'Indice de Teatrali
Spettacoli' for 1791, and this he handed to Theodore. This indice, like
all which appear yearly in Italy, merely contained a list of the titles
of the operas performed, with the names of their composers, and of the
singers, scene-painters, &c., concerned in their production. They
opened the page which related to the opera in Milan, and it was decided
that the prima donna should sing the names of the lover-tenors (with a
due interspersing of Ah Dio's and Oh Cielo's), that the lover-tenor
should sing the names of the prima donnas in like manner, and that the
comic old man should come in, in his furious wrath, with the titles of
the operas which had been given and an occasional burst of invective,
appropriate to his character.

Theodore played a _ritornello_ of the cut and pattern which occurs by
the hundred in the opera buffas of the Italians, and then began to sing
in sweet, tender strains "Lorenzo Coleoni! Gaspare Rossari! Oh Dio!
Giuseppo Marelli! Francesco Sedini!" &c. Ottmar followed with "Giuditta
Paracca! Teresa Ravini! Giovanna Velata--Oh Dio!" &c. And Lothair burst
duly in with rapid, angry quavers: "Le Gare Generose, del Maestro
Paesiello--Che vedo? La Donna di Spirito, del Maestro Mariella.
Briconaccio! Piro, Re di Epiro! Maledetti!--del Maestro Zingarelli,"
&c.

This singing, which Lothair and Ottmar accompanied with appropriate
gesticulations (Vincenz illustrating Theodore's impersonations with the
most preposterous grimaces imaginable), warmed up the friends more and
more. In a comic description of enthusiastic inspiration each seized
the drift of the other's ideas. All the passages, imitations, &c. (to
use musical expressions), usually employed in compositions of this
description, were reproduced with the utmost accuracy--so that any one
who had come in by accident would never have dreamt that this
performance was improvised on the spur of the moment, even if the
strange hotch-potch of names had struck him as curious.

Louder and more unrestrainedly raged this outbreak of Italian _rabbia_,
until (as may be supposed), it culminated in a wild, universal burst of
laughter, in which even Cyprian joined.

At their parting, on this evening, the friends were in a condition of
wild enjoyment, rather than (as was the case on other occasions), lull
of rational delight.

SECTION EIGHT.

The Serapion Brethren had assembled for another meeting.

"I must be