1828.] The Plays of Gherardo da Rossi. 499 



People of rank; committing great extra vagances, are seen destitute of the 

 mere necessaries of life. The " Marquis/' however, here saves Count 

 Ottavio the trouble of seeking him. He enters. 



Marq. Ha ! Madame la Comtesse, good morning. Suffer me to hope I 

 have the happiness to find you well ! 



C. Seat. Ah, Monsieur le Marquis ! Believe me, I was uneasy on your 

 account beyond measure. My awkward husband, I heard, had given you 

 cause of offence. He had the rudeness to ask you for some trifle won at 

 play ! Go, directly, and beg his lordship's pardon, Sir ( to Count Ottavio) 

 you uncivil person, do. 



C. Oft. (in confusion.) Really I I A thousand pardons. I 



Marq. Pardon, Madam ! What injury is there that your bright eyes could 

 not induce me to forget ? Any thing every thing shall be forgiven to the 

 good Count Ottavio. Come, my friend, embrace me (embracing the Count by 

 force) and let us be friends. 



C. Beat. How amiable he is and kind ! 



C. Ott. But shall I have the twenty carlini ? 



Marq. Pshaw ! No more about it say no more. We are friends. 



C. Seat. Why, you ungrateful creature ! don't you hear his lordship is so 

 good as to pardon you ? Return thanks, and go away. 



C. Ott. (muttering). Many thanks ! (Going} Many thanks ! (Aside.} 

 No pocket-money ! no twenty carlini I My poor nose that must still keep 

 fasting \(Exit.) 







By a glimmering of honesty on the part of his wife, and the sturdy 

 interference of the lawyer Ernesto, Signor Giacinto is preserved from 

 the fate which in such a family would naturally seem to await him. 

 But the undisguised viciousness of all the persons of the drama is 

 peculiar. In our English comedy, vice is represented as the exception 

 to the common rule. Here, all the parties of the play, except " Ernesto," 

 are either fools, swindlers, or strumpets : the young wife, Lady Eu- 

 genia, being just a single point above the rest in moral feeling. And 

 the coarseness of the details seems curious to the English reader. The 

 Countess Beatrice, keeping her husband without pence to buy snuff, 

 openly turning her new brother-in-law out of the house, to introduce 

 gallants to his wife ; the perfect patience, too, of the husband, Count 

 Ottavio, ; and the incident of the wanting the chocolate, because there 

 is only enough for Giacinto, are all highly characteristic. The whole of 

 the gallants of the piece, too, are gamesters, and cheat at play, as a 

 matter of course, whenever opportunity offers. In the Sorelle Rivali, 

 the general license goes much farther. A brother, who travels with his 

 married sister, complains to a friend, of the troublesome nature of his 

 task. " In every .city that they come to," he says, " the first day she 

 arrives almost before she gets out of her carriage she (his sister, and 

 a married woman) finds a fresh lover." The female character in the 

 Famiglia dell' Uomo Indolent e the Lady Giacinta is still more gross. 

 Neither of these three comedies have much poetic merit. The dramatis 

 persona; in all consist chiefly of depraved women, and coarse, intriguing 

 men. The Sorelle Rivali has one character, a hypochondriac old man, 

 " II Conte Asdrubale," worked out with some cleverness : though the 

 jests are of a description which will not bear translating. And an im- 

 perious lady, his wife, who affects travelled airs, and does every thing 

 " in the style of France, or England," is not without some force. 

 The valet and waiting woman, are characters in every one of the come- 

 dies, from the beginning of the series to the end. 



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