LANGUAGE. 
havlug no nalal vowels 5 and from its articulations being 
few and eafy, which render the found of each neat and 
full. It is melodious from its own native fweetnefs, which 
renders it vocal even in declamation and common fpeech, 
without the affiftance of mufscal notes. But what ren¬ 
ders the Italian language more peculiarly mellifluous, as 
well as more expreffive of fentiment, than any other, is 
the great compafs and variety of its tones, and the choice 
it allows in painting the paflions. To prove this, let any 
one who imagines it to be only the language of love and 
tendernefs, take the trouble of comparing the two follow, 
ing ftanzas of Taflo: 
Teneri fdegni e placide e tranquille 
Repulfe e cari vezzi e liete pace, 
Sorrifi, parolette, e dolce flille 
X)i pianto e fofpir, tronchi e molli bacci 
Fufe tai cofe tutte, e pofcia unille, 
Ft al foce tempro di lente faci; 
E ne formo quel fi mirabil cinto, 
Pi ch’ ella avena il bel fianco fuccinto. 
Canto IV. Stanza xxxiii. 
Chiama gl’ abitator de l’ombre eterne 
II rauco fuon de la tartarea tromba ; 
Treman le fpaziofe atre caverne, 
E l’aer cieco a quel romor rimbomba j 
Ne fl ftridendo mai de la fuperne 
Regione del cielo il folgor piomba, 
Ne fi fcoffa giammai trema la terra 
Quando.i vapori in fen gravida ferra. 
Canto XVI. Stanza xxv. 
“ It will be found, perhaps, equally difficult to exprefs in 
any other language the fweetnefs of the one, or the vigour 
of the other, of thefe ftanzas. But the roughnefs of the 
laft ftanza does not confilt in hard and uncouth words ; 
they are all fonorous, and, though rough to the ear, eafy 
of utterance.” 
Thefe ftanzas, however, which Roufleau, and, after 
him, almofi all mufical writers, have inftanced as of re¬ 
markably eafy utterance, ffiould have been confined to 
reading and declamation ; for better lyrical or vocal verfes 
may be found in Metaftafio, and, indeed, inalmoft all Ita¬ 
lian lyric poets, fince it has been found that the vowel a 
is the bell for divifions, and all the other vowels have been 
long in difufe for fuch purpofes by the beft Italian com- 
pofers for the ftage. In the ftanza cited as a model of 
foftnefs, in vocal verfes, there are but two words, to 
which, in a lively air, divifions would be given ; Cari pace. 
But even thefe, in which the vowel a occurs in the firft 
fyllable, would have no long divifions affigned them, if 
there was a final fyllable terminated by that letter, as in 
the third perfon Angular of the future tenfe of verbs, ve- 
dra, uccidera, fara, dara, parlera, cantara., fuggira \ in the 
elifion of the infinitive mood, trionfar, ripofar,fcordar, lu- 
Jingar, naufragar ; and in the fubltantives,/«/e/nz, pield,fe~ 
licita, libert'a, crudelta, and Mar. In fetting Metaftafio’s 
early operas, till about the middle of the prefent century, 
we find the beft compofers giving divifions to the vowels 
0 and e ; as in morird, dovrd, fugird, re, te, fe, freme, fpeme, 
vender, voler, e, merce, &c. but never to i or u. Roufleau 
declined difeufiing the accents of the Italian tongue; but 
if, as has been imagined, the Greek accents were ufed as 
a notation of the tone or tune of voice in reading or 
fpeaking; the acute accent railing the voice, the grave 
depreffing it, and the circumflex keeping it at a middle 
pitch or tone; the Italian would afford a more varied and 
pleafing melody than any of the other European dialects. 
The multitude of fovereign ftates into which Italy was 
divided has given rife to a great number of different dia¬ 
lects in that language ; which, however, are all good in 
the place where they are ufed. The Tufcan is ufually 
preferred to the other dialeCts, and the Roman pronunci¬ 
ation to that of the other cities; whence the Italian pro¬ 
verb, “ Lingua Tolcana in bocca Romana.” 
191 
The Italian is generally pretty well underilood through¬ 
out Europe, and is frequently fpoken in Germany, Po¬ 
land, and Hungary. At Conrtantinople, in Greece, and 
in the ports of the Levant, the Italian is ufed as com¬ 
monly as 'he language of the country ; indeed in thofe 
places it is not fpoken fo pure as in Tufcany, but is cor¬ 
rupted with many of the proper words and idioms of the 
place ; whence it takes a new name, and is called Frank 
Italian. 
“TlieEngliffi, French, and Germans, (fays Mr. Enfor, 
in his Independent Man,) ftiould apply themfelves to Ita¬ 
lians were they to derive no other advantage from fpeak¬ 
ing it than to foften their own expreffion. That it would 
have this effect, is proved by a collateral circumftarsce ; 
it is uniformly remarked that the Germans in Ruffia (and 
the Ruffian refembles the Italian) are much fuperior to 
their countrymen in the fuavity of their utterance. The 
beauty of the Italian language is a trivial circumftance 
compared with the excellence of the writers in poetry, 
hiltory, and politics, who have illuftrated themfelves and 
their country. 
“Italy, fince the records of time, has ever furpaffed the 
world in fome eminent manner; its exifting language is 
the dialed, and its towns are the theatres, of the arts ; 
though the French have abridged the profufe difplay of 
its fpecimens. The violence of thofe plunderers, and the 
refledions of fome dilettanti, force me to fay that this 
perfecuting enemy did not fliow their love of pidures and 
llatuary by feizing them ; they loved plunder, not the arts. 
The Roman general who lacked Corinth, alfo feized its 
paintings and ftatues : but who ever imagined that by this 
conduCt he exemplified the elegance of his tafte ? he, who 
threatened thofe to whom he confided their tranfport, that 
if they loft them they ffiould replace them! Nero, that 
paragon of governors, was alfo a great collector of the arts 
from fubjeCted countries. According to Paufanias, he 
brought fifty ftatues from Delphi. Was he a connoiffeur, 
he who had the ltatue of Alexander by Lyfippus gilt ? a 
fignal declaration of his tafte ! They love not the arts, 
who wreft their produdions from their native land ; they 
are confecrated to the genius of the place, and ffiould be 
their own fanduary. Execrated therefore be the memory 
of thefe marauders! Praifed be the name of Frederic, 
who, having conquered Drefden, refufed to accept the fa¬ 
mous Nativity by Correggio, though coveted by him, and 
prefented to him by the eleCtrefs ? Let alfo the name of 
Fabius live, who, when he took Tarentum, which nearly 
equalled Corinth in the precious monuments of the arts, 
with a mind fuperior to Marcellus, as Livy writes, ab- 
ftained from the plunder. 
“ The French have gained little; Italy and the world 
have loft much ; for the ftatues and pain-ings have been 
fo ill-treated in their carriage, that many have been broken, 
defaced, and utterly ruined. The crimes of nations, as of 
individuals, never go unpuniffied ; and they are often re¬ 
paid by reprifals of the fame kind. The horfes by Ly¬ 
fippus were forced from Greece to adorn the church of 
St. Sophia at Conftantinople ; they were thence conveyed 
to enrich the ffirine of St. Mark at Venice ; they now 
adorn the imperial palace of the Thuilleries; and, if re¬ 
volutionary madnefs do not caufe them to be melted, as 
it did the famed equeftrian ftatue of Henry the Fourth, 
they have probably not yet reached the limit of their tra¬ 
vels. In defpite, however, of the irrefiftible injuries of 
time, and the plunder and deftruCtion of Goths, ancient 
and modern, this country, to every lover of the fine arts, 
is pre-eminent. Much, the French had not time to re¬ 
move: much efcaped them through their ignorance; and 
very much defied their tyranny. Its ftupendous ruins, its 
modern architecture, its frefco paintings by all thofe con- 
fummate in the art, by Correggio, Raphael, Michael An¬ 
gelo, defy their rapacity : befides, all the private col¬ 
lections of fculpture and painting (for fome terms were 
to be kept with the natives) remain entire. Italy alfo 
adds daily to its curiofities, by the exquifite antiques 
which 
