t to a pretty solemn tune, and when one begins in
any part of the poet, it is odds but he will be answered by somebody
else that overhears him; so that sometimes you have ten or a dozen in
the neighbourhood of one another, taking verse after verse, and running
on with the poem as far as their memories will carry them."--Addison,
A.D. 1700.]

The well-known song of the gondoliers, of alternate stanzas from Tasso's
_Jerusalem_, has died with the independence of Venice. Editions of the
poem, with the original in one column, and the Venetian variations on
the other, as sung by the boatmen, were once common, and are still to be
found. The following extract will serve to show the difference between
the Tuscan epic and the _Canta alia Barcariola:_--

ORIGINAL.

Canto l'arme pietose, e 'l capitano
Che 'l gran Sepolcro libero di Cristo
Molto egli opro col senno, e con la mano
Molto soffri nel glorioso acquisto;
E in van l' Inferno a lui s' oppose, e in vano
S' armo d' Asia, e di Libia il popol misto,
Che il Ciel gli die favore, e sotto a i Santi
Segni ridusse i suoi compagni erranti.

VENETIAN.

L' arme pietose de cantar gho vogia,
E de Goffredo la immortal braura
Che al fin l' ha libera co strassia, e dogia
Del nostro buon Gesu la Sepoltura
De mezo mondo unite, e de quel Bogia
Missier Pluton non l' ha bu mai paura:
Dio l' ha agiuta, e i compagni sparpagni
Tutti 'l gh' i ha messi insieme i di del Dai.

Some of the elder gondoliers will, however, take up and continue a
stanza of their once familiar bard.

On the 7th of last January, the author of _Childe Harold_, and another
Englishman, the writer of this notice, rowed to the Lido with two
singers, one of whom was a carpenter, and the other a gondolier. The
former placed himself at the prow, the latter at the stern of the boat.
A little after leaving the quay of the Piazzetta, they began to sing,
and continued their exercise until we arrived at the island. They gave
us, amongst other essays, the death of Clorinda, and the palace of
Armida; and did not sing the Venetian but the Tuscan verses. The
carpenter, however, who was the cleverer of the two, and was frequently
obliged to prompt his companion, told us that he could _translate_ the
original. He added, that he could sing almost three hundred stanzas, but
had not spirits (_morb