an, and more frequented,
perhaps, than any other. This is a puppet theatre, but puppets so well
contrived and so well worked as to make the spectacle well worth the
attention of the traveller. It is the _Nec plus ultra of Marionettism_, in
which Signer Girolamo, the proprietor, has made a revolution, which will
form an epoch in the annals of puppetry; having driven from the stage
entirely the _graziosissima maschera d'Arlecchino_, who used to be the hero
of all the pieces represented by the puppets and substituted himself, or
rather a puppet bearing his name, in the place of Harlequin, as the
principal _farceur_ of the performance. He has contrived to make the puppet
Girolamo a little like himself, but so much caricatured and so monstrously
ugly a likeness that the bare sight of it raises immediate laughter. The
theatre itself is small, being something under the size of our old
Haymarket little theatre, but is very neatly and tastefully fitted up. The
puppets are about half of the natural size of man, and Girolamo, aided by
one or two others, works them and gives them gesture, by means of strings,
which are, however, so well contrived as to be scarcely visible; and
Girolamo himself speaks for all, as, besides being a ventriloquist, he has
a most astonishing faculty of varying his voice, and adapting it to the
_role_ of each puppet, so that the illusion is complete. The scenery and
decorations are excellent. Sometimes he gives operas as well as dramas, and
there is always a _ballo_, with transformation of one figure into another,
which forms part of the performance. These transformations are really very
curious and extremely well executed. Almost all the pieces acted on the
theatre are of Girolamo's own composition, and he sometimes chooses a
classical or mythological subject, in which the puppet Girolamo is sure to
be introduced and charged with all the wit of the piece. He speaks
invariably with the accent and _patois_ of the country, and his jokes never
fail to keep the audience in a roar of laughter; his mode of speech and
slang phrases form an absurd contrast to the other figures, who speak in
pure Italian and pompous _versi sciolti_. For instance, the piece I saw
represented was the story of Alcestis and was entitled _La scesa d'Ercole
nell Inferno_, to redeem the wife of Admetus. Hercules, before he commences
this undertaking, wishes to hire a valet for the journey, has an interview
with Girolamo, and engages him. He