with *' them, after having paid our refpe^fut *' compliments t 2^3 ] ** compliments to their noble mother the Latin ^* tongue. And behold J we are here come to ** the utmoji verge of Europe. However, ** before we Jet fail for Africa, we muft needs fpeak of fever at languages inclofed in fome narrow fp aces, which having little or no offspring of their own, are by the ** linguifls called small tongues. Tet ** thefe too deferve our attention-, and we " Jhall therefore form our ninth chapter ** of thefmall tongues of Europe, in which '* are comprifed the Hungarian, the Lithu- ** aman, the Livonian, the Finlandijh, the ** Welch with the Cornwallian, Irijh, Ar- ** moric, and other of its dialedls ; the Bif- " cay an, which is thought to be the ancient ** Spanijh -, the Albanefe, and fome others. ** ^hen we will crofs over to Africa, But ^* in that country, though much larger than ** Europe, I fear we Jhall not be able to ** travel much, becaufe of the drearinefs of ** its defarts, and the barbarity of its na-^ ** tims : be/ides that we Jhall already have P 3 " vijited [ 214 ] f* vifited the Barbary- States upon occqfton f^ of the Arabic language commonly /poke *■ there, afid the empire of Abyjinia, where ** the Ethiopic and the Amharic tongues are f* predominant. However Egypt will keep ** us a while with the Coptic tongue or Old '' Egyptian. l!his tongue fi all form the *' chief ornament of the tenth chap^ ** TER ; and in it- we Jhall fpeak alfa of ^* fome others, efpecially of the ancient Afri» ?* can, now called Tamagzet, and of the '* Congoyan, Angolian, Melindan, Otten^ f totic, Madagafcaricy and fome others » *' From Africa then w^ Jhall fail to Ame- ** rica, travel it all over, lift en to the va^ ** rious fpeeches of thofe wild nations, and ** interpret them as far as we Jhall be ajjifted f by our books. Of the A'^erican languages f * we Jhall make two chapters. The firft, ** which will be the eleventh in our work, f * Jhall treat of the languages of North- f * America ; and the fecond, which will be If the twelfth in order, Jhall comprehend [ 2IS ] ** thofe of South- America. In the Jirfl of *^ thefe two chapters we will fpeak of the *' Mexican, the Pocomanic, the Virginian^ ■" the Algonkine, the Huronic, the Carib' *' bean, and others -, and in the fecond, of *' the Brqfilian, the Chilefe^ the Peruvian, ** and others. And with this chapter we ** Jhall put an end to our long and laborious ** peregrination,'* Such was to be the work defigned by my reverend friend father FinettI, a work grand in the defign, and as far as it went, complete in the execution ; a work that would have reflected infinite honour upon his country, as it would have added im- menfely to that flock of philological knowledge already pofTefled by the Euro- peans ', and what is ftill of greater impor^ tance, would have apprifed the fludious part of mankind by a flriking example, of the vaft and moft incredible acquifitions the human mind can make, when long and inceffantly employed upon the purfuit pf knowledge. But alas ! the noble fpe- P 4 cimen [ 2l6 3 cimcn that he gave us of the intended work, which he printed at his own ex^ pence, for a long time did not fell ! The ftrangenefs of its title, the obfcurity of its author, the ftupidity of his fellow^ friars, the barbarous inattention of the Venetians, and forne other caufes, unfor- tunately concurred to make this grand per-» formance be negleded : and as father Fi^ netti, like the generality of our friars, had no money to fpare for the printing of it, he did not care for the trouble of writing it. Thus the literary world has been for ever robbed of his other eleven volumes, to the everlafting forrow of every cultivator of knowledge ! It is true that eight years after the firft edition of the iirft volume, all the copies of it were fold in a few. weeks upon the ftrong recom- mendation of a periodical writer, who happened by chance to read it ; but the heavy addition of eight years to the old age of the author, had fo difabled him, that now he ,could write no more 5 and thus [ 2 1 7 1 thus Italy and the whole world muft for ever bemoan this great lofs, as in all probability no man will ever again be found fo well qualified for fo terrifying an undertaking. After this account of our Finetti, there is no need of introducing any other of my countrymen to the acquaintance of the EngliOi. But ihould any of my readers go 'to vifit Italy, and be delirous to inquire a little into the literature of it, I take the liberty of throwing here in a note * the names of fome few amongfl; * At Florence, Perelli, Pompeo Neri, Bandinl, Targioni, Manetti, Nannoni, and Nelli. At Rome^ Stai, Mammacchi, Maratti, Giacomejli, Zelada, Garampi, and Borgia. At Bologna, two Zanotti's, Fantoni, two TarufFi's, (one of whom fpeaks Englifh wonderfully well) Monti, Ferdinand Baffi, and the lady Laura Baffi. At Naples, Genovefi, Gaetti, Martorelli, Coturnio, (the difcoverer of two aqueduds in the ear never obferved hy former anatopiifts) and marquis ^omtia. At [ 2i8 ] our learned, with whofe converfation or works I am fure any Engliihman will be pleafed, let his knowledge be ever fo great and fo multifarious. At Modena, Vandelli. At Padua^ Marfili, Carmeli, and Maftrega. At Pifa^ Matani and Adami. At Cortonay Coltellini. At Lucca, Benvenuti. At Siena, Baldaflarri, Tabarrini, and Piftoi. At Volterra, Guarnacip At Parma, Pacciaudi. At Imola, count Zampieri. At Rimini, Bonfi, befides Bianchi, and Batarra, already named. At Pefaro, Olivieri. At Ancona, Mauri, Stampini, and Cecco Storani, already named. At Macerata, two Mozzi's, Compagnoni, and Aurifpa. At Milan, Imbonati, two Villa's, Baleftrierj, Irico, and many more. At Genoa, Giambattifta Negroni, Viali, Celefia, Gaftaldi, and Pizzorno. At Cafal, in Montferrat, Cocconati, Grifella, and Gambera. At Tupn, BroardI, Quaregna, lyavriano, Somis, /tlione, etc. C H A P» [ 219 J CHAP. XIV. XJlFTER the above flight account of our literature, it may not be improper to fpeak of the advantages which the Italians may reafonably exped: from addidting themfelves to a ftudious life. An infor- mation of this kind will lead my Englifh readers into fuch parts of our cuftoms, as no traveller of their nation, fo far as I have obferved, has yet taken notice. In Italy when a young man is trained up to phyfic, he has it in his power to get his livelihood by it in a very ihort time^ if he will apply to it in fuch a man- ner as to acquire any reputation. On hi^ quitting the univerfity, which is generally done after feven years^ and after having ^aken all his degrees, he goes to ferve as a volunteer in fpme great hofpital, or puts himfeif [ 220 ] liimfelf to a kind of apprentilhip with one of the mofl noted phyficians in a capital town, that he may now learn the pradiice, as he is fuppofed to have already learned the theory of phyfic. The phy- licians of Italy vifit all their patients with their young pupils conflantly at their heels, oblige them to infpedt minutely all the maladies that fall in their way, and take notice of the remedies they pre- fcrlbe. This kind of life a young beginner generally follows, until an opportunity offers to be chofen phylician to an hof- pital, or to go in the fame capacity to fome fmall town or village, which is called andare in condotta. As foon as he hears of a vacancy in any provincial place that will fuit his circumftances, he applies either perfonally or by letter to the cor- poration of it, offers his fervice, and pro- duces his certificates of having had his degrees, ferved his apprentifhip, and lived as every honeft man ought to live. 4 On [ ^21 J On occafion of vacancies there are ge- nerally feveral competitors who ftrive to fill the empty place. But the young phy- fician who has acquired the beft charader both for fkill in his profeffion, and pru- dence in common life, has the bed chance of fucceeding in his application, and of being preferred to the other candidates. His fuccefs however depends on the fuf- frages of the corporation ; and the largeft number of them is not always obtained by fuperior merit. Partiality and chance will fometimes interfere, and give a place to one that ought to have been given to another. But we are very fure, on the other hand, that officioufnefs avails but little in cafes of fuch eledlions, and that places will never be procured by money ,^ as we are ftill perfeft ftrangers to the noble arts of bribing voters. When the place is once obtained, the young phyfician keeps it until he hears of a better ; and then he offers himfelf a candidate for that. By thefe means our provincial [ 222 ] provincial phylicians jfhift from place 'td place, that is> from a fmall condotta to 2 greater. No patient in any provincial place i§ pbliged to fee his phyfician for his. atten- dance, as each corporation allows him a yearly falary. Hov^^ever almoil all. fami- lies, whether they have oGcalion for him or not, ■ fend him fome little prefent at eafter and at chriflmas, which confifts of a lamb:or„a kid, of hams, faufages, ca- pons, game, oil, wine, corn, or the like* The poorefl peafant would be afhamed not to fend at leafl a couple of fowls to his phyfician on the holidays. This neceffity of pufhing themfelves forward by mere dint of perfonal merit, and the liberty that people have of em- ploying any phyfician in the neighbour- Jiood, if they have no good opinion of their own, naturally creates much emu- latipn amongjfb neighbouring phyficians, and makes the greateft part of them apply, 7ery ferioufly to their bufinefs^ fo that, it is [ 223 ] is not rare to find fome of them very fkil- ful in their profeffion even in the ob- fcureft towns of Italy ; and I v^as much furprifed two years ago in a petty village of the Upper Montferrat, called Rivalta, to find one fignor Bovio, a young phyfi- cian, not only very fkilful in the fcience of healing, but alfo poflefi^ed of a large colledlion of the natural produdtions of that province made by himfelf, and efpe- cially of petrifications fcarce to be found even in the ampleft mufeums. It is to that emulation we chiefly owe the works of our Borelli's, Bellini's, Malpighi's, Baglivi's, Torricelli*s, Redi's, and many others, whofe names are known to the phyficians of this part of the world, as well as thofe of Sydenham and Boerhaave. If a village happens to be fo fmall as not afford a fufficient falary, it is annexed to one, two, or more of the neighbour- ing ; and their common phyfician in fuch a cafe is enabled by them to keep a horfe, a mule, or a vehicle. It is like*- wife [ 224 ] wife the bufmefs of the corporation to provide a lodging for him whenever he is obliged to make any ftay amongfl them, and be abfent a while from his ufual place of refidence. If the place, on the con- trary, is too large for one phyfician, the corporation has more than one falary to appoint, aftd more than one condotta to difpofe of. The falaries, together with the regular prefents, in many villages and provincial towns that I have vifited, and where I have often made it a point to be particu- larly inquilitive on this head, are equi- valent, upon a medium, to a capitation of two fliillings ; and few are the con-' dotta's that contain lefs than three hundred fouls, as few are likewife thofe that go beyond i^vtvi or eight hundred. So that our provincial pbyiicians in the fmalleft places get about thirty or forty pounds a year, and feventy or eighty in the largefl ; which are fufficient competencies, as there is no provincial place throughout Italy, where a middling [ 225 ] a middling family may hot be decently maintained with the fmallefl of thefe fums. Yet all our phyficiahs do nbt go in tondotta. Some of them remain for many- years in their apprentiOiips 5 ad: as fubfli^ tutes to their principals ; get patients fof themfelveg when they think it time to venture on their own bottoms, and fet up in capital towns, where fome of them have got very delirable fortunes. Whether this method of proceeding with regard tO the pradlice of phyfic be preferable to that ufed in England 1 will not venture to determine. It may perhaps be lefs lucrative to fome of the profefTors of medicine. But it feems to me more ufeful to the peopk ; as they are in Italy much more generally, and even to the loweft, accommodated with the aid of phyficians regularly bred, than the people in England. The young men who apply to furgery, get through the world exadly after the Q^ manner t 226 ] manner of phyficians. And as for the apothecaries, any body that chufes may fet up for one, after having undergone proper examinations. But the phyficians in every place of their refidence are obHged to vilit once a year at leail the apothecaries' fhops, and have power to deftroy all their decayed drugs and bad medicines. And here I mufl not omit to fay, that within my memory the number of apothe- caries is confiderably decreafed in Italy j and I was credibly informed in my late ramble there, that, in Florence only, more than twenty of them were in lefs than three years obliged to leave off trade, as our phylicians are generally be- come averfe to frequent prefcriptions, and as our apothecaries are not allowed to play the phyficians, as they commonly do in England. With regard to thofe who apply to the ftudy of the laws, they are more depen^ dant on government than the phyficians, ftirgeons^ or apothecaries 3 for, when the o-Qvernment [ 227 ] government Is apprifed of their being properly qualified from the unlverfities, they are fent as podejlh's or judges in dif- ferent places about the provinces. There a young lawyer adminifters both civil and criminal juftice in cafes of no great mo- ment ; but in cafes of importance people muft refort to higher tribunals. When a young podcjta has thus admi* niilered juftiee for three years, a perfon with the title o^ Jindico {ox Jindaco, as the Tufcans pronounce it) is fent to make the tour of all the podefterias, that is> of all the places where the podeila's refide. Public notice is then given in each re- fpedlive place to the inhabitants of the arrival of xh^JindicOj and every body with- out exception is at liberty to lay before him in writing any complaint againfl the podejia. Thefe complaints are immediately tranfmitted by the fmdico to the higheil magiftrate in the ftate, and by him exa- mined, or given to deputies to examine. If they are found trifling or ill-grounded, 0^2 they [ 228 ] they are difregarded -, and, if juft, redref- fed. But it will not be difficult to guefsj^ that a podejia has no great chance of be- ing promoted to a more lucrative podejieria if it appears by any complaint, that he has not adminiftered juftice with a fteady balance. If he has, he is fent to a more profitable place for another triennium, and fo on ; nor is any podejia ever kept more than three years in the fame place^ that he may not (I fuppofe) contradl very ftrong attachments to particular people, and run into any danger of partiality. Beiides applying to the podejieria s, the young ftudents in law take up the profef- lion of an advocate in great towns, and have clients pretty much upon the plan of the counfellors of England. In this .way of bufinefs they generally fare, as in England, according to their feveral pro- portions of knowledge and eloquence, of tiexterity or artfulnefs : and from this clafs, as well as from that oi th<^ podejia s^ the cliief magiflrates and fuperior judges are [ 229 ] are chofen by government, when it Is thought proper. Mr. Sharp in the very beginning of his work fets out, foppiihly enough, for i deep critic in the Venetian dialedt, and fpeaks of the advocates of Venice : yet he does not venture to give his opinion w^ith regard to their powers in orato/y. He only defcribes them in their ai living. Delia Zeccba e Monete di ^refciat Brefcia, 1755. Conte Duraitte Duranti, living. Rime, Brefcia, 1755- Abbate Luchi, a monkj living. De monafterio Leonenjlf Rome, 1765. Bonaventura Luchi, living. De nuditate Prctopldftorum Bt De ferpe^rte tentatore, Patavii, i 755 j with other works. Pietro Bar%ani^ living. Vita del Panagtott da Sinopei in Greek and Italian, Brefcia, 1760. Giulio BaitelU and Francefco Pia&zoni, both living, together with Carlo Scarella^ who died but lately, have wrote [ HI ] ' who will dare the law, and print any book fecretlyw An Englifli author in reading this ac ^ count, will blefs himfelf that he was not wrote many things much admired by learned antiqua- rians in the colleftion of the feveral works publiflied about the ancient CenomaHi. Fra Gaudenzto da Brefcia, a capuchin friar, living. Jfiituzioni oratorie, Brefcia, 1760. Vintore da CoccagUo^ living. Rlcerca Jtftematica ful tefto e fulla mente di San Profpero d'' Acquitan'ia nel fua poema contra gP ingratiy 1 vol. 410. Lo fpirlto filofofico^ ieologicOf e afcettico di San Profpero d' Aquitania ne' fuoi eplgrammi. Brefcia, 1761. i vol. 410. Giambatttfta Chlaramonti^ living. Del paterno impero digli antichi Romani — Difcorfo fopra lafelkitd — Ragiona- mento intorno agliepiftolar'i degli uomm'i illuftr-L — Di alcime veritafondamentali del gius di natura e della moralefilofojia. — Sopra loftate antico e prefente della Valcamonica. — Delle accademie letterarie Brefciane. — Del commercio. — Vita del cavalier Vannetti. — Elogi del padre Giampietro Bergajitini. —E del conte Gianandrea Giovanelli. All the above works, with fome others, were feverally printed from 1759 to 1767. To this lift I might add fome other names, but this fpecimen fuffices to give, as I faid, fome idea of the bufy fpirit of my countrymen when confidered as authors. R bora I 242 ] born in that country of flavery; and I give him joy that he is a free Briton. I wifh no ill to the liberty of the Englifh prefs ; and every body who knov^s me perfonally, knows that I am a tolerable good Englifhman, though born and bred in Italy. However, I cannot forget that at bottom I am flill an Italian -, and I know the mettlefome temper of my dear countrymen fo well, that I fhould be very forry to fee them enjoy this Englifli pri- vilege. Unlefs the whole frame of the government were adjufted to this liberty, and of a piece with it, it could not fail of being mifchievous to the flate and to the fatisfadtion of private people, without en- creallng literature or knowledge in any proportion. Such a liberty would hardly contribute to the multiplication of their Metaftafio's and Gozzi's, of their Fi- netti's and Morgagni's. But I am quite clear on the other hand, that is would prefently degenerate into licentioufn efs, and [ 243 ] and the times of the ohfcene Aretino's and the atheiftical Bruno's be prefently re- vived. Every fcribbling Aba'tino of Rome would then fpeak in the moft reviling terms t)f emperors and kings on their de- claring a war or ftriking a peace fome- what clafhing with the interefls of the Romans. A ragged Birricchino of Bologna would then befmear with his blackeft ink even the hondfomeft queens for their en- couraging foreign manufaQurers to fettle in their dominions : and a ftupid Lazze^ rone of Naples would then be lavifh of the vileft epithets on any little eommon- wealth for permitting their fhip-wrights to build and fell men of war to thofe who have money enough to buy them* No public chara(5ter would then find fhelter againft that deluge of outrageous fatire which would flow from the Italian pens ; and every private reputation would be at the mercy df every feoundrel that could rhyme. In the greateft part of the Italian ftates, very few individuals have R 2 their [ 244 ] at prefent their digeftion fpoiled, or their Deep interrupted, by the political meafures adopted by government in their refpedtive countries : but were our prefs to be fet free, many an oilman of Lucca, many a wine-merchant of Empoli, and many a tallow-chandler of Modena would then pretend to be a good deal wifer than fecretaries of ftate, and wonder at kings and queens for not picking them out of their Ihops, and bringing them to the higheft employments. Sedition, defama- tion, profanenefs, ribaldry, and other fuch benefits would then quickly circulate through all our towns, villages, and ham- lets. Irreligion would be fubftituted in a great meafure to bigotry and fuperfti- tion : the pope v/ould be called antichrift and mother church a whore. Such would be, amongft others, the blefTed efFeds of a free prefs in Italy, could we ever be in- | dulged with it. But heaven avert we fhould ! It is faid that no body knows the pleafures of madnefs but madmen. The f 245 ] The fame may be juftly faid of the pecu- liar advantages of flavery : they are not to be conceived but by flaves. And if it is true that learning cannot flourifh but in the funfhine of liberty, and if it is impoflible, without a freedom of the prefs, ever to have in Italy fuch v^^riters as the Johnfons and the Warburtons of England, let Italy never have any, as long as their Alps and Apennines will fland : provided that on the other hand fhe never be orna- mented by Cetera defunt% R 4 C H A P, [ 246 ] e H A p. XV, Mitft not end my account of Italian literature without taking fome notice of thofe focietias- of ftudious men, whi<»h go amongft us by the name of academies, and are to be found even in the fmalleft of our towns. Soon after the revival of learning feve- ral of thefe focieties were formed in many parts of Italy, and jefpecially in Florence j; a city defervedly celebrated for having been during the whole iixteenth century fo eminent a feat of literature, as to be fcarcely equalled by any other in Europe. Florence was in that century called the Athens of Italy. Amongft the feveral academies formed \n that capital, that which is called Del/a Crufca, foon rendered itfelf confpicuous above all others. The i H7 ] The members of this academy, towards the end of the llxteenth century, took their own language into coniideration s and the efteem in which Italian was then held throughout Europe, made them think it necelTary to give the learned world an Italian didionary. Whatever progrefs lexicography may have made in all polifhed countries lince that time, the compiling of a didionary muft then have been thought highly dif- ficult and laborious, as there was not then extant any work that could dired their undertaking, and point out a proper me- thod of compilation. Yet the academicians were not difmayed by the vafl and dreary profpe6t. They parcelled out the in- tended work amongft the ableft of their fraternity, who made copious extrads of words from the books wrote in the three preceding ages ; ranged them in alphabetical order -, defined each word with much precifion 3 marked their greater or lefs antiquity 3 diftinguifhed the poetical R 4 from t 248 ] from the common, and the elegant from the vulgar; pointed out their various meanings j illuftrated even the leafl important particles with, fufficient examples ; gave the equi- valent of each w^ord in Greek and Latin ; and in the fpace of about thirty years pu- blifhed the refult of their labours by means of the prefs. Thus was the road made fmooth to Furetiere and Johnfon. Such a performance on its firfl appear- ance V7as looked upon as a valuable acqui- fition to literature, and received by the learned with great and deferved applaufe. However it could not yet be confidered as quite complete. Subfequent acade- micians now, that the firil and greater encumbrances were in a good meafure jempved, retouched it in numberlefs places, and reprinted it feveral times both in the laft and in the prefent age, carefully corrected and remarkably enlarged upon every new publication. Their repeated diligence brought at laft the Italian di(flionary to fuch a degree of copioufnefs. [ 249 ] copioufnefs, that every future edition will, in my opinion, iland rather in need of retrenchments than of additions. Of the many members of the academy who were employed in the forming of this important and neceflary work, I v/ill only mention Michelangelo Buonarroti, the .author of the Tancia^, already mentioned. This ingenious poet faw the acade^ micians much perplexed for want of ex- amples out of printed books to authorife a ciafs of words, which, though fre- quently occurring in converfation, are but feldom written. I mean thofe peculiar and technical words ufed by thofe who exert the meaneft crafts, and deal in the loweft neccfTaries of life. To remove this difficulty Buonarroti compofed a dramatic work of a very fin- gular kind. This was a comedy which confifted of five pieces, each of five adts, or rather a comedy of five and twenty f See page 182, a6ls. [ 25a 1 B^s, His place of ad:ion he made a fair. Of mart 1 and accordingly intitled it La 'Piera. A fimple plan, but far from con- temptible, as it gave him room to intr 0- d^i€e all forts of people on the fcenc. This odd drama was exhibited in Flo- tence at the expence of the fovereign for ^^m nights fucceiiively ; that is, five aiSfcs, G.r one of the five comedies a night, and Biet with much applaufe. The great EHimber of peculiar and technical word^ whick Buonarroti brought into a foiall compafs by means of this poetical- expe- dient,, LS icarcely conceivable : and as Ms language is pure Tufcan,, you- may^ma- gine that the academicians made good ul« Oi it in their dictionary. Befides giving us this bulky produ^Sion, the academicians encreafed the flock of Italian literature with many other works, all tending to the greater embellifhmeat and perfection of their tongue. Amongft thefe, the moft noted arc many volumes intitled Profe Fiorentinei and fome fevere 4 flridures [ 2^1 ] ilridures upon Taflb's poem of the de^ livery of Jerufalem. But neither of thefe two works bear any great proportion in point of learning and of ufe to their dic- tionary. The Profi Fiorentine were dic^ Uted by too bigotted an afFeifliorir to the dialed of their metropolis, which they long endeavoured to force upon all Italy as the only language to be employed either in fpeech or in books. And as to their criticifms on TalTo's Jerufalem,, thojfe that were employed by the academy to examine whether it was to be admitted; amongfl their models of good language, betrayed too great a narrownefs of mind in trying the language of fuch a poem by the flandard of the Florentine dialed:,, a^fl were juftly taxed of overnicety and: pedantry for having infifted with too much isehemence upon little imperfections with regard to grammar and fyntax, paffing over thofe blazes of genius which illur minate every one pf his canto's. How- ever, if their admiration of Ariofto's Orlando [ 252 ] Orlando rendered them unjuft in many refpeds to Taffo's Jerufalem, time in their default has at laft fettled the public judgment with regard to both our epic poets ', and the magnificence of TalTo's numbers and di(ftion, together with his great conformity to epic rules, will for ever overballance Arioflo's fuperior grace- fulnefs and rapidity of expreflion, and greater fertility of invention. The Jeru- falem will always be the moft flriking, and the Orlando the moft pleafmg of the two poems. But this academy, which confifted once of many men highly eminent in feveral parts of literature, is at prefent much upon the decline, becaufe all that could be faid about Italian language has been faid over and over. Then the honour of admittance amongft its members is not now fo eagerly courted as it was once, when perfonal merit was the only means to obtain it. It is therefore probable that the total annihilation of the academy is approaching : [ ^53 3 approaching : but fuch is the natural courfe of human things! They begin in weaknefs and imperfedion : acquire ftrength by fmall degrees, and lafl a while in vigorous maturity : then by fmall de- grees grow weak and imperfed: again, until an end is put to their exiftence by the irrefiftible efFeds of time. Next to the academy Del/a Crufca, that of the Arcadia Romana rofe in repute. The bufinefs of this Arcadia was to cor- redt, encreafe, and beautify our poetry, as that of the Crufca to purify, illuftrate, and fix our language. The Arcadian life, as fabulous hiftory reprefents it, was altogether innocent and fimple. The inhabitants of that country lived on the mere produds of their lands and flocks, and cultivated only thofe arts that are conducive to rural elegance and guiltlefs pleafiire. Upon this foundation Jacopo Sannaz- zaro, who lived in the beginning of the fixteenth century, compofed in Italian a pafloral I ^S4r I paftorai romance intitled V Arcadia, which in Italy did him no lefs honour than his Latin poem Tie Parfu Virginis, and out of Italy procured him feveral imitators, amongft whom the celebrated Sir Philip Sidney did not difdain to be numbered. Sanazzaro's Arcadia is in profe, inter- mixed with eclogues in verfe ; and both his profe and his eclogues are fo crouded with paftorai images and fentiments, that one would think the fubjedt quite exaufled. Yet the Italians did not think fo towards the middle of the laft age, when fome few verfe-mongers of Rome took it into their heads again to cultivate that imaginary rural region. If we credit Mario Morei^ who pu- blifhed lately the hiftory of this academy*, thofe who firft clubbed together in ordei^ to form it, were no more than thirteen, • Morei's book is ifititled Memorie iftorlche delt adunanza degti Arcadi, In Romii^ 1761, in 8vo. A |)p©r book upon the whole. whofe [ ^si ] whofe names Morei has thought proper to preferve. But fuch is the fondnefs of the Italians for verfe and rhyme, that it foon confifted of as many thoufands. Thefe thirteen people joined in a friendly body, to which they gave the afFeiSted title of Arcadia Romana -, and amongft the few laws, written for them in very elegant Latin by the learned Vin- cenzo Gravina, there was one, by which it was enacted, that no perfon fhould be admitted into this fociety without firH: alTuming a paftoral name. It is impoflible to conceive the eagernefs with which this whimlical fcheme of turning all forts of men into imaginary fhepherds was adopted both in Rome and out of Rome -, and how the inflammable imaginations of my countrymen were fired by it ! The very pope then reigning, with many cardinals and principal monfignori's fuffered themfelves to be perfuaded, that this poetical eftablifhment would prove infinitely [ 2S6 ] infinitely advantageous to literature in general, and poetry in particular; nor did they difdain to be lifted in the cata- logue of thefe Arcadian fwains, befriend- ing their union with feveral privileges, affigning them a place to hold their affemblies in, and attending frequently at their meetings. The fame of this new academy was^ foon fpread all over Italy, and the rural compofitions produced on their firft outfet by the Arfcadians, met with fo .great and general a favour with a nation always eager after every novelty, efpecially poeti- cal novelty, that all became ambitious of being admitted into fuch an academy. But as this wiih could not inftantly be grati- fied, nolefs xS\2j\ fifty -eight towns of Italy, according to Morei's account, refolved on a fudden to have like academies of their own, which they unanimoufly called colofiies of the Ro?nan Arcadia, The madnefs of paftoral became now univerfal. Every body who had the les; knack [ ^^ ] kilack for poetry, was metamorpliofed into a fhepherd, and fell diredlly upon com- pofing ruftic fonnets, eclogues, ydylliumsi and bucolics. Nothing was heard from the foot of the Alps to the farthermofl end of Galabria but defcriptions of purling ilreams rolling gently along flowery mea^ dows iituated by the fides of verdant hill^ fhaded by fpreading trees, among whofe leafy branches the fad Progne with hef melancholy fifter Philomela warbled their chafte loves, or murmured their doleful lamentations. Rome being thus transformed by a po- etical magic into a province of Greece, faw her capital turned to a cottage, the favourite habitation of Pan and Vertum- nus ; and the charming Flora did not fcruple to walk hand in hand with the lovely Pomona about the Vatican and Saint Peter. No body was to be found in the flrects but coy nymphs and frolickfome fatyrs, or amorous fawns and buxom dryads. No body was now called by his S chriiliaii t 258 ] chriftian or family-name : all our An- tonio's, Franccfco's, and Bartolommeo's were turned into Ergafto's, Dameta's, and Silvano's : and as neither the Arcadia nor her colonies refufed admittance to the other fex, it may eafily be gueffed that every fair would now be a handfome nymph or an artlefs fhepherdefs, and that our Maria's, Orfola's, and Margherita's became on a fudden all Egle's, Licori's and Glicera's. None of our ciciibeo's dared now to peep out of his hut, but with a hook in one hand, and a flute in the other. I fhall not take upon me to enumerate the advantages that Italian poetry has re- ceived from our fanciful Arcadians and their coloniils. To fay, that in the vaft number none reached at excellence, would be both incredible and unjufl. Some of them really wrote pieces that are pleaiing enough in their kind. But what is excel- lence in paftorals ? No great matter in my opinion. The imagery and fentiments fuitable t 259 j Ihitable to this fpecies of poetry cannot be drawn from any fyilem of life that ever \vas lived by any people, as no country is to be found upon genuine records, v^^hofe inhabitants joined politenefs to iimplicity, and innocence to knowledge. Some amongil: our favourers of paftoral poetry have been fo abfurd aS to pretend, that the wandering Arabsj and even many of the Tartar nations, have lived, and adlually live fuch a life^ beeaufe they feed chiefly upon the produd: of their flocks and herds, and know fo much of arts and fciences as to claim a wide difference from the favages of Africa and Americai But are the manners of the Arabs and Tartars really thofe of poetical fhepherds? Their robberies and continual incurfions upon their neighbours^ befides the general caft of their manners, would make but a very indifferent figure in paftoral poetry> which excludes all ideas of violence and rapine, or permits it only to wolves and foxes ! Faftoral life being then a mere S a creature [ 260 ] creature of poetical brains, and without any archetype in nature, muft of courfe be ufelefs for want of application. : and whatever is ufelefs cannot deferve any great fliare of our efleem, be it ever fo perfe^ in its kind. Our imaginary fhepherds are therefore juftly fallen into contempt, as it has been the cafe thefe many years. The Arcadian colonics are at laft nearly annihi- lated throughout Italy ; and the Arcadia Tiomana conlifts now only of a few Aba- tinos, who flill perlifc ta meet fometimes in order to recite their meagre verfes to each other ; and they flill chufe a Ciifiode Generak, or Chief Herd/man, whofe moil important bulinefs is to make a penny of his place -, and this he chiefly effe6ts by fending Arcadian patents to the Englifh travellers on their arrival at Rome : by which trick he aggregates their lordfhips and honours to the auguft body of the Roman Arcadians. Thofe patents are feldom refufed, as they never coil: above nine or ten fhillings given to the Abatinos who [ 26i ] wlio offer them gratis. By means of fo fmall an expence their lordfhips and honours may become, if they chufe, di- rectly and intimately acquainted with very ikilful managers of love-intrigues, as a good many of our prefent Arcadians are far from being fo fmiple and innocent as the ancient ones of Greece. Befides the poor remains of the Crufca and the Arcadia, there are in Rome and in other of our tov^ns other Academies compofed of people v^ho pretend to inge- nuity in one thing or other. At Rome there is the Accademia di San Lucdy in which none but painters, ftatuaries, archi- tedis, and engravers are admitted, and it matters not of what country or religion they are. Thefe academicians have chofen. for their patron the evangelifl St. Luke, changed into a painter by tradition, though he be termed a phyfician in holy writ. Some of our fearchers into ancient records pretend, that h\ the tv/elfth cen- tury there lived one hlafiro Luca of S 3 Cefena^ [ 262 ] Cefena, (if I remember right the name of his native place) who would paint and carve nothing but Madona's, out of de^ votion to our bleffed lady. They fay that the Madona's of Loretto, Bologna, Cara- vaggio, Varallo, and many others in Italy, now very miraculous, owe their forma- tion to this artifl, whofe ingenuity bore but little proportion to his piety. The chriftian name of this Mafiro Luca was Santo. Hence arofe the vulgar notion that thofe Madona's were painted by aS*^, Itiike. Whatever truth there be in this, fcrap of erudition, this notion has fpread fo far and wide, that the famous Neujira Senora del Pillar adlually worfhipped in Saragozza, and that ftill more famous of Monjerrate in Catalonia, were likewife St. Luke's works in the opinion of the Spa- niards. I beg Mr. Sharp's pardon for this ridiculous digreffion in honour of our Madona's, and return ftraight to our aca- df.mies, At [ 263 ] At Naples there Is the Ercolana ; and the bufinefs of its members is to explain as well as they can the pid:ures, ftatues, infcriptions, and other fuch curiofities dug out of Herculaneum ; and fix large volumes of their explanations are already publifhed under the patronage of the pre- fent king of Spain, who has ordered them to be diflributed as prefents to per- fons of diftin6tion as fail as they come out of the prefs. At Cortona there is the Accademta Etrufca for the illuftration of the Etrufcan antiquities which are difcovered in Tuf- cany and in the neighbouring provinces from time to time ; and I hear that mon- fignor Mario Guarnacci, (a very learned prelate who lives at Volterra, and a mem- ber of that academy) is going to publlfh a new, and very confiderable collection of fuch antiquities. At Florence, about Galileo's time, was • iniiituted the Accademia del ChfKnto, that S 4 is. [ 264 ] is, of experimetifal philofophy. It Is pity that i\ did not lafl long, and that its mem-i bers, amongft whom were Bellini, Bot relli, Torricelli^ Redi, and other famous men, printed but few of their Experi- ments, However it has been lately fuc- ceeded by the Accademia d' Agricoltura, which I hope will prove near as ufeful, if not more fo. And if I am not mif- taken, there is likewife another called La Societa Colombaria, whofe members apply to natural philofophy, and moil particularly to botany. At Venice there is one, the appellatiori of which I cannot now recoiled: -, but its inflitution feems to me very laudable. Xhe members of it are all young lawyers, vv^ho debate before-hand in their meetings thofe caufes, that are to be debated in their courts of judicature. Some of the- members fpeak for the plaintiffs, fome for the defendants, and with as much earneil- |4efs as if they were in -the real prefence of [ ^(>s ] ©I the judges. Thus they endeavour to qualify themfelves for the profeffion which they intend to follow. At Bologna there is the dccademia de* Filarmonici, in which none but profeiTors of mulic are admitted j and father Mar- tini, who is looked upon in Italy as the mofl learned man in the fcience of mufic that we ever had, is one of its principal members. At Vicenza (Palladio's native country) there was an academy of architedts ; and I think it is not yet quite extindl. At Milan there is the Accademia Milajtefe, or De^ ^rasformatiy which boails of many men fkilful In various branches of lite- rature. At Turin I am told there is now one patronifed by the duke of Savoy, whofe members apply to algebra, geome- try, and all parts of mathematics. Amongft them there is Lagrangia, a young gentle- man ', (lately called to Berlin by the king of Pruffia) and I have heard that monfieur P'Alembert and other French mathema- ticians [ 266 ] ticlans look upon this Lagrangia as the greateft genius now known in Europe with regard to the fcience that contem- plates whatever is capable of being num- bered or meafured. But it would be too prolix to enumerate all our focieties *, whofe chief aim is always the cultivation of fome branch or other of fcience or of art. I own that arts and fciences are not generally forwarded much by our aca- demies, as far as I can obferve : yet they are upon the whole rather ufeful than pernicious, and anfwer the ends of fociety if not of fcience. They ftand in the place of the clubs in England, which bring peo- ple together, and give them the means of becoming friends. ♦ For a fuller account of our academies fee the firft volume of a book Intitled Storia e ragione d' og?ti poejloy written by Francefco Saverio Qiiadrio, an ex-jefuit, who died not long ago. In that volume are found the names of above five hundred academies, with a fhort gccount of each. CHAP. C %^7 ] CHAP. XVI. jL HE mentioning of St. Luke's aca- demy in the foregoing chapter has put me in mind of thofe arts which have obtained in England the appellation of polite, and go in Italy by that of Arti del Pifegno. Thefe arts have in this age engaged a great deal of the attention of the Englifh gentlemen, and they are certainly fome- what improved in this country. But I cannot join in the infulting lamentation, which I have frequently heard here, that poor Italy is at prefent in fuch a low condition with regard to thofe arts, that nothing now is to be feen beyond the Alps, but what betrays the mofl ihocking want of judgment, the grcatefl poverty of tafte, and the mofl deplorable abfence of genius, It [ 268 1 It Is really difmal to hear fome pathetic Engllfh orators enlarge with the faddeft emphafis on the prefent degeneracy of Italy, and on the aftonlfhing progrefs that painting, fculpture, architedlure, and en- graving have lately made In this Ifland, where they take the mofl gigantic ftrldes. Some of them declare that the late exhi- bition In Spring-gardens excels any thing that can be feen in Europe : fome think that their countrymen will foon rival Greece and Rome in arts as they do in literature ; and others aiTure with the mofl folem gravity, that a great number of the Britifh artifts would be looked upon as highly eminent, were they to quit this bleffed ille, and go to fettle on the banks of the Arno, the Reno, and the Tyber. This fafhion of crying down my un- Jiappy countrymen on this particular, is now become little lefs than unlverfal In this kingdom : and I am. very fprry that I sajn under an abfolute impofiibility of pror ' . ducing t 269 ] ducing any argument drawn from the polite arts themfelves againfl: affertions like thefe ; much lefs can I run into any pa- rallel between ours and the Englifh artifls, as I cannot pretend to any profound fkill in thefe matters, my ftudies having lain another way. However, as the Italians, according to the old notion, are a very revengeful peo- ple, I cannot here ftifle my refentment at this outrageous treatment -, and muft beg leave to tell thefe formidable connoilTeurs, that the connoifTeurs of Italy, (who have as good a title to judge as they have, and are no more to be fufpedted of national partiality than the virtuofo's of England) affirm, that the Englifh painters, generally fpeaking, are only able to copy nature in the lump, without any nice difcrimi- nation between her beauties and defeats ; that they do not greatly underfland draw- ing, and apply more willingly to colour- ing, becaufe colouring infallibly catches the eyes of the ftupid vulgar, and drawing is t ^7o J IS in a great meafure thrown away whett the multitude is to judge : that whenever they attempt any thing hiftorical, they know little how to groupc many figures together, becaufe their ftudies are gene- rally (hortened by the defire of getting money; and that they have fo little of the poetical genius, that their invention is ftill far from deferving to be compared even to that of the French Pouffins, Les Bruns, and Le Sueurs, or the Spanifh Ve- lafques, Valdes, and Murillo's. Some of the Italian artifls indeed will allow very freely, that Italy cannot adually boail of fo enchanting a pencil as Rey- nolds', and of fo vivifying a chifTel as Wilton's. They look with complacence on the queen of Cotes and the Elifha of Weft i and they praife the landfcapes of Barret and the horfes of Stubbs. They are even fo impolitical as to fay, that Stuart, Adams, and Chambers might add to the beauty of Florence and the mag- nificence of Rome. But for compofition 2 in t 271 ] in hiflorlcal painting they are far from giving up the pre-eminence : and whil/l they admire the genius of the Englifh architedts in the fmall works in which they have been engaged, they will not allow of their fuperiority ; and are far from entertaining that high opinion of the colledive body of their pretended rivals, which the Englifh connoifTeurs feem to entertain. Who is in the right, and who is in the wrong ? The Italians or the Englifh ? Upon my word I cannot tell, becaufe, as I faid, I am not greatly converfant in thefe matters. Declining therefore whatever the artifls and connoifTeurs might urge on each fide of this knotty queffcion, I will here en- deavour to aflifl the caufe of my defence- lefs countrymen with fome arguments in- dependent of the rules and knowledge of the polite arts ; and yet drawn from a few fadls not entirely foreign to the purpofe. Let then the judicious reader derive from them [ 27?. ] tiiem. what inference he pleafes. It wduM be unreafonable that the Italians fliould judge for themfelves. Other Nations ihall judge for them. You mufl know then, that in Madrid there is a royal palace which has been thefe thirty years a building, as I was credibly informed. It is a huge pile ; and, for fize, nothing either in England or in Italy can be compared to it * ; and hugenefs will always imply magnificence and awfulnefs. The architect was one Philip Juvara, an Italian, who, before he went to Spain, built the church of Superga on one of the higheft hills near Turin, and fome other grand edifices in Pied- mont and in other parts of Italy. This Juvara has been dead a few years, but the building was carried on under the * The Spaniards fay that it has coft twelve millions of pefos diiros, that is, near three millions of pounds. In all probability they exaggerate ; but ftill it muiJ have coil: a great deal, diredion t 273 ] diredion of one Sacchettl^, another Italian, who was Juvara's pupil. Some of the cielings, walls, and flaircafes of that royal palace in Madrid, were likewife painted by fome of our modern Italians -, that is, by Tiepolo, Corrado, Amiconi, and feveral others, whofe names I cannot now recoi- led:. Then at Aranjuez, a country- feat of the Spanifh king, many parts of the houfe are painted by the fame Italian artifls who beautified the royal palace in Madrid ; and in both places they have formed fuch large and well-defign'd groupes of figures, that have aflonifhed me as well as fome others who feemed lefs ignorant of the polite arts than I am. And is it not probable that thofe princes who employed fo much time and went to a vafl expence to conftrud: and adorn fuch edifices, followed fame at leaft in the choice of a country, from which they took their architedts and painters ? Befides thefe fads, this prefent king of Sardinia has a gallery in Turin, and fome T country- i 274 ] country-houfes near Turin, 'which have all been built and painted by Alfieri, Bo- moiite, and other living artifts of Italy ^ and thofe pictures alfo are made up of fuch multitudes of figures fo fkilfuly com- pofed, drawn in fuch various attitudes, and fo clearly charad:erifed, that if painting is to he compared with poetry, it is there in my poor opinion, and not in any of the Englifli exhibitions, that the parallel will run between thofe arts, and run both in the epic and the lyric. I have often been told by people of veracity, that at Peterfburg, Vienna, Var- favia, Berlin, Stockholm, and in many other parts of Europe there are many Ita- lian artifts in the fervice of many fove- reigns, who are by them employed in adorning their magnificent manfions. And will any one dare to fay, that this concur- rence of many fovereigns in favour of our artifts has rifen from Italian partiality ? And what is there in the Englifh exhibi- tions thai mufl: determine emperors and czars. [ ^75 1 czars, kings and margraves to fend for architedts and painters to England ? I have then heard it reported^ that Bat- toni, Bottani, and Valle of Rome ; Fran- cefchiello of Naples , Zocehi and Feretti of Florence -, Lelli and the two brothers -Gandolfi of Bologna; Fontebaffo, Orfolini, Pitteri, and Canaletto of Venice -, count Arnaldi * of Vicenza ; Signaroli of Ve- rona; Borra -f* of Turin ; and a great many more of our painters, ftatuaries, archited:s, and engravers, fome flill living, and fome but lately dead, are looked upon as tolerably ingenious in their feveral ways, even by fome of the Englifh lords * Count Arnaldi, who is a man of great learn- ing as well as an architect, has printed a book intitled Idea^' un Teatro nelte principali fue parti Jimile a teatri antichu Vicenza 1762. In 4to. f This Borra, who is now one of the archite£ls of the king of Sardinia, Is the fame that was taken to Pal- myra and Darbeck by the late Mr. Daukins, and the defigner of thofe monuments now fo v/ell known to the Englifh. T 2 and [ 276 ] and gentlemen v^'ho do us the honour ^ vifit our country. I will take it for granted, that thefe people are neither Ra- phaels nor Michelangelo's ; neither Bra- mante's nor Bandinello's : but flill it is conndently afferted by the Italian connoif- feurs, that their works do not betray any fervile imitation ; and that each of them has a manner of his own, which befpeaks fome power of invention. However, Vv'hat lignifies enumerating the names of modern Italian artifts, v/hofe works have never been feen by the grealeft part of my EngliO:! readers ? Let them all go for nothing, and let me remark only as a matter of lefs confequence, upon which I do not inlift, that two pidures of Cafa- nova were but the other day liniverfally allowed to be the beft in the Pall-mall exhibition. And yet Cafanova is not uni- verfally allowed to be the greateft painter of modern Italy. Putting now thefe few fa6ls together, and indulging a little partiality in favour of [ "^77 ] of Italy, will it be thought very imper- lin^iit if I advife fome of your Englifli connoilTeurs and artifls, to lower their tone a peg or two when they fet about fcviling the artifts of Italy ? They ought certainly to forbear treating them in a contemptuous manner, at leail until foreign fovereigns fend for Englifh artifts to eredt their palaces and villa's, and to paint their cielings and ftaircafes. But here fome fturdy Briton will be apt to anfwer me with an angry pfliaw, that the Englifh artifts would be very great fools to quit their country, and go upon any fuch errand, as there is no money to be got any where but in England. Yet, if it happened that any emperor or king^ czar or margrave, ftiould ever fend for any of the Englifla artifts, I will teli them without laughing, that they need not be ^raid to venture upon fuch a jaunt, as I can aflure them, that there are Louifdores in France, doubloons in Spain, ducats in Germany, roubles in Mufcovy, and T 3 fequeens [ 278 ] fequeens in Italy in fuch quantities, asf will certainly fuffice to reward the greateft abilities. Several Italian artifts have made large fortunes by going to ferve fovereigns in diftant countries j and it mufl certainly be an encouraging refled:ion to any Eng- lifh artift, that upon a parity of merit he will chance to meet with a parity of re- ward. And will it not be glorious, after a few years ab fence, to come back home, and be able to boaft, that one is grown rich put of England, and has contributed his mite at the fame time to the greater renown of one's own country ? The arts in England certainly meet fome encouragement j and fome of your artifts are a<£lually growing as rich as cornfa<5tors and ftockjobbers: but this they only do in the way of dealing, which is a way of en- couragement that will never be the beft excitement of genius, as it never will leave it free to exert itfelf. An allowance ^ven of a fmall independance, which takes away from an artift all uneafmefs about his ( 279 ] his fubliflence, is a much better en^ couragement than larger fums paid for works that are befpoken and prefcribed. Some fuch penfions are paid even in mo- dern Italy : Bomonte the painter and Aliieri the archited:, have each five bun-, dred Englifh pounds a year from the king of Sardinia; and Vanvitelli had a good penfion from the pope, and a better from the prefent king of Spain w^hen king of Naples, in confequence of his having given the plans of the laz^aretto and mole at Ancona, and of the royal palace at Caferta. Yet thefe encouragements are nothing equal to what they were in our golden age, when our fovereigns and great people made it a point to patronife that kind of talents. The artiflis of Italy then, did not only get a few hundred pieces of gold every year, as the prefent Englifli iartifts do, but they were rewarded with houfes and fields, decorated with ribbands gnd profTes, and honoured with the inti^ T 4 mate mate friendfhip of grand -dukes and popes. But let us grant for a moment> that the polite arts are as much upon the dc- dine in Italy as they are getting forwards in England y flill you cannot deny, gentlemen, that you have not yet a fchoal which you can yet properly call yoM own ? You muft itill admit, that you are obliged to go to Italy to be taught, as it has been the cafe with your prefent beft artills ? You muft ftill fubmit yourfelves fo the dired:ion of Italian mailers, whether excellent or middling ? Still make your advantage of that kindnefs with which they point out to you the path that you , are to follow if you will reach at any perfedion in your profeffion ? And lince this is the cafe, as it is, in a great meafure at lead, why v/ill you abufe and run down thofe, who far from proving invi- dious, endeavour your improvement when- ever you give them an opportunity ? Does this not look a little like beating your own nurf@ C 28i J fjurfe becaufe ihe is grown fomewhat fuperannuated j and like fpitting in your i»arnma's face becaufe fhe begins to doat a little ? But iince I am about telling my mind \qJDDii this fubje(S, let me inform my readers, that I have heard of fonie Englifb young artifts,. wha are fo countenanced by the Italian nobility, as to be often em- ployed by them, and rewarded for their labours in fuch. a manner aa to be enabled to live and fludy there with more eafe than they would otherwife do : nor can any body deny with juflice to the Italians the merit of countenancing abilities wherever they find them, without the leafl relud:ance, without minding whether they are poiTelTed by a native or a ilranger, by an orthodox or an heterodox; and I am perfonally acquainted with an Engliih painter of very diilinguifhed parts, lately returned from thence after an ab- Icncg of ten years from home, who has alTured [ 2S2 ] aflured me, that he ihall never fufficlently praife my countrymen upon this head. It is then a notorious fa€t that the academy of St. Luke has many times ad^ Judged the firil premiums to foreigners, Englifh, Dutch, French, and Spaniards, without the leaft fhadow of national par.- tiality. A fucceflion of ftrangers, and many of them heretics (as our hot-headed divines call them) have {hifted, and do flill ihift in Italy, when furnifhed with a profeffion and a little dofe of prudence ; and inftead^ of being envied, crofTed, and moleded by national partiality, they have been, and are ftill, affifted and carefied, efleemed and employed. Nor does this Italian cofmopolitifm and philanthropy extend fingly to the polke artifts who come to fludy or to live amongft us. The cuU tivators of other profeffions meet in Italy with the fame treatment« To name only the profefTors of mufic, an art in which we Rill excel all other nations by the una^ nimous [ ^h 1 nimous confent of all Europe ; have we not ufed the Spanifh Terradella like our Venetian Galuppi, and the Saxon HafTe like our Neapolitan Forpora ? Handel himfelf was amongft us when very young: and though far diftant then from that perfed:ion which put him after upon a par with our Pergoleli's and our Scarlatti's, yet he lived honourably amongft us, and had caufe to remember with gratitude to the end of his days his Italian patrons as well as his Italian mafters. Many natives of other countries have lived very well, and even raifed confiderable fortunes in feveral parts of Italy, both in the military and the political fervice of our different flates ', and I have myfelf perfonally knov/n an EngliOi governor of Nice in Provence^ and a Scotch governor of Cafal in Mon- ferrat. None of our commercial towns are fliut to the merchants of any nation, and rendered difficult of accefs by double duties of puftpm r hpufes and other re^ drain ts ftffti0t§^: on foreigners. At Venice, Le^ ghorn,. Ancona, Genoa, Naples, and other places, there are adtiially many ftrangers,, Englifii efpecially, who trade with as full a freedom as if they were born amongil us ; and they often retire to their own countries with the fortunes they have ac- cumulated, without railing the leaft mur-^ mur, and without receiving the leaft mo- Isilation. Thefe, Mr. Sharp, thefe were the manners and cuftoms of Italy which you had to defcribe ; and here you had an argument to expatiate upon, much more worthy of your pen .than the dimeniions of our theatres,. an4 the lemonades of our ladies. But, without faying any thing invidious of the Englifh, of whofe noble qualities I have ever been one of the motft fanguine admirers, could I not aik this mighty cenfor whether ilrangers are fo well ufed in England as they are in Italy ? Whether the laws of his country are fo hofpitable as thofe of mine ? Yet Italy is ? a land t 285 ] a lan(i fwarming with revengeful mur-" derers, and England is full of people who toaft of good-nature exclulive of all other nations, as I have already obferved. But I muft beg the reader's pardon for this fecond digreffion, perhaps a little too long and too warm. Yet to make him amends for my indifcretion, I will now come ftreight to the conclulion of the little I had to offer on the fubjed: of the polite arts, and will only add, that though thefe arts be at prefent in a moft promifing condition in England, and much upon the decline in Italy, yet the Englifli are flill far from being what the Italians have been. The names of the great men mentioned by Vertue and Walpole in the volumes printed at Strawberry-hill, will be for ever little names v/hen compared to thofe mentioned by Vafari and Bor- ghini 5 nor have yet the Italians any ur- gent need to run abroad for improve- ment, as long as they can boafl to have among ft I 286 ) amongft them their Corrado*s, Signa- roll's, Vanvitelli's, and Piranefi's, and as long as they can fpare for England their Angelica's, Cipriani's, Bartolozzi's, and Zuccarelli's* C H A ?• [ 287 J CHAP, XVII. X T is very poffible I may be miftaken in fuppoling, that among the numerous readers of this book there will be many of the fair fex : But I find fomething fo delightful in this hope, that I readily ad- mit it : my imagination even reprefents them as anxioufly expecting from a native of Italy, who has the prefumption to adrefs them in their native tongue, a full account of the prefent ftate of mufic in that mufical country -, as wishing for the ampleft information concerning the no- tions and management of our ladies with regard to this great fource of female amufement 5 and as longing to hear me expatiate on the powers of thofe amongfl our fweet fongflers, who have not yet blefTed the Haymarket with their appear- ance. [ 28^ ] ance, and thrown them into ecftacles with their Caro's and their Addios. I heartily wifh it was in my power to give them mil fatisfadtion upon this point. But unfortunately I am very much a ilranger to the tranfaclions of the muficai world ; and , my ikill in harmony is fo fmall, that it never went beyond the roar- ing of a Venetian ballad when a flaik of Montepuliano has gone federal rounds; and my love of opera's and burletta's, far from being of the enthuiiaftic kind, never hindered me from building the moil mag- nificent Spanifh caftles while Egiziello was melting multitudes with fkilful ihakes and learned cadences ; and often have I been very ferioully meditating on the bad- nefs of my neighbour's fnuiF, while Care- ftini with a prodigious mejfa di voce was gradually pumping up the admiration of two hundred Italian gentildonna's. I muft therefore in this my fcantinefs of knowledge of thefe important matters, and to my no fmall mortification, fay to the [ 289 ] the Englifh ladies what Ariofto faid to thofe of Italy before he begun a filly ftory, *uoltate guejio canto e. nol leggete^ ** fafs over *' this chapter and read it not" as I am fure, that they will not find in it any thing worth their perufal with regard to Italian mufic and Italian muficians. I really can do nothing elfe in the following para- graphs to the end of this chapter, but run over what the mufical Mr. Sharp has told us in his itinerary letters upon this interefting fubjed:, relative to certain matters of facSl which fall within the com- pafs of ordinary obfervers, and which, with an attention to truth, Mr. Sharp and I (equally ignorant in the fcience) are equally capable of remarking. Mr. Sharp fays, that very few Italian gentlejnen praBife the fiddle or any other infirument : that all the young ladies (take notice of his emphatical word all) are placed in convents ^ where they remain until they marry or take the veil^ and where mufic is no part ofi' their education 5 and that after U marriage { 290 I inarnage it cannot be fiippofed that any 'WO* 7nan undertakes fo laborious a tajk as that of making a proficiency on the harpfichord. For thefe reafonsy does he add with great wif- dom, an Italian audience has no other plea- fare in melody than what pure nature affords 'y ivhereas in E/igland the fine ladies have alfo an acquired tafie, the efi}Bs of affiduity and cultivation. Thefe, with Mr. Sharp's leave, are the remarks of a carelefs talker, who has little to fay, and yet is refolved to fay fome- thing right or wrong. What opportunity could Mr. Sharp have of afcertaining the number of thofe Italian gentlemen who pra^tife the fiddle or other inftruments ^ And by what means did he difcover that 7ione of the Italian ladies are taught mufic ? However it is true that few Italian gentlemen prad:ife the fiddle or other in- ftruments, relatively to the number of thofe Italian gentlemen who do not : and if this is his meaning, he is certainly right. But if [ 291 ] if he means relatively to the number of of the Englifh gentlemen who do it, it will be very difficult for him to prove fuch an afTertion : and I for my part am far from fubfcribing to it, as I have vilited many more towns of Italy than he has done, and know that in each of them many gentlemen apply to mufic. Yet, as it is impoffible to afcertain this point, I will give it up with all my heart, and grant that the balance is in favour of England : but I muft fay at the fame time, that if there are but few amongft our gentlemen who pra6life the fiddle or other inftruments relatively to the number of thofe who do not, this happens becaufe the Italians in general do not look with any additional degree of regard upon a gentleman on account of his attaining to any excellence in mufic. And fo far they feem to me not to differ greatly from the Englifli, who value a gentleman not much the more for his being a good fiddler or finger. U 2 It [ 292 ] It may be faid with truth, that mufic is fo bewitching, that whoever makes a point of reaching to any perfed:ion in it, frequently lofes ail appetite for nobler ac- quifitions ; and few are the modern heroes, who,, like the king of Pruffia and the hereditary prince of Brunfwic, pofTefs the talent of allying the foft mulic of Italy with the rough tadlics of Germany. The mulic of Italy, though much more fcien- tific than that of other European coun- tries, naturally tends to enervate the mind. Hence our Italian performers, though in the lump jufily preferred to all other per- formers of Europe for fuperior powers of delighting, are juftly derided for greater effeminacy and folly. It is difficult to teU why logic and common fenfe forfake fo many of them when mulic is out of the queflion ; and yet this is generally the cafe, though mulic, like all other arts and fciences, has its foundation in common fenfe and logic. If [ 293 ] If the ancients in fome commonwealths encouraged, and in fome cafes enjoined the ftudy of mulic as fubfervient even to military excellence, and if it be true, that they had military tunes which on a day of adtion inflamed combatants to an afiionilh- ing degree, their mufic muft have been of a tafle much different from that now prevailing in Italy ; which, far from hav- ing any power of encreafing courage or any manly virtues, has on the contrary a tendency towards effeminacy and coward- linefs, whatever little joy or pleafing tu- mult it may have the power to awake in the heart of a foldier vv^hen turned into a military march. The Italians therefore, I mean thofe of weight and coniideration, as well as the Englifli, are perhaps not fo blameable when they contemn thofe puny gentlemen, who acquire fuch ikill in this charming art, as to feel its mlnutefi: nice- ties, and be of courfe in rapture with the languifinng Cecchinds of Piccini, and the fainting Fajiorella's of Galuppi. U 3 Thus [ 294 ] Thus much for what belongs to the firft part of the harmonious Mr. Sharp's obfervation. With regard to the fecond, I muft take the liberty to deny what he has in his letters repeatedly affirmed with great confidence, that the Italians place all their young ladies in convent Sy and leave them there until they take the veil or marry. But as the confutation of this alTertion, which he has copied out of Miffon's * travels, would lead me too far from the prefent fubjed:, which is the manners and cuftoms of the Italians with regard to * MiiTon fays In one place, that the Italians fend, their girls to monajterles in their infancy -i and difpofe of them in marriage xuithout their knowledge, and even fre- quently without kiting them fee their future hufiands, and that in making ma?'riages they do not h'ouble ihemf elves with love^ affeSlion, or efteem, but mind nothing, fav€ kindred and. riches. And in another Place, Not only at Venice^ hut every where elfs, the girls are feni to nunneries in their infancy, and they are ufuclly married or at haft hetrcthed zuithov.t feeing their hu/hands. Many pages of Mr. Sharp's book contain nothing but poor repetitions of the falfe afiertions of that French prefhyteriano mufiC I 295 ] stiufic and muficians, I will give it a place in the next chapter 3 and going on with this, I will only fay, that Mr. Sharp was right when he alTerted that miific is not much thought of in the education of our young ladies. And perhaps our nobility and genteel people are far from being wholly in the wrong when they think mufic no very great, and in fome refped:s, a dange- rous accomplifhment in women. Our churches and our theatres render mufic very common throughout the country ', and what is common cannot be much prifed. Yet we conceive that muiic is not an eligible ftudy for our young ladies, and this for a very important coniideratian. Our climate quickens our fenfibility in fuch a manner, that muiic afied:s us infi- nitely more than it does other nations. Let your imagination reprefent to you an Italian lady young and beautiful, with all that warn>th of conftitution peculiar to her country, arrayed in the thinnefl filk favourable to the fultry feafon, fitting at y 4 Jier [ 296 ] her harpfichord, her fingers in bufy fearch of the mofl delicate quavers, and languifh- ing to a Mi fento morir of one of our mofl feeling compofers ! Where is the judi- cious parent who would wifh to fee his child in fo dangerous a fituation ? I would not however by fpeaking thus, be thought one of thofe lovers of fubtilties and paradoxes, who derive the various charadlers of nations from the variety of their climates, and who can account even for their predominant virtues or vices by the latitudes where they are placed. Yet I think it an indifputable fad:, that if mu- fic is more the growth of Italy than of any other part of Europe, it may in fome degree be attributed to the cleannefs and warmth of our atmofphere, which gives to the generality of our women not only fweeter throats than to thofe of other countries, but makes them Jikewife feel with more fenfibility the charms of muiic. It may therefore, for aught I know, be very proper for Englifh young ladies to be taughl [ 297 ] taught mufic -, fince nature, fo partial to them in all ether refpecls, has thought fit to deny to the generality of them the power to learn and execute thofe tender paffages and melting cadences which con- ftitute the chief excellence of our mufiC : and the temperature of their climate too, may guard the Englifh ladies againll: thefe lively impreffions, which in them I do not cenfure : but our young ladies would be too much and too often afFed:ed by them, if we were fo imprudent as to put it in their power to give themfelves at pleafure fuch a fedudlive amufement. Mu- fic may be cultivated in the foil of Eng- land without any danger, becaufe, like an exotic plant, it will never fpread fo as to prove hurtful by its luxuriancy ; but we mufi: rigidly lop it in Italy, where it grows naturally fo faft, as to make us tremble at the balefulnefs of its influence. Are not fuch of the Englifli wife who keep their milTes from frequenting the ^li^atre, where too much harnilefs em- bracing [ 298 ] bracing and too much kifling might throw their untutored fancies into fome dif- order ? A limilar motive induces the Italians to keep their Jignorinas fronj learning mufic, as they are fenfible that mufic, though perfedlly guiltlefs in itfelf, would certainly difcompofe their little hearts, and more ealily perhaps than th^ indecencies of a Britiih flage. There is likewife another motive which keeps Italian parents from letting their girls turn mufical. I mean the general pharacfter of immorality which our beft lingers and maflers of mulic have feemed iludious to acquire in this age. Mr. Locke, in his treatife on education, recom- mended fome manual trade for well-born children, by way of furnifliing them with an innocent occuoation in their leifure hours when arrived at the years of man- hood. But Mr. Locke's recommendation has been jun:ly difregarded by his country- men ; becauib manual trades cannot be taught but by bafe mechanics, whofe low I manner^ [ 299 ] manners might prove contagious to their tender pupils. The ItaUan parents would have a greater inconvenience to contend with, (hould they venture to make their girls great proficients in mufic. They are therefore right v^hen they avoid this dan^ ger, or vv^hen they fuffer them only to learn a little from mufical women ; which they condefcend to do in feveral of our towns, and efpecially in Venice, whofe mufical hofpitals furnidi them with female teachers, who know fo much of playing and finging as to be able to give a girl fome little tafte of both, but cannot eafily lead her to that excellence in mufic vv^hich might prove pernicious to innocence and virtue. Such is the voluptuous and wicked turn of mind that mufic gives in Italy to the generality of its profelTors, the fingers efpecially, that it has brought them ioto univerfal difrepute. So great is the con-- tempt which our fingers have long merited ^f us hy their corruption, that no ex- cellence [ 3^0 ] ccllence in their way ever entitles them to our efleem, whatever ad:s of affability and generolity their abilities may fometimes extort from us. There is not one gentle- man or lady in a hundred throughout Italy, who fpeaks to any of them in the third perfon lingular, which is our civil way of fpeaking to one another. To the fingers and the generality of muficians, we alv/ays fpeak in the fecond perfon plu- ral, which is our ftile of condefcenlion, or in the fecond perfon fingular, which is our contemptuous or authoritative ftile when we talk to our inferiors : and CafFa- rello himfelf, one of the moil fcientific iingers that ever Italy produced, muft be contented to be talked to in Voi or Tu by any body w^ho is one degree above a {hop- keeper, though Caffarello be adiually pof- felTed of an eftate of four thoufand Engliih pounds a year procured by fmging. Our fingers we put on the fame level with our dancers; and our difdain for both tliefe claffes of people goes fo far, that we mofl f 301 ] moil commonly give their ^names fomc diminutive termination, which, according to the genius of our language, makes them ludicrous or mean ; or v^e call them by fome derifory nick-name, v^^hich is ftill worfe. Thus for inftance fignor Man- zoli is generally called Succianoci, that is. Nut-fucker, for his playing fome trickrin his linging like that of fucking a walnut -, fignora Gabrieli is fcarcely known in Italy but by the nick-name of La Coghetta, the little cook, becaufe ihe was the daughter of a cook ', and lignora Agujari is termed JLa Bajiardella, the little bajiard, becaufe Ihe "Was a foundling : thus our dancers are feldom known but by the appellations of Gambadiferro, Iron-leg ; Spaccatavole, Board-cleaver ; Schizzetta, Flat-nofe, and the like, which always imply contempt and derifion. Thofe who have read the Confcious Lovers, or feen it afted, when they read this account will probably think that in point of manners the Italians have not yet t 3^2 i yet attained fo high a degree of politenefs as the Englilh or the French have ; or at leaft the author of that play thinks they ought to have. But fuch the Italians are^ and fuch, fince I am about it, I mufl con- fefs they are. Mr. Sharp, vt^hofe tendernefs of bovi^els is certainly greater than his power of in- veftjgaticn, appears very much concerned at our confidering the opera as a place of rendezvous and vijiting, rather than as a temple facred to the av^ful deities of har- mony and melody ; and he is almoft angry with us, becaufe we do not feem in the leaji to attend to the mujic, but laugh and talk through the whole performance without any refraint, fo that we cover intirely the voices of the fingers by our converfng fo loudly tO" gether. He was prepojjejj'ed of this cufioin of ours before he left Efigland', but had no idea it was carried to fuch an extreme. He had been informed that, though the Italians indulged this humour in fme degree -, yet when [ 3^3 ] nvhen a favourite fong was Jingtng, or the king was prefent, (I fuppofe he means the king of the Italians) they obferved, a due Jilence: hut he muji deny both thefe fa5ls from what he hasfeen. What a deal of wifdom lavifhed on fo trifling a fubjed: as that of an Italian opera ! But fee how fhamefully poor llrangers are impofed upon hj thefe naughty writers of travels ? Poor Mr* Sharp had been made to believe, that the grave Italians obferved due flence at an opera when a favourite fong was fung, or a king was prefent -, and none of the two fad:s proves true ! Who will ever give credit hereafter to fuch ilory-tellers ! However, thank our flars, a more accurate obferver of Italian cuftoms and manners has at laft vifited that diftant region; is gone to the opera at Naples -, has found to his great allonifhment that two fads of fo infinite importance have been grofsly mifrepre- fented -, has denied them of cciirfe ; 2.n^ has 3^4 ] has thus rendered Old England much wifer than it was before his great dif- covery.. But though I may heartily join with his countrymen, and give Mr. Sharp my moft cordial thanks for having imparted his ufeful difcovery to them ; yet I cannot thank him for having told them, that the Italians learn mujic becaiife trade in Italy is defpicable, and laborious employments are held in detefiation. Mr. Sharp is certainly miftaken here; and I mull in my turn deny both thefe facfts. It is rather muiic, than trade or laborious employments, that is defpicable in Italy, and held in detefiation. If by labourious employments Mr. Sharp means agriculture and manufad:ures, (and what elfe can he mean ?) I tell him plainly that neither of them is deteiled by the Italians > for, were that the cafe, our far- mers, traders, and manufadlurers could net certainly be fo numerous as they are; nor [ 3^5 ] nor live as they live. They do not Indeed in Italy rank with the nobility ; nor do they in any country : but they have their natural degree of eflimation, and thefe employments are neither defpifed nor de- iefted. The Englifh who have travelled in Italy, know very well that many parts of it are as diligently cultivated as the beft counties in England; and the Eng- lifh who have not been there, muft be fenlible that the Italians do not live, like the Tartars, upon the mere produd: of their cows, ewes, and mares, fince it is pretty well known that Italy furniflies England and other parts of the world with many things which are the fruit of their agricul,ture. Mr. Sharp, inconiiftent with himfelf, and -forgetful at times of our charadjeriilical hatred to laborious em- ployments, has hinted feveral times in his book at the perfection of our agriculture. He has faid, that it is hardly to be expref- fed how beautiful the environs of Ancona are 5 that the vineyards and arable grounds X there [ 3o6 1 there afford the mofi fleajing images he has fee?2 of peace and plenty ; that there is not an acre of barren ground through all the tra5l of Lombardy which he has paffed: and that the earth there produces three crops at once, namely wine, filk, and corn ; f^e mul- berry-trees fupporting the vines, and the corn growing in the intervals betwixt the trees. As to manufactures, no body but Mr. Sharp will ever dream that the Italians detefl them. Many branches of them, nay moil branches are in a flouri£hing ilate, and thofe manufadlures are purchafed from them by all the cornmercial world. But is it poillble that Mr. Sharp can have viiited Italy without feeing manufacturers and other people laborioufly employed^ Has he not feen there a lingle weaver, dier, hatter, fword-cuttler, paper-maker, coach- maker, flioe-maker ? And can any body be perfuaded that we have in Italy no ma-^ fons, fmiths, porters, fellers of wood, flone-fawyers, armourers, brafs-founders, ^nd other fuch hearty fellows, v/ho go through [ ?>^7 ] through the mofl laborious employ inents in- difpenlible in poliihed focieties ? The riling manufactures of Turin, Milan, Mantua, Vicenza, Florence, Perugia, and Ancona, as well as the eflabliflied ones fo well known in other parts, threaten to rival, if not much to reduce the trade of Lyons j and it is well if Great Britain herfelf does not already begin to feel our rivalfhip, in the decreafe of the fale of more than one of her moft elTential manufac- tures : and this happens in a country, where, according to Mr. Sharp, they breed up their people to fiddling and linging, on account of their contempt and detejlation of manufactory ! Trade alfo, Mr. Sharp fays, is looked upon as defpicabk among us : but this is as true and as probable as the red. There is at Naples a duke of my name, (to whom by the way I don't claim the honour of being related) and at Rome one marquis Belloni, who are the chief bankers in thofe towns. In Venice there X 2 are [ 3o8 ] are the noble Baglioni, count Peruli, and other people of confequence, who trade publicly in their own names. At Genoa there are the Cambiafi's, the Celelia's, and fome of the very chief fenators and noblemen, who are like wife publicly con- cerned in trade. At Ancona there is marquis Trionfi, already named, who is at the very head of the merchants there. I could ealily go on to the end of the chapter detailing the names of Italians, who make not the leafl: fcruple to ally trade to nobility ; but the mentioning of thefe few will prove fufficient to demolifh the affertion of our acute obferver, as the names of thefe few are commonly known on the Royal Exchange j and their affairs are tranfafted very often there as well as thofe of numberlefs other of our merchants, who far from being held as defpicable people by their countrymen, are, on the contrary looked upon in a very honourable light. If r 3^9 ] If I were to advife a gentleman who undertakes to inftrutft others, firft to be informed himfelf, I would recommend it to Mr. Sharp to look a little into the ilate of trade, manufactures, and Italy, before he ventures to fay, that trade and manu- fadtures are defpifed and detefted amongll us. But let me not lofe fight of Mr. Sharp's account of our opera's and opera-matters. In his ufual affedting ftrain he fays, that a Jtr anger who has a little compajjion in his breajl, feels for the poor fngers, who are treated with fo much indifference and con- tempt by the Italians , as not to be lifened to when they fng on the ftage. The mulicians aie indeed very unlucky to meet nothing but contempt in a pro- feffion, in which they take refuge, and for which they quit trade and manufac- tures merely to avoid fuch treatment ! But what an abominable people are the gentry of Italy ! Oh the barbarians who _ X 3 do do not feel for their poor fingers [ Kow can they be (o utterly deprived of that virtue, which is the charaderiftic of true Chriilians, of the Englifli in general, and . of Mr. Sharp in particular ! And how can the Italian fingers fiibmit to fo grofs an affront, and to fo dreadful a mortifcation, as Mr. Sharp exprefi^es it in his ufual pathos and true fublime ! But, Sir, you mufi: excufe me for my laughing at thefe difmal accounts of bur cuftoms and manners. If finging was bread and cheefe to the Italians, and if they trampled madly upon their bread and cheefe, you could not exprefs their mad- nefs in more energetic terms. But finging is only a diverfion, and attended to with no more ferioufnefs than a diverfion deferves. I have told you already, that we have fo great a plenty of mufic in Italy as to have very good reafon to hold it cheap; and every fenfible Englishman mufl won-, der at your wonderful wonder on fuch trifling occafions, and at your folemnity of f 3" ] ©f fco1ding,as if we were committing mur^ der when we are talkative in the pit, or form ourfelves into card-parties in our boxes. Our fingers then, though we be unwilling to liften, would be very imper- tinent, if they did not fmg their beil, iince they are very well paid for fo doing; and CafFarello was foon taught better manners when he took it into his head not to do his duty upon the ftage of Turin on pretence that the audience was not at- tentive to his finging. He was taken to jail in his Macedonian accoutrements for feveral nights as foon as the opera was over; and brought from the jail to the ftage every evening, until by repeated efforts he deferved univerfal acclama- tion. Mr. Sharp wonders alfo, that // is not the fafiion in Italy .^ as ' it is in Rnglandy to take a fmall waX'-light to the opera, in order to read the book. A very acute remark as ufual ; to which I have nothing to fay, X 4 but [ 3^2 ] but that the Italians are not fo good- natured as the English, who have patience enough to run carefully over a ftupid piece of nonfenfe vi'hile a lilly eunuch is minc- ing a vcv/el into a thoufand invifible par- ticles. When we are at the opera, we coniider thofe fellows in the lump as one of the many things that induced us to be there ; and we pay the fame attention to their fmging which we pay to other parts of that diveriion. We fix our eyes, for inftance, a moment or two on the fcenes and the dreffes, when they happen to be new and fuperlatively well imagined: and our fingers would be very ridiculous in- deed, if to their cuflomary impudence they added that of pretending to much more regard than what we pay to the pencil of an ingenious fcene-painter, or even to the elegance of a fanciful taylor. Our gentlemen then, as well as thofe of London, have the ladies to look at; and the ladies, we will fuppofe, have that of looking [ 313 ] looking at the gentlemen, or at one ano- ther's cloaths and head-dreiTes^ and having their hands thus full, befides the affair ftill more important of laughing and talk- ing, what need have they to look in the book ? And then, if the opera is not one of thofe compofed by Metaftafio, we know certainly beforehand, that it is fome compofition full as witty as the Lavinids and Catar attacks cf our famed Bottarelli; or if the opera is Metaftaiio's, we know likewife for certain beforehand, that it is as perfedlly butchered by the opera-poet, as thofe that are exhibited in the Hay- market. Let any of the two be the cafe, would we not be fupremely ridiculous to pore for fome hours over an opera-book with a fmall wax-light in our hands ? But it is high time to have done with this tedious fubjeft of opera's. Yet, be- fore I end my chapter, I mufl let my reader know, that mufic conftitutes a part of our diverfions befides the opera's. It I is [ 3H 1 is already known that we have a good deal of it, and of the moft excellent, in our churches, efpecially on holidays. We have likewife many kinds of clubs in almoft all our towns of any note, where fuch gentlemen as apply any way to mu- fic, (for fuch there are, whatever Mr. Sharp may fay to the contrary) affemble on fixed days to play together till they are weary, and always without the inter- vention of the bottle, which is rarely a helper to our pleafures. To thefe kinds of clubs, which we call Accademia's, ladies are invited and admitted gratis, and as fimple hearers, even when they can per- form. It would be a great piece of inci ' vility if any men there was to beg of them to fing or play : but if they condefcend to do it of their own motion, the whole com- pany gives them applaufe and thanks. At Venice when a procuratore, cancellkr, or other great officer of ftate is made, his friends or dependants by way of compli- ment [ 3'5 ] ment collecfl a numerous mercenary band^ get a room over the ftreet through which his excellency makes his entrance into St. Mark's palace ; and there a grand concert is played. At Rome on the creation of a pope or a cardinal, and in other parts of Italy on occafion of births or marriages of princes, fome great nobleman or fome ambalTador has a cantata made on purpofe; that is, a kind of triumphal or epithala- mic fong, which is fung in fome large hall to the nobility invited by the owner of the feaft, and not feldom to a great concourfe of people, who go there as genteely mafked as they can. Such can- tata's are generally followed by a grand ball and a moil magnificent diflribution to every body prefent of ice-meats and other kinds of refrefl:iments : and as it is cufto- mary for the low people to put in their pockets the cups, faucers, fpoons, and other fuch things, after having eaten or drank their rlnfrefcds^ it is eafy to imagine [ 3i6 ] imagine that fuch treats prove very ex- peniive, and amount to feveral thoufand fequeens *. But the Italians love mulic no where £o w^ell as in their ftreets at night. In fummer especially, they go about v^ith their fiddles and guitars, their flutes and hautboys, playing, and finging, and flop- ping under the windows of fine girls and handfome ladies, who are always much pleaied with fuch marks of difl;ina:ion from their friends and lovers, and often return the- civility by fending lemonades, fweetmeats, and nofegays to the perfor- mers. At Venice it is a thing really de- lightful to rove on a fummer night about the Laguna in a gondola, and hear from feveral boats feveral bands of muficians playing and finging, the moon fliining bright, the winds huihed, and the water as fniooth as a glafs. Thefe ferenafas, as we call them, are- feldom or never dif- * A fequeen is about ten fliillings. C3" turbed [ Z'^l ] turbed by riots, as would probably be the cafe in England, were fuch entertainments cuflomary : and this is perhaps the only mufic which the Italians enjoy in filence, as if unwilling to fpoil the calm and fcill- nefs of the night. And thus do I end this chapter, which I fear has proved too long, confidering the frivoloufnefs of its argu- ment. END OF THE FIRST VOLUME,