466 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



. Casti is the profligate of genius. 

 He rivals La Fontaine in the nar- 

 rative talent, and surpasses him in 

 obscenity. His late work, " Gli 

 Animali parlanti," though full of 

 philosophy and gall, must soon 

 yield to the fate of all political 

 poems. Its forms and its agents 

 are tiresome. We can follow a sa- 

 tiricHl fox through a short fable, 

 but we nauseate three volumes of 

 allegorical brutes connected by one 

 plot. His " novelle " are on the 

 contrary too attractive, too excel- 

 lently wicked. Such also is their 

 reverend author. He has lived 

 just as he wrote, has grown old 

 in debauchery, and suffered in the 

 cause. Yet Casti is courted and 

 caressed in the first circles of Italy ; 

 he is the arbiter of wit, and the 

 favourite of the fair. 



IMPROVVISATORI. 



(From the Same). 



Florence has been long renown- 

 ed for Improvvisatori. So early as 

 the 15th century the two blind 

 brothers Brandolini excelled here 

 in singing Latin extempore. The 

 crowned and pensioned Corilla 

 drew lately the admiration of all 

 Italy, and Signora Fantastici is 

 now the improvvisatrice of the day. 



This lady convenes at her house 

 a crowd of admirers, whenever she 

 chooses to be inspired. The first 

 time I attended her accademia, a 

 young lady of the same family and 

 name as the great Michael Angelo 

 began the evening by repeating 

 some verses of her own composi- 

 tion. Presently La Fantastici broke 

 out into song in tlie words of the 

 motto, and astonished me by her 



rapidity and command of numbers, 

 which flowed in praise of the fair 

 poetess, and brought her poem 

 back to our applause. Her num- 

 bers, however, flowed irregularly, 

 still varying with the fluctuation of 

 sentiment ; while her song corres- 

 ponded, changing from aria to reci- 

 tativo, from recitativo to a mea- 

 sured recitation. 



She went round her circle, and 

 called on each person for a theme. 

 Seeing her busy with her fan, I 

 proposed the Fan as a subject ; and 

 this little weapon she painted as 

 she promised, " col pennel divino 

 di fantasia felice." In tracing its 

 origin she followed Pignotti, and 

 in describing its use she acted and 

 analyzed to us all the coquetry 

 of the thing. She allowed herself 

 no pause, as the moment she cool- 

 ed her esiro would escape. 



So extensive is her reading that 

 she can challenge any theme. One 

 morning, after other classical sub- 

 jects had been sung, a Venetian 

 count gave her the boundless field 

 of Apollonius Ilhodius, in which 

 she displayed a minute acquaint- 

 ance with all the argonautic fable. 

 Tired at last of demi-gods, I pro- 

 posed the sofa for a task, and 

 sketched to her the introduction of 

 Cowper's poem. She set out with 

 his idea, but, being once entangled 

 in the net of mythology, she soon 

 transformed his sofa into a Cythe- 



rean couch, and brought Venus, 

 Cupid, and Mars on the scene ; for 

 such embroidery enters into the 



web of every improvvisatore 



Such "strains pronounced and 

 sung unmeditated, such prompt 

 elegance," such sentiment and 

 imagery flowing in rich diction, in 

 measure, in rhyme, and in music, 

 without interruption, and on ob- 



