M £ T A S T A S I O. 243 
ties having acceded: he wrote to his agents, to provide a 
houfe fufiicient for the two families of TrapaffI and Bul- 
garella ; and, from the time of his arrival in that city, 
till his departure for Germany, they all lived under the 
fame roof, and conftituted one family. The Romanina, 
as more accuftomed to the management of a family, was 
inverted with the fuperintendance of all houfehold con¬ 
cerns : the relt had nothing to do but to attend to their 
own purfuits, while Metallafio received vilits, wrote 
verfes, improved his circumftances, and increafed his 
celebrity. 
The firlt drama which he produced, exprefsly for Rome, 
was Cc.tonc in Utica, which was let by Vinci, and per¬ 
formed in that city, 1728 ; and in 1725, at Venice, to the 
mufic of Leo. He chofe the fubjedl purpofely to pleafe 
the Romans, luppofing that he Ihould gain both applaufe 
and gratitude, by difplaying the virtue of one of their 
own heroes. But, as it feldom happens that a prophet or 
a poet (which in ancient times were united in the lame 
perfon) acquires due honour in his own country, this 
piece was at firilvery coldly received ; though afterwards, 
when their minds and taftes were enlightened and refined 
by other original and beautiful works of our author, it 
was treated with more juftice. The next opera which our 
author produced was Ezio, fet by Porpora in 1728, and 
SemiramideRiconoJ'cinta, let by the fame compofer in 1729 ; 
but, though both thefe dramas were received in the molt 
favourable manner, and the praifes bellowed upon the 
poet were unbounded, his fortune was not greatly im¬ 
proved by their fuccefs. He was, however, far from ne- 
ceflitous; and with the alMance of the Romanina, whole 
purle was always at his lervice, his fortune and fituation 
were tolerably eafy. 
In 1729, he received a letter from prince Pio of Savoy, 
infpedtor of the imperial theatre at Vienna, inviting him 
to engage in the fervice of the emperor Charles VI. as the 
fuccelfor of Apollolo Zeno, who, from the year 1718, had 
filled the place of imperial laureat, whofe chief employ¬ 
ment had been to furnilh dramas for mufic; and thefe 
had been juftly thought the bell which the Italian lan¬ 
guage could boall. Metallafio was infinitely more fur- 
prifed and flattered by this unl'olicited and fplendid offer, 
from finding that he had been recommended to the em¬ 
peror’s notice by Zeno himfelf, who, growing in years, 
wilhed to retire to Venice, the place of his nativity, and 
had been applied to by his imperial majelly to recommend 
a fuccelfor. 
After a little hefitation upon the propriety of quitting 
his parents and two unmarried fillers, Metallafio reflected 
that his falary at the imperial court might enable him to 
render them more comfortable ; at length therefore he 
accepted the fituation, and arrived at Vienna in the 
month of April, 1730, and lodged in the houfe of Mr. 
Niccolo Martinez, who expefted him with impatience, 
and received him with cordiality. 
His appointment at Vienna was fettled at three thou- 
fand florins per annum, and fifty pounds fterling for the 
expenfes of his journey. But, previous to quitting Rome, 
he fulfilled his engagement of completing two new dramas 
for the enfuing carnival: which were ArtaferJ'e and Alef- 
fandro nell Indie, and which were both let by Leonardo 
Vinci, and performed before the poet’s departure. Upon 
quitting Rome, he alio configned into the hands of his 
zealous and affectionate friend, the Romanina, all his ef¬ 
fects, interefts, and concerns ; together with the manage¬ 
ment of his family-affairs; Ihe moll willingly fubmitting 
to thefe feveral talks, as well as to the care of the pro¬ 
duce of the little places, and fums of money, which he 
left behind him. 
Of his reception at Vienna, where he arrived in July 
1730, by prince Pio and his imperial patron, there is 
among his letters an account written by himfelf to a 
friend at Rome, the day after he had been prelented. It 
was to the highelt degree flattering. And the emperor, 
who was ot a grave, religious, and moral, character, ieems 
to have honoured him not only with his favour but af¬ 
fection, on finding in him principles congenial with his 
own. 
In his correfpondence with the Romanina, we have an 
account of his occupations at Vienna, during the firlt 
three years of his refidence there; and the reception of 
his operas of Adriano in Siria, Demetrio, lifipile, and his 
oratorio of Sant’ Elena al Calvario. 
In the year 1733, the emperor appointed him trealurer- 
of the province of Cozenza in the kingdom of Naples, 
which poll he enjoyed during his life. This fituation 
was worth about 350 fequins per annum. 
The pleafure which this mark of favour gave him was 
more than counterbalanced by the lots of the friend of 
his head and heart, the Romanina, who died at Rome in 
1734, and manifelted the iincerity of her attachment to 
the poet, by bequeathing to him all her polfeffions, after 
the deceafe of her hulband, to the amount of twenty-five 
thoufand crowns. But Metallafio, always coriiftent with 
his ufual reCtitude and propriety, totally declined accept¬ 
ing of her intended kindnels, and transferred the whole 
bequell to her hulband, whofe real property, according 
to our Englilh ideas of jurifprudence, it feems legally to 
have been. Whether Metailaiio’s conneClion with the 
Romanina was purely platonic, or of a lei's l’eraphic na¬ 
ture, we lliall not attempt to determine. But the huf- 
band refiding with them both at Naples and Rome, and 
the friendly manner in which the poet always mentioned 
him in his letters to the wife, and the opennefs with 
which he exprefled his affliction in writing to him after 
her death, would, in England, be thought indications 
favourable to conjugal felicity. But a challe actrels or 
opera-finger is Hill a more rare phenomenon in Italy than, 
in Great Britain. 
The year 1733 feems to have been extremely fertile in 
the Parnaffian domains of our bard. Not Only the operas 
of I'Olympiade and Demofocnte, with the oratorio of Gin- 
J’eppe Riconofciuto, but his charming canzonet, La Liberia, 
were all produClions of this year. The celebrated can¬ 
zonet, Grazie agV inganni tuoi, was firlt fet by the poet 
himfelf, but foon after by all the great compofers of Italy, 
as a Venetian ballad, a canzonet, a duo, and a cantata, 
to much more elaborate and fanciful mufic than that of 
the poet; yet his own melody, which has been compofed 
more than eighty years, has Hill its merit; and, com¬ 
pared with airs of the fame period and kind, is luperior 
to moll of them in elegant fimplicity. 
In 1734, belides his ufual occupations we find, by his 
letters, that lie was obliged, in the greatelt halle, to write 
an entertainment for mufic, to be performed by the arch- 
ducheffes, and to inltruCl, direCt, and afflll, them. “But 
in truth,” he fays, “ it is a pleafure which no other can 
equal, to have fuch an opportunity of feeing and admiring 
the excellent qualities of thefe augull princeffes, 1 ihould 
not elle have believed it poflible to meet with fuch atten¬ 
tion, docility, patience, and gratitude. How many peo¬ 
ple, of the lixte.enth rank, have I known,, who were riot 
poflefled of the thoulandth part of the courtely of thefe 
incomparable perfonages! They have added and lung- 
like angels ; and it was truly facrilege, that the whole 
world was not permitted to admire them; for the fellrval 
was extremely private, as none but ladies of the higheil 
rank were able to obtain admiflion, and even thefe were 
in malks. As a return for inllruCling their ferene high- 
neffes, I was prefented with a gold Inuff box, of about 
fourfcore hungheri (near 40I.) in weight; but the work- 
manlhip is of much more value.” This little dramatic 
poem was called Le Grazie Vindicate, fet by Caldara, 
and performed by the two archducheifes, Maria Terefa, 
afterwards emprefs-queen, and her filter Marianne, with 
another lady of the court. 
In the fame year he produced, for the emperor’s birth¬ 
day, La Clemenza di Tito. It feems as if the character 
and court of Charles VI. had directed the mule of Metaf- 
taiio to choofe a virtuous prince for the principal hero of 
molt 
