LETTER LX.

Naples.

A

$ I fauntered along the Strada Nuova lately, I perceived a groupe of people liftening, with much attention, to a person who harangued them in a raised folemn voice, and with great gefticulation. I immediately made one of the auditory, which increased every moment; men, women, and children bringing seats from the neighbouring houses, on which they placed themselves around the orator. He repeated ftanzas from Ariofto, in a pompous recitativo cadence, peculiar to the natives of Italy; and he had a book in his hand, to affift his memory when it failed. He made occafional commentaries in profe, by way of bringing the Poet's expreffion nearer to the level of his hearers capacities. His cloak hung loofe from one shoulder;

his right arm was difengaged, for the purposes of oratory. Sometimes he waved it with a flow, smooth motion, which accorded with the cadence of the verses; fometimes he preffed it to his breaft, to give energy to the pathetic fentiments of the Poet. Now he gathered the hanging folds of the right fide of his 'cloak, and held them gracefully up, in imitation of a Roman senator; and anon he swung them across his left shoulder, like a citizen of Naples. He humoured the ftanza by his voice, which he could modulate to the key of any paffion, from the boisterous burfts of rage, to the soft notes of pity or love. But when he came to defcribe the exploits of Orlando, he trufted neither to the powers of his own voice, nor the Poet's genius; but, throwing off his cloak, and grafping his cane, he affumed the warlike attitude and ftern countenance of that hero; representing, by the moft animated action, how he drove his fpear through the bodies of fix of his enemies at once; the

point at the fame time killing a seventh, who would alfo have remained transfixed with his companions, if the fpear could have held more than fix men of an ordifize upon it at a time.

nary

Il Cavalier d'Anglante ove pui fpeffe
Vide le genti e l'arme, abbaffò l'asta,
Ed uno in quella, e pofcia un altro meffe
E un altro, e un altro, che sembrar di pasta,
E fino a sei ve n'infilzò, e li reffe

Tutti una lancia; e perche' ella non basta
A piu Capir, lafciò il fettimo fuore
Ferito fi che di quel colpo muore*.

This ftanza our declaimer had no occafion to comment upon, as Ariofto has thought fit to illuftrate it in a manner which feemed highly to the tafte of this audience. For, in the verse immediately following, Orlando is compared to a man killing frogs in marshy ground, with a bow and arrow

The knight of Aglant now has couch'd his fpear,
Where closely prest the men and arms appear:
First one, and then another, helpless dies;
Thro' fix at once the lance impetuous flies,
And in the seventh inflicts fo deep a wound,
That prone he tumbles lifelefs to the ground.

HOOLE.

made

made for that purpose; an amusement very common in Italy, and still more fo in France. Non altrimente nell' eftrema arena Veggiam le rane de' canali e foffe

Dal cauto arcier ne i fianchi, e nella schiena L'una vicina all' altera effer percoffe, Ne dalla freccia, fin che tutta piena Non fia da un capo all' altero effer rimoffe t. I must however do this audience the justice to acknowledge, that they feemed to feel the pathetic and fublime, as well as the ludicrous parts of the ancient bard.

This practice of rehearsing the verses of Ariofto, Taffo, and other poets, in the ftreet, I have not observed in any other town of Italy; and I am told it is lefs common here than it was formerly. I remember indeed, at Venice, to have frequently feen mountebanks, who gained their livelihood by amufing the populace at St. Mark's Place, with wonderful and

Thus, by fome standing pool or marshy place,
We see an archer flay the croaking race
With pointed arrow, nor the flaughter leave,
Till the full weapon can no more receive.

HOOLE.

romantic

romantic ftories in profe." Liften, Gen"tlemen," faid one of them; "let

me crave your attention, ye beauti"ful and virtuous ladies; I have fome"thing equally affecting and wonderful

to tell you; a strange and ftupendous "adventure, which happened to a gallantknight."-Perceiving that this did not fufficiently intereft the hearers, he exalted his voice, calling out that his Knight was uno Cavalliero Criftiano. The audience feemed ftill a little fluctuating. He raised his voice a note higher, telling them that this Chriftian Knight was one of their own victorious countrymen, "un' Eroe Vene"ziano." This fixed them; and he proceeded to relate how the Knight, going to join the Chriftian army, which was on its march to recover the Sepulchre of Chrift from the hands of the Infidels, loft his way in a vaft wood, and wandered at length to a castle, in which a lady of transcendent beauty was kept prifoner by a gigantic Saracen, who, having failed in all