called on
the company to supply him with rhymes for a sonnet. These, as fast as
they were suggested by various persons, he wrote down on a slip of
paper. The last rhyme given was "_Ostello_,"--(a common alehouse)--at
which he demurred, and submitting to the company the difficulty of
introducing so vulgar a word into an heroic sonnet, respectfully
begged that another might be substituted. A lady called out "_Avello_"
the poetical term for a grave, or a sepulchre, which expression bore
a happy analogy to the subject proposed. The poet smiled, well
pleased;--and stepping forward with the paper in his hand, he
immediately, without even a moment's preparation, recited a sonnet on
the second subject upon his list,--"_La Morte di Alfieri_."--I could
better judge of the merit of this effusion, because he spoke it
unaccompanied by music; and his enunciation was remarkably distinct.
The subject was popular, and treated with much feeling and poetic
fervour. After lamenting Alfieri as the patriot, as well as the bard,
and as the glory of his country, he concluded, by indignantly
repelling the supposition that "the latest sparks of genius and
freedom were buried in the tomb of Vittorio Alfieri." A thunder of
applause followed; and cries of "O bravo Sestini! bravo Sestini!" were
echoed from the Italian portion of the audience, long after the first
acclamations had subsided. The men rose simultaneously from their
seats; and I confess I could hardly keep mine. The animation of the
poet, and the enthusiasm of the audience, sent a thrill through every
nerve and filled my eyes with tears.

The next subject was "_La Morte di Beatrice Cenci_;"--and this, I
think, was a failure. The frightful story of _Cenci_ is too well known
in England since the publication of Shelley's Tragedy. Here it is
familiar to all classes; and though two centuries have since elapsed,
it seems as fresh in the memory, or rather in the imagination of these
people, as if it had happened but yesterday. The subject was not well
chosen for a public and mixed assembly; and Sestini, without adverting
to the previous details of horror, confined himself most scrupulously,
with propriety, to the subject proposed. He described Beatrice led to
execution,--"_con baldanza casta e generosa_"--and the effect produced
on the multitude by her youth:--not forgetting to celebrate "_those
tresses like threads of gold whose wavy splendour dazzled all
beholders_," as they are described by