ther, fi, fi, fi; and fo the finging continues for five or fix minutes. You perceive there is nothing marvellously witty in this; and for a daughter to be of a different opinion from her father, in the choice of a husband, is not a very new dramatic incident. Well, I told you the duo was encored they immediately performed it a fecond time, and with more humour than the first. The whole house vociferated for it again; and it was fung a third time in a manner equally pleasant, and yet perfectly different from any of the former

two.

I thought the houfe would have been brought down about our ears, fo extravagant were the teftimonies of approbation.

The two actors were obliged to appear again, and fing this duo a fourth time; which they executed in a style fo new, fo natural, and fo exquifitely droll; that the audience now thought there had been fomething deficient in all their former performances, and that they had hit on the true comic only this laft time.

Some people began to call for it again; but the old man, now quite exhaufted, begged for mercy; on which the point was given up. I never before had any idea that fuch ftrong comic powers could have been displayed in the finging of a fong.

Though the Venetian government is til under the influence of jealoufy, that gloomy dæmon is now entirely banished from the bofoms of individuals. Inftead of the confinement in which women were formerly kept at Venice, they now enjoy a degree of freedom unknown even at Paris Of the two

extremes, the prefent, without doubt, is the preferable.

Along with jealoufy, poison and the ftiletto have been banished from Venetian gallantry, and the innocent mask is fubftituted in their places. According to the best information I have received, this fame mafk is a much more innocent matter than is generally imagined. In general it is not intended to conceal the perfon who wears it, but only used as an apology for his not being in full drefs. With a mask ftuck in the hat, and a kind of black mantle, trimmed with lace of the fame colour, over the fhoulders, a man is fufficiently dreffed for any affembly at Venice.

Those who walk the streets, or go to the playhouses with masks actually covering their faces, are either engaged in fome love intrigue, or would have the fpectators think fo; for this is a piece of affectation which prevails here, as well as elsewhere; and I have been affured, by thofe who have refided many years at Venice, that refined gentlemen, who are fond of the reputation, though they fhrink, from the catastrophe of an intrigue, are no uncommon characters here; and I believe it the more readily, because I daily fee many feeble gentlemen tottering about in masks, for whom a bafon of warm reftorative foup feems more expedient than the most beautiful woman in Venice.

One evening at St. Mark's place, when a gentleman of my acquaintance was giving an account of this curious piece of af. fectation, he defired me to take no tice of a Venetian nobleman of his acquaintance, who, with an air

of mystery, was conducting a female mask into his caffino. My acquaintance knew him perfectly well, and affured me he was the most innocent creature with women he had ever been acquainted with. When this gallant perfon perceived that we were looking at him, his mask fell to the ground, as if by accident; and after we had got a complete view of his countenance, he put it on with much hurry, and immediately rufhed, with his partner, into the caflino. -Fugit ad falices,fed fe cupit antevideri. cupitantevideri.

You have heard, no doubt, of thofe little apartments near St. Mark's place, called caflinos. They have the misfortune to labour under a very bad reputation; they are accused of being temples entirely confecrated to lawless love, and a thousand fcandalous tales are told to ftrangers concerning them. Thofe tales are certainly not be lieved by the Venetians themfelves, the proof of which is, that the caffinos are allowed to exift; for I hold it perfectly abfurd to imagine, that men would fuffer their wives to enter fuch places, if they were not convinced that thofe ftories were ill-founded; nor can I believe, after all we have heard of the profligacy of Venetian manners, that women, even of indifferent reputations, would attend caffinos in the open manner they do, if it were understood that more liberties were taken with them there than elfe

where.

The opening before St. Mark's church is the only place in Venice where a great number of people can affemble. It is the fashion to walk here a great part of the evening, to enjoy the mufic, and other

amufements; and although there are coffee-houfes, and Venetian manners permit ladies, as well as gentlemen, to frequent them, yet it was natural for the noble and moft wealthy to prefer little apartments of their own, where, without being expofed to intrufion, they may entertain a few friends in a more eafy and unceremonious manner than they could do at their palaces. Instead of going home to a formal fupper, and returning afterwards to this place of amufement, they order coffee, lemonade, fruit, and other refreshments, to the caffino.

That thofe little apartments may be occafionally used for the purposes of intrigue, is not improbable; but that this is the ordinary and avowed purpofe for which they are frequented is, of all things, the leaft credible.

Some writers who have defcribed the manners of the Venetians, as more profligate than thofe of other nations, affert at the fame time, that the government encourages. this profligacy, to relax and diffipate the minds of the people, and prevent their planning, or attempting any thing against the conftitution. Were this the cafe, it could not be denied, that the Venetian legiflators difplay their patriotifm in a very extraordinary manner, and have fallen upon as extraordinary means of rendering, their people good fubjects. They first erect a defpotic court to guard. the public liberty, and next they corrupt the morals of the people, to keep them from plotting against the ftate. This laft piece of refinement, however, is no more than a conjecture of fome theoretical politicians, who are apt to

take

for them.

take facts for granted, without fufficient proof, and afterwards difplay their ingenuity in accounting That the Venetians are more given to fenfual pleafures than the inhabitants of London, Paris, or Berlin, I imagine will be difficult to prove; but as the ftate inquifitors do not think proper, and the ecclefiaftical are not allowed to interfere in affairs of gallantry; as a great number of ftrangers affemble twice or thrice a year at Venice, merely for the fake of amufement; and, above all, as it is the custom to go about in mafks, an idea prevails, that the manners are more licentious here than elfewhere.

finished fashion, as well as the neglected vulgar, feem to prefer the unconftrained attitude of the Antinous, and other antique ftatues, to the artificial graces of a French dancing-mafter, or the erect frut of a German foldier. I imagine I perceive a great refemblance between many of the living countenances I fee daily, and the features of the ancient bufts and ftatues; which leads me to believe, that there are a greater number of the genuine defcendants of the old Romans in Italy, than is generally imagined.

I am often ftruck with the fine character of countenance to be feen in the streets of Rome. I never faw features more expreffive of reflection, fenfe, and genius; in

IN

Jame.

N their external deportment, the Italians have a grave folemnity of manner, which is fometimes thought to arife from a natural gloominefs of difpofition. The French, above all other nations, are apt to impute to melancholy, the fedate ferious air which accompanies reflection.

Though in the pulpit, on the theatre, and even in common converfation, the Italians make ufe of a great deal of action; yet Italian vivacity is different from French; the former proceeds from fenfibility, the latter from animal fpirits. The inhabitants of this country have not the brifk look, and elaf tic trip, which is univerfal in France; they move rather with a flow compofed pace: their fpines, never having been forced into a ftraight line, retain the natural bend; and the people of the moft

countenances which announce minds fit for the higheft and most important fituations; and we cannot help regretting, that thofe to whom they belong, have not received an education adequate to the natural abilities we are convinced they poffefs, and been placed where thefe abilities could be brought into action,

Of all the countries in Europe, Switzerland is that, in which the beauties of nature appear in the greatest variety of forms, and on the moft magnificent fcale; in that country, therefore, the young landfcape painter has the best chance of feizing the moft fublime ideas: but Italy is the beft fchool for the history painter, not only on account of its being enriched with the works of the greatest mafters, and the nobleft models of antique fculpture; but alfo on account of the fine expreffive style of the Italian countenance.

B 4

Strangers,

Strangers, on their arrival at Rome, form no high idea of the beauty of the Roman women, from the fpecimens they fee in the fashionable circles to which they are first introduced. There are fome exceptions; but in general it must be acknowledged, that the prefent race of women of high rank

are

more diftinguished by their other ornaments, than by their beauty. Among the citizens, how ever, and in the lower claffes, you frequently meet with the most beautiful countenances. For a brilliant red and white, and all the charms of complexion, no women are equal to the English. If a hundred, or any greater number, of English women were taken at random, and compared with the fame number of the wives and daughters of the citizens of Rome, I am convinced, that ninety of the English would be found handfomer than ninety of the Romans; but the probability is, that two or three in the hundred Italians would have finer countenances than any of the English. English beauty is more remarkable in the country, than in towns; the peafantry of no country in Europe can ftand a comparifon, in point of looks, with thofe of England. That race of people have the conveniencies of life in no other country in fuch perfection; they are no where fo well fed, fo well defended from the injuries of the feafons; and no where elfe do they keep themselves fo perfectly clean, and free from all the vilifying effects of dirt. The English country girls, taken collectively, are, unquestionably, the handfomest in the world. The female peafants of moft other countries, in

deed, are fo hard worked, fo ill fed, fo much tanned by the fun, and fo dirty, that it is difficult to know whether they have any beauty or not. Yet I have been informed, by fome amateurs, fince I came here, that, in spite of all thefe difadvantages, they fometimes find, among the Italian peafantry, countenances highly interefting, and which they prefer to all the cherry cheeks of Lançafhire.

Beauty, doubtless, is infinitely varied; and, happily for mankind, their tafte and opinions, on the fubject, are equally various. Notwithstanding this variety, however, a ftyle of face, in fome meafure peculiar to its own inhabitants, has been found to prevail in each different nation of Europe. This peculiar countenance is again greatly varied, and marked with every degree of difcrimination between the extremes of beauty and ugliness. I will give you a sketch of the general ftyle of the most beautiful female heads in this country, from which you may judge whether they are to your taste or

not.

A great profufion of dark hair, which feems to encroach upon the forehead, rendering it fhort and narrow; the nofe generally either aquiline, or continued in a ftraight line from the lower part of the brow; a full and fhort upper lip; (by the way, nothing has a worse effect on a countenance, than large interval between the nofe and mouth ;) the eyes are large, and of a sparkling black. The black eye certainly labours under one difadvantage, which is, that, from the iris and pupil being of the fame colour, the contraction and

a

and dilatation of the latter is not feen, by which the eye is abridged of half its powers. Yet the Italian eye is wonderfully expreffive; fome people think it fays too much. The complexion, for the most part, is of a clear brown, fometimes fair, but very feldom florid, or of that bright fairness which is common in England and Saxony. It must be owned, that thofe features which have a fine expreffion of fentiment and meaning in youth, are more apt, than lefs expreffive faces, to become foon ftrong and mafculine. In England and Germany, the women, a little advanced in life, retain the appearance of youth longer than in Italy.

There are no theatricral entertainments permitted in this city, except during the Carnival; but they are then attended with a degree of ardour unknown in capitals whofe inhabitants are under no fuch reftraint. Every kind of amufement, indeed, in this gay feafon, is followed with the greateft eagerness. The natural gravity of the Roman citizens is changed into a mirthful vivacity; and the ferious, fombre city of Rome exceeds Paris itself in fprightlinefs and gaiety. This fpirit feems gradually to augment, from its commencement; and is at its height in the last week of the fix which comprehend the carnival. The citizens then appear in the ftreets, mafked, in the characters of harlequins, pantaloons, punchinellos, and all the fantaftic variety of a masquerade. This humour fpreads to men, women, and children; defcends to the lowest ranks, and becomes univerfal. Even thofe who put on no mafk,

and have no defire to remain unknown, reject their ufual clothes, and affume fome whimsical drefs. The coachmen, who are placed in a more confpicuous point of view than others of the fame rank in life, and who are perfectly known by the carriages they drive, generally affect fome ridiculous dif guife: Many of them chufe a woman's drefs, and have their faces painted, and adorned with patches. However dull thefe fellows may be, when in breeches, they are, in petticoats, confidered as the pleasanteft men in the world; and excite much laughter in every street in which they appear. I obferved to an Italian of my acquaintance, that, confidering the ftalenefs of the joke, I was furprised at the mirth it feemed to raise.

"When

a whole city," anfwered he, are refolved to be merry for a "week together, it is exceed

ingly convenient to have a "few established jokes ready "made; the young laugh at the