I have seen a translation of the Cid acted at Bolonia, which would never have taken, had they not found a place in it for thefe Buffoons. All four of them appear in masks that are made like the old Roman Perfona, as I fhall have occafion to observe in another place. The French and Italians have probably derived this custom of fhewing fome of their characters in masks, from the Greek and Roman theater. The old Vatican Terence has at the head of every scene the figures of all the perfons that are concerned in it, with the particular disguises in which they acted; and I remember to have seen in the Villa Mattheio an antick ftatue masked, which was perhaps defigned for Gnatho in the Eunuch, for it agrees exactly with the figure he makes in the Vatican manufcript. One would wonder indeed how fo polite a people as the ancient Romans and Athenians, fhould not look on these borrowed faces as unnatural. They might do very well for a Cyclops, or a Satyr that can have no refemblance in human features; but for a Flatterer, a Mifer, or the like characters, which abound in our own fpecies, nothing is more ridiculous than to represent their looks by a painted vizard. In perfons of this nature the turns and motions of the face are often as agreeable as any part of the action. Could we suppose that a mask represented never fo naturally the general humour of a character, it can never fuit with the variety of paffions that are incident to every fingle perfon in the whole courfe of a play. The grimace may be proper on fome occafions, but is too steady to agree with all. The rabble indeed are generally pleased at the first entry of a disguise, but the jeft grows cold even with them too when it comes on the ftage in a second scene.

Since I am on this fubject, I cannot forbear mentioning a custom at Venice, which they tell me is particular to the common people of this country, of finging Stanza's out of Taffo. They are set to a pretty folemn tune, and when one begins in any part of the Poet, it is odds but he will be answered by fome body elfe that over-hears him: So that fometimes you have ten or a dozen in the neighbourhood of one another, taking verse after verfe, and running on with the Poem as far as their memories will carry them.

On Holy-Thursday, among the feveral shows that are yearly exhibited, I faw one that is odd enough, and particular to the Venetians. There is a set of Artifans, who by the help of feveral poles, which they lay across each others fhoulders, build themselves up into a kind of Pyramid; so that you see a pile of men in the air of four or five rows rifing one above another. The weight is fo equally distributed, that every

man

man is very well able to bear his part of it, the stories, if I may fo call them, growing less and less as they advance higher and higher. A little boy represents the point of the Pyramid, who, after a fhort space, leaps off, with a great deal of dexterity, into the arms of one that catches him at the bottom. In the fame manner the whole building falls to pieces. I have been the more particular on this, because it explains the following verfes of Claudian, which fhow that the Venetians are not the inventors of this trick.

Vel qui more avium fefe jaculantur in auras,
Corporaque ædificant, celeri crefcentia nexu,
Quorum compofitam puer augmentatus in arcem
Emicat, et vinctus plantæ, vel cruribus hærens,

Pendula librato figit veftigia faltu. Claud. de Pr. et Olyb. Conf.

Men, pil'd on men, with active leaps arise,
And build the breathing fabrick to the skies;
A sprightly youth above the topmost row
Points the tall pyramid, and crowns the show.

Though we meet with the Veneti in the old poets, the city of Venice is too modern to find a place among them. Sannazarius's Epigram is too well known to be inferted. The fame Poet has celebrated this city in two other places of his Poems.

Quis Veneta miracula proferat urbis,
Una inftar magni quæ fimul Orbis habet?
Salve Italúm Regina, alta pulcherrima Roma
Emula, quæ terris, quæ dominaris aquis!
Tu tibi vel Reges cives facis; O Decus, 0 Lux
Aufonia, per quam libera turba fumus,
Per quam Barbaries nobis non imperat, et Sol
Exoriens noftro clarius orbe nitet!

Venetia ftands with endless beauties crown'd,
And as a world within her felf is found.
Hail Queen of Italy! for years to come
The mighty rival of immortal Rome!
Nations and Seas are in thy states enroll'd,,
And Kings among thy citizens are told..

L. 3. El. 1.

Aufonia's

Aufonia's brightest ornament! by thee.
She fits a Sov'raign, unenflav'd, and free;
By thee, the rude Barbarian chas'd away,
The rifing fun chears with a purer ray
Our western world, and doubly gilds the day.

Nec Tu femper eris, qua feptem amplecteris arces,
Ne Tu, qua mediis amula furgis aquis.
Thou too fhalt fall by time or barb'rous foes,
Whofe circling walls the fev'n fam'd hills inclofe;
And thou, whofe rival tow'rs invade the skies,
And, from amidst the waves, with equal glory rife.

L. 2, El. 1.

}

FERRARA, RAVENNA, RIMINI.

A

T Venice I took a bark for Ferrara, and in my way thither faw feveral mouths of the Po, by which it empties it felf into the Adriatic,

·Quo non alius per pinguia culta

In mare purpureum. violentior influit amnis.

which is true, if understood only of the rivers of Italy.

Virg. G. 4.

Lucan's defcription of the Po would have been very beautiful, had he known when to have given over.

Quoque magis nullum tellus fe folvit in amnem
Eridanus, fractafque evolvit in æquora fylvas,
Hefperiamque exhaurit aquis: hunc fabula primum
Populea fluvium ripas umbrasse corona:
Cumque diem pronum tranfverfo limite ducens
Succendit Phaeton flagrantibus æthera loris;
Gurgitibus raptis, penitus tellure perustâ,
Hunc habuiffe pares Phæbeis ignibus undas.

L. 2.

The

The Po, that rushing with uncommon force,
O'er-fets whole woods in its tumultuous course,
And rifing from Hefperia's watry veins,
Th'exhausted land of all its moisture drains.
The Po, as fings the fable, first convey'd
Its wond'ring current through a poplar shade:
For when young Phaeton miftook his way,
Loft and confounded in the blaze ofda
This river, with furviving streams fupply'd,
When all the reft of the whole earth were dry'd,
And nature's felf lay ready to expire,

Quench'd the dire flame that fet the world on fire.
The Poet's reflections follow.

Non minor bic Nilo, fi non per plana jacentis
Egypti Libycas Nilus ftagnaret arenas.
Non minor hic Iftro, nifi quod dum permeat orbem
Ifter, cafuros in quælibet æquora fontes
Accipit, et Scythicas exit non folus in undas.

Nor would the Nile more watry stores contain,
But that he stagnates on his Libyan plain:
Nor would the Danube run with greater force,
But that he gathers in his tedious course

Ten thousand ftreams, and fwelling as he flows,
In Scythian feas the glut of rivers throws.

Id.

That is, fays Scaliger, the Eridanus would be bigger than the Nile and Danube, if the Nile and Danube were not bigger than the Eridanus. What makes the Poet's remark the more improper, the very reason why the Danube is greater than the Po, as he affigns it, is that which really makes the Po as great as it is; for before its fall into the Gulf, it receives into its channel the most confiderable Rivers of Piemont, Milan, and the rest of Lombardy.

From Venice to Ancona the tide comes in very fenfibly at its stated periods, but rises more or lefs in proportion as it advances nearer the head of the Gulf. Lucan has run out of his way to defcribe the Phanomenon, which is indeed very extraordinary to those who lye out of the neighbourhood of the great Ocean, and, according to his usual custom, lets his Poem stand still that he may give way to his own reflections.

Qua

Quàque jacet littus dubium, quod terra fretumque
Vendicat alternis vicibus, cum funditur ingens
Oceanus, vel cùm refugis fe fluctibus aufert.
Ventus ab extremo pelagus fic axe volutet
Deftituatque ferens: an fidere mota fecundo
Tethyos unda vaga lunaribus æftuat horis:
Flammiger an Titan, ut alentes hauriat undas,
Erigat oceanum fluctufque ad fidera tollat,
Quærite quos agitat mundi labor: at mihi femper
Tu quæcunque moves tam crebros caufa meatus,
Ut fuperi voluere, late.

Wafh'd with fucceffive feas, the doubtful strand
By turns is ocean, and by turns is land:
Whether the winds in distant regions blow,
Moving the world of waters to and fro;
Or waining Moons their fetled periods keep
To fwell the billows, and ferment the deep;
Or the tir'd Sun, his vigour to fupply,
Raises the floating mountains to the Sky,
And flakes his thirst within the mighty tide,
Do you who study nature's works decide:
Whilft I the dark mysterious cause admire,

Nor, into what the Gods conceal, presumptuously enquire.

Lib. I.

At Ferrara I met nothing extraordinary. The town is very large, but extremely thin of people. It has a Citadel, and fomething like a fortification running round it, but fo large that it requires more Soldiers to defend it, than the Pope has in his whole dominions. The ftreets are as beautiful as any I have seen, in their length, breadth, and regularity. The Benedictines have the finest convent of the place. They fhowed us in the church Ariofto's Monument: His Epitaph fays, he was Nobilitate generis atque animi clarus, in rebus publicis adminiftrandis, in regendis populis, in graviffimis et fummis Pontificis legationibus prudentia, confilio, eloquentia præftantiffimus.

I came down a branch of the Po, as far as Alberto, within ten miles of Ravenna. All this fpace lyes miferably uncultivated 'till you come near Ravenna, where the foil is made extremely fruitful, and shows what much of the reft might be, were there hands enough to manage it to the best advantage. It is now on both fides the road very marfhy, and gene

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