half the corners of the capital. The last curtsy of a
favourite "prima donna" brings down a shower of these poetical tributes
from those upper regions, from which, in our theatres, nothing but
cupids and snowstorms are accustomed to descend. There is a poetry in
the very life of a Venetian, which, in its common course, is varied with
those surprises and changes so recommendable in fiction, but so
different from the sober monotony of northern existence; amusements are
raised into duties, duties are softened into amusements, and every
object being considered as equally making a part of the business of
life, is announced and performed with the same earnest indifference and
gay assiduity. The Venetian gazette constantly closes its columns with
the following triple advertisement:--

_Charade._

Exposition of the most Holy Sacrament in the church of St.----

_Theatres_.

St. Moses, opera.
St. Benedict, a comedy of characters.
St. Luke, repose.

When it is recollected what the Catholics believe their consecrated
wafer to be, we may perhaps think it worthy of a more respectable niche
than between poetry and the playhouse.

3.

St. Mark yet sees his Lion where he stood
Stand.
Stanza xi. line 5.

The Lion has lost nothing by his journey to the Invalides, but the
gospel which supported the paw that is now on a level with the other
foot. The horses also are returned [A.D. 1815] to the ill-chosen spot
whence they set out, and are, as before, half hidden under the porch
window of St. Mark's Church. Their history, after a desperate struggle,
has been satisfactorily explored. The decisions and doubts of Erizzo and
Zanetti, and lastly, of the Count Leopold Cicognara, would have given
them a Roman extraction, and a pedigree not more ancient than the reign
of Nero. But M. de Schlegel stepped in to teach the Venetians the value
of their own treasures; and a Greek vindicated, at last and for ever,
the pretension of his countrymen to this noble production[557]. M.
Mustoxidi has not been left without a reply; but, as yet, he has
received no answer. It should seem that the horses are irrevocably
Chian, and were transferred to Constantinople by Theodosius. Lapidary
writing is a favourite play of the Italians, and has