them in twenty city-sites, with their Cyclopean walls and gates, their theatres and citadels. We may search round the rocky sides of the Isola Farnese for the mine in the rock by which Camillus let his Roman soldiery into the citadel of Veii. We may measure the great stones in the fragmentary walls of Cortona, of Coza, or Rusellæ, or admire the vast blocks forming the arch discovered by Mr. Dennis, on the Macra. In all such excursions we shall have an intelligent guide and a delightful companion in our author. The field is so wide, and the objects so diversified, that we have not attempted, and do not mean to attempt any topographical arrangement in this notice; nor do we think it would repay the toil of the cursory reader to be told how far apart are Veii and Perugia, or by what route he might, with most economy of time and money, travel from Rome to Carrara, or vice versa ; and the reader who seriously proposes to undertake such a tour, would not rest satisfied with our description, when another so much more complete can be had in Mr. Dennis's volumes. But we cannot refrain from taking a prospect from the summit of the Ciminian Mount, about mid-way between Rome on the south, and the Lago di Bolsena on the north, the Tiber on the east, and the sea on the west, of the surrounding plain, in which within the range of a keen eye are situated most of the chief places of note in Etruscan story. That dread Ciminian forest of which we have read in Livy-how the senate advised Fabius not to risk the destruction of his army by entering its trackless laby rinths, and how all Rome was horrorstruck to hear of his having marched through it notwithstanding is still rerepresented by thick, wolf-breeding woods round the base of the mountain. Mr. Dennis's guide showed him a tree where, when a boy, he had taken refuge from a pack of wolves. The tree was young and pliant, and bent fearfully beneath him; and he often expected to be cast down during the time the fierce brutes remained gaping for him, as for a ripe fruit ready to drop from the branch. But let us ascend the hill, and take our survey of the great plain of Etruria :

"Who has not hailed with delight the view from the summit of the long

steep ascent which rises from the shores ^ of the lake to the shoulder of the mountain? for from this height, if the day be clear, he will obtain his first view of Rome. There lies the vast, variegated expanse of the Campagna at his feet, with its frame-work of sea and mountain. There stands Soracte in the midst, which,

From out the plain

Heaves like a long-swept wave, about to break,
And on the curl hangs, pausing.'

"The white convent of San Silvestro gleams on its dark craggy crest, as though it were an altar to the god of poetry and light on this his favourite mountain. There sweeps the long range of Apennines, in grey or purple masses, or rearing some giant, hoary peak, into the blue heaven. There flows the Tiber at their feet, from time to time sparkling in the sun, as it winds through the undulating plain. There in the southern horizon swells the Alban Mount, with its soft flowing outlines; and there, apparently at its foot, lies Rome herself, distinguishable more by the cupola of St. Peter's than by the white line of her buildings. Well, traveller, mayest thou gaze; for even in her present fallen

state

Possis nihil, urbe Româ
Visere majus.'

Nor must the dense and many-tinted woods, which clothe the slopes of the mountain around and beneath, be passed without notice. It is the Ciminian forest, still as in olden times the terror of the Roman, and still with its majestic oaks and chesnuts vindicating its ancient reputation-silva sunt consuli digna!

"On descending from the crest of the pass, on the road to Viterbo, a new scene broke on my view. . . . It was the great Etruscan plain, the fruitful mother of cities renowned before Rome was where arose, flourished, and fell that nation which from this plain, as from a centre, extended its dominion over the greater part of Italy; giving laws, arts, and institutions to the surrounding tribes, and to Rome itself, the twin-sister of Greece in the work of civilizing Europe. With what pride must an Etruscan have regarded this scene two thousand five hundred years since. The numerous cities in the plain were so many trophies of the power and civilization of his nation. There stood Volsinii, renowned for her wealth and arts, on the shores of her crater-lake; there Tuscania reared her towers in the west; there Vulci shone out from the plain, and Cosa from the mountain; and there Tarquinii, chief of all, asserted her metropolitan

supremacy, from her cliff-bound heights. Nearer still, his eye must have rested on city after city-some in the plain, and others at the foot of the slope beneath him; while the mountains in the horizon must have carried his thoughts to the glories of Clusium, Perusia, Čortona, Vetulonia, Volaterræ, and other cities of the great Etruscan confederation. How changed is now the scene! Save Tuscania, which still retains her site, all within view, are now desolate. Tarquinii has left scarce a vestige of her greatness on the grass-grown heights she once occupied. The very site of Volsinii is forgotten; silence has long reigned in the crumbling theatre of Ferentum; the plough yearly furrows the bosom of Vulci; the fox, the owl, and the bat, are the sole tenants of the vaults within the ruined walls of Cosa; and of the rest, the greater part have neither building, habitant, nor name-nothing but the sepulchres around them to prove they ever had an exis

tence.

"Did he turn to the southern side of the mountain?-his eye wandered from city to city of no less renown, studding the plain beneath him-Veii, Fidenæ, Falerii, Fescennium, Capena, Nepete, Sutrium; all these powerful, wealthy, and independent. Little did he foresee that yon small town on the banks of the Tiber would prove the destruction of them all, and even of his nation, name, and language."

Of all the objects here within ken, there is none more suggestive of curious speculation than the walls of Cosa above-mentioned. Cosa stood on an isolated hill on the coast. It is at present called Ansedonia, and is utterly desert. But the walls are of that peculiar polygonal masonry which marks the Cyclopean works of Magna Græcia rather than of Etruria; and much contention has been bred among the learned in ancient architecture, both as to their authors and as to their age. Their remains exhibit a magnificent specimen of polygonal masonry. The stones appear to have been planed to a uniform surface by the chisel, after their erection, and the exterior wherever the wall remains standing, is to this day "as smooth as a billiard-table." The joints also are so perfect that it is with difficulty a knife-blade can be inserted: so that the wall at a little distance looks as if it were covered with a smooth coat of plaster, scratched over with strange diagrams. These are the VOL. XXXIII,-NO. CXCV.

outlines of the polygonal blocks, often eight or nine feet long, by four or five feet thick. At intervals square towers project from the wall, serving, in a rude way, the office of modern bastions. We shall not follow Mr. Dennis into his discussion of Micali's theory, from which he dissents, that these polygonal structures are of later date than the rectangular masonry of the walls of most of the other Etruscan cities; but he assigns reasons which appear conclusive for discarding the theory that masonry of that kind arose from the local necessity of consulting the natural cleavage of the rock; showing, as he does, abundant examples of rock having a natural polygonal cleavage, cut and squared into the one species; and of rock not naturally polygonal in its cleavage, cut and bevelled into the other. It would appear from what Prescott tells us, that the early Peruvians practised this method of building; and Dr. Petrie has brought to light a number of examples of such masonry in its ruder stages, in the ancient stone forts of Ireland. It appears to be as wide-spread as the Cromlech. We would suggest to future explorers of central Italy, where the noblest polygonal constructions are found, to make a diligent search for the necropolises of these Cyclopean cities. Should their sepulchres turn out to be of the cromlech kind, they might furnish some further hints towards clearing up the Pelasgic mystery. As the evidences at present stand, there seems some considerable degree of reason for regarding the Pelasgi as a migratory race of warlike masons, the great fort-builders of the ancient world; and this polygonal method their characteristic architectural style. That it may have been taken up and imitated by Volscians, and Sabines, and other nations alleged not to be Pelasgic, may be true; and that in those nice dis tinctions between polygonal and horizontal courses in the same wall-a diversity, which often occurs-critics may carry their refinements beyond the bounds of reason and probability, may be admitted; but the broad distinction observable between the modes of construction generally practised in Magna Græcia and Etruria, does with great probability indicate a difference of origin in the nations by whom the respective works were erected. The question, however, is one on which it

Y

would be presumptuous to offer a decided judgment. We hear in Ireland of the tradition amongst us of a race of builders, speaking a mysterious dialect, and skilled in the occult sciences. Making all allowances for exaggeration and uncertainty, these traces, faint as they are, may yet be of use in connecting further facts as they shall arise hereafter. For the present, truth will be best served by the unambitious inquirer, who shall with most accuracy collect such new facts as come within his own observation, leaving the glory and the strife of final induction to those who shall be fortunate enough to come into a world better provided than ours now is with archaic museums.

Museums of Etruscan antiquities are found in most of the cities and towns of this part of Italy. The collections, except at Rome and Florence, are usually in the hands of private virtuosi, whose circumstances do not admit of their keeping their treasures long together. There is, however, such an abundance of objects, especially of ancient pottery, that no one need be at a loss for specimens of whatever is most characteristic in Etruscan mythology and manners, for it is chiefly in their pottery that these matters are represented. Of their pottery, the most singular, though by no means the most beautiful kind, is that black ware of Chiusi, the ancient Clusium, of which Mr. Dennis gives several representations. The best specimen of this "creta nera," as it is called, are to be seen at Florence; for as yet, Mr. Dennis states, they have not got anything of that kind at the Vatican, Louvre, or British Museum. The articles of this ware are characterised by stiff and grotesque figures, apparently of mythological import, and afford abundant material for mystical speculation.

One prevalent form is that of a jug, with a cover, crested often with the figure of a cock, and having on each side of the spout, an eye. Below, in parallel bands, are seen monstrous forms of gorgons and chimeras. Another singular shape given to this black ware is what is called a focolare, or tray-like article, raised on feet, and open at one side, probably for the purpose of exposing the objects contained in it to the fire. These objects have, in general, a not remote resemblance to the apparatus of a modern tea-tray,

cups, spoons, bowls, and pots, in which, for want of better, a housekeeper could still make tea very successfully. The black hue of the pottery is supposed to have been imparted by enclosing the object with a coating of saw-dust, or other carbonaceous matter, in a cover of clay, and subjecting it to heat, so that the smoke from the combustion might penetrate its pores. The representations of vessels of this species, given by Mr. Dennis, are highly curious. The resemblance to early Greek and Egyptian art is very observable; but we do not perceive so strongly the Babylonish analogies, which late speculations might have led us to expect. It is evident that the whole mythology of the Greeks, together with a great portion of their alleged history, is here repeated from an Etruscan edition, and with an Etruscan variety of costume and of incident. Which is the original?-or, if neither be the original, where shall we look for the parent myth? These are questions which will probably exercise the European academies for some time to come.

The number of Etruscan vessels of various descriptions, discovered from time to time, is so great, that the classification and identification of them by their respective Greek and Latin names alone constitute a considerable department in antiquarian learning. Mr. Dennis has given, in a preliminary chapter, the names and characteristic outlines of six classes, comprising twenty-seven varieties of jugs, jars, cups, ewers, &c., which the aspirant to connoisseurship in such matters would do well to study, before proceeding to inspect the contents of the museums. One form, that of the mug, the bottom of which forms the head of an animal, called rhyton, we recognise as the same seen in the hands of certain females, in one of Bottas' Ninevitish processions. The rhyton, from its form, could only stand when inverted; hence its contents had to be despatched before setting it down, and its introduction is consequently supposed to indicate a determined drinking-bout. But, for the learning on this head, including much curious matter respecting the free use of wine among the Etruscan woman, and its restricted use by the ladies of Rome, we must refer to Mr. Dennis's note (vol. ii., p. 94); for, our own space, though we hope we cannot say so of our reader's

interest, is nearly exhausted; and although much might still be said of religion and laws, arms and trinkets, among this interesting people, we must for the present take leave of them, and of their learned illustrator.

We have so little to object to in Mr. Dennis's work, that, contrary to our usual custom, we have reserved any censure we deem necessary for the end of our notice. We have, in the first place, to regret the paucity of illustrations. A work of so much learning and variety, dealing with structural and artificial remains, ought to have the aid of the engraver in almost every page. It is true, many of the subjects should be repetitions of drawings already published in other works; but where it is no objection to the text, that the greater portion of it deals with objects which have been described before, it would equally little lie as an objection to the illustration that the same subject had been already represented, as may be said with truth of almost all our former English publications, in Inghirami, Micali, or the perio dical annals of the Institute. As it is, however, the two volumes contain about one hundred illustrations, and maps, of all sizes; but in a work of eleven hundred pages, dealing with the ten thousand curious matters and speculations here assembled, this amount of pictorial help is not enough; and we pray the publisher, in his second edition, to provide the additional and adequate supply.

Our other objection is of a more serious kind. Mr. Dennis sometimes suffers himself to be drawn from the gravity of his subject into little levities, designed, we suppose, to conciliate popularity. The despicable frivolities to which the reading public of England have been of late years habituated, may not unnaturally have led booksellers to believe that a sustained and scrupulous gravity would not be acceptable to the mass of their customers; but a scholar

ought to repress, with the sternest severity, every suggestion, whether of his publisher's or of his own originating, tending to compromise the dignity of his calling, by letting down his work to the base level of what is called the light literature of the day. There is no elegance of scholarship, no graceful turn of fancy, no cheerful sally of humour, to be suppressed or sacrificed; but they ought to be indulged in, sub modo, and with this consideration before the writer's mind, that to come in contact, in even a passing way, with the herd of writers for the million, is a contamination. But if we expunge half-a-dozen crude jocularities, and two or three easy phrases, which do not set the reader at his ease, we should have nothing to find fault with in Mr. Dennis's truly erudite and agreeable volumes.

Looking at our bookseller's tables, at the beginning of this year, we see, indeed, a great and auspicious improvement on the frivolous wares of the five preceding springs. The mediæval follies have subsided into a few gaudy folios of German texts and gilded arabesques, in thecas of guttapercha. The "ruffling" serials have shrunk to one or two feeble burlesques. The caricaturists and revilers of the Irish have almost ceased to offend us with the simplicity of their Irish scullions, the coarsenesses of their Irish kitchen-wenches and washerwomen, and the brutalities of their drunken Irish squires. Instead of these, we now find substantial food for intelligent minds, in books of travel, history, antiquities, and natural and mental philosophy. We have the satisfaction of knowing that, in this reformation, Dublin and Edinburgh have set the example, and that whatever influence our own opinion may have had, the change is in accordance with the sentiments and wishes from time to time expressed in the pages of THE DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE.

THE massacre perpetrated in Paris, on the eve of Saint Bartholomew, A. D. 1572, was at once the most horrible of tragedies, and the most miserable of farces; historians have vied with each other in giving to it all the dignity of which atrocious wickedness is susceptible. Men have felt that injury would be done to the memory of the victims if it was found that they were sacrificed to a wretched court intrigue, and not to some grand scheme of iniquitous policy designed to change the destinies of Europe. The truth is that there was no clever contrivance, no extensive plot, and no deep laid conspiracy; and to us the horror of the butchery is greatly aggravated by finding that the demoralising influence of bigotry could have wrought such wide destruction on so short a notice.

We possess ample materials for a complete investigation of all the circumstances connected with this awful event. The most important are the "Correspondence of the French Ambassadors in England with their own Court," "The Memoirs of Margaret of Valois," the Narrative, published by Henry III., when King of Poland, "The Life and Letters of Admiral Coligny," and the "Memoirs of Tavannes, La None, L'Estoile," and several other contemporaries, who were all more or less personally connected with the events. From these we shall endeavour to frame a narrative which will at once afford a consistent detail of events, and at the same time bring to light the motives of the actors. But before doing so we must introduce our readers to the actors themselves.

Catherine de Medicis figures as the prima donna in this and in many other tragedies of the sixteenth century. She is usually described as a sanguinary bigot, but with her bigotry was subservient to ambition; in fact the zeal for Catholicism cannot be regarded as extravagant, since she sought the hand of Queen Elizabeth for each of her three sons successively, and when she had reason to hope that the youngest would be successful, she took care to intimate, as a recommendation, that

he was favorably disposed towards the Protestant religion. Catherine was a great adept in poisons; it was said that she brought with her from Italy the terrible secrets of the Borgias, and that she was as unscrupulous in the use of them as Lucrece Borgia herself; the deaths laid to her charge are too numerous to be credited, nor is there any one of the cases sufficiently authenticated to be received as decisive evidence, though several justify a very high degree of suspicion. Like most of the Italians of that day Catherine was excessively credulous; she was a firm believer in astrology, fortune-telling, and necromancy; her most trusted advisers were pretended adepts in magic, and public report added that these persons also assisted her in the preparation and ministration of poi

sons.

The Cardinal of Lorraine is the only person that has insinuated any imputation on Catherine's conjugal fidelity; he has left it on record that none of the children of Henry II. resembled the king, except his natural daughter, Diana, and that Catherine's sons and daughters were so very unlike each other that they were suspected to have had different fathers. There does not appear to be any just foundation for this suspicion; but though Catherine may not have been unchaste herself, she showed little regard for chastity in others. When she arrived in France as dauphiness, she found that though Francis I. wore the crown, all the power of the state was wielded by his mistress, the Duchess d'Etampes, and she at once exerted herself to win the support of the royal favorite. She not only paid open court to the royal mistress, but even ridiculed the scruples of those who refused to pay homage to unwedded love. For this she was properly punished in the next reign; her husband, on ascending the throne, openly took the Duchess of Valentinois as his mistress, dividing his authority between her and the Constable Montmorenci, to the utter exclusion of the queen. When Montmorenci, who had quarrelled with the royal