ITALY. 



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appears on the stage, and often talks with the females in the pit. The musicians, in the minor' 

 theatres, extinguish their candles between the acts, and put them in their pockets. At Rome, 

 the theatres are built only of wood, from a fiction of state, that they are temporary. The 

 police even pretends to know nothing of the existence of them, yet the authorities take offence 

 when parties are given on play nights, which detract from the profits of the theatre, and the 

 consequent revenue to the state. No word or sign of disapprobation is allowed at an Italian the- 

 atre ; and to hiss at one in Rome would subject the ofi'ender to be taken to the cavaletto, a 

 kind of stocks, whipped, and carried back again to his seat. The theatres have names and 

 devices like ships, and also mottoes. The fantoccini, or puppets, are a general amusement, 

 and the best are at Rome. They are managed with much skill and effect. The Italians are 

 somewhat addicted to gaming, and this disposition is increased by standing public lotteries ; 

 though averse to risks in all things else, in gaining they lose all prudence, and venture upon 

 the most ruinous stakes. 



The amusements of the Carnival, though somewhat on the wane, are still sufficiently attrac- 

 tive to draw 7 or 8,000 English to Rome, where the Piazza di Spagna has the appearance of 

 an English town. The sports of the Carnival are ushered in by a public execution, for which 

 a malefactor, or more than one, is reserved. The Corso, the principal street of Rome, is the 

 scene of the Carnival. The windows and balconies are filled with people, and there is in the 

 street a dense and ever-moving crowd, all in masquerade. The carriages are, many of them, 

 devised for the occasion, and some of them represent ships, temples, and classic pageants. 

 The coachmen are commonly disguised as old women. All dresses and characters may be 

 assumed, except those of the clergy. The masks are worn for defence as well as for conceal- 

 ment or show, for there is an incessant tempest of sugar-plums, or rather of a base counterfeit, 

 made of lime. The people have bags or baskets full of these, and all pelt each other. Child- 

 ish as this is, it is followed with so much zeal, that it becomes very amusing. 



At the close of day, several spirited horses, without riders, are started from the head of the 

 Corso, and goaded by little points, that are made to flap against the flanks. The crowds open 

 to give space, and the horses are stopped at the foot of the street, after running about a mile. 

 Then each one of the immense concourse lights a candle, with which he has furnished himself, 

 and a scene of uproar commences, each one trying to extinguish his neighbor's light, and to 

 preserve his own. These amusements of the Carnival last 3 days, and they are similar in all 

 the cities. It is extremely creditable to the Italians, that in these saturnalia, where all people 

 mingle, there is never a breach of order, or of decorum. The same could not be said of such 

 a masked multitude in any other country. " In Venice, Tasso's echoes are no more ;" but 

 they still resound in Naples. It is very common, on the quay, or in a square, to see a motley 

 crowd collected round a man, who reads a portion of the Jerusalem Delivered, which he sea- 

 sons with a great degree of action. Tasso, of course, is a favorite, and the common people 

 call him Rinaldo. Stories are read or recited in the same way, at the most interes-ting passage 

 of which, the reader or relater pauses, to collect his dues, by passing round his hat. 



18. Stale of the Jlrts, Science and Literature. A history of Italy, would include a full 

 account of modern art, of which the monuments are chiefly in Italy, or so many of them, that 

 this country is the only school for artists. Sculpture has, at the present day, attained to great- 

 er excellence than painting. Thorwaldsen, a Dane, the son of an Icelander, is the greatest 

 living sculptor. He has an original, but somewhat erratic genius ; his statues have much merit, 

 and his reliefs have not been surpassed, but in antiquity. Had he lived 50 years before, he 

 would have secured a greater fame ; for it is perilous, even for excellence in the art, to be con- 

 temporary with the works of Canova, who has drawn from marble the most perfect forms, 

 that have been created since the best age of Grecian sculpture. Of an obscure parentage, 

 poor, and seemingly destined to be a village stone-cutter, at the age of 15, the aspirations of 

 genius carried Thorwaldsen to Venice, and in 15 years more, he erected, in St. Peter's, the 

 monument to Ganganelli. Some of the works of Canova are so beautiful, that it has been de- 

 nied, that he had sufficient versatility of powers to express majesty or grandeur. But his 

 Perseus, Pugilists, Hector, and Washington, are incontrovertible proofs to the contrary. The 

 Pugilists are the only modern statues in the Vatican. One figure stands defenceless, with his 

 Viand raised over his head, while the other is about to deal a single blow, in which, by a previ- 

 ous agreement, he was not to be resisted, and which, according to the Greek story, that Ca- 

 nova has represented, occasioned immediate death. The statue of Washington was lately 

 burnt in the Capital of North Carolina. It was a favorite work with the artist. The Venus, 



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