The
Confrairies Are Fraternities Of Devotees, Who Inlist Themselves
Under The Banners Of Particular Saints.
On days of procession
they appear in a body dressed as penitents and masked, and
distinguished by crosses on their habits.
There is scarce an
individual, whether noble or plebeian, who does not belong to one
of these associations, which may be compared to the FreeMasons,
Gregoreans, and Antigallicans of England.
Just without one of the gates of Florence, there is a triumphal
arch erected on occasion of the late emperor's making his public
entry, when he succeeded to the dukedom of Tuscany: and herein
the summer evenings, the quality resort to take the air in their
coaches. Every carriage stops, and forms a little separate
conversazione. The ladies sit within, and the cicisbei stand on
the foot-boards, on each side of the coach, entertaining them
with their discourse. It would be no unpleasant inquiry to trace
this sort of gallantry to its original, and investigate all its
progress. The Italians, having been accused of jealousy, were
resolved to wipe off the reproach, and, seeking to avoid it for
the future, have run into the other extreme. I know it is
generally supposed that the custom of choosing cicisbei, was
calculated to prevent the extinction of families, which would
otherwise often happen in consequence of marriages founded upon
interest, without any mutual affection in the contracting
parties. How far this political consideration may have weighed
against the jealous and vindictive temper of the Italians, I will
not pretend to judge: but, certain it is, every married lady in
this country has her cicisbeo, or servente, who attends her every
where, and on all occasions; and upon whose privileges the
husband dares not encroach, without incurring the censure and
ridicule of the whole community. For my part, I would rather be
condemned for life to the gallies, than exercise the office of a
cicisbeo, exposed to the intolerable caprices and dangerous
resentment of an Italian virago. I pretend not to judge of the
national character, from my own observation: but, if the
portraits drawn by Goldoni in his Comedies are taken from nature,
I would not hesitate to pronounce the Italian women the most
haughty, insolent, capricious, and revengeful females on the face
of the earth. Indeed their resentments are so cruelly implacable,
and contain such a mixture of perfidy, that, in my opinion, they
are very unfit subjects for comedy, whose province it is, rather
to ridicule folly than to stigmatize such atrocious vice.
You have often heard it said, that the purity of the Italian is
to be found in the lingua Toscana, and bocca Romana. Certain it
is, the pronunciation of the Tuscans is disagreeably guttural:
the letters C and G they pronounce with an aspiration, which
hurts the ear of an Englishman; and is I think rather rougher
than that of the X, in Spanish. It sounds as if the speaker had
lost his palate. I really imagined the first man I heard speak in
Pisa, had met with that misfortune in the course of his amours.
One of the greatest curiosities you meet with in Italy, is the
Improvisatore; such is the name given to certain individuals, who
have the surprising talent of reciting verses extempore, on any
subject you propose. Mr. Corvesi, my landlord, has a son, a
Franciscan friar, who is a great genius in this way.
When the subject is given, his brother tunes his violin to
accompany him, and he begins to rehearse in recitative, with
wonderful fluency and precision. Thus he will, at a minute's
warning, recite two or three hundred verses, well turned, and
well adapted, and generally mingled with an elegant compliment to
the company. The Italians are so fond of poetry, that many of
them, have the best part of Ariosto, Tasso, and Petrarch, by
heart; and these are the great sources from which the
Improvisatori draw their rhimes, cadence, and turns of
expression. But, lest you should think there is neither rhime nor
reason in protracting this tedious epistle, I shall conclude it
with the old burden of my song, that I am always - Your
affectionate humble servant.
LETTER XXVIII
NICE, February 5, 1765.
DEAR SIR, - Your entertaining letter of the fifth of last month,
was a very charitable and a very agreeable donation: but your
suspicion is groundless. I assure you, upon my honour, I have no
share whatever in any of the disputes which agitate the public:
nor do I know any thing of your political transactions, except
what I casually see in one of your newspapers, with the perusal
of which I am sometimes favoured by our consul at Villefranche.
You insist upon my being more particular in my remarks on what I
saw at Florence, and I shall obey the injunction. The famous
gallery which contains the antiquities, is the third story of a
noble stone-edifice, built in the form of the Greek Pi, the upper
part fronting the river Arno, and one of the legs adjoining to
the ducal-palace, where the courts of justice are held. As the
house of Medici had for some centuries resided in the palace of
Pitti, situated on the other side of the river, a full mile from
these tribunals, the architect Vasari, who planned the new
edifice, at the same time contrived a corridore, or covered
passage, extending from the palace of Pitti along one of the
bridges, to the gallery of curiosities, through which the grand-
duke passed unseen, when he was disposed either to amuse himself
with his antiquities, or to assist at his courts of judicature:
but there is nothing very extraordinary either in the contrivance
or execution of this corridore.
If I resided in Florence I would give something extraordinary for
permission to walk every day in the gallery, which I should much
prefer to the Lycaeum, the groves of Academus, or any porch or
philosophical alley in Athens or in Rome. Here by viewing the
statues and busts ranged on each side, I should become acquainted
with the faces of all the remarkable personages, male and female,
of antiquity, and even be able to trace their different
characters from the expression of their features.
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