A VIEW O F T H E CUSTOMS, MANNERS, DRAMA, &c. o F ITALY, AS THEY ARE DESCRIBED IN THE FRUSTA LETTER ARIA $ AND IN The Account of ITALY in Englifh, Written by Mr. BARETTI } COMPARED WITH TheLETTERS from ITALY, Written by Mr. SHARP. By SAMUEL SHARP, Efq; LONDON: Printed for W. Nicoll, No. 51, in St. Paul’s Church- Yard, MDCC LXVIII. [Price One Shilling and Six-pence.] M R. Sharp had nearly finifhed this Pamphlet, before he in- tended to prefix his Name to it, which may ferve as an Apology, if an Apo- logy be necefiary, for its being written in the third Perfon. Mr. Sharp has not fcrupled to afcribe the Frujla Letteraria to Mr. Baretti, having feen feveral Gentlemen who have heard him Ipeak of himfelf as the Author. A V I E W Of the CUSTOMS, MANNERS, DRAMA, & c . O F ITALY. I N the years 1763, 64, and 65, Mr. Baretti carried on' at Venice, an anonymous peri- odical work, called the Prujla Letteraria , (or Literary Scourge) not unlike our Critical Review, in which he has not only paded his judgment on a variety of books publifhed in Italy ; but alfo from time to time has occafion- ally given us a picture of the manners of Italy in that period. As Mr. Baretti is an Italian by birth, and lived at that jundure, in the midft of his countrymen, we muft fuppofe him la- bouring under all the honed: prejudices, in fa- vour of his native country, to which the wife ft men are fubjecd ; fo that pofTibly fome allow- ance fhould be made for the flattery of his pencil ; but of this the reader will judge by and by. B Mr. [ 2 1 Mr. Baretti in the Englifli account hal thrown out feveral animadverfions on Mr. Sharp’s Letters from Italy ; and indeed they feem to have given birth to that work. My principal defign therefore in this pamphlet, is to examine the opinions advanced in thofe let- ters, of which the Frujla Let ter aria will be no improper criterion, as it will be imagined that Mr. Baretti, when he gave the publick his thoughts oh the Learning, Drama, Poetry, and Manners of his native country, fpoke the dictates of his heart, and to the bed of his judgment, the truth, without fallacy or dif- guife. I do not think it a matter of any conference, whether Mr. Sharp was dreaming, drunk, or mad, when he wrote thofe Letters, or even whether it was not he himfelf, but his foot- man, who was the author of them j all which fads are averted by Mr. Baretti. My inquiry /hall be into the truth of the relations, which are publifhed under the name of Mr. Sharp, and I (hail be cautious in calling upon any other authority, than the writings of Mr. Ba- retti himfelf. The charge of omiffion is very fevere againd Mr. Sharp. He is upbraided with fome bitter- nefs. t 3 ] nefs, for having wilfully negleded to ijpeak of the literature of Italy, from an averfion to do jufticeand honour to its learned men. I will not take upon me to be refponfible for Mr. Sharp’s filence on that head } perhaps he did not prefume to touch upon fo delicate a fubjed, being confcious that to be mafler of it requires both time and fcience ; perhaps he had formed a difadvantageous judgement of the prefent ftate of learning in Italy, and was too diffident of his abilities, to publifh that judgement j or, Jaflly, perhaps, he had conceived a favourable opinion of it, but meeting with Mr. Baretti’s Frujia Letteraria , where the feveral articles of literature are fo differently treated, he might drop his pen, and fubmithis ideas, to thofe of fo good a critic as Mr. Baretti. — To give there- fore a farther infight into the prefent ftate of literature in Italy, than what is to be obtained from any other writings, I (hall in the courfe of this paper, offer Mr. Baretti’s thoughts on this fubjed, as they appear in his Frujia Letteraria ; but firft, I fhall extrad from his Englifh ac* count, in as concife a manner as I am able, his prefent opinion on this article. In his 13th chapter he afks, “ to what end did Mr. Sharp give an account of his travels B 2 through [ 4 ] through Italy, If he did not vidt our feveral uni verities, and enter our numerous libraries r What judgement would pofterity form of Italy from an account given by him, who had no perfonal acquaintance with any one of the many men of learning that live at prefent amongft us ?” In other parts of this chapter, he compares the prefent age with the illuftri- ous age of Leo loth ; and fays, that when he confiders the wonderful progrefs, that all fci- ences have made all over Europe, within thefe three laid centuries, he is almoft tempted to think, that exclufive of the knowledge of learned languages, the real knowledge of the prefent Englifh women alone, w^ere it poffible to bring it all together, would prove not much inferior to the real knowledge of that illuftri- ous age, with which fhaliow fatirifb, and peevifh poets, of all countries, reproach the degeneracy of their own,' After this pane- gyrick on the Englifh ladies, which poffibly may offend the Italian ladies as a fatire on them, Mr. Baretti proceeds to give us a long catalogue of libraries and learned men now in Italy, and affirms that in all their univerfities every kind of literature is much cultivated, and that every one of them can boaft of fome eminent pro- feffor. In t 5 ] In chapter the 14th, he treats at length on the education of phyfiicians and furgeons, with great encomiums on their practice, which he extends even to the practitioners of fmall towns and villages. In this chapter he alfo deferibes the manner in which ftudents in divinity and ftudents in law, are qualified for the church and the bar ; and here he takes occafion to join with Mr. Sharp in condemning the noify method of pleading at Venice : — His words are ; — Mr. Sharp in the very beginning of his work, fets out, foppifhly enough, for a deep critick in the Venetian dialedb, and fpeaks of the advocates of Venice ; yet he does not ven- ture to give his opinion with regard to their powers in oratory. He only deferibes them in their atfts of peroration, and is very right when he fays, that their voices are difeord, their gefticulations approaching to thofe of mad- men, and their general way of pleading, noify and uncivilized.” 1 cannot difmifs this pa- ragraph, without obferving, how unkindly Mr. Baretti has perverted the fenfe cf Mr. Sharp’s remark on the inability of many Ve- netians, to pronounce the letter G, See. repre- fenting him as having coined the Venetian words, Dudice, Dulio, &c ; whereas Mr. B 3 Sharp [ 6 ] Sharp only aflerts, that through this inability, the Venetians pronounce the words Giudice, Giulio, &c. as if they were written Dudice, Dulio, &c. (p. 5.) I beg pardon for this di- greffion ; but to render the comparative view of thefe two writers clear and diftindt, it may be neceffary, now and then, to adjuft a mifre- prefentation, when it occurs ; that we may form a true judgment of their different opinions. Mr. Baretti, in his eulogium on the learned men of Italy, laments however, the difcourage- ments under which learning lies, and afcribes its prefent vigour, to the ambition and curiofity of its admirers. He fays, that learning cannot procure in our days, that veneration to its pof- feffors from all claffes of people, and efpecially from princes and great lords, which it procur- ed to them foon after its reftoration j that a car- dinal’s hat is not now to be grafped at by climb- ing up the ladders of Greek and Latin j that they have no King of Pruffia for a patron and panegyrift, who will deign to take the trouble of gilding all Voltaire’s filver, and all Alga- rotti’s copper ; that the trade of writing books is by no means a profitable trade 5 that not one writer in a hundred, ever got with his quill as much in a twelvemonth, as the word hackney fcribler I 7 1 fcribler in London can get in a week ; th&t the impoffibility of making money by their literary labours, is not the only difadvantage that attends the learned of Italy they are likewife to en- counter many difficulties in the publication of their works. Nothing is printed in Italy without being firft licenfed by two, and fometimes more revifers, appointed by the civil and eccle- fiaftical government. Thefe are to perufe every jnanufeript intended for the prefs ; and fome- times their fcrupuloufnel? and timidity, fome- times their vanity or ill temper, and fometimes their ignorance and infufficiency, raife fo many obje&ions, that a poor author is often made quite fick with his own productions. \ et he fays, that lonw ufe has reconciled tne Italians to this O cuftom ; and that in the preient date or things, Haver y is preferable to liberty. Had Mr. Sharp drawn the Italians in the black colours here exhibited by Mr. Baretti, he might rea- sonably have incurred the indignation, not on- ly of Italians, but of every man who has any fenfe of the feleffings of liberty. Were our prefs to be fet free, fays Mr. Baretti, fedition, defa- mation, profanenefs ? ribaldry, and other ffich benefits, would then quickly circulate through all oyr towns, villages, and hamlets. Irreli- B 4 gion [ 8 I gion would be fubffituted in a great meafure to bigotry and fuperdition • the Pope would be cahed antichrift, and mother church a whore j iuch would be, amongft others, the bleffed efV- leer of a nee prefs in Italy, could we ever be indulged with it. But Heaven avert we Ihould ! It- is faid that no body knows the pleasures of rnadnefs but madmen. The fame may be juftly laid of the peculiar advantages of flavery 5 they are not to be conceived but by flaves. And if it be true, that learning cannot flourifh^ but in the fundhine of liberty ; and if it be impodible, without a freedom of the prefs, ever to have in Italy fiich writers as the John- fons and Warbqrtons of England, let Italy never have any, as long as their Alps and Ap- penines will Hand ; provided that on the other Land (lie never be ornamented by — Cretera defunt. I dull not defcant on this account of the geneial date of learning in Italy, which feems on tiie one nand, to be represented as in the iuoIl flourishing filiation ; and on the other, a.s lapouiing under ahnolt inSurmopntable diffE culties ; but (nail proceed to the politive judge- mei.t that Mr. Baretti his paded on this fub-* Jeff in his Frujia Let ter aria, 9 Frusta [ 9 ] Frusta Letteraria. Page 290. Mr. Baretti afferts, that in point of learning the Italians are as far below the French, as the people of Morocco are below the Italians. P. 1 91. That amongfl the modern Tufcans, Cocchi alone writes a perfectly good profe- — all the others, are totally ignorant of a good Rile. Count Gafparo Gozzi of Venice, how-r ever, approaches towards his manner, as does alfo a young profelTor at Padua, whole name I do not mention, becaufe he has never printed any book. — All the Romans and Neapolitans write badly; I mean with regard to llile. — - In Piedmont and in Lombardy, I do not know any author who writes diftinguiffiably well. — This account perhaps (fays Mr. Baretti) does no great honour to my dear country; but ffiall I teli lies to do honour to my dear country ? P. 329. He affirms that ’till within tbefe two or three years, for half a century pad, fonnets, eclogues, love ilanzas, &c. have infedted all Italy ; and that this poetical peftilence has, during that period, committed the mod cruel devaG t 10 ] devaluation on logic, good tafte and common fenfe. P. 381. That amongft the innumerable falfe opinions which are adopted in wife Italy, for true ones, that which Italians form in regard to their language, is not the lead; falfe ; as they fuppofe without fcruple, that it is fuperior, in beauty, to all the living languages ; and that it even equals thofe of Greece and ancient Rome ; but that he (hall Ihew them, with clear evi- dence, the fallity of this notion, and prove to them, that their language is not equal, much lefs fuperior, to the living languages of France and England. P. 168. That in Italy there are, at this time, more writers than readers ; but that there are only three authors generally read one a good writer, Meteftafio; the other two, Goldoni and Chian, bad writers. P. 253. That however Italy may not be fo totally deftitute of accomplifhed ladies, as fome women-haters would make us believe ; neverthelefs we muft, to our (hame, confefs, that our ladies are not generally educated with the fame attention, as in other parts of Europe. In France, Germany, and even in Denmark and t ** ] and Sweden, it is as eafy to find many women perfe&ly well educated, and confequently knowing and amiable, as in this our peninfula, to meet with foolifti and ill behaved women *, neverthelefs the blame of this difgraceful dif- ference betwixt all our ladies, and all the ladies of thofe countries, is not to be imputed entirely to our fathers and mothers, though they fcan- daloufly negledt this their principal duty, but in great part to the writers in Italy, who have not yet been able to fupply their country with proper books for finishing a woman’s edu- cation. P. 31 1. Mr. Baretti treating of L’ OJfervafore Veneto , written in imitation cf the Englifh Spec- tators, by the Count Gafparo Gozzi, fpeaks highly of that performance, and fays, that would every body 7 , men and women, read Gozzi, in Italy, as all ranks of people have read the Spectators in England, he fhould ex- pert the fame benefits from it ; but that he cannot flatter himfelf with the hopes of feeing his dear countrymen do fo good a thing; be- caufe that his dear countrymen univerfally do not love to read books which are calculated to improve them. P‘9- [ 12 ] P. 9. Speaking favourably of a book en- titled, Della P refer vat tone della falute de Lette- rati , he fays, that in certain countries, every woman juft above the vulgar would have read it ; but that in Italy, he would bet one of his teeth, that no woman has opened it. It is enough in Italy, that a book have a learned title, to prevent it from being univerfally read ; whereas on the contrary, in England, and in Holland, ay in frozen Denmark and Sweden, nay in tlife frightful country of Norway, and even in horrible Finland, the habitation of the cold North wind Vol. 2. p. 7. He fays, that on the firft ap- pearance of the Frujla Letter aria, it was judged a ufeful and neceftary work, in a country like theirs, over-run on every fide with foolifh lite- rature and indecent manners.-— Vol. 1. p. 11, Mr. Baretti, cenfuring two certain publications, fays however, that thanks to the great ignorance of the great number of his countrymen, they were univerfally read for fome time. P. 2^7. D® not call upon me to prove that dullnefs is the principal And univerfal charac- teriftick of our modern writers, fince it is a fa ft lb apparent, and confequently fo eafy to prove, that t *3 ] that I know nothing more eafy of demonftra* tion. P. 393. Amongfl: other languages which Mr. Baretti recommends to the ftudy of the Italians, he particularly fpecifies Englilb, in which many, very many excellent books are written, that they have never heard of j would they tranflate fome of thefe into Italian, they would, fays he, extend the limits of their pre- fent knowledge, and they would adt much more laudably, than to be for ever flattering this or that great Lord, in hopes of a dinner or a few ducats. P. 316. Mr. Baretti affirms, that the prac- tice of furgery, all over Italy, abounds with a multiplicity of remedies ; is filthy,' {linking, and pompous ; becaufe the pradlitioners are ig- norant of what is Ample and true; and that the phyficians of Italy would fpare many lives, or as he exprefles it, commit fewer homicides, if they would render their practice more Ample. A Solilgquv of Mr. Baretti. P. 317. What! faid I often to myfelf, is this noble country then a privy, where every dirty fellow has a right to drop the excrements of r h i ol his brain ? Is it poffible that no means fhould have been found, to prevent this naftinefs in our literature; or at lead:, to cure fome of thefe bare breeched rafcals of their diarrhsa ? Vol. 2. p. 57. In a chapter to which he has given the title of the glories of the age of dark - vefs 9 he fays, If in future times, any learned men fhall compile the infipid literary hiftory of modern Italy, I beg my name may not be mentioned amongft thofe of my countrymen ; and my ghoft will be much obliged to them, if they will inform their cotemporaries, that I never fpoke of the age I lived in, but under the title of Tenebrofo; and a few lines lower, he calls it an age, with refpedt to Italy, dark, very dark — Tenebrofo, Tenebrofiffimo. 1 fhall make no comment on thefe bold flrokes, and feeming caricatures ; but the reader, I fuppofe, will, after this reorefentation, forbear to cen- fure Mr. Sharp’s total filence on the date of learning in Italy ; as it is natural to believe, that however wide his opinions may have been from thofe advanced in the Fnifla Letteraria , by Mr. Baretti, yet he could hardly dare to oppofe the judgment of a man, who was a cri- tick by profeflion, and who being an Italian, • 8 was t IS ] * was fo much better qualified than he could be. to write on fo difficult a fubjedf:. Mr. Baretti, in the 1 5th chapter of the Engliffi account, finifhes the article of literature, with a defcription of the feveral academies now fubfiffing, or that have fubfifted in Italy. The academy of the Crufca, ftands the foremoft in rank, and was inflitqted at Florence in the 16th century, for the purpofe of afcertaining the Italian language, which undertaking it accom- pliffied, with great honour to the members : at prefent it is declining, becaufe all that could be faid upon the fubjedt, has been faid over and over. Next to the academy Della Crufca, that of the Arcadia Romana rofe in repute. The bufi- nefs of the Arcadia Romana was to corredl, increafe, and beautify our poetry ; as that of the Crufca, to purify, illuftrate and fix our language. The members of this fociety, af- fumed the characters of fhepherds, and it is one of the fundamental laws, that no perfon fhali be admitted a member, without firfl taking upon him a paftoral name. — The fame of this academy foon fpread all over Italy, and fifty- eight towns refolved on a fudden, to have like academies of their own, which they unani- moufly f 16 ] moufly called colonies of the Roman Arcadia* Mr, Baretti, however, concludes this account with informing us, that the Arcadian colonies are at laft nearly annihilated throughout Italy ; and the Arcadia Romana confifts now only of a few Abatinos ; but they Rill chufe a chief herdfman, whofe mofl: important bufinefs, is to make a penny of his place, and this he chiefly effeds by fending Arcadian patents to the Englifh travellers on their arrival at Rome. I fhali now give the reader an extrad from the Frufta Letter-aria , on thefe two acade- mies ; and I am much miftaken, if he will not find both profit and pleafure, from what Mr. Baretti has advanced in his ftridures on the didionary of the Crufca. Frusta Letteraria. P. 381. Though the Vocabulary of the Crufca, contain four thoufand more words, than either Johnfon’s Didionary, or that of the French Academy} yet one third of them are not ufed, either in writing, or in conver- sation ; whereas both the Englifh, and French, adopt in a manner every word in their dic- tionaries. [ i7 ] tsonaries. Mr. Baretti thinks it would be of utili- ty to the publick, were the vocabulary purged of the various kinds of obfolete, and certain obfcene words with which it abounds. He laments that theantient and prefent members of the academy, being moftly Florentines, have always prefcribed to authors, the ufe of the Tufcan language. He fays that in France, the language of books is the fame through the whole kingdom ; and that in England, the fame rule is obferved j but that in Italy, authors are conftrained to ftudy the dialed! of a parti- cular country, which would not have been the cafe, had the vocabulary of the Crufca, been a universal, and not a provincial vocabulary. Another objedion to their vocabulary, is their choice of words from infamous and vulgar writers ; whereas in England, the models of the language are the writings of Clarendon, Temple, Swift, &c. and in France, the -Cor- neilles, the Racines, the Molieres, ar.e their models, all venerable names j— and, fays he, ilia'll we Italians number amongft the authors of our language, a croud of fcriyeners, barbers, coopers, carpenters, and fuch like rabble ? Can a language written in the times of barba- rian, when we knew neither Fience nor criti- Q >cifm. [ r8 ] cifm, ftand in any competition with the Ian* guages written by Bofiuet and Tillotfon ? What ample dictionaries would thofe of Eng- land and France be, if the French ftill regif- tered the words ufed by Amid:, Rabelais, Co- mines 5 and the Englifh preferved thofe of Gower, Chaucer and Caxton ? He finifhes this critique on the Italian vocabulary, with an observation on Boccace, which as I efteem it equally curious with all the opinions advanced under this article, I fhall beg leave to lay be- fore the reader. — neverthelefs Boccace has been the ruin of the Italian tongue, and the chief caufe that Italy does not yet pof- iefs a good and univerfal language; becaufe thefe writers who fir d: fucceeded him, and af- terwards the academifts of the Crufca, delight- ed with his writings, the beft they bad yet feen, and charmed more than they fhould have been with the wantonnefs of his pen, they went on from year to year, and from age to age, celebrating him fo much, that at length the univerfal opinion, or rather the univerfal error, was eftablifhed ; thaft in point of language and r j Hylc, Boccace Was abfolutely without a fault 5 and confequently that whoever would write well in Italian, ought to write as Boccace had written.— But how can it be believed, that a man who lived in an age nearly barbarous, could perfetd the language of our country ? that a fervile imitator of the tranfpofed phrafes of the Latin, a dead language, could be the original of his own, a living one? Neverthe- lefs fuch was the refpedt paid to his works, that for the fpace of two hundred years, hardly any writer prefumed to adopt a word not con- fecrated in them. This is the reafon why our Written language dill retains the Latin charac- ter, and that people in general cannot be pleafed with the writings of Boccace, nor his follow- ers : whildin England and in France, where they fortunately had no Boccace, nor difciples of Boccace, there have been formed two written languages, equally intelligible to the highedand the lowed: orders of men**’ C 2 Arcadia t 2° ] Page i ft. Mr. Baretti opens his account of a book entitled Hiftorical Memoirs of the af- fembly of the Arcadians, in the following man- ner : Thofe admirers of unprofitable knowledge, who not being able to fpend their time to ad- vantage, employ it in learning trifles, and are defirous of being informed of that moft cele- brated literary puerility, called Arcadia, let them read this book. The author has written it with that feeblenefs of ftile, and that hum- ble fpirit of adulation, which principally cha- faderifes the Arcadians. In the firft chapter we have the names of the firft fourteen founders of the Arcadian inftitution, eleven of which, fays Mr. Baretti, are buried in oblivion, and the remaining three, Gravina, Crefcembini, and Zappi, have their defeds. Gravina un- derftood Latin and jurisprudence ; but unhap- pily, in fpite of Nature, he would be a poet, when fhe meant him tobe an advocate. Crefcem- bini was a man whofe fancy was compounded partly of wood, and partly of lead ; but he foretells that Zappi, the amorous, the gallant* the [ 21 ] the fagary Zappi, will continue to be read by all young noble ladies, a month before, and a month after marriage, and that he will float on the furface of Lethe, without finking, fo long asthetafleof effeminate (Eunuca) poetry (hall fubfift in Italy. The fecond chapter, he fays, tires us with the laws of Arcadia, which are written in imi- tation of thofe of antient Rome ; but are as unlike them, as an ape is . to a doctor of the Sorbonne, or (as he expreffes it in page 54 of the 2d vol.) as the ftatue of Harlequin, to the real perfon of Julius Caefar. The utter contempt with which he treats this fociety in his remarks on the two firft chapters, renders it needlefs to give any far- ther proofs of the low eftimation in which he holds it. Mr. Baretti, in the 15th chapter of the Eng- lifh account, fays, that befides the poor remains of the Crufca andthe Arcadia, there are in Rome, and in other towns, other academies compofed of people who pretend to ingenuity in one thing or other. At Rome, the academy of St. Luke have chofen St. Luke for their patron ; and he tells us, that the fearchers into antient records, pretend, that in the 12th century there lived - C 3 Qn .9 [ 22 ] one Maftro Luca, whofe chriftian name was Santo, and that this man carved the famous Madonas of Loretto, Bologna, &c. whence arofe the vulgar notion that thofe Madonas were painted by St. Luke : However, Mr. Baretti fpeaks with fome diffidence of this fcrap of erudition, and admits that the famous Neu- Jira Sennora del Pillar actually worfhipped in Saragozza, and that flill more famous Madona of Monferrate in Catalonia, were really, in the opinion of the Spaniards, the works of St. Luke. He might have added, that the Man dona of Bologna, is really believed at Bologna, to have been painted by St. Luke, and thus have fpared himfelf the trouble of begging Mr, Sharp s pardon, for his ridiculous digrefliop (as he calls it) in honour of their Madonas . hnce Mr. Sharp has only faid the very fame thing, namely, that many Madonas in Europe are fuppofed to have been painted by St. Luke. At Florence, about Galileo’s time, was in^ flituted tne Ac cadent a del Cinento , or of ex-? peri mental philofophy. It did not laft long'; but it is now fucceeded by the Accadetnia d y Agricoltura , and if Mr. Baretti is not mifta- ken, by La Societa Columbaria, whofe mem- bers apply to natural philofophy, and moft particularly [ n 1 particularly to botany. There are befides in other towns, other academies ; and he quotes Francefco Saverio Quadrio, who has written on this fubjett, and who affirms that there are above five hundred academies in Italy. — I ffiall finiffi this article with the conclufion of the 1 5th chapter, which poffibly may appear to be a moft remarkable anticlimax fo foon after the pompous mention of five hundred academies. I own, fays Mr. Baretti, that arts and fciences are not generally forwarded much by our aca- demies, as far as 1 can obferve ; yet they are upon the whole, rather ufeful than pernicious, and anfwer the ends of fociety, if not of fai- ence ; they ftand in the place of the clubs in England, which bring people together, and them the means of becoming friends. fingllfh Account of the Italian Drama, 1 2th and 13th Chap; — Mr. Sharp is guilty of the moil ridiculous feif-conceit, when he fpeaks at large of the prefent irate of the Itali- an ftage ; let any man unacquainted with Italy read his five letters on the Italian Page, and he Will prefently conclude, that the Italians are a people mofLmiferably ignorant of theatri- cal matters $ that they have baniihed all fenfe and propriety from their dramas, and that they cannot be pleafed with any thing but farcical buffoonery. — But is this giving a true idea of tnen ilage ? “Certainly not— —The mighty cenfurer ought, &c.— Let us therefore colled* what Mr. Sharp has advanced on this fubjecf, and compare it with the information which Mr. Baretti has given us himfelf* Letter 23. Mr; Sharp tells us, that the play- houfeat Naples labours under great difcourage- mcnts • that only the lower fort of people fre- quent it 5 that the price of the pit is four-pence half-penny, and that it does not hold above eighty people ; that he never faw a tragedy tnere ; and that all the comedies he had been a., confided of thiee adts only j that Punch, 4 the [ *5 ] tile Dodor’s Man, &c. were the chara&ers, who with their obfcenities and extempore wit, in the Neapolitan dialed:, delighted the popu- lace ; but that in his opinion, the Italians by nature have a genius for comedy 5 and were the audience more elegant, and more rtfped- able, their adors would appear to have great talents. Letters 47 and 48. At Florence, Mr. Sharp fays, their theatre is much fuperior to that of Naples, but fpeaks of their comedies as he does afterwards of thofe at Turin, (Letter 51) as affording diverfion, from miftaking one word for another, blunders, indelicate jokes* &c. and as the price of the pit is only fix- pence, he does not fee any profped of the Italian flage being raifed to the dignity which it might obtain, were poets and players honoured, protededand rewarded by their princes. He faw for the hrft time there a comedy of five ads, and a tragedy tranflated from Voltaire, Upon which occafion he fpeaks very favourably of the declamation of the flage ; and I believe this is the fubflance of what he has faid upon the tragedy and comedy of Italy. Mr. Barecti, in the 12th chapter of his Eng- lifh account, afferts, that as foon as the names of r *6 ] of Corneille and Racine began to be commonly known in Italy, many good tragedies were written upon the French model by the wits of thcfe times ; and of late, almofl: all the trage- dies of Corneille, Racine, Crebilion, and Vol- taire, have been tranflated into blank verfe, and reprefented. But, he fays, the polite peo- ple cannot fill a play-houfe, and the vulgar cannot as yet be brought to relifh fuch compo- sitions, and they would {till have kept invaria- bly faithful to their Harlequins, Pantaloons, Brighellas, and the other mafks, if Goldoni and Chiaii, two dramatick writers, had not fud— denly made their appearance about eighteen or twenty years ago. Both thefe writers are equally contemptible in the eyes of Mr. Ba- retti ; but he fpeaks highly of the talents of Carlo Gozzi, younger brother to Count Gafpa- lo Gozzi, who has brought ten or twelve plays on the ft age, two or three of which Mr. Ba- retti has perufed in manuferiptj but he fays, the author cannot be prevailed on to publifh them. However he arraigns Mr. Sharp in •the conclufion of this letter, for not having mentioned Carlo Gozzi and IVletaftafio j for- getting that Metaftafio s works are compofitions lot the opera- houfe, and not within the de- fer ipt ion [ 2 7 3 fcription undertaken by Mr. Sharp : And as Carlo Gozzi, if Mr. Sharp had never the ho- nour to perufe his manufcripts, and was fo un- fortunate to be at Venice when the theatres were (hut, as he tells us in letter 4th, with what propriety could he have fpoken of that excellent writer ? But Mr. Sharp might here with great propriety afk Mr. Baretti why he has not mentioned the name of Carlo Gozzi in his Frujia Letteraria. I (hall now bring forth Mr. Barettfs fentl- ments on this fubjed, extraded from his Frujia Letteraria , by which it will appear that his judgment of the Italian ftage, is ex- actly, or nearly the fame, with that of Mr. Sharp, though perhaps, expreffed a little more harfhly ; but firft I fhall borrow his thoughts on the Italian ftage, as he has given them in his Italian Library, publifhed at London 1 757. Page 124. At prefent we have nothing in Italy but mufical operas, like thofe exhibited at the Opera-houfe in the Haymarket, and a kind of plays commonly divided into three ads, and recited extempore, by different com- panies of low-witted fellows. The ferious parts, as they call them, are in Tufcan, (not of the bed indeed) : The comical parts by. Pantalone, Arlecchino, [ 28 ] Arlecchino, Brighella, Dottore, Coviello* and fome others fpeakihg various dialers of Italy. If they make people laugh with their repartees, and immoral jells, they have an audience j if not, they flare. Our old and good tragedies and comedies, are confined to colleges, and feminaries, where ftudents adt them in the car- nival time. One would gather from the above recited paragraph, that the Italians, in the year 1757, reprefented no other fpecies of comedy, than the extempore comedy 3 and from the para- graph a little before it, relating to Goldoni and Chiari, that upon the appearance of thofe wri- ters about 18 or 20 years ago, the Harlequins, Pantaloons, &c. with their extempore wit, had been driven off the ftage ; bqjt neither of thefe fadts are flridtly true, as I fhall evince from fome of Goldoni’s prefaces. Goldoni tells us,, that till the year 1742, he did not write any comedy, where he had compofed all the parts j for, before that pe- riod, he had written only one or two of the principal charadlers, and the outlines of the reft, leaving it to the extempore wit of the adtors to fill up the parts } that before his time, for above a century paft, the comic ftage had t 2 9 ] been in fo corrupt a ftate, and the humour of it fo wretchedly low and vulgar, that it excited the laughter of the mob only ; and had brought contemptupon it from all the neighbouring king- doms. Urged therefore by the delire of glo- ry, he had attempted a reformation, and had now written the parts for the malked charac- ters, having found from experience, that when they were left open to the extempore wit of the players, provided they could make their au- dience laugh, they generally faid what came uppermoft, without any regard to the fcope of the play, and the chara&er of the part they reprefented. It appears therefore from Goldoni, that the Harlequins, the Pantaloons, &c. remain on the Italian ftage to this day; with the difference only, that many of their parts are written for them ; but look into his plays, and you will find the fame humour, and the fame chara&trs, fpeaking the different dialedts of Naples, Bo- logna, Venice, &c. (fo indifpenfable to an Italian audience) as it was the cuftom to exhi- bit in the days of their extempore comedy. Neverthelefs I would not have it under- fiood, that the players are entirely refrained from extempore wit at this juncture : it abounds upon t 3° 1 tipon the Neapolitan flage, and fpreads itfelf more or lefs, through all the theatres of Italy, to the Italian comedy at Paris ‘ where Carlin the Harlequin entertains the Pariflans with an inexhauftible fund of this fpecies of humour. As Goldoni is rliuch fpoken ofj and has fur- nished the Italian flage with a prodigious num- ber of comedies $ it may poffibly be acceptable to an Englifh reader to hear a few anecdotes of him. Goldoni was defigned for the bar 5 but his genius leading him to the cultivation of the drama, he aflociated himfelf with a company of comedians, travelling from city to city j and lupplying them with new comedies, whenever they flood in need of them : Efe tells us that he undertook to furnifh fixteen comedies in one yeaV, befides fmali pieces which were fet to mufick. -If Goldoni therefore, be ever fo dif- tant from Moliere, (a name his favourers have honoured him with) the difadvantage he lay under, from writing fo rapidly, and writing lor an audience fo unpolifhed, is fome excufe for his defeats. Voltaire has however born fome teflimony to his merit j fpeaks of him as having refcued his country from the tyranny of Harlequin j and applauds the ftile of his wri- 3 tings. [ 3i ] tings, fo far as to have put them into the hands, of the great grandaughter of Corneille, that (he may learn from them the Italian language: which fingle circumftance (fays Mr. Baretti in his Frufta Letteraria , p. 121.) proves that Voltaire knows juft as much Italian, as he does Japonefe. Indeed this encomium on Goldoni, who is very low in the eftimation of Mr. Ba- retti, has produced very fevere ftridtures on Vol- taire ; for a few lines farther, fpeaking of his pretenfions to the knowledge of Spanifh and Portuguefe, he tells us that Voltaire under- ftands thofe languages, no better than the Ele- phants of the Grand Mogul do. — After this fhort digreffion, let us fee what judgment Mr. Baretti has pafled on the ftage, in his Frujia Letteraria. P. 255. Mr. Baretti affirms that all the an- tient Italian tragedies are of little worth, how- ever pedants may praife them ; and that the antient comedies are fo filly, obfcene and nafty, that you would be fick in reading of them. P. 342. He remarks upon Voltaire’s unpo- litenefs in aflerting, that Italy is a country fold to Harlequins, and in poflefiion of Goths ; but checks himfelf upon rededtion, and feems to fubfcribe heartily to the opinion, calling it far- caftically. [ 3 Z ] caflically, a country, where Goldoni and Chi- ari have found four millions of admirers.— Goldoni, fays he, writes a corrupt Italian, com- pofed of three different languages, of Venice, Lombardy, and the Romagnnolo. P. 343. The comedies of Goldoni fwarm with grofs errors in language, and in grammar, with low and vulgar phrafes, and what is worfe, with ridiculous manners, and maxims of obf enity and ribaldry. P. 344. Mr. Baretti fays. Should any afk me, who is a good dramatick writer, if Gol- doni be a bad one? my anfwer is, Gentlemen, we have neither Corneilles nor Molieres in our language ; therefore we muft wait till our good fortune fends them. P. 134. He fays, that Signior Denina (an author he is fpeaking of) wonders how it fhould happen, that Italy has not one good writer of tragedy, when her epick poets are fo excellent ; the reafon is, fays Mr. Baretti, that there are Arioflos and Taffos for guides, but no Corneilles, nor Racines. I (hall next enquire into the comparative view of the cultivation and populoufnefs of Italy, as it is reprefented by Mr. Baretti; but in this purfuit, I ihall examine what Mr. Sharp has t 33 ] has really faid, and not what Mr. Baretti makes him fay. — Mr. Sharp, fpeaking of a country in the ecclefiaflical dominions, (vide letter io) fays, that it affords the mod pleafmg images he has feen, of peace and plenty ; that the prof- pe6t from Mount Vefuvius (letter 40) prefents a view of the molt fertile country in Europe ; that he believes the dutchy of Tufcany is flill better cultivated, than either the dominions of his Holinefs, or of the King of the Two Si- cilies ^ that all Lombardy is fo well cultivated, that he imagines there is not one acre of barren ground, in the whole tradt through which he had travelled (letter 49) ; and in letter 40, he fays, that the foil in the valleys is very rich, and fo exempt from Hones or clay, that he had been many months in Italy before he faw a fpade, &c. — On the other hand, he fpeaks of the defart Campania of Rome, and the barren- nefs of certain mountains, betwixt Rome and Naples, which are uncultivated. With regard to the populoufnefs of Italy, he admits, that though there are not many vil- lages in thofe parts of the dominions of the King of Naples and the Pope, through which he palfed ; yet that the towns fwarmed with inhabitants (letter 40 :) That in the city cf D Naples, [ 3 + ] Naples, there are from three to four hundred thoufand inhabitants; and in fo fmall a dutchy as that of Tufcany, he has admitted that the number of inhabitants amounted to near a million. Neverthelefs Mr. Baretti has, in p. 99, of his Engliih account, charged Mr. Sharp with having exerted his utmoft eloquence, in order to make it believed, that the whole of Italy is uncultivated and unpeopled. Could one have thought it pofiible, after this enumeration of fails, that Mr. Baretti fhould have alledged fo flrange an accufation ? No lefs uncandid is Mr. Baretti in his 4th chapter, where he arraigns Mr. Sharp for hav- ing called the Neapolitans, a nation diabolical in their nature. Now Mr. Sharp, fo far from impeaching the body of the people collectively, exprefsly harangues, with a kind of gratitude, on the politenefs of the nobility and gentry, and the particular hofpitality with which they treat Englifh travellers (letter 30.) Nor can I find in any part of his book, the lead imputation on the gentry of Italy ; except in what relates to their prefent mode of gallantry. As to the Neapolitan mob, I believe all difinterefted writers have deferibed' them as a ferocious and [ 35 ] and brutal clafs of men ; but Mr. Sharp has nevertheless Spoken of them as more orderly when in good humour, than an Englidi mob, (letter 32,) and diabolical only, when they are exafperated ; but alluding to the promptnefs with which their paflicns are kindled, he me* taphorically, in another letter, fuppofes brim- done in their veins. It can be only to thefe expreSSions, that Mr. Baretti mud have referred for the accufation brought againd Mr. Sharp; but Surely it will appear a drange perverfion of the fenfe, to afcribe that temper to the ge- nerality of the kingdom, which he has in that very quotation, with the mod exadt precilion, redrained to the lower people. Belides, it appears to me, that Mr, Sharp, notwithdanding the allegations of Mr. Baretti to the contrary, takes pleafure in proclaiming the good qualities he found amongSt the lower people : he Speaks of them throughout all Italy, even of the Neapolitan mob, as being totally exempt from the vice of drinking Spirituous liquors ; he tells us that the gondaliers at Ve- nice, are a Sober body of men, and not dred in rags like the lower Sort of people in Eng- land, who Spend all their money in porter, &c ; and giving Some account of the poor at FIo- D 2 rence, [ 36 ] rence, (letter 45,) he fays, that compare either their habitations, or their children with thofe of the inhabitants in the fkirts of London, and one would blufh for the mifery and diflolute- nefs of our countrymen. Another charge of the fame nature, is that in chapter 29, where Mr. Baretti declares, that from Mr. Sharp’s book it appears, that the no- bility of Naples have fcarcely any fenfe, wit ? virtue or money left. Now it is true, that Mr. Sharp, fpeaking of their immenfe eflates, de- nies, excepting in two or three inflances, that they are to be compared with thofe of the Eng- lifh nobility ; but he does not fay that they have fcarcely any money left : and he certainly does no where fpecify what meafure of wit, virtue and fenfe, is to be found amongft the Neapolitan nobility; or fo much as drop a word on the fubjedt : indeed in letter 38, ex- prefling a pardonable warmth for the honour of his native country, he declares it his opinion, that there are in England, more bleflings, and more virtues, than are generally met with in other countries : but if Mr. Baretti has applied this paragraph peculiarly to the nobility of Naples, a Frenchman might, with the fame propriety, apply it to the court of Verfailles, a Polander t 37 ] Polander to the Diet at Warfaw, and a Turk to the Divan at Conftantinople. Mr. Sharp has no where given any particu- lar account of the Italian nobility, excepting in oneinftance ; where hedefcribes the Venetian nobles to be tall ; but enters no farther into their chara&er : I fhall, therefore, in aid of this flight fketch, give the reader fome extracts from a defcription at length, of a Venetian noble, from Mr. Baretti’s 26th chapter. — “ The generality of foreigners fhun the ccn- verfation of the Venetian nobles, or grow pre- lently fick of it, on difcovering that it is too uniform, local, and egotiftical, at the com- mencement of their acquaintance; but after fome familiarity, one may foon difcover a- mongft them, fo many inftances of opennefs and referve, of fagacity and imprudence, of courage and timidity, of knowledge and igno- rance, and many other oppofite qualities, fo perfectly blended together, in the fame indi- vidual, that 1 know no fet of men in Europe, fo much worth the trouble of being thoroughly lifted, as the noblemen of Venice. With re- gard to the Venetian people, thofe who want to keep fair with their nobles, or make them friends, have a very ready means of admittance D 3 to t 38 ] to their kindnefs, by only praifing them in the fulfomeft terms, making them believe that their commonwealth is one of the moft formic dable powers upon earth, and that themfelves, individually, are the mod knowing, generous, and refpeCtable people in the world : and I do not know whether it is more fhocking, or more diverting, to fee how open the gene- rality of the Venetian nobles are to the vileft flattery.*’ Mr. Sharp has drawn heavy cenfures upon him from Mr. Baretti, for the account he has given us of the frequent murders in Italy ; let us therefore examine what both of them have advanced upon this fubjeCt. Mr. Sharp afcribes the frequency of affaffinations to the protection of the Church ; to the difficulty of feizing of- fenders ; to the forms of law, which fuffer offenders when feized, to efcape ; to the few examples of capital puniffiment; and above all, to the practice of drawing out knives in their fuddeo quarrels, and dabbing inftantly. Mr. Sharp afferts, that this is the only kind of affaffinadon he heard of, and is known among ft- the lower people only ; fo far is he from tax- ing the whole body of the people, with being naturally inclined to murder, which Mr. Baretti upbraids I 39 ] upbraids him with : nay Mr. Sharp, in ex- tenuation of the wickednefs of this practice, obferves, that the dreadful efFe&s of thefe quarrels might be avoided, were the good Englifh mode of boxing introduced amongft them (letter 38)5 intimating, that Engliffi- men mail give a vent to their paffions, as well as Italians ; and had they no other method of gratifying their revenge but by {tabbing, mur- ders might be as common in England as in Italy. I fhall now quote two paffages from Mr. Baretti’s 5th chapter. — In the firfi: he fays, that the Italians have fuch quick feelings, that even a difrefpe give alone a very fatisfadory foiution of the quedion, Why are murders fo frequent in Ita- ly ? But I fhall, for a farther illudration of what Mr. Baretti has advanced, lay before the reader an ex trad from the Abbe Richard, who has lince the date of Mr. Sharp’s Letters, pub- hihed a Defcriptioncf Italy, and whole accounts are in high edeem. In his 5th vol. p. 237. fpeaking of the frequent affaffinations at Rome, (which however are notfuppofed to be fo nu- merous as thofe of Naples, which Mr. Sharp treats of) he fays, u The people here are quicK and impetuous in their paflions ; either oppofidon or jealoufy renders them furious : One fees people of the lowed order poignard one another with the mod determined refolu- tion. They have no other way of fighting, to all appearance : They are more afraid of"a punch in the domach, than a dagger. In this fort of quarrel, they begin with reviling each other in the mod opprobrious manner. When they are provoked to the higheft degree, then he who is in the greated paffion, draws out Ins knife, and the other does the fame 5 which ever of the two drikes fird is ufually the con- queior, and if he is not wounded, retires as tranquilly, [ 4i ] tranquilly, with his nofe in his cloak, as if he had juft withdrawn from an ad: of devotion. The by-ftanders carry him that is wounded to the hofpital, and all is over ; unlefs by chance, no church is near, and the officers of juftice happen to be upon the fpot to feize him.— Thefe bloody fcenes are very common at Rome ; at leaft there were twenty of them from December 3761, to May, 1762. Pair- ing by the fquare of the rotunda, I faw two peafants quarrelling, and in an inftant one of them was murdered, without caufing any ex- traordinary commotion amongft the numerous populace who were prefent. In the unwhol- fome feafon (Malaria) of July and Auguft, the government takes no notice of thefe aflaflina- tions, imputing them to the effeds of a violent fermentation in the blood.” I could, if it were neceftary, bring proofs from the mouth of the prefent ingenious and polite cardinal Albani, that executions are rare, and murders numerous, beyond all cre- dibility of proportion $ fo prevalent is the max- im in Italy, that te we have loft already one fubjed by murder, therefore we muft not lofe another by execution.” But I believe I have faid enough on this interefting fubjed, to efta- blifh [ 4 * ] blifh the truth of all that Mr. Sharp has fug- gefted. Neverthelefs, though the cudom be fo different, from the caufes already afligned, betwixt England and Italy, Mr. Baretti con- founds the diftindtions, and fays, fuch (hock- ing accidents will happen amidd the bed: and mod: polite nations. Mr. Baretti will not believe that Mr. Mur- ray, the reddent at Venice, told Mr. Sharp thofe things, which Mr. Sharp declares he did tell him ; nor does he even believe that he made him frequent vifits. Certainly in this indance Mr. Baretti has been ill inftrudted ; for I know that Mr. Sharp lived in the greateft intimacy with Mr. Murray, fo long as five and thirty years ago ; I know like wife, that Mr. Hamilton himfeif told Mr. Sharp, and feveral other Englifhmen, the dory of the five or fix murderers, who had taken fan&uary in his palace, and had found means to efcape punifh- ment ; and indeed had not Mr. Hamilton de- clared the fadt publickly, Mr. Sharp would have been exceedingly culpable to have made fo free a ufe of the refpedtable name of his Britannick Majedy’s minider. I have had likewife an opportunity, fince the publication of Mr. Sharp’s letters, to be in- formed by Sir James Gray himfeif, before he embarked t 43 1 embarked for Spain, that the dory of the mur- derer, mentioned by Mr. Sharp, is very true ; and that he was fo importuned by people of the Arft rank, to drop the profecution, that he procured the execution of the delinquent, by the Angle plea, that it was not in his power to comply, without offending the King his maf- ter. The murderer was executed at Padua, when Sir James was refident at Venice, and not at Naples, as Mr. Baretti by miftake has reprefented it, becaufe Mr. Sharp fpeaks of Sir James Gray, under the name of the late envoy at Naples. Mr. Baretti is a little diAngenuous on the article of fandfuary. He fays, that there are certain parts of Italy, where the church is not a fandfuary for murderers •> but that it would be too prolix for him to enter into a detail of the feveral crimes in which the church is, or is not, a fandfuary ; and that it is a grofs mis- reprefentation in Mr. Sharp, to fay that the church throughout Italy fhelters murderers and affaffins. Who would imagine, after fo Angular a defignation, that Mr. Sharp had never expreffed himfelf in thofe words ? Yet fo it is, at leaft I cannot difeover them, and Mr. 33. for very good reafons, never refers to the 7 page. [ 44 ] page, when he pretends to make a quotation. If therefore Mr. Sharp has not uled thofe words, he mud be fuppofed to have fpoken of thofe places where he rehded, and where he had an opportunity to be inftrudted ; I mean Naples, Rome, and Florence ; in neither of which cities, I imagine, Mr. Baretti will deny, that the church is a fanduary to affaffins, though he infinuates as much, when he dis- putes the reality of an aflaffin having taken shelter upon the fteps of a certain church near an Englilh nobleman’s palace in Florence, as related by Mr. Sharp, fufpedting him to be a pick-pocket, or a dmple robber, and not a mur- derer, as his lordfhip knew him podtively to be. The dirtinefs of the inns on the Loretto road from Bologna to Rome, and on the road from Rome to Naples, defcribed in Mr. Sharp’s letters, have milled many haily readers of hi s letters, to condder them as a fatire on the cus- toms and manners of Italy : and yet even in this article, where fpeaking the plain truth is to fpeak fatire, he is fo apprehendve, that what he defcribes as peculiar to thofe roads, fhould be precipitately extended by the reader, to the accommodation generally found in the inns of Italy, that he begs his correfpondent to remem- ber. [ 45 ] ber, that in their great towns, the accommo- dation is good and cleanly j in fhort, that the defcription anfwers thofe two roads only, (Let- ter 45). But that Mr. Sharp in all probability may have drawn a true picture of thofe inns, may m be gathered from the following extract of a letter, dated Naples, October 28, 176 6. My correfpondent is a very ingenious gentle- man of that city, who fpeaks and writes Eng- lifh, though not in a manner to be compared with Mr. Baretti, whofe proficiency in our language is really a matter of adonidiment. I fhall give the extract however in his own words, defcribing his journey in company with a friend from Naples to the Faro, or the chan- nel betwixt Naples and Sicily. “ We went always horfe-back : I mud fay for the glory both of our kingdom and govern- ment, that we travelled perhaps in the fined: part of Italy, and meet always very bad im- practicable roads, very often no inn, or no bed at all, being forced to lye upon the ground : the convents of Capucins, Francifeans, and other religious orders, are the only places where one can be lodged ; but they very feldom have fomething befide draw, for to lye upon ; and . „ then [ 46 ] then buggs, fleas, and all the animals in the world, bite you to nothing.—- — In many places we could And no convenience for our horfes, or ourfelves becaufe the gene- rality of the people, they live upon oignons, ^ garlick, and very nafty bread.” In anfwer to Mr. Sharp’s account of the beds, the cooks, the poftilions, and the poft- horfes on the Loretto road, Mr. Baretti denies peremptorily, that Mr. Sharp did travel port, or once entered into a poft-houfe on that road, though Mr. Sharp has fo pofitively aflerted it. This inflance might be added to many more, where Mr. Baretti gives Mr. Sharp the flat lye, to the fads he advances ; an argument to which it is difficult to make a fenfible anfwer ; but I who know Mr. Sharp, as I faid before, know that Mr. Baretti has been impofed upon in this cafe, and indeed all the cafes where he has trufted to his informer, as groflly as he himfelf impofes on his readers, when he makes Mr. Sharp expati- ate on the extreme wretchednefs of the inhabi- tants of Ancona j though Mr. Sharp fpeaks only of the profped of Ancona, in letter io, and of the extreme wretchednefs of the peafantry in the neighbourhood of Ancona, in letter 12, Mr. [47 ] Mr. Baretti is however remarkably vehement and diffufive on this groundlefs charge, and feems to point it out as one of the principal evidences, to prove that Mr. Sharp was difqua- lified to make obfervations on Italy. He fhould have ftopt a little while, fays he, at Ancona, to have formed a better judgment of that place ; neverthelefs, with fubmiliion to Mr. Baretti, I fhould fuppofe, that any body except him- felf will admit, that Mr. Sharp may with pro- priety fpeak of theprofped of Ancona, without having taken a bed at Ancona. I fhall not purfue Mr. Baretti in all the at- tacks he has made on what Mr. Sharp has faid, much lefs on what he has not faid ; the detail would be tedious, and very little intereding to the reader. Perhaps I ought to apologize for the following article, relating to Loretto, but I am led to mention it by the uncommon can- dour of Mr. Baretti on this occalion, who has mifreprefented Mr. Sharp’s account but in one particular, I mean that of defcribing the garri- fon to confift of 60 or ioo foldiers, which Mr. Sharp lays confifts of 30 only ; not but that the increafe of drength he has given it, de- droys, infome degree, the bafis on which Mr. Sharp has grounded his conjecture. Speaking of [ 48 ] of the treafures at Loretto, Mr. Sharp has dropt an opinion (not a wifh, as Mr. Baretti in- finuates) that as the garrifon confifts only of 30 foldiers, fhould a Corfair, with a hundred and fifty, or two hundred men, attempt to furprize it, a coup de main well managed, he thinks, might fucceed. Mr. Addifon too has fuppofed, that a chriftian power, who has fhips paffing to and fro, might without fufpi- cion effedl that enterprize. Inftead of confidering the hint as good na- tured, and poffibly ufeful, Mr. Baretti, upon this occafion, rallies with great humour their proteftant zeal, and fays, if Mr. Addifon had examined Loretto, he would not have expofed himfelf to the ridicule of thofe Roman catho- licks, who know fomething of the matter. But Mr. Baretti does not feem to attend fuffi- ciently to the rapidity of an adtion, called a coup de main ; though no man underftands the living languages better than himfelf. What, fays he, could fuch a body of men do, againfl a garrifon of 50 or 60 men, (he will not fry more than a hundred) befides the inhabitants in and out of the town ? He afferts too, that the town is tolerably fortified, and the paths to it craggy ; yet I believe the troops that mount- ed [ 49 ] fed the precipices of Louifbourg and Quebec^ would have found a much eafier entrance into Loretto. Neverthelefs to fpeak the truth, the point is merely fpeculative, and hardly worth the time I have bedowed upon it ; though one may be bold to foretell, that fhould an attempt be ever made, the great obdacle to the fuccefs, will not be the number of foldiers and inhabi- tants, nor the deepnefs of the hill, nor the tolerablenefs of the fortification, but the diffi- culty of a Corfair failing up the Adriatick un- difcovered, and returning fafely with his plun- der to Barbary. As Mr. Sharp has incurred Mn Baretti’s dif- pleafure, by infinuating that the poor of Na- ples chufe the education of a mufical conferva- toio, rather than follow a laborious employ- ment, I fhall quote Mr. Baretti on trade, from both his Englifh and Italian opinions. P. 306. Mod branches of manufactures, fays he in the Englifh account, flouriffi amongd the Italians ; and thofe manufactures are pur- chafed from them by all the commercial world, — Now hear what he fays in his FruJlaLettera- ria > P- 34 2 * — With regard to foreign manu- factures, we need only take into our hands, a watch, a cafe, a box, a button, in diort any E bauble • [ 5 ° 1 bauble made either in France or in England, to be prefently convinced, that innumerable things manufactured in Italy, ftand in no com- petition with the fame articles manufactured in thofe countries. He fays in the 17th chapter of the Englifti account, that however defpicable Mr. Sharp may have reprefented trade, the Italian mer- chants are looked upon in a very honourable light. — I do not queftion, but that fenfible men there, muft look upon them as promot- ing the good of their country, which undoubt- edly is a very honourable light ; but I be- lieve our gentlemen who have made the tour of Italy, will declare with one voice, that merchants and traders, or the wives of mer- chants and traders, are feldom or never ad- mitted unmafked to the aflemblies of the no- bility, either in Florence, Rome, or Naples, and that the nobles are exceedingly punc- tilious on that article. Indeed, if this were not the faCt, how abfurd muft Goldoni’s Play of the Femmine Puntiglicfe [ the Punctilious Ladies) have appeared on the Italian theatre ? W6uid not the audience have immediately hifted it off theftage, and declared aloud, that they knew no fuch manners ? — The fable of the play is this : A rich merchant of Leghorn the firft. year t 5* ] year of his marriage, makes a tour with his wife to Florence ; (he is exceffively ambitious to be admitted into the converfazioni of quality, which (he eflfe&s by bribing a certain countefs with a hundred crowns to introduce her ; and to fave appearances, (he lofes them in the (hape of a wager touching the hour of the day, as was previoufly fettled betwixt them by a mutual confidant. The merchant had quit- ted trade about three months, which circum- ftance had flattered his wife that (he (hould find fo much the more eafy accefs ; but the whole tenour of the Play proves, that fuch commerce is incompatible. The ladies (he is introduced to, upon the difcovery of her rank in life, are extremely affronted, and very rude to her. In the laft fcene, the merchant’s wife takes her revenge in expofing the countefs who had received the hundred crowns ; and the moral of the Play feems to be Amply this, that we (hould always feek fuch company who are our equals, and that no one (hould afpire beyond thofe limits 5 with which maxim the poet concludes the play. Mr. Sharp has alfo (in Letter 7th) faid, It is whifpered at Venice, that many of the No- bles are concerned in clandeftine partnerfhips* , E 2 Now [ J2 ] Now in fupport of this aflertion, and in oppo- fition to that of Mr. Baretti, who maintains that the Nobles make no fcruple to appear in trade, I fhall quote another play of Goldoni, called II Cavalier di buon Gufio ; and as Goldo- ni is a native, and has been long an inhabitant of Venice, he may be prefumed to know the cuftoms of that city. In this comedy the Count Odtavio, who is fuppofed by his extra- vagance to have wafted his own patrimony, and the eftate of his nephew, to whom he was guardian, difcovers in the winding up of the plot, that he had been enabled to make a figure in the world, by a clandeftine partner- fhip with the Venetian merchant Pantaloon ; and takes this opportunity to declare, that com- merce does not derogate from the character of a Cavalier, and it was only in fubmiftion to the prejudices of the world, that he had chofen to traffick privately. We fhall next take a view of what Mr. Ba- retti and Mr. Sharp have advanced on the fub- je£t of mufick. It was natural for Mr. Sharp, the moment he arrived at Naples, (the nurfery both of vocal and inftrumental performers) to mike his firft enquiry upon what footing that fcience flood there. He defcribes the magnifi- 7 ceiace [ S 3 ] cence and vaftnefs of their opera-houfe, the manner of lighting it, the nature of the fub- fcription for the fupport of operas, the falaries of their fingers, See. See. The defeription of the theatre, illuminations. Sec. Mr. Baretti affirms to be miferable trifles, and erroneous for the greatefi: part ; though he grants he was never at Naples, and therefore cannot be fuppofed to be a competent judge of that matter : However, admitting the juftnefs of his animadverfion j yet what regards the cuftoms and manners of Italy on this point, poffibly may not be efteemed frivolous ; and therefore I fhall quote Mr. Baretti himfelf in fupport of the principal fads which Mr. Sharp has alledged. Mr. Sharp fays, that all the young ladies of fafhion are placed in convents, where mufick is feldom a part of their education : (Mr. Ba- retti has chcfen to quote the fifft edition, where it is inadvertently aflerted to be no part of their education j) wherefore the women of faffiion in Italy are not in general, fo well inftruded in mufick, as the ladies of faffiion in England, Mr. Baretti, who fets out with declaring in his 17th chapter, that he is a ftranger to the tranf- adions of the mufical world, and that he is E 3 equally r 54 ] equally ignorant of mufick with Mr. Sharp, grants however, that Mr. Sharp was right, when he fays, “ Mufick is not much thought of in the education of our young ladies.” — Mr. Baretti is pleafed to give us the reafons why Ita- lian ladies are not fo educated : he tells us, that in the warm climate of Italy, the fenfibility of the young ladies is fuch, that (p. 291.) mufick would difcompofe their little hearts ; befides, that Italian parents do all they can to guard againfi: the immoral chara&ers of mufick maf- ters, as much as Britifn parents in England, do againfi; the indecencies of the fiage ; for, fays he, mufick in Italy gives a voluptuous and wicked turn of mind to the generality ot its profefibrs and fingers, which laft are defpifed equady with their dancers ; befides, he lays, , that Italians hold mufick cheap, becaufe they have fo great a plenty of it. Mr. Sharp hasuiid, that the opera-houfe is a kind of rendezvous for the polite people, and that they talk loudly during the performance, to the annoyance of thofe who with to hear, and to the great mortification of the fingers ; and that it is not the cuftom there, as in England, to ufe a wax light, fo that in the pit, it is impoffible for moll men to read the opera* [ 55 1 0 pera. A very acute remark, fays Mr. Baretti, (p. 311.) t° which I have nothing to fay, but that the Italians are not fo good natured as the Englifh, who have patience enough to rim carefully over a fiupid piece of nonfenfe* while a filly eunuch is mincing a vowel into a thoufand invifible particles. When we are at the opera, we confider thofe fellows in the lump, as one of the many things that induced us to be there \ and we pay the fame attention to their finging, which we pay to other parts of that diver fion. We fix our eyes, for in- fiance, a moment or two on tne fcenes and the drefles, when they happen to be new and fuper- latively well imagined 5 and our fingers would be very ridiculous indeed, if to their cuftomary impudence they added that of pretending to much more regard than what we pay to the pencil of an ingenious painter, or even to the elegance of a fanciful taylor. And then, though the opera, be Metafiafio’s, we know for cer- tain beforehand, that it is as perfectly butchei- ed by the Opera Poet, as thofe that are exhi- bited in the Hay-market. This being tne cafe, would it not be fupremely ridiculous to pore for fome hours over an opera book with a final! wax-light in our hands ? — This laft fin- E 4 tence I 5^ ] tencc may ferve to judify Mr. Sharp againft the reproaches of Mr. Baretti, for his filence with regard to Metadafio in his account of operas and opera-houfes. Mr. Baretti, in his 29th chapter, fays, that Mr. Sharp has mifreprefented fads, when he informs us that the government of Venice re- ceives private information by the Lyon’s mouths, which are placed in certain parts of the Doge’s palace j for that this method of informing, is no longer pradifed there, and that if Mr. Sharp had looked into thefe heads, he would have ieen that they have been long full of cobwebs, and choaked with dud. This latter part of the affertion, 1 think I can venture to declare is not true ; and- the firft appears questionable to me, becaufeit is improbable that fo elfential a change in the conditution of Venice, fhould have efcaped the notice of travellers, few of which omit to mention jthe Lyon’s mouths, down to the Abbe Richard, and the French gentleman who publifhed within thefe five yeats, his Ivlemones fur 1 Italie par deux gen- tilfhommes Suedois. The fird of thefe writers fpeaks of them in vol. 2d. p. 292 j the other in his 2d vol. p. 64. — Befides I know from Mr. Sharp, that a merchant who refides at Venice,, L 57 ] Venice, pointed out thefe lyons, and explained their ufe to him. Now that travellers who have made it their bulinefs to examine, and that an inhabitant of Venice, who may befup- pofed to have fome curiofity on this fubjedt, fhould all agree in efteeming that a notorious truth, which Mr. Baretti reprefents as a noto- rious falfehood, makes the fa£t, I (hould ima- gine, queftionable, and gives fome reafon to fufpeft, that Mr. Baretti, by fome accident, has been led into a miftake on this article. Mr. Sharp has given an opinion in his * 1 5th letter, that certain mufcles in the ftatue of the Farnefian Hercules, are not of the fhape the artiffc would have given them, had he copied from nature. Mr. Baretti thinks that Glycon was a better judge of the human form than Mr. Sharp, and confequently, that Mr. Sharp’s criticifm is prefumptuous. Vol. 2. p. 308. But though that celebrated ftatuary was a more competent judge of the human form than Mr. Sharp, and might have been a more competent judge alfo of anatomy, had he been furnilhed with the means of cultivating that feience, yet the fa£ is, that neither the Greeks nor the Romans were converfant in human difledions, [ 58 ] difledions, nor had their ttatuaries at any time an opportunity of feeing the mufcles of a man artfully denuded. The practice of ditteding brutes only prevailed fo much, even in the time of Galen, that hefpeaks of a human fke- leton at Alexandria, as a Angular phaenomenon, and recommends young medical ftudents to go thither from Rome, in order to make them- felves matters of ofteology. In the limbs, the flefhy parts of the muf- cles are round and thick, fo that they fwell ex- ceedingly upon inflation, and in athletick men, evidently mark their feveral interttices under the fkin, which is the reafon why Glycon has repre- fented the mufcles of the limbs in their exad fhape and pofition 3 but fomeof the thin mufcles not fwelling futticiently in adion, to point out their precife boundaries under the fkin, he has probably been obliged, from the want of an original, to fupply with his imagination, a mufculage which is not abfolutely natural. This error is more remarkable in the hinder part of the neck and back, than in any of the other mufcles of the Farnefian Hercules. If you caft an eyeon a figure, where the mufcles of the neck and back are ditteded, you will obferve the trapezius mufcle polfetting a large extent of that part. — [ 59 3 parti Now, were this mufele as much infla- ted, as the mufele s of the Farnefian Hercules are, it would nearly reprefent two triangles (one on each fide of the fpine) j but the artift has not given it that fhape ; wherefore, with great deference to the amazing genius of Glycon, we may ftill admit the beauty, but call in queftion the truth of the mufculage. I think Mr. Sharp has no where attempted to give a general character of the Italians; Probably he knew the difficulty of fuch an at- tempt, and how liable it would be to cavils, however well executed. Therefore he has neither faid that the Italians are learned, or ig- norant, witty, or dull, brave, or cowardly, merciful, or cruel, vindidive, or forgiving, handfpme, or homely j in ffiort, he has men- tioned but onecharader, which he aferibes to the whole body of the people, from the high- eft to the loweft ; I mean the univerial ptadice offobriety, even to a total exemption from the vice of drunkennefs. It is true that Mr. Sharp has taken the fiee- dom to cenfure certain religious ceremonies of the Italians ; but it does not appear that he fpoke ludicroufly of them whilft he was in Italy, and I dare anfwer for him, that he never once [ 6o ] once in his life uttered a difrefpedful word on the catholick religion in a catholick country, or even in the prefence of a catholick in his own country. He has no where impeached the principles of their faith, but only thofe practices, which proteftants efteem fuperfti- tious mummeries, tending to rob the laity of their civil rights and privileges ; and though Mr. Sharp might with great propriety, have published a defence of proteftantifm in Eng- land, by expofing the follies which ftill fubfift m Italy, without exp e ding to be accountable for it ; yet he was fo unwilling to give offence, that he apologizes to the catholicks of England, for this ftep, knowing that many of the wife and moderate amongft them, with they were well rid of fome of their antient pageantries. Had Mr. Baretti imitated this conduct, he would not in the mid ft of a country, under vvhofe laws he enjoys the uncontroled liberty of laying and writing what he pleafes, have trefpaffed fofar on that indulgence, as to enter into a i or mat vindication of monkery procelli- ons, fcftivals, See. and fo irldifcreetly brand the Reformation with the name of the Great Schifia, (Vide chap. 19. vol. 2.) But if ivi r . Sharp has avoided to give a gene- ral t 61 ] r al charader of the Italians, Mr. Baretti has fupplied that deficiency in page 374 of his Frujla Letter aria. It is in a letter written by an uncle juft returned from his travels, to a beautiful niece. Mr. Baretti fays it is worthy of a place in his papers. Here follows an ex- trad; from it. “ In this our vile (vigliaca) Italy, it is but too much a fhameful cuftom, when any man fits near a woman, immediately to talk to her in an impudent manner, of unlawful love. Whether (he be virgin, wife, or widow, pro- vided (he be young, (he muft be condemned to hear a thoufand naufeous whifpers from every man who approaches her. It is impofli- ble, my dear Clotilda, but that this muft have been often your cafe, fo univerfally is it the mode in this corrupt country, to infult female modefty. 5 ’ And in vol. 2d, p. 28. Mr. Baretti tells us, it is proverbially faid, that men are every where the fame ; neverthelefs, in my travels through Europe, continues he, I have obferved in certain countries, an abundance of individuals of a certain character which are rarely found in other countries. I have not, for example, been able to difcover in any other part of Eu- rope, [ 62 ] rope, fuch an infinite number of blockheads (Omaccioni e Omiccatoli) as we fee in Italy, who never diftinguifh good from evil. Would to God that this obfervation were falfe But alas ! it is a truth that our Italy fwarms on every fide, with people, who not only miftake infolence and impudence for vivacity and cou- rage j impolitenefs and rudenefs for franknefs and fincerity ; naflinefs and beaftlinefs in con- verfation, for pleafantry and gallantry ; but even lies, falfehood, and fometimes treachery itfdf, for acutenefs of parts, ffrength of un- demanding, and fuperiority of wifdom, or at leaf!: for fuperiority of knowledge of the world. I could bring, fays Mr. Baretti, a thousand and a thoufand proofs of this obfervation, &c. See. Mr. Baretti, in his 1 8 th chapter, tells us, that Mr. Sharp and feverai proteflant travellers affert, that the Italians place all their young ladies in convents, and leave them there until they marry, or take the veil ; but that it is a falfhood. Mr. Baretti illuftrates his argument by fuppofing, that in the dutchy of Tufcany there are thirty-fix thoufand young girls, who are able to pay for education ; but that in fad: there are fcarcely fix hundred penfioners (board- 9 ers t 63 ] ers at convents) in all Tufcany. — By this fup- pofition of thirty-fix thoufand young women, it appears evidently, that Mr. Baretti and Mr. Sharp have not turned their thoughts to the fame cl afs of people j for Mr. Sharp, I believe, mentions the circumftance of education, only in two places, the one in letter 19, where he affigns a reafon why the fine ladies at Naples are not fo well inftru&ed in mufick as the fine ladies in London and in letter 48, where he accounts for the great number of gentlemen in comparifon of ladies, at the Italian converfa- zioni. Undoubtedly therefore, Mr. Baretti has mifunderftood Mr. Sharp, who referred only to the daughters of the nobility and people of the firft families, the numbers of which are very fmall, compared with his calculation. But if the young ladies of fafhion are not educated in convents, it may be afked where are they educated ? Are not convents in Italy anfwerable to our ladies board ing-fchools in England ? However, fuppofing the majority of young ladies to be educated elfewhere, that circumftance would not invalidate the aftertion that few fingle women are feen at their fpe&a- cles, their converfationi, &c. but only the fo- lution of the queftion, why they are not feen there l [ 64 ] there ?— Travellers have afcribed it to the con* finement of a convent ; Mr. Baretti has left the controverfy open, not fpecifying in what man- ner they are confined. I will neverthelefs grant to Mr. Baretti, that if it be true that la- dies of fafhion are not generally educated in convents, he has removed one of the mod: po- pular errors under which Englifhmen labour- ed : But it feems to me, that in arguing this point he has run himfelf into a difficulty, from which it will not be eafy to extricate him ; for if, as he fays, an old maiden is an objed fierce- ly ever to be feen in Italy, and if this fad is true alfo of the families of the nobility, it fhould follow, that as the number of women is nearly equal to the number of men, and the number of nuns is but very final!, it fhould follow, I fay, that the young men of family would be all married ; and we ought to fee as many women in their aflemblies (for wives do not flay at home) as we fee men j but the truth is, that we fee few women in comparifon of men, which has been hitherto imputed to the confinement of fingle ladies in their convents. How Mr. Baretti will clear up this difficulty, I do not rightly underfiand, as it is efteemed an indifputable fad, that few brothers in a noble family' [ 65 ] family, do marry from a principle of prefervin* the family eftate in the name, which by the euftom of Italy is divided upon the death of a father, amongft all the fons. Page 9. Mr. Baretti iikewife alTerts, that Ita- lians in general are very forry when their girls take it into their filly heads to become nuns ; and fo far are they from clapping them forcibly] or even chearfully into a nunnery, that they do all in their power to reconcile them to the World ; fometimes they ridicule them, fome- times they fcold them, and fometimes they carr y them to mafquerades, operas, and pub* lick walks, where young men ogle, bow, and whifper, &c. This may poffibly be a true rep refen tation of the manners of Italy in regard to nunneries, and the education of young ladies of fafhion; but it may Iikewife be doubted 3 for though a foreigner cannot guard too much againft mif- taking Angularities for cuftoms, yet I muft mention one inftance under my own obferva- £ion, which clalhes with the dodxine laid down by Mr. Baretti.— When I was at Naples I had the honour of a card from a noble duke, whole daughter was to take the veil, inviting me to attend at the ceremony of her profetfion. This ^ duke [ 66 ) duke had many daughters, fome of whom had already taken the veil, and fo little forrow did I perceive (upon the 101s of another daughter) either in his countenance, or the countenance of his friends, that the chearfulnefs. of their behaviour and vivacity of their convention af- ter the fundion, was the circumftance which flruck me mod particularly in the occurrences of that day. Mr. Baretti, chap. 6. p. 4. ridicules the opinion that in Italy matches are generally the effeds of parental authority, and not of mutual affcdions amongft the young people who fome- times, according to Mr. Sharp, do not fee each other more than once or twice before the celebration of their marriage ; ne.verthelefs though it may be difficult to prove in a diftant country, what is a matter of notoriety in ano- ther country, I fhall hazard from Goldoni, a kind of proof that in Italy it is a common cuf- tom among the gentry, I mean to difpofe of children in marriage without their participation, Goldoni fays, that his Serva Amorofa (the Amorous Waiting-maid) was one of his moft fortunate produdions, and met with the great- eft fuccefs. I (hall therefore fuppofe, that the favourite charader in'it, Corallina, could hard- [ 67 ] Jy have given us a picture of their manners, ut- terly repugnant to truth ; yet in one fcene of the; comedy, (he exprefles herfelf in the fol- lowing words. “ It would be extremely right fays (he, if in this bufinefs of matrimony, the young couple might fpeak once at lead to each other without coutroul, and to be fecure of a reciprocal affedion before they were contracted But without Goldoni’s abidance, I might have brought an undeniable authority from Mr. B, himfelf, who in page 95 alledges, that the Great generally marry for the fake of alliance or intereft, without much confulting inclination, lam now come to the article of Cicilbeifm. The account Mr. Sharp has given of its prefent date in Venice, Florence, Naples, and Rome, has drawn upon him the heavieft imputations from Mr. Baretti ; but I (hall not enter into the examination of this part of Mr. Sharp’s letters, before I give the fubftance of what he has advanced on this head.— -He fays that in Venice, a gentleman who attends on, or gallants a married lady, is called a Cavaliere fervente, and in the other parts of Italy a Ci- ci|beo. This Cicilbeo waits on her to the Spedacles, the Converfazioni, and Corfo (the F 2 pufelick [ 68 1 pub lick walks): He fays, that hufbands do net appear at thefe places in the company of the i r wives ; nor will fafhion allow one worn ah to conduct another, fo that they become con- ftrained to admit of Cicifbeo’s, unlefs they will condefcend to live always at home, which can- not be expected from women of diftindtion, who alone aflame the privilege of appearing with their Cicifbeos, and of whom alone Mr. Sharp mu ft neceftarily fpeak. He goes on to tell us, that the character of Cicifbeo is not un- derftood to be an innocent one ; and that the ladies are fuppofed not to live in greater purity with them than with their hufbands, and gene- rally fpeaking, with much lefs. That the hufbands have their revenge in being the Cicif- beos to other ladies ; that the prefent ftate of Cicifbeilm in Italy is a greater revolution in the manners of a people, than probably can be in- flanced in any other country j for that formerly hufbands were jealous, and immured their wives, but that now Italian ladies have more liberty than any other women in Europe : That notvvithftanding the notoriety of the practice, all the ladies behaved with fo much modefty and decorum, that he was almoft tempted to treat the reports he had heard as mere [ 69 ] there del rad ion. That fpending fo many evenings at the envoy’s palace in Naples, where the foreign mi-nifters and the fird quality of Naples reforted, he had the opportunity of fee- ing there great numbers of ladies, with their Cicifbeo’s, who vifited and aftbeiated together, in the fame manner that plain men do with their wives in England. I believe I have ihere given the mod efTential part of the defeription. It mud he granted that the account feems drange and incredible j and a : marj who Oiould contradid Mr. .Sharp would eadly find credit from every one who has not heen in Italy, and from every one who has not lived . in Italy, arnongd people of the fir ft rank there ; for I donotqueftion but that there are many natives of that country who are ignorant of what paftes in the great world. But Mr. Baretti fays that it is impodible to be true ; that could the Italians read fo much illiberal abufe, and ferocious declamation on them and their manners, they would dare, and many of the ladies would certainly wifli Jmn for a while under the tuition of fome good exorcift; and that henever s will be able to per- suade the world there is a vad trad of land in a chridian country, where fome hundred thau- F 3 fands t 7° 1 fands of hulbands are moft regularly and mofl infamoufiy wronged by their wives, &c. Mr. Baretti in this place* as in many others, in order to involve Mr. Sharp in abfurdity, Ihifts the propofition from particulars to generals, from the narrow circle of the polite world, who only have adopted this fpecies of gallantry* to all ranks and dailies of people, tofome hun- dreds of thoufands, fays Mr. Baretti. I pre- fume however, that Mr. Baretti will not deny that few young married ladies of diftindtion (I might fay old married ladies) are feen without their cicilbeos ; that hulbands do not appear in publick with their wives, but that their wives &re accompanied by the cicilbeos ; that look into a coach at the Corfo, the gentleman and lady you fee in it are not a hulband and wife, but a wife and cicilbeo ; that cicilbeo’s have the op- portunity of many private converfations with their ladies both at home and abroad, from the hour of rifmg to the hour of going to bed. — But, fays Mr. Baretti, granting all this to be true, the commerce betwixt cicilbeos and their ladies, except in a few inftances, is Hill inno* cent, which innocence of behaviour he afcribes to a fpirit of chivalry derived from their ancef- fcors* and to Platonick notions which prevail all over 1 71 ] over Italy. Almoft all the polite Italians, fays he, imbibe fuch fentiments as foon as they ac- quire the power of reading, and learn that the contemplation of earthly beauty raifes an honeft mind to the contemplation and love of the hea- venly (p. 104.) > ^ fhort, according to Mr. Baretti, to ciciibee a lady, means only to whn- per a lady, the old word cicilbeare bearing that import : but, adds he, Mr. Sharp knows nothing of the mitter, through an ignorance of our language and poetry, particularly the writings of Petrarch, which would have ferved as a key to our general cuftoms and manners. It is however a little extraordinary that he (hould fuppofe this private intercourfe betwixt ladies and their cicilbeos to be fo very pure, when he admits that the young ladies have fuch a fenfibility peculiar to the climate of Italy, that they are not to be trufted at their harpfichords with the languilhings of a Mifmto monr , fet to mufick by a feeling compofer, nor with the company of mufick-mafters, for a great incon- venience ; what the inconvenience \% Mr. Ba- retti leaves us to imagine (p. 299.) ; out in Eng- land, fays he, where the temperature of the climate is a guard againft thefe lively impref- fions, young ladies may fafely apply to mufick. F 4 1 frail t 7 Z ] I fhall not oppofe Mr. Baretti on the nature of our climate j but notwitbifanding this phlegm which he afcribes to the conftitution of our Englith young ladies, I can affine him that were any of our married women to dedicate their private hours to a certain individual, were they to appear at his elbow in all places of refort at routs, drums, &c. tho’ they lay every night in their hulband’s bed, their phlegm would not exempt t em from the fufpicion of intrigue, which would beefteemed, even in this climate, un- avoidable in the midft of fo many opportuni- ties; andfuch ladies would certainly be ftigma. tized and fhunned. Thefe reafonmgs I may be told are plaufible but not convincing, and that better and more pod five proofs are neceffary to periuade .an h-ngh£h reader that thefe manners are not the fancy of Mr. Sharp’s brains, but the real man- ners of the great cities in Italy. To produce a proof f ro m the writings of refpeftable Italian authors, that he has faid nothing but what has been faid by them before, might have probably been a difficult talk. Should an Italian, after IS return from England, atfert that in ibme of the great ftreets in London, multitudes ofpr 0 : Ititutes walk there for thepurpofe of feduflion, without [ 73 1 without giving umbrage either to magiftracy or the neighbourhood, he might be charged with falfhood, and called upon for his proofs, which however he might not be furnifhed with, though the fadt be fo notorious this fortunately is not my cafe j I have in my hands certain writings which throw fome light on this controversy, and I believe eftablifh the truth of what Mr. Sharp has advanced. Mr. Baretti fays (p. 204.) that foreigners fhould look forfure information concerning our cuftoms and manners in the poem of Pafteroni of Milan, and not in the idle and Shallow per- formances of Mr. Sharp and other fuch con- ceited and ignorant travellers. At Milan, he fays, there is like wife one Parini, who will certainly prove a very eminent poet, if he con- tinues to write. His Mattino and Mezzodi have filled me with hopes that he will foon be the Pope, or the Boileau of Italy, as he is al- ready aim oft equal to them in juftnefs of think- ing, and exa&nefs of expreftion, and hems to lurpafs them in richnefs of imagery and fecun- dity of invention. As Parini is celebrated for his juftnefs of thinking, and exacftnefs of expreftion, I fhall Say before the reader what he thinks and fays on [ 74 ] Oil ckUbcifm, in his poem called II Mattino (the Morning). — This poem is dedgned to ex- pofe the reigning vices and follies of the prefent age in Italy j and is therefore dedicated to Fajhion. It is a pi&ure of a luxurious young man of high birth, fitting up all night, and ly- ing in bed all the morning, with his fidlers, his taylors, his dancing-mafters, &c. attending at his levee. When the poet has defcribed his valet de chambres, his frifeurs, &c. adorning his perfon, he addreflfes himfelf to the hero of his piece, and fays, It is now time you fhould confider of the companion whom heaven has defined for you, to divide the burthen of an idle life Do you grow pale ? I do not fpeak of marriage j I fhould be a mufly fellow in- deed to give fuch foolilh antiquated counfel. — Then rallying the date of matrimony, he fays, “ May he perifh who advifes you to marriage.” Neverthelefs you fhall have a partner, who is young, and who is the wife of another, finee the inviolable cudom of the polite world, of which you are a member, will have it fo, Pera dunque chi a te nozze condglia, Ma nonpero fenza compagna andrai, Che da Giovane Dama, ed al trui Spofa ; Poiche t 75 1 poiche si vuole in violabil rito Del bel mondo* onde tu fe cittadino— Afterwards the poet enters into a detail of this revolution in the manners of Italy, which he illudrates by the following allegory ; of which I ihall give an imperfedt tranflation. In antient times the mother of Cupid placed him under the care of his brother Hy- men* becaufe fhe was afraid that being blind he might wander and lofe his way, and alfo that he would not be able to direct his arrows fo as to preferve the human race > therefore (he gave orders that he fhould fhoot the arrows and Hymen fhould dired: them. Thus the fweet couple went always in thofe days, hand in hand, every fhepherd and fhepherdefs were united in the bands of wedlock. Sol faw them together all the day, fitting by the fountain, or the purling dream ; and Diana beheld them all the night in the happy nuptial bed, which the two Gods drewed mod plentifully with lilies and with rofes. But when the wings of Cupid had acquired fufficient drength, he mounted the fkies, and with a furious counte- nance, entering Olympus, and brandifhing his bow of deel, he loudly proclaimed, I will fway the [ 76 J the fcepter alone — Then turning to his mothtr, he faid. Shall Cupid, the moft powerful among# the Gods, and the firtt-born of Venus, receive law from a vile younger brother ? Shall I not dare to ttrike the fame heart more than once, becaufe it fo pleafes that dirty fellow ? Shall I never have it in my power, after I have fatten- ed a knot, to loofe it, aye, and fatten it again if it be my pleafure ? Shall I fuffer him to daub my arrows with his unguents, and weaken their poifon, that they may more fafely entef the human brea# ? Why does he not alfo rob me of my bow and quiver, and leave me naked, a mere outcatt of the Gods ?— Q the charming hfe were he to reign in my place! What a feene of ridiculoufnefs to view him throwing about ice inttead of fire, and impotently ex- erting himfelf to drive wearinefs and averfion from languid fouls ! Therefore, dear mother, hearken ; I find that I am able, and I will reign alone : Divide the power betwixt us in the manner which may be moft agreeable to you, but fo that mankind for the future may not find me in the company of Hymen. The Citherean Goddefs endeavoured to footh his paflion j (he begged, the wept, but all in vain : wherefore, addrcfling herfelf to her two funs, 9 flic [ 77 ] ihe compofed the quarrel in the following words : Since then there can be no peace be- twixt you, let your government be divided; and that one brother may be always feparated from the other, let your hours and your occu- pations be different. You who are fo impetu- ous and fo proud of your darts, be it your pro- vince to wound the foul and govern by day ; and you, who are crowned with rofes, let it be your charge to couple mere bodies , and with your flaming torch take the command by night. Hence, continues he, is derived that polite mode, which grants to hufbands the dark hours, and the chaile bodies of their wives ; and to you, O mod bleffed and mod noble race of men, the hearts of thole very wives, and an abfolute command by day. Should Mr. Baretti urge that this is a poem, and that great allowances are to be made for the exaggerations of poetry, I fhall only ob- lerve, that Parini, who is fo juft in his thinkings and fo exaB in his exprefjion , has defcribed the prefent date of cicifbeifm (were the poem ftript of its poetical ornaments) juft as Mr. Sharp has defcribed it, and I prefume juft as it now ftands : — but if poetry be infufticient, I hope what Mr. Baretti himfelf has given us in profc f 73 ] profe on this fubjedt will prove more fatisfadlo- ry. It is in his Frufta Letter aria, Vol. 1. p. 184, where he has written an imaginary letter from a bride to her hufband, and lays, fuch kind of letters would be more ufeful to the world, than the epithalamiums, &c, now in vogue upon every marriage. Here follows an extract from it. Though I am young, I know the wicked- nefs of the age, I know that feveral men will be, or pretend to be, enamoured of me, as foon as the hurry of my wedding, and a few of my bridal days are over. I know that more than one of your deareft friends will not let flip the opportunity of dropping privately fvveet and flattering infmuations, to induce me to break my matrimonial vow ; and I know that few, very few, will fcruple to rob you of the heart of your wife ; and to contaminate and corrupt it. One will attack me with humble language, another with down-cad looks, another with prefents, another with procuring me diver- lions, another with free converfation, another with obfcenity. and another with different un- juft methods j but I will ftand .firmly like a tower of brals, &c.~~ Neverthelefs, dear huf- band, it will be ncceffary on the other hand, that in fpite of irrejijhhle Fajhion , you flialf z neveF [ 79 1 never be afhamed of being feen with me, even in pub lick > that you (hall not blulh to confels you love me ; however fuch a confeffion may fometimes expofe a married man to the deriiion of fools. It will be neceflary that you not on- ly refrain from acting as a Cicifbeo, or Cava- liere Servente, though with an intention to pals your time innocently ; but you muft alfo take care to keep me in the opinion, even after the firft month of our marriage, that you prefer me to every other creature of my fpecies. To the inftances which have already been given of the manner in which Mr. Sharp’s Letters have been quoted by Mr. Baretti, the follo wing are added, that the reader may be bet- ter able to judge of the criticifms which he has founded on fuch quotations. Mr. Sharp, in his 1 9th Letter, fays, That mufical talents are rewarded in England ten- fold above what they are in Naples, except in the Ijngle inftance of the fir fb clals of Opera Singers, who are paid extravagantly. To give this obfervation the appearance of abfurdity, Mr. Baretti, Vol. 1. p. H 8 * q uotes Mr - Shar P as fay ingin one line that the Opera performers are not paid fo liberally as in London ; and in the next, that Gabrieli had for one year only, nine hundred Engliih pounds. Mr. Mr. Sharp, in Letter 5 1, fays, That he faw people making hay in the fmall plots of the King of Sardinia’s gardens at Turin, Mr. Baretti, XoL 2 \ P‘ 21 6- niakes him fay that the King of Sardinia Jells grafs . Mr. Baretti, in Vol. 2. p. 76. charges Mr; Sharp with having refided two months in a town, where the Friars are more numerous than in any other in Europe, and having nothing more to fay of them but that they are fuperfti- tious, and have fat guts ; but the words fat guts are not to be found in Mr. Sharp’s Letters. To give a ridiculous turn to Mr. Sharp’s de- fcription of the Opera Houfe at Haples, Mr. Baretti tells us, that he meajured with his eye the amazing extent, &c. Vol. 1. p. 169. Mr. Baretti has here, in his cuftomary manner, ufed Italics, intimating that they are the very words of Mr. Sharp, which is not the fadl. Mr Sharp in Letter ioth, alluding to the triumphant hate of the Church in the Ecclefiaftical dominions, fays, That every place labours here under great difadvantages* from the infinite conceffions that are made to the Church, by the commercial and military parts of the nation. Mr. Baretti, to render him ridiculous, changes the words every place labours C 81 ] labours bore, for the words Ancona lies here , &c. by which contrivance he makes Mr. Sharp fay that of the fmall town of Ancona, which is really faid of the whole nation ; and then proceeds very gayly to inform us, that he never heard at Ancona of the Anconitan nation. Vol. ift, p. 13. Vol. 2d, p. 315. Mr. Baretti makes Mr. Sharp affirm, that whether you travel with Voiturins, or by the Port, through Savoy, you flill advance at the fame flow rate. The whole of this extract is a fidlion 5 for neither the opini- on, nor one word of the fentence is to be found in Sharp’s Letters. Mr. Sharp has faid no more than what is contained in the following paragraph. — A man may travel poft, if he plea- les, through the Alps > but it is attended with fome trouble ; and as I would not advife any one to drive fall on the edges of thofe precipi- ces, I {hall forbear to enter into any detail on that fubjeft. Vide the admonition, annexed to the Letters. I prefume the reader is now perfuaded that the greater part of the heavy cenfures drawn down upon Mr. Sharp are either for words which be never faid, or for words which Mr. Baretti himfelf had nearly faid before him. G What t 82 ] What may have led Mr. Baretti into this over- fight I cannot pofitively determine, but he has told us, that were Italians indulged with the liberty of the prefs, they would certainly make an illiberal ufe of it ; and perhaps a fond- nefs to fupport, at all events, that cruel charge againfl: his countrymen, may have prompted him to give the world a pregnant example of the truth of it in his own writings. FINIS. ZA- ir 2, K- 6 (? 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