which are heard on every side. It is to be cause other places then put forth their attrachoped that for the devout members of the Roman Church the ceremonies of the season serve to their proper purpose; but for those who can look on them only from the outside they are merely a distraction, of which the effect is anything but good. The scenes of crushing and confusion are terrible, and the impression made by ceremonies witnessed under such difficulties must be the very reverse of edifying.

The recommendation contained in these last lines is rather more than we are disposed to follow. But in truth, May is delightful everywhere, in London and in the English country, for instance, as well as at Rome; and it is not from weariness of Rome that people leave it when May is at hand, but be-tus est."—i. 118.

*

the mausoleum of Augustus. There, within | pieces so styled in Exeter Hall are aware the still grand and imposing ruins of impe- that the name is derived from a source so rial pomp, when the evening sun throws over abhorred by all sound Protestants as the the whole area the cool shadow of the lofty brotherhood of the Oratory, which reckons walls, you may for seven pence-half-penny as one of its most eminent members the retake your chair under the bright sky, and doubtable Dr. Newman. But so it really is; smoke your cigar at your ease, while you for the performance of musical dramas on sawitness plays very fairly acted on a stage cred subjects was one of the means which St. open to the day. Philip Neri, the founder of the Oratorians, “The Italians at the theatre are like chil-devised for bringing religion to bear on the dren. The scene represented on the stage is people; and oratorios are still performed on real to them. They sympathize with the hero the evenings of the Sundays of Lent, in a and heroine, detest the villain, and identify chapel attached to the Chiesa Nuova, the the actor with the character he plays. They headquarters of the order. Admission is applaud the noble sentiments and murmur at free, and the audience is very miscellaneous; the bad. When Othello calls Iago "honest" the more distinguished part of the company there is a groan over the whole house, and whenever lago makes his entrance a move(which perhaps includes even princes of the ment of detestation is perceptible among the Church) being seated in galleries at the opaudience. Scarcely will they sit quietly in posite ends of the building. Formerly, men their seats when he kneels with Othello to vow only were admissible; but in consequence, his wit, hands, heart to wronged Othello's we believe, of the French occupation of service," but openly cry out against him. I Rome, a change has been introduced in this have even heard them in a minor theatre respect, and the character of "Signora Inhiss an actor who represented a melodramatic Barbarossa who maltreated the Italians, giv-glese" will now serve as a passport to.a gal, ing vent to their indignation by such loud vociferation that the poor actor was forced to apologize by deprecatory gestures, and recall to their minds the fact that he was acting a part. So openly is the sympathy of the audience expressed that it is sometimes difficult

to induce an actor to take the villain's rôle." -i. 208.

lery which is reserved for ladies. There is very little light either in the body of the chapel or in the galleries; but when the performance is about to begin, those who understand the ways of the place draw out and light their little tapers, by the help of which

each man is able to follow the action in his libretto.

But there are other theatricals in Rome The oratorio of last spring was a new one, with which Mr. Story is probably not ac- relating to the history of St. Athanasius. quainted. At most of the colleges there are It opened with a chorus of orthodox Alexandramatic performances during the Carnival, drians extolling the virtues of their great -generally on some subject from Scripture, bishop, to which a chorus of Arians replied or from the lives of the Saints. The per- that Athanasius was no better than he should formances at the English College, however, be, and that, in Dogberry's phrase, it would are of a different kind, and are very well" go near to be thought so shortly." Athaworth seeing. This year "The Heir-at-nasius then appears, and receives from ArseLaw 99 was acted with much humor and ef- nius a flourishing account of the Ethiopian fect, although Lady Duberly and Cicely mission under Frumentius, which he resolves Homespun had been forced to yield to the to strengthen by sending forth additional rule which excludes female characters from clergy. The Arian bishop, George, relates the ecclesiastical stage, and, on the same principle, the audience was without any mixture of ladies. Then came a burlesque operetta on the captivity of Richard I. In this the composer and his fellow-students acted and sang with great spirit; and the performances were wound up with a farce. Another kind of ecclesiastical drama is the Oratorio. Few, probably, among the thousands who frequent the performance of the

the ignominius failure of one of his schemes against Athanasius, but resolves to overthrow him by some other means; and the rest of the drama is taken up with the well-known story of the manner in which Athanasius, when accused of having murdered Arsenius, and having used his hand for magical purposes, discomfited his enemies by producing the man alive, and with all his limbs entire.

To the class of ecclesiastical dramas may

in the faces of the persons denounced. On another day the same old gentleman was found raving against excommunicates, and hinting that everybody in the kingdom of Italy was or ought to be excommunicate. On a third occasion, when the audience was generally of a higher class, the Ignorante was the same as before, but the violent old gentleman's place was taken by a younger and very acute-looking Dotto, who met the Ignorante's humor in his own style. The Dialogue was always listened to with great attention, and must probably be found very useful as an instrument of popular instruction. But we need not say that such performances would be utterly out of keeping with the decorum which the Church of England wisely preserves in dealing with holy things.

also be referred the "Dialogo" of the City Mission (Missione Urbana), of which some account may be found in Mr. Burgon's curious and instructive" Letters from Rome." This performance takes place on Sundays, two hours before the Ave Maria, and goes the round of certain churches which are mentioned in the Diario Romano, being carried on in each during the Sundays of one month at a time. The performers are two Jesuits, who take their places on a raised platformthe one personating an Ignorante, who is made the mouth-piece of all the popular arguments against religion, while the other, a Dotto, or learned man, triumphantly answers him. The Ignorante speaks the common Roman dialect, and from this cause, and the rapidity of his utterance, is rather hard for a foreigner to understand; but the cleverness with which From modern theatres Mr. Story passes to his talk is suited to the hearers is sufficiently the Colosseum. His description of it in its evidenced by the bursts of laughter which he present state is well done; but this chapter continually calls forth. On the first occasion is the first considerable specimen of the sort when we were present at the " Dialogue," of matter which we have already objected to the Dotto was an old man, with a very loud as out of place, and which, unhappily, fills voice, and of very decided opinions. The Ig- a very large part of the rest of the work. norante began, "Last week, father, you In such a book as "Roba di Roma" professes told me that, in order to salvation we must to be, we do not expect to meet with a solemn hold the Catholic faith. If we do this, I history of the Colosseum-of its building and suppose we need not trouble ourselves about of its decay (for the best account of which we anything further." "Far from it," replies may refer to Lord Broughton's" Illustrations the Dotto: "you must also observe the Chris- of Childe Harold," or to his later work on tian law; you must love all men, live hon- Italy); we do not expect to meet with deestly, give alms, etc." "But," objects the tails about the gladiators and their fights, Ignorante, "people who are not Catholics do about combats with wild beasts, mirmilli, these things. "You don't understand the retiarii, and all the rest of it. matter," rejoins the Learned Man; "the alms-giving of a Protestant is no true charity. A Protestant gives alms to a person because she is pretty, or for some other such reason. The charity of Protestants is like the charity of brute beasts towards their kind; it comes from no true motive, and can tend to no good end." After going on for some time in this strain, the old gentleman turned in a very marked way towards the only two Englishmen who were in the church-conspicuous, probably, by their better dress, as it was in a poor neighborhood, and on a wet afternoon in January-and broke out into a violent tirade against Protestantism in general, which he charged with insidiously attempting to sap the faith of true believers; and he denounced the most dreadful doom against all Protestants-greatly to the amusement of some little boys and girls, who turned round and laughed

|

The next chapter, the account of Pasquin and Pasquinades, contains little beyond what is familiar to the readers of Murray; † but the description of puppet-shows is in Mr. Story's better style, and we wish that we could find room for some part of it.

We are now supposed to have reached summer, when all who can afford it go into the country. Of country life at this season Mr. Story gives us very pleasant sketches :—

from the country life in England. It is not "The villeggiatura in Rome differs much the habit here to keep open house or to re

*Italy: Remarks made on several Visits. London, 1861. Mr. Story's learning on the subject seems to be chiefly taken from Lord Broughton.

The latest production of the Pasquinesque kind with which we are acquainted is the following, by a well-known Queen's Counsel :

"A Gallis Romam servaverat anser ; ab ipsis Romanis Romam Gallica servat avis."

wind sifts through them. Above, the sky is soft and tender: great, near, palpitant stars flash on you their changeful splendor of emerald, topaz, and ruby. The Milky Way streams like a delicate torn veil over the heavens. The villa fronts whiten in the moonlight among the gray smoke-like olives that crowd the slopes. Vines wave from the old towers and walls, and from their shadow comes a song to the accompaniment of a guitar: it is a tenor voice, singing Non ti scordar, non ti scordar di me.'"-i. 297.

Harvest follows (i. 299), and after harvest the vintage

ceive friends within one's household on long visits. The family generally lives by itself, in the most retired manner. There is, however, no lack of society, which is cordial and informal in its character. If the villa be long to a princely house, or be the principal palazzo in a small town, there is generally a reunion of the chief personages of the village every evening in its salons-the bishop, physician, curate, sindaco and avvocato meeting there nightly to discuss the affairs of the place and the prospects of the harvest, or to play cards If there be several families in contiguous houses, the intercourse between them is constant. Visits are made to and fro, little excursions and picnics are formed, and now and then there are rustic dances, "In we go among the vines. There are scores to which the contadini are invited, when the of picturesque peasants plucking grapes, with princes and peasants dance together and en- laughter and jest, and heaping them into deep joy themselves in a naïve and familiar way. baskets, till their purple bunches loll over the Several of these I remember with much pleas- edge moist with juice. Some are mounted on ure that took place during a delightful villeg- ladders to reach the highest-some on foot begiatura I once made in Castel Gandolfo. On low gathering the lowest-and the heavy lusthese occasions the brick floor of the great cious buckets, as soon as they are filled, are hall was well watered and cleanly swept, and borne off on the head to a great basket wain, the prettiest girls among the neighboring into which they are all tumbled together. contadini came with their lovers, all arrayed The very oxen themselves seem to enjoy it, in the beautiful Albanese costume, and glit- as they stand there among the vines decotering with golden necklaces and earrings. rated with ribbons, and waiting to bear home A barrel of wine was set in one corner of the their sunny freight of grapes. The dogs bark, hall, and a large tray, covered with giambelle the girls laugh and slip out of the arm of and glasses, stood beside it, where any one the swains, who threaten them with a kiss. who wished helped himself. The principal Stalwart creatures they are too, and able families in the vicinity were also present, enough to guard themselves; and the smack some in Albanese dress, and all distinctions of their hand on his cheek or back I willof position and wealth and title were set ingly yield to him, though he takes the pracaside. The village band made excellent mu- tical reproof with a good-natured laugh, and sic, and we danced together polkas, waltzes, is ready to try his luck again when a chance quadrilles, and the Roman saltarello. These offers. dances took place in the afternoon, commencing at about five o'clock and ending at nine, when we all broke up.”—i. 291-2.

Again :

"When the grapes are all gathered they are heaped into great stone vats, and, crowned with vine leaves, the peasants, bare-legged to their thighs, leap into them, and with joke and song tread down the grapes, whose rich "The grilli now begin to trill in the grass, juice runs out below into a great butt. As and the hedges are alive with fire-flies. From they crush them down new heaps are emptied the ilex groves and the gardens nightingales in, and it is no small exercise to keep them sing until the middle of July; and all sum- under. The juice spurts over them and stains mer long glow-worms show their green em- them crimson-the perspiration streams from erald splendor on the gray walls, and from their forehead-they pant with excitement, under the roadside vines. In the distance and as they brush away their wet hair they you hear the laugh of girls, the song of wan-streak their faces with purple. When one dering promenaders, and the burr of distant is wearied out by this fatiguing work another tambourines, where they are dancing the sal- takes his place, and so the dance goes on until tarello. The civetta hoots from the old tombs, the best of the juice is expressed. The skins the barbigiano answers from the crumbling are then subjected to the wooden ruins, and the plaintive, monotonous ciou owls call to each other across the vales. The moonlight lies in great still sheets of splendor in the piazza, and the shadows of the houses are cut sharply out in it, like blocks of black marble. The polished leaves of the laurel twinkle in its beams and rustle as the

press, which gives a second and ordinary quality of wine, and water is frequently poured over them as they dry.”—i. 303—4.

The grapes, says Mr. Story, are delicious; but although the vines are well cultivated, the wine is spoilt through want of care in the

diers and strangers," is reckoned at something less than seven hundred thousand."†

making. "No pains are taken in the selec- to discuss the population of Rome in the imtion and distribution of the grapes, so as to perial days (i. 343); and this discussion is obtain different qualities of wine; but good more fully carried out in an appendix to the and bad, stems and all, are cast pell-mell into second volume. How little Mr. Story is fitted one great vat, and the result of course is a for treating such questions may appear from wine far inferior to that which may be pro- the fact that he represents Tacitus as estiduced" (i. 306). Let us hope that in this, mating the inhabitants of the city at "no less as in many other ways we shall soon see a re- than six millions" (i. 343); whereas the hisform by which Italy may do justice to herself. torian's statement really relates to the numThe Campagna is described by Mr. Story ber of citizens in the whole empire, as ascerwith great enthusiasm. "To me," he says, tained at the census taken by Claudius.* It "it seems the most beautiful and the most is not for us to enter into such a controversy; touching in its interest of all the places I have but as Mr. Story advocates the old orthodox ever seen; but there are those who look with calculation of four millions, we should have different eyes." Not only did a Frenchman | been glad to see how he would dispose of Mr. of Mr. Story's acquaintance style it"un pays Merivale's arguments, by which the populadetestable," but "we also-we English and tion of Rome, including the suburbs, and Americans-but too often call the Campagna" making the most liberal allowance for solby bad names, and speak of it as desolate and deserted, if not ugly" (i. 325). Mr. Merivale, for instance (whose great work The markets of Rome are the next subject. seems to be unknown to our author), calls it We have an account of the markets for pro"the most awful image of death in the bosom visions, for curiosities, and for all other sorts of life anywhere to be witnessed."* If this of things. There is an amusing dialogue phrase relates to the frequent appearance of showing how, if an ignorant John Bull will ruins in the Campagna, or to the scantiness buy pictures, of which he knows nothing, of its population, or to the malaria which ren- through the medium of a courier whom he ders it unwholesome for residence, we can is obliged to use as interpreter, the courier only say that the language is a little to sol- may make a good thing of it by cheating But if Mr. Merivale means to convey both his master, and the vendor who cheats the idea that the Campagna has a stricken his master (ii. 14-5). But more alarming look, we are quite unable to agree with him. even than this are some of the details as to Perhaps Mr. Merivale's impressions may what the Romans will eat. Among other have been received in winter, when the Cam- things, cat is esteemed as a delicacy; so that pagna, like everything else, is at its worst. those of our countrymen who depend on a But in spring its appearance is remarkably traiteur for their dinner, may do well to be cheerful. Far from being an uniform flat-cautious as to eating "hare," which generas it appears to the eye looking across it from ally appears without the distinguishing head a height to the grand background of the Sa- and ears! Here is a picture of the Sunday bine and the Alban mountains-it is full of labor-market in the Piazza Montanara; and undulations, and has its quiet green valleys, let us observe in passing that there is a woneach animated by its little stream, with over-derful contrast between the Sunday of the hanging willows and alders, which might be in some pastoral district of England or of Scotland. Much of it is already cultivated, and cultivation is spreading, although the system on which the land is let is unfavorable to the progress of agriculture, and in everything relating to implements, and the like, the Campagna farmers of the present day are considerably behind those of the reign of Augustus (i. 3253-33).

emn.

The ruins of the Campagna lead Mr. Story "Hist. of the Romans under the Empire," iv.

479.

English quarter and the Sunday of the more purely Roman parts of the city :

"Every Sunday you will find it thronged

"Censa sunt civium quinquaginta novem cen(Annal. xi. 25). In his Appendix Mr. Story shows tena octaginta quatuor millia septuaginta duo" something more like a right understanding of the matter (p. 348).

readers that Gibbon estimates the population of + Hist. Rom., iv. 521. We may remind our Rome at 1,200,000 (iii. 119, ed. 1846), and that his editor, Dean Milman, prefers this estimate both to that of Dureau de la Malle, which is even lower than Mr. Merivale's, and to that of Zumpt-two millions.