Cincinnatus and Ossian, are
at Rome, and were done by Mr Wallis, an English painter.

Book ix.

THE POPULAR FESTIVAL, AND MUSIC.

Chapter i.

It was the last day of carnival, which is the most noisy festival of the
year, when a fever of joy, a mania of amusement, unparalleled in any
other country, seized the Roman people. Everybody is disguised; hardly
does there remain at the windows, an unmasked spectator: the scene of
gaiety commences at a given hour on a certain day, and scarcely ever
does any public or private event of the year hinder any person from
joining the sports of the season.

It is then that we can form a judgment of the extent of imagination
possessed by the common people. The Italian language, even in their
mouths, is full of charm. Alfieri said that he went to the public market
at Florence to learn to speak good Italian,--Rome has the same
advantages: and perhaps these are the only two cities in the world where
the people speak so well that the mind may receive entertainment at
every corner of the street.

That kind of humour which shines in the authors of harlequinades and
opera-buffa, is very commonly found even among men without education. In
these days of carnival, when extravagance and caricature are admitted,
the most comic scenes take place between the masks.

Often a burlesque gravity is contrasted with the vivacity of the
Italians; and one would say that these fantastic vestments inspired a
dignity in the wearers, not natural to them; at other times, they
manifest such a singular knowledge of mythology in their disguises, that
we would be inclined to believe the ancient fables still popular in
Rome; and more frequently they ridicule different gradations of society
with a pleasantry full of force and originality. The nation appears a
thousand times more distinguished in its sports than in its history. The
Italian language yields to every shade of gaiety with a facility which
only requires a light inflection of the voice and a little difference of
termination in order to increase or diminish, ennoble or travesty, the
sense of words. It is particularly graceful in the mouth of
children[28]. The innocence of this age and the natural malice of the
language, form an exquisite contrast. In truth, it may be said, that it
is a language which explains itself without any aid and always appears
more intellectual than he who speaks it.

There is neither luxury nor good taste in the