GREAT BOOKS. 



M 



Onoe for all, I moat refer my readers to the opening expla- 

 nation, whore I stated that there is no English equivalent to 

 the second, open or ciroumfloxed sound of the , as in the first 

 KyllabKt of '>/.. For that reason, I have not attempted to 



it by an English sound; and have therefore simply 

 marked it by the circumflex sign. In all cases of the e oircum- 



i ho reader must studiously avoid the English sound of 

 i , which would only create the greatest confusion. He may 

 always bear in mind what I have stated, that an approximation 



(liruumnexed e is to bo found in the e of the English 



'. / and ever; only uttered with a wider opening of tin: 

 mouth and a deeper sound. The circumfluxed / is invariably 

 the accent of tone. 



uh-lV- t:ii Fir-tree. 



Abilt ah.bee-lai Able. 



Obolo (Latin, oboltu) 6-bo-lo Farthing. 



The reader must bear in mind, Chat this is the second or less 

 frequent sound of o, something like the English o in the words 

 and lord, but with a wider opening of the mouth and a 

 deeper sound. I give it the circumflex mark, because it is the 

 less common sound. Wherever it occurs in my lessons, it will 

 invariably denote, as in .the case of the circumflexcd e, the 

 accent of tone as well as the peculiar sound of the o. 



Abuso ah-buo-zo Abuse. 



I shall have occasion to speak of the two sounds of s when I 

 explain the sounds of the semi-vowels. 



Babbo (Tuscan) buhb-bo Papa. 



It is a fundamental rule of Italian pronunciation that double 

 consonants must be uttered and vibrated distinctly. This is 

 jssentially necessary, not only as it augments the beauty and 

 narks the orthography of words, but as it frequently distin- 

 guishes words of totally different meaning, but differing only 

 in spelling by the single consonant instead of the double one ; 

 as, for example, caro, dear, and ccurro, a car; as I shall have 

 occasion later more fully to illustrate. Where a or any other 

 vowel precedes a double consonant, a particular stress must be 

 laid on that vowel, and its sound must bo shortened. I have 

 not attempted to indicate that shortening of the sound of 

 the vowel by any new sign, because a frequent change of sign 

 only creates confusion, and the true pronunciation is obvious 

 from the necessity of giving a vibrating clearness to the double 

 consonants. 



Bcbbe (for bevvc) 



b<5b-bai 



He drauk. 



The English e, whenever it is sounded as in the word get, 

 corresponds to the shortened sound of the first sound of e (ai). 

 Gibbi (for gobbi) jib'-bee Hunchbacks. 



Tho reader must not forget my previous observation that g 

 before e and i is soundod as in the English word ginger. 



Gobbo gob-bo A hunchback. 



Dubbi doob-bee Doubts. 



Codo kill-do I fall. 



Cecino tchai-tche'e-no A wild swan. 



Cito 



Coda 



Cute 



Ducato 



JGiccvo 



Incido 



Ancona 



tch^e-to 



*<5-dah 



kuo-tai 



doo-kdh-to 



ree-tchui-vo 



in-tch5e-do 



an-ko-ua 



Quickly. 



Tail. 



Skin. 



Dukedom, ducat. 



I receive. 



I eat. 



Anconn. 



It is obvious that not only before double consonants not in 

 the same syllable, but even before one consonant in the same 

 syllable, a or any vowel must be shortened in the Italian, as 

 perhaps in any other language. It is therefore unnecessary to 

 use any sign. 



Lacuna 



Bacco 



Hecco 



Pt'cca 



Jiocca 



Suoco 



Dado 



Derc 



Dito 



7>opo 



Due* 



Edacr 



lah-koo-nah 



bak-ko 



bi-k-ko 



plk-kah 



bok-kah 



sook-ko 



dah-do 



dai-vo 



die-to 



do-po 



doo-tchai 



ai-dah-tchai 



Fool, swamp. 



Bacchus. 



Beak. 



Spear. 



Mouth. 



Juice. 



Die for gaming. 



I ought, I must. 



Finder. 



After, afterwards. 



General. 



Gluttonous. 



Adiro 

 Adore 

 Adu.no 



Kdda. 



Iddio 



Adduoo 



Gain 



Gelo 



Ctla 



G'odo 



Gu/o 



ah'd6e-ro 



oh-du-ro 



ab>duo-iio 



ahd-dab 



M-d*h 



Id-d<e-o 



ahd-d4o-ko 



Oih-dzah 



ji-to 



Angela 

 Arnji.ua. 

 Vigort 

 Anjuto 

 Paggi 



AdUa. * woman's name. 



I piovok* to iBj" 



I adore. 



I unite. I uwmbte others. 



The rior Adda. 



ih- Idfed I MabMta 



God. [litermture. 



I lead to. 



Gaza In PatecttM. 



Jem (in faieoory, 



A walk, trip. 



I rtgoioe. 



A bornod owl. 



A tic. ligament. 



Angel. 



Inflammation of the throat. 



Vigour. 



Ingenious, witty. 



Page* (attendants). 



go-do 

 goO-fo 



2ai- gih*nuti 

 ahn-jal-lo 



;iljn j.'.--:i:ih 



vee-gu-rai 

 ahr-goo-to 

 pahd-jee 



The pronunciation of gg depends on the vowel that follows 

 the latter g. If that vowel is e or t, the gg' are pronounced 

 somewhat as if the first g had merely the sound of d ; and the 

 second g, which goes to the next syllable, like the English j in 

 jay, only the voice must not paue too long on the d of the 

 syllablo where the first g c-ccurs ; the stress must be laid on it, 

 and the voice must glide as quickly as possible to the pro- 

 nunciation of the second g, which must be very soft. In thfc 

 way there will be effected a more equal distribution of the sound 

 j between the two syllables, which will produce the correct sound 

 of the gg. 



GREAT BOOKS. 



Xn.-GIL BLAS. 



NOVELS of roguery, of which Le Sage's " Gil Bias " is a con- 

 spicuous example, were at one time much in vogue, and indeed 

 the taste for such productions underwent a revival at no very 

 distant date. The Romans had some fictions of this nature, which 

 probably set the fashion to more modern writers ; but among 

 the latter the Spaniards have especially distinguished them- 

 selves. One of the earliest of the Spanish romances of sharping 

 was that which professed to record the life and adventures of 

 Lazarillo de Tonnes, written in the early part of the sixteenth 

 century, probably by Don Diego Hurtodo de Mendoza, though 

 it has also been attributed to Juan Ortega. This story depicts 

 with great vividness the state of society in pain at a period 

 when manners were beginning to be affected by the extraordi- 

 nary influx of precious metals from the New World ; a state 

 of powerfully-contrasted wealth and poverty, and of vicissi- 

 tudes so sudden and extreme that the hidalgo of to-day might 

 be the beggar of to-morrow, while the beggar might be exalted 

 to a condition of prosperity. At the close of the same cen- 

 tury in 1599 Mateo Aleman published his " Guzman de 

 Alfarache," which exhibits a development of morals even worse 

 than what is painted by Mendoza. Spain had by that time 

 been fully debauched by an inflated prosperity, and the country 

 swarmed with adventurers and swindlers, many of whom were 

 to be found among the better classes. Qnevedo followed, in 

 the first half of the seventeenth century, with his " History of 

 Paul the Spanish Sharper, the Pattern of Rogues and Mirror 

 of Vagabonds." Stories of this kind went by the general name 

 of Picarescas that is to say, rogues' novels ; and they divided 

 I the public favour with romances of chivalry and of so-called 

 pastoral lifo. Even in " Don Quixote" we have a little admix- 

 ture of this element ; but it is subordinate to other matters. 



These works were the precursors, and to some extent the 

 progenitors, of "Gil Bias." The author of that celebrated 

 fiction, Alain- Rene Le Sago, was a Frenchman, born in 1668, 

 and living until 1747; but this particular novel exhibits so 

 close a familiarity with Spanish life, and is so thoroughly im- 

 bued with the Spanish nature, that some writers declare it 

 must really have originated beyond the Pyrenees. Natives of 

 the Peninsula are a little jealous on the point, and seem to 

 think they have a substantial claim to the parentage of the 

 Santillano hero; while even Frenchmen (Voltaire among the 

 number) have been found to take the same view of the case. 

 The most precise and circumstantial charge against Le Sage 

 was made by the Jesuit Father Isla, towards the latter end of 

 last century. He alleged that " Gil Bias " was originally 



