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THE CARNIVAL AT ROME. 



" I have seen the day 

 That I have worn a visor ; and could tellj 

 A whispering tale in a fair lady's ear, 

 Such as would please ; 'tis gone, 'tis gone, 'tis gone. 



* * * * 



Nay, sit, nay, sit, good cousin Capulet ; 

 For you and I are past our dancing days : 

 How long is't now since last yourself and I 

 Were in a mask 1 " 



Romeo and Juliet, Act I. Scene 5. 



THE carnival, properly so called, is the time from Christmas to 

 Shrovetide, during- which interval the theatres are opened, and the 

 town begins to assume an appearance of gaiety. But the carnival 

 so famous all over the world is the eight days * immediately 

 preceding 1 Lent, "when Rome and the Romans seem changed to 

 another place and a different people. In the spring of 1835 this 

 last and concentrated carnival commenced on Saturday the 21st of 

 February. But long before the actual commencement, its approach 

 is indicated by various and unequivocal symptoms. Gradually and 

 one by one, as the stars come out after sunset, a mask or a fancy 

 dress, often of the humblest materials, makes it appearance in the 

 shops; now and then a race-horse is led up the Corso, to familiarize 

 him with his future career ; organ-grinders, tambourine-players, toy- 

 sellers, wild-beast-men, giantesses, dwarfs, and phenomena of all 

 sorts, creep from their dark retirement and disperse themselves about 

 the town. Day by day benches and scaffoldings gradually rise along* 

 the Corso, and their progress is anxiously watched by multitudes of 

 shaggy-cloaked expectants, who have little hope of being able to 

 purchase a seat there when they are finished. The 'markets, which 

 in Italy always exhibit a curious and incongruous display of eatables, 

 are now fuller and more incongruous than ever. The word carnival 

 or meat adieu ! has its proper effect, and every one prepares for a last 

 and vigorous effort of indulgence. Delicacies, which an Englishman 

 would denote by some other name, pour in from all quarters wild 

 boar, kid, and occasionally an otter or a hedgehog, dog-fish, cuttle-fish, 

 red mullets, crawfish, baskets full of small fry about half an inch long, 

 dandelion, wild asparagus, young shoots of the hop plant, and thistle 

 roots:, thousands of thrushes, starlings, linnets, goldfinches, and tom- 

 tits, all nothing but feathers and skin. t These form a very small 

 extract from the Roman, bill of fare. To make the approaching 

 fete still more brilliant, the public fountains are cleansed out, the 



* In these eight days are not included two Sundays and a Friday, which intervene 

 between them, and divide the festivities into four portions. Laying aside the claims 

 which Sunday has on all Christians, and Friday on the Roman Catholics in particular, 

 eight days' continued merriment would tire the highest spirits, and make the wildest 

 imagination flag, were not some such agreeable relief as this interposed. 



t A lady on her first visit to Italy saw with some surprise a dish of these little hirds 

 produced at a table d'hote, and enquired what they were. "Madame," replied a 

 hungry Frenchman, " ce sont des illusions." 



M;M. NO. 3. s 



