ans "donkey." And it must be owned that the two lines I have
quoted from Giusti's verses, with their untranslatable "lemme,
lemme"--of which I have endeavored, with imperfect success, to give
the meaning--present a very graphic picture of the man and the nature
and characteristics of his government. Everything went "lemme, lemme,"
in the Sleepy Hollow of Tuscany in those days.

Used as he was to be laughed at, Leopold could occasionally be made
sleepily half angry by impertinences which had something of a sting in
them. Here is an amusing instance of that fact, and of the way in
which things used to be done in Tuscany. Most of the Italian
provinces--or larger cities, rather--have been from time immemorial
personated in the popular fancy by certain comic types, supposed to
represent with more or less accuracy the special characteristics of
each district. Venice, as all the world knows, has, and still more
had, her "Pantaloon," Naples her "Pulcinello," etc. The specialties of
the Florentine character are popularly supposed to be embodied in
"Stenterello," who comes on the Florentine stage, in pieces written
for the purpose, every Carnival, to the never-failing delight of the
populace. Stenterello is an absurd figure with a curling pigtail,
large cocked hat, and habiliments meant to represent those of a Tuscan
citizen of some hundred years or so ago. He is a sort of shrewd fool,
doing the most absurd things, lying through thick and thin with a sort
of simple, self-confuting mendacity, yet contriving to cheat
everybody, and always having, amid all his follies, a shrewd eye to
his own interest. He talks with the broadest possible Florentine
accent and idiom, and despite his cunning is continually getting more
kicks than halfpence. Well, there was in those days a famous
Stenterello, really a very clever fellow in his way, who for many
years had been the delight of the Florentines every Carnival. But one
year a rival theatre produced a new and rival Stenterello. Of course
the old and established Stenterello could not stand this without using
the license of the popular stage to overwhelm his rival with ridicule.
"This sort of thing," said he, "will never do! How many Stenterelli
are we to have? Two is the regular established number in Florence.
There are I and my brother over there at the great house on the other
side of the Arno: we are the Florentine Stenterelli by right divine,
as is well known. Who is this pretender who com