90 Ancient Novels-The Beggars' Feast-A long Story. [VOL. 3 cens, that the nurses say to the children sed appeared, and said: Send and see, when they cry, See! King Richard is sir, if that was possible, for the cherrya-coming, for they feared him worse than tree is famously fenced.' When Mesdeath. It is said that the sultan, seeing sire Azzolino found it was so, he conhis troops fly, asked how many Chris- demned the accuser to pay a fine, betians they were who were making all cause he thought a fence was a better this slaughter: he was told that it was security than his protection; and set only King Richard and his men, and the accused at liberty." that they were all on foot. Then said "To relate how he was feared would the sultan; God forbid that such a noble be a long undertaking: many are they fellow as King Richard should march that know it. But I will just mention on foot-and sent him a noble charger. how, when the Emperor and he were The messenger took it, and said, Sire, riding out one day at the head of their the sultan sends you this charger that men, they fell into dispute about which you may not be on foot.' The king of them had got the handsomest sword, was as cunning as he, and ordered one and laid a wager about it. The Empeof his squires to mount the horse in order ror drew his from the sheath, and marto try him. The squire obeyed: but vellously was it decorated with gold and the animal proved restive, and, the squire precious stones. Messire Azzolino said: being unable to hold him in, he set off "Tis very handsome, but mine is more at full speed to the sultan's pavilion. so, though it is not so fine,' and drew The sultan expected he had got King it; on which, six hundred horsemen Richard, but he was mistaken; and so that were with him all drew theirs. a man ought always to distrust the cour. When the emperor saw this multitude of tesy of an enemy." swords, he allowed that Messire Azzolino's was the best." NOVELLA 83. "How Messire Azzolino† proclaimed a great charity. "Messire Azzolino da Romano once caused to be proclaimed in his territory, * 66 NOVELLA 87. of a courtier who began a story to which there was no end. at supper one evening at a great house "A party of knights and others were and elsewhere, that it was his intention in Florence, and there was at table a to do a great piece of charity, and that to courtier who was a very great talker. all the distressed poor, both men and women, who should repair on a certain and seemed as if he would never have After supper, this man began a story, day to his meadow, he would give a done with it. A gentleman of the house, new robe, and plenty to eat. The news who had been attending to the compaspread among them on all sides: when the day of assembly came, his seneschals ny, and was probably rather hungry, addressed him by name, • Whoever went among them with robes and pro- told you this story, did not tell you the visions, and made them all pull off their whole of it. How can that be?" said shoes, and strip to the skin, and then he. Because, (replied the other,) he they clothed them afresh, and gave them to eat They wanted to have their rags again, but this was not allowed, for he had them all thrown on a heap, and set fire to, and he found afterwards in the hes melted gold and silver more than he met with a mule. Having never seen fanent to pay all the expence, and so one before, he was greatly frightened, access hem about their business." and, running away, went to a wolf, and and his time, a peasant laid a com- told him how he had found a most ple testinst one of his neighbours for strange beast, the name of which he did ed moren his cherries. The accu- not know. The wolf said, I should Wh be glad to go and look at him;' so they soon got up to him. The wolf thonght task. forms us. Vovella 30 in the last number. in French and in our "The informat given by charity. From who visit various province. kish empire is of a very differ was Padua, from that which is collected in founded him, and he held his tongue." did not tell you the end. This conNOVELLA 91. Of the Fox and the Mule. "As a fox was going through a wood, + Il ciriegio e fine mente imprunato. + Sarebbe gran tela. Frederic II. before alluded to. 91 him the greatest novelty he had ever hind foot, where the nails looked like seen. The fox asked him his name. letters: says the wolf, I cannot very Indeed, (replied the mule,) I do not well make it out.' The mule replied: recollect it just now, but, if you know Come nearer, for 'tis in small print. how to read, 'tis written on my right The credulous wolf went close up, and, foot behind. 'Lack-a-day, (said the while he was poring over it, the mule fox,) I am an ignoramus, or I should be gave him a kick on the head, which laid very glad of the information.' 'Oh, him dead on the spot. The fox march(said the wolf,) leave that to me, I un- ed off, saying, The learned are not alderstand it very well.' The mule ac- ways wise. "* cordingly shewed him the hoof of his 6 * Ogni nomo che sa lettera non e savio, RECENT JOURNEY TO MOUNT ETNA.* THE following day, at seven in the morning, we were waked by the bright beams of the sun; the sky was serene, and blue. A perpendicular column of smoke rose from Etna into the air. We got ourselves ready in haste, and, to the astonishment of the good Gemmellaro, and every body at Nicolosi, we were mounted in an hour for the third time, to try our fortune once more against the volcano, which had hitherto been so impracticable to our wishes. Accompanied by the friendly, sensible, and bold guide, Antonino Barbagallo, we left Nicolosi, and rode without stopping past the lava beds, to the Goat's Cavern, at the end of the woody region. Here, under the agreeable shade of the oaks, we took a slight breakfast; the lovely green of the forest blended with the purest azure of the heavens, and a shepherd played romantic airs on his flute, while his nimble goats grazed on a little spot, in the middle of the once fluid ocean of fire; the dark blue sea, mingled in the distance with the placid sky-Oh! what delight then filled our souls! The faithful mules carried us again through the intricate lava paths into the desert regions; but this time we passed without visiting the fatal Grotto del Castelluccio, to the house of Gemmellaro, sometimes full of apprehension, as the clouds began again to cross one another rapidly; but yet there were moments when the sky was quite clear and serene. Here, at Gemmellaro's house, we already enjoyed a part of the heavenly prospect which awaited us, over the sea and the whole island. The clouds floated rapidly in large masses, as if to a battle; every thing was in commotion, and, most of all, our souls. Our excellent Antonino contrived to prepare for us, in haste, a little dinner. We soon had the snow and lava fields, at the foot of the immense ash cone, behind us, and now actually ascended it; a troublesome way, as at every step we sunk in the loose volcanic sand, losing almost as much back as we gained forwards; but joy gave us wings. Already we had passed over the beds of yellow sulphur ; already the ground under us began to feel hot in places, and to smoke out of many hundred little craters; while round the summit itself the clouds sometimes collected in thick masses, and sometimes allowed us to see clearly the grand object of our wishes. At last the guide, who was some steps before us, called out, "Behold here the highest crater :" these words gave us new speed, and in a few minutes we stood at the brink of this smoking caldron, the mouth of which has vomited forth mountains, some of which are larger than Vesuvius, or the Brock-en in Germany. We instantly determined to descend into the crater, and though our resolute guide assured us beforehand, that it would now be impossible, as the smoke did not rise perpendicularly, but filled the crater, he was willing to make a trial. Undertaken from Catania, by three Germans and We followed him a little way, but the one Englishnan, on the 30th and 31st of May, and 1st and 24 of June 1815. This tour, illustrated with maps, thick, almost palpable sulphureous vais expected to appear at the Leipzig fair at Easter pour, soon involved us in a thick night, 92 Recent Journey to Mount Etna. [VOL. 3 and would have burst the strongest tain, which has itself risen out of the lungs. earth, and has produced around itself We then went up to the southern horn, many hundred smaller ones, clothed in and here lay astonished on the hot sul- dark brown ;-the purest azure sky rephur, amidst smoke, vapours, and thun- poses over the land and sea ;—the trider. The hot ashes burned us, the sul- angle of Sicily stretches its points tophureous vapours stifled us, the storm wards Italy and Africa; and we saw threatened to hurl us into the abyss; the sea flow round Cape Trapani. At our souls were scarcely equal to the ir- our feet lay the bold rocks of the Eolian resistible force of the sublimest impres- Islands, and from Stromboli a vast colsions. In the vallies beneath, full of umn of smoke rose above the waves. black lava and white snow, and over the The Neptunian and Heroan mountains, bright surface of the sea, which looked covered with the thickest forests, extendlike a plane of polished steel, and seem- ed before our eyes in all their branches ed to lean obliquely to the sky, immense over the whole island. To the east we hosts of clouds sailed slowly along; but saw, as on a large map, the whole of when they came near to the volcano, the Calabria, the Gulph of Tarento, and the furious hurricane, in which we could Straits of Messina. But how is it posscarcely keep our feet, seized them, and sible to excite, in the mind of a person precipitated them with gigantic force ten at a distance, even a faint conception of thousand feet down on the plains and the innumerable brilliant colours of the seas of Sicily and Italy. We then pro- sky, the earth, and the sea, which here ceeded round the edge of the crater to almost dazzle the eye ? the northern horn: and here enjoyed a After we had contemplated this astonprospect, which in sublimity, and over- ishing scene for about two hours, we powering grandeur, doubtless exceeds quickly descended the cone to Gemmelany thing that the faculties of man can laro's house, where we make the happiconceive. The clouds of smoke rose est triumphal repast that was any where from the crater, where the raging storm, celebrated at that moment,—at least at which, like artillery, or innumerable bells, so great an elevation. Antonino then drowned every other sound, rent them sent the sumpter horses down to the asunder, and, with the rapidity of light- Grotto del Castellucci by the other guide; ning, threw them into the abyss below. but we ourselves took the direction to The pointed cone on which we stood the west, all with closed eyes, led by was covered with a yellow sulphur, our guide, to the brink of the Val del white salt, and black ashes. The sun Bue. We have already observed that appeared very strange through the yel- this most horrid abyss that ever our eyes low sulphur, and gave to this singular beheld, was caused by a subterraneous picture such a terrible and savage tone, torrent of liava, which undermined all that in looking only at the objects imme- the mountains that stood above it ;diately surrounding us, we could not hence the infernal brown-red colours of help fancying ourselves in the horrid do- this precipice, which is many miles in minion of the prince of the infernal hosts. length; though we could not see any Everywhere we beheld the war of the trace of vegetation, yet the diversity of elements, desolation, and conflagration: tints was infinite. We rolled down nowhere a living creature, or even a blade large blocks of lava, but they broke into of grass, which these contending ele- dust before they had fallen one half of ments had spared. What a scene must the dreadful way, and we did not hear it be, when the volcano throws the co- them strike in their descent. Compared lumn of smoke and fire, which it per- with this horrid cleft of the lava, even haps raises from the bottom of the sea, the abyss of the Rhine at the Viamala, twenty thousand feet towards the hea- in the Grisons, is pleasant and agreeable. vens ! Here we look, as it were, into the heart But if we turn our eyes to the dis- of desolation. While we were still contance, it really seems as if we beheld templating this extraordinary valley, Ethere all the magnificence of the earth at na itself prepared for us a new and wonour feet. We overlook the vast moun- derful sight. As the sun was descend VOL. 3.] Rome, Naples, and Florence in 1817, by the Count de Stendhal. 93 ing into the western sea, the gigantic brought us in safety over the rugged shadow of the volcano projected for ma- fields of lava, in profound darkness, ny miles over the blue sea, towards Ita- about midnight, to Nicolosi, where the ly, and then rose, like an enormous py- worthy Gemmellaro waited for us with ramid, high in the air, on the edge of impatience. Transported with our sucthe horizon, so that the stars seemed to cess, we filled him also with the greatest sparkle upon its summit. pleasure, and it was not possible for us to go to sleep. We spent the greater part of the night rejoicing with him and our brave Antonio Barbagallo. So ended this richest and happiest day of our journey, and perhaps of our lives. We then mounted our mules, which ROME, NAPLES, AND FLORENCE, IN 1817. SKETCHES OF THE PRESENT STATE OF SOCIETY, MANNERS, Arts, literature, &c. IN THESE CELEBRATED CITIES; BY THE COUNT DE STENDHAL. From the Literary Gazette, Dec. 1817. HIS is a very amusing book; acquaintance, and though the ruling pasamusing from the subjects at which sion is still strongly developed, we have it glances, and no less amusing from the a taste of other matters, which are curiabsurdities which it contains. The au- ous in themselves, and rendered more so thor talks a great deal about the beau- by the vivacity with which they are ideal: he is himself exactly the English touched. beau-ideal of a clever, conceited, vola- The author is such a hop-skip-andtile, self-sufficient, Frenchman. We jump fellow, that it is not easy to follow have a whimsical saying, “the more you his motions; and we are sure it would call, the more I wont come;" which take us infinitely more time than we are may be parodied on M. de Stendhal for willing to bestow on his lucubrations, to the more he sees, the more he wont think. endeavour to set them forth in any thing Were he to travel for nine hundred years like regular form. Apologising therehe would never be one whit the wiser, fore, for want of arrangement, we shall or the better able to put two ideas to- proceed to make a cento of extracts, gether and draw a right consequence which will show (as we think) that this from them. He would for ever contin- medley, with all its fantasticalness, is ue to be a flighty genius, music-mad, one of the most agreeable, for light readsentimental, immoral, destitute of judg- ing, which has recently issued from the ment, flippant in proportion to his pre- press. judices, presumptuous in proportion to Our traveller in his peregrination met his ignorance, and just capable of de- with multitudes of English, and as his scribing in a lively manner the impres- sketches respecting them are diverting, sions of the moment,-every fresh no- we shall copy out a few of them in this tice placing the same thing in a different place. We may preface these extracts light, according to the frame of mind in by stating that with his characteristic inwhich the writer happened to be at the consistency M. de Stendhal sometimes time. This very inconsistency is enter- admires and at other times denies every taining; and, as no one opinion of so good quality to the English; that he is versatile a person is entitled to any generally a liberal in his politics, but anweight, we are more at our ease in gal- ti-Buonapartist, and as the fits seize him, loping with him over Italy, enjoying his a royalist, monarchist, revolutionist, &c., anecdotes, being amused with his pic-in fine, the Cynthius of the minute. tures, and laughing at his follies. Through the first pages we imagined that he was a mere chattering coxcomb, never two minutes in the same mind, and in short what is called fair-brained, who had run a few hundred miles to see two or three theatres. But he improves on He protests that we have no taste for music, and truly, cannot distinguish the fine from the execrable. At a grand Church service in the Jesuits' Church at Rome, he says, "One thing_astonished me, that I saw two or three Englishmen who really seemed to feel the music." 94 Rome, &c.-Monk Lewis-Americans-Lord Byron. [VOL. 3 Our national feeling for painting is A few passages lower down in this equally depreciated. page our sagacious Frenchman is kind "As I quitted the museum of ancient enough to tell us how the Americans are pictures at Portici, I met three English to reduce us to the misfortune of being navy Captains who were going in. only happy and as our Lords of the There are two-and-twenty apartments. Admiralty may not be able to read so I went almost in a gallop the whole way much in the American countenance to Naples, but before I arrived at the which they may behold, we mark it bridge of the Magdalena, I was joined down as a warning for them: "The by these three gentlemen, who said that AMERICANS IN the collection of paintings was admira- BE READY TO FALL UPON THEM (the ble, one of the most curious sights in the English) WITH FIVE HUNDRED PRIVAuniverse. They must have been there TEERS!!" Was ever a nation made about three or four minutes."+ happy by such means before? The following whimsical characters are given of several of our countrymen. But his anecdotes of the English are more picquant than his opinions ;-we select some examples, though the latter are often mixed up with the former. 66 TWENTY YEARS WILL "March 26th. I would go fifty leagues with pleasure to see a man who could argue as powerfully in the cause of feodulity, as Mr. Brougham in favour of liberal sentiments. The conversation of this great statesman has been one of the greatest pleasures I ever experienced, but it is not often that he will talk! 66 "Naples, 22d Feb. How much do I regret that I cannot say more of a charming ball, given by Mr. Lewis, author of the Monk, at the house of his sister, Mrs. Lushington. Amidst the gross manners of the Neapolitans, English purity is a refreshment to the blood. 'June 27th (Venice.) I was introI danced in a Scotch reel with Lord duced at the theatre to Lord Byron. Chichester, a youth of fourteen, who What a grand countenance !—it is imis a simple midshipman (Qu. simply a possible to have finer eyes!-the divine midshipman ?) on board a frigate just man of genius!-He is yet scarcely arrived. The English know the value twenty-eight years of age, and he is the of education, particularly in their marine first poet in England, probably in the service, and they will soon have occa- world; when he is listening to music it sion to uphold that service in every pos- is a countenance worthy of the beau-ideal sible way. I read in the countenance of some Americans who were there, that in thirty years from this time, England will be reduced to being only happy. To this, Lord P, one of the most enlightened men in England, assented with a sigh. The English are abhorred every where, particularly by the lower classes of society."+ The author is equally conversant with our literature: he tells us that "the Martinus Scriblerus of Arbuthnot is forgotten in England as a satire, the wit of the Greeks. For the rest, let a man be ever so great a poet, let him besides be the head of one of the most ancient families in England, this is too much for our age, and I have learnt with pleasure, that Lord Byron is a wretch. When he came into the drawing-room of Madame de Staël, at Copet, all the English ladies left it. Our unfortunate man of genius had the misfortune to marry-his wife is very clever, and has renewed at his expense, the old story of Tom Jones and Blifil. Men of genius, are generally mad, or at least very imThe French, on the contrary, are adored in Italy, prudent, (ergo M. de Stendhal is acthough a curious proof of this occurs at page 276, cording to his own dicta a man of gewhere it is discovered," at our last retreat from Ita- nius ;) his Lordship was so astrocious Jy, Count Grenier having occasion to send a Colonel, as to take an actress into keeping for a friend of mine, to the Austrian General-who would two months. If he had been a blockbelieve it?-this French Colonel was obliged to invoke the protection of the enemy's hussars, to pass head, nobody would have concerned through the villages on his route, the inhabitants of themselves with his following the examwhich would have laid violent hands upon him. I ple of almost allung men of fashion ; saw his carriage stuck through in a hundred places but it is well known that Mr. Murray, with pitchforks. This scene took place on the banks of which has become obsolete." *Not the Post-Master General. of the Po, towards Placentia!! EL the bookseller, gives him two guineas a |