The following is the prospectus of a translation of Anacharsis into Romaic, by my Romaic mastar, Mar. marotouri, who wished to publish it in Englana. ΕΙΔΗΣΙΣ ΤΥΠΟΓΡΑΦΙΚΗ. Πρὸς τοὺς ἐν φιλογενεῖς καὶ φιλέλληνας. ΟΣΟΙ εἰς βιβλία παντοδαπὰ ἐντρυφῶσιν, ἠξεύρουν πόσον εἶναι τὸ χρήσιμον τῆς Ἱστορίας, δι' αὐτῆς γὰρ εξευρίσκεται η πλέον μεμακρυσμένη παλαιότης, καὶ θεω ροῦνται ὡς ἐν κατόπτρῳ ἤθη, πράξεις καὶ διοικήσεις πολλῶν καὶ διαφόρων Εθνῶν καὶ Γενῶν ων τὴν μνήμην διεσώσατο καὶ διασώσει ἡ ̔Ιστορική Διήγησις εἰς αἰῶνα τὸν απαντα. Μία τέτοια Επιστήμη εἶναι εὐαπόκτητος, καὶ ἐν ταυτῷ ὠφέλιμη, ἤ κρεῖττον εἰπεῖν ἀναγκαία· διατὶ λοιπὸν ἡμεῖς μόνοι νὰ τὴν ὕστερούμεθα, μὴ ἠξεύροντες οὔτε τὰς ἀρχὰς τῶν Προγόνων μας, πόθεν πότε καὶ πῶς εὑρέθησαν εἰς τὰς πατρίδας μας, οὔτε τὰ ἤθη, τὰ κατορθώματα καὶ τὴν διοί κησίν των ; *Αν ἐρωτήσωμεν τοὺς ̓Αλλογενεῖς, ἠξεύρουν νὰ μᾶς δώσουν ὄχιμόνον ἱστορικῶς τὴν ἀρχὴν καὶ τὴν πρόοδον τῶν προγόνων μας, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοπογραφικῶς μας δείχνουν τὰς θέσεις τῶν Πατρίδων μας, καὶ οἱονεὶ χειραγωγοί γινόμενοι μὲ τοὺς γεωγραφικούς των Πίνακας, μᾶς λέγουν, ἐδὼ εἶναι αἱ ̓Αθῆναι, ἐδῶ ἡ Σπάρτη, ἐκεῖ αἱ Θήβαι, τόσα στάδια ή μίλια απέχει ἡ μία Επαρχία ἀπὸ τὴν ἄλλην. Τοῦτος ᾠκοδόμησε τὴν μίαν πόλιν, ἐκεῖνος τὴν ἄλλην, καὶ τξ. Προσέτι ἂν ἐρωτήσωμεν αὐτοὺς τοὺς μὴ Έλληνας χειραγωγούς μας, πόθεν ἐπαρακινήθησαν νὰ ἐξερευνήσουν ἀρχὰς τόσον παλαιὰς, ἀνυποστόλως μᾶς ἀποκρίνονται μὲ αὐτοὺς τοὺς λόγους. “ Καθὼς ὁ ἐκ Σκυθίας Ανάχαρσις, ἂν δὲν ἐπεριείρχετο τὰ πανευφρόσυνα ἐκεῖνα Κλίματα τῆς ̔Ελλάδος, ἄν δέν ἐμφορεῖτο τὰ ἀξιώ ματα, τὰ ἤθη καὶ τοὺς Νόμους τῶν Ἑλλήνων, ἤθελε μείνῃ Σκύθης καὶ τὸ ὄνομα καὶ τὸ πρᾶγμα· οὕτω καὶ ὁ ἡμέτερος Ιατρὸς, αν δὲν ἐμάνθανε τὰ τοῦ Ἱπποκράτου, δὲν ἐδύνατο νὰ προχωρήση εἰς τὴν τέχνην του. *Αν ὁ ἐν ἡμῖν Νομο θέτης δὲν ἐξέταζε τὰ τοῦ Σόλωνος, Λυκούργου, καὶ Πιττακού, δὲν ἐδύνατο νὰ ῥυθμήσῃ καὶ νὰ καλιεργήσῃ τὰ ἤθη τῶν Ομογενῶν του· ἄν ὁ Ρήτωρ δὲν ἀπηνθίζετο τὰς εὐφράδειας καὶ τοὺς χαριεντισμοὺς τοῦ Δημοσθένους, δὲν ἐνεργοῦσεν εἰς τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν ἀκροατῶν του *Αν ὁ Νέος Ανά χαρσις, ὁ Κύριος ̓Αββᾶς Βαρθολομαῖος δὲν ἀνεγίνωσκε μὲ μεγάλην ἐπιμονὴν καὶ σκέψιν τοὺς πλέον ἐγκρίτους Συγ γραφεῖς τῶν ̔Ελλήνων, ἐξερευνῶν αὐτοὺς κατὰ βάθος ἐπὶ τρίακοντα δύω ἔτη δὲν ἤθελεν ἐξυφάνη τούτην τὴν περὶ Αναχάρσεως παρ ̓ αὐτοῦ προσωνομασθη, καὶ εἰς ὅλας τὰς Ελλήνων Ιστορίαν του, ἥτις Περιήγησις τοῦ Νέου Εὐρωπαϊκὸς Διαλέκτους μετεγλωττίσθη.”. Καὶ ἐν ἐνι λόγω, οἱ Νεώτεροι, ἂν δὲν ἔπερναν δία ὁδηγοὺς τοὺς Προγόνους μας, ἤθελαν ἴσως περιφέρωνται ματαίως μέχρι τοῦ νῦν. Αὐτὰ δὲν εἶναι Λόγια ἐνθυσιασμένου διὰ τὸ φιλογενές Γραικοῦ, εἶναι δὲ φιλαλήθους Γερμανοῦ, ὅστις ἐμετάφρασε τὸν Νέον Ανάχαρσιν ἀπὸ τοῦ Γαλλικοῦ εἰς τὸ Γερμανικὸν. *Αρχοντος ἐν ἐρχομενὸ Συνάρχω, μενὸς ̓Αλαλκομενίω, ἐν *Αν λοιπὸν καὶ ἡμεῖς θέλομεν νὰ μεθέξωμεν τῆς γνώσεως δὲ ἐ' ἐλατίη Μενοίταο Αρχελάω μεινὸς πράτω. ̔Ομολογὰ τῶν λαμπρῶν κατορθωμάτων ὁποῦ ἔκαμαν οἱ θαυμαστο Εὔβωλυ Ε' ἐλατίη, ο κὴ τῇ πόλι ἐρχομενίων. Επειδὴ ἐκεῖνοι Προπάτορες ἡμῶν, ἄν ἐπιθυμῶμεν νὰ μάθωμεν τὴν κεκομίστη Εὔβωλος πὰρ τῆς πόλιος τὸ δάνειον ἅπαν κατ πρόοδον καὶ αὔξησίν των εἰς τὰς Τέχνας καὶ ̓Επιστήμας τα, ὁμολογίας τὰς τεθίσας συνάρχω ἄρχοντος, κεινὸς καὶ εἰς κάθε ἄλλο εἶδος μαθήσεως, ἄν ἔχωμεν περιέργειαν θεολουθίω κὴ οὐτ ὀφειλέτη αὐτῷ ἔτι οὐθὲν πὰρ τὰν πόλιν, νὰ γνωρίσωμεν πόθεν καταγόμεθα, καὶ ὁποίους θαυμαστοὺς ἀλλ' ἀπέχι πάντα περὶ παντὸς, κἢ ἀποδεδόανθι τῇ πόλι τὸ καὶ μεγάλους ἄνδρας, εἰ καὶ προγόνους ἡμῶν, φεῦ, ἡμεῖς ἔχοντες τὰς ὁμολογίας, εἰ μὲν ποτὶ δεδομένον χρόνον δὲν γνωρίζομεν, εἰς καιρὸν ὁποῦ οἱ Αλλογενεῖς θαυμάζουσιν Εὔβωλυ ἐπὶ νομίας Γ ἔτι ἀπέτταρα βούεσσι σοὺν ἵππος δια αὐτοὺς, καὶ ὡς πατέρας παντοιασοῦν μαθήσεως σέβονται, κατίης Ρι κατι προβάτος σοῦν ἤγυς χειλίης ἀρχὶ τῷ χρόνῳ μᾶς συνδράμωμεν απαντες προθύμως εἰς τὴν ἔκδοσιν τοῦ ὁ ἐνιαυτὸς ὁ μετὰ θύναρχον ἄρχοντα ἐρχομενίως ἀπογρα- θαυμασίου τούτου συγγράμματος τοῦ Νέου ̓Αναχάρσεως. φεσθη δὲ Εὔβωλον κατ' ἐνιαυτὸν ἕκαστον πὰρ τὸν ταμίαν Ημεις οὖν οἱ ὑπογεγραμμένοι θέλομεν ἐκτελέσει προθύ δ κὴ τὸν νόμων ἄν τάτε καύματα τῶν προβάτων, κὴ τῶν ἀγῶν, κὴ τῶν βουῶν, κὴ τῶν ἵππων, κὴ κάτινα ἀσαμαίων μως τὴν μετάφρασιν τοῦ Βιβλίου μὲ τὴν κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν δίκη τὸ πλεῖθος μεὶ ἀπογράφεσο ὧδε πλίονα τῶν γεγραμ- ἡμῖν καλήν φράσιν τῆς νῦν καθ ̓ ἡμᾶς ὁμιλίας, καὶ ἐκδόντες μένων ἐν τῇ σουγχωρείσι η δεκατις . . . . η τὸ ἐννόμιον τοῦτο εἰς τύπον, θέλομεν τὸ καλλωπίσει μὲ τοὺς Γεωγρα Εὔβωλον ὀφείλει . . . λις τῶν ἐρχομενίων ἀργουρίω φικοὺς Πίνακας μὲ ἁπλᾶς 'Ρωμαϊκὰς λέξεις ἐγκεχαραγμέ τετταράκοντα Εὔβωλυ καθ ̓ ἕκαστον ἐνιαυτὸν, νους εἰς ἐδικάμας γράμματα, προστιθέντες ὅτι ἄλλο κὴ τόκον φερέτω δραχμὰς τας μνᾶς ἑκάστας χρήσιμον καὶ ἁρμόδιον εἰς τὴν ̔Ιστορίαν. κατὰ μεῖνα τον κὴ ἔμπρακτος ἔστω τὸν ἐρχο μένιον .... ....... .... ... καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς.” Εν ἄλλοις λίθοις. 'Ολον τὸ σύγγραμμα θέλει γένει εἰς Τόμους δώδεκα κατὰ μίμησιν τῆς Ἰταλικῆς ἐκδόσεως. Η τιμὴ ὅλου τοῦ Συγγράμματος εἶναι φιορίνια δεκαέξη τῆς Βιέννης διὰ τὴν προσθήκην τῶν γεωγραφικῶν πινάκων. Ο φιλογενὴς ἔν * Ανοδώρα σύμφορον χαῖρε.” ΝΟΚΥΕΣ. “ Καλλίπιτον Συνδρομητής πρέπει να πληρώσῃ εἰς κάθε Τόμον φιορίνι ἐμφάριχος, καὶ ἄλλαι.” Ἐν οὐδε μίᾳ Ἐπιγραφῇ ἴδον ενα καὶ Καραντάνια εἴκοσι τῆς Βιέννης, καὶ τοῦτο χωρὶς τόνον, ἢ πνεῦμα, ἃ δὲ ἡμεῖς ὑπογράφομεν, οἱ παλαιοὶ καμμίαν πρόδοσιν, ἀλλ ̓ εὐθὺς ὁποῦ θέλει τῶ παραδοθῆ δ προσέγραφον Καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. [Τόμος τυπωμένος καὶ δεμένος. THE LORD'S PRAYER IN ROMAIC. Ω ΠΑΤΕΡΑ ΜΑΣ ὁ ποῦ εἶσαι εἰς τοὺς οὐρανοὺς, ἂς ἁγιασθῇ τὸ ὄνομά σου *Ας ἔλθη ἡ βασιλεία σου. "As γύνη τὸ θέλημά σου, καθὼς εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν, ἔτζη καὶ εἰς τὴν γῆν. Το ψωμίρας τὸ καθημερινόν, δός μας τὸ σημερον. Καὶ συγχώρησε μας τὰ χρέη μας, καθὼς καὶ ἐμεῖς συγχωροῦμεν τοὺς κρεοφειλέτας μας. Kai un pás pépes els πειρασμόν, ἀλλὰ ἐλευθέρωσέ μας ἀπὸ τὸν πονηρὸν. "Οτι ἐδικήσου εἶναι ἡ βασιλεία, δὲ ἡ δύναμις, καὶ ἡ δόξα, εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν. After pointing out the different spots where Picton and other gallant men had perished, the guide said, "here Major Howard lay: I was near him when wound. ed." I told him my relationship, and he seemed then still more anxious to point out the particular spot and circumstances. The place is one of the most marked in the field from the peculiarity of the two trees above mentioned. I went on horseback twice over the field, comparing it with my recollection of similar scenes. As a plain, Waterloo seems marked out for the scene of some great action, though this may be mere imagination: I have viewed with attention those of Platea, Troy, Mantinea, Leuctra, Chaeronea, and Marathon; and the held around Μont St. Jean and Hougoumont appears to want hittle but a better cause, and that undefinable but impressive halo which the lapse of ages throws around a celebrared spot, to vie in interest with any or all of these, except perhaps the last mentioned. 8. Like to the apples on the Dead Sea's shore. The (fabled) apples on the brink of the lake Asphaltes were said to be fair without, and within ashes.Vide Tacitus, Histor. l. 5, 7. 9. For sceptred cynics earth were far too wide a den. Stanza xli, line last. The great error of Napoleon, "if we have writ our annals true," was a continued obtrusion on mankind of his want of all community of feeling for or with them; perhaps more offensive to human vanity than the active cruelty of more trembling and suspicious tyranny. Such were his speeches to public assemblies as well as individuals; and the single expression which he is said to have used on returning to Paris after the Russian winter had destroyed his army, rubbing his hands over a fire, "This is pleasanter than Moscow," would probably alienate more favour from his cause than the destruction and reverses which led to the remark. 10. What want these outlaws conquerors should have. "What wants that knave That a king should have?" was King James's question on meeting Johnny Armstrong and his followers in full accoutrements.-See the Ballad. 11. The castled crag of Drachenfels. Page 22, verse 1. The castle of Drachenfels stands on the highest summit of "the seven Mountains," over the Rhine banks: it is in ruins, and connected with some singular traditions: it is the first in view on the road from Bonn, but on the opposite side of the river; on this bank, nearly facing it, are the remains of another, called the Jew's castle, and a large cross commemorative of the murder of a chief by his brother: the number of castles and cities along the course of the Rhine on both. sides is very great, and their situations remarkably beautiful. 12. The whiteness of his soul, and thus men o'er him wept. Stanza lvii. line last. Marceau (killed by a rifle-ball at Alterkirchen on the The monument of the young and lamented General last day of the fourth year of the French republic) still remains as described. I turn'd from ail she brought to those she could not bring. The inscriptions on his monument are rather too Stanza xxx, line 9. long, and not required: his name was enough; France My guide from Mont St. Jean over the field seemed adored, and her enemies admired; both wept over him. intelligent and accurate. The place where Major-His funeral was attended by the generals and detach Howard fell was not far from two tall and solitary trees ments from both armies. In the same grave General (there was a third cut down, or shivered in the battle) Hoche is interred, a gallant man also in every sense of which stand a few yards from each other at a pathway's the word; but though he distinguished himself greatly side.-Beneath these he died and was buried. The in battle, he had not the good fortune to die there: his body has since been removed to England. A small death was attended by suspicions of poison. hollow for the present marks where it lay, but will pro- A separate monument (not over his body, which is bably soon be effaced; the plough has been upon it, buried by Marceau's) is raised for him near Andernach, and the grain is. opposite to which one of his most memorable exploits H was performed, in throwing a bridge to an island on the distinct reflection of Mont Blanc and Mont Argentierre Rhine. The shape and style are different from that in the calm of the lake, which I was crossing in my of Marceau's, and the inscription more simple and boat; the distance of these mountains from their mirror pleasing. is 60 miles. "The Army of the Sambre and Meuse This is all, and as it should be. Hoche was esteemed among the first of France's earlier generals before Buonaparte monopolized her triumphs. He was the 1 destined commander of the invading army of Ireland. 13. Here Ehrenbreitstein, with her shatter'd wall. Stanza Iviii, line 1. 18. By the blue rushing of the arrowy Rhone. Stanza Ixxi, line 3. The colour of the Rhone at Geneva is blue, to a depth of tint which I have never seen equalled in water, salt or fresh, except in the Mediterranean and Archi pelago. 19. Than vulgar minds may be with all they seek possest. Ehrenbreitstein, i. e. "the broad stone of Honour," his passion for the Comtesse d'Houdetot, (the mistress one of the strongest fortresses in Europe, was dis- of St. Lambert,) and his long walk every morning for mantled and blown up by the French at the truce of the sake of the single kiss which was the common saluLeoben.-It had been and could only be reduced by tation of French acquaintance.-Rousseau's description famine or treachery. It yielded to the former, aided of his feelings on this occasion may be considered as by surprise. After having seen the fortifications of the most passionate, yet not impure description and Gibraltar and Malta, it did not much strike by compari-expression of love that ever kindled into words; which but the situation is commanding. General Marceau after all must be felt, from their very force, to be inade son, besieged it in vain for some time, and I slept in a room where I was shown a window at which he is said to quate to the delineation-a painting can give no sufficient idea of the ocean. have been standing observing the progress of the siege by moonlight, when a ball struck immediately below it." 14. Unsepulchred they roam'd, and shriek'd each wandering ghost. Stanza lxiii. line last, 20. Of earth-o'ergazing mountains. Stanza xci, Ene 3. It is to be recollected, that the most beautiful and impressive doctrines of the divine Founder of Chris tianity were delivered, not in the Temple, but on the Mount. Cicero The chapel is destroyed, and the pyramid of bones diminished to a small number by the Burgundian legion To wave the question of devotion, and turn to human in the service of France, who anxiously effaced this eloquence,-the most effectual and splendid specimens record of their ancestors' less successful invasions. A were not pronounced within walls. Demosthenes adfew still remain, notwithstanding the pains taken by dressed the public and popular assemblies. the Burgundians for ages, (all who passed that way spoke in the forum. That this added to their effect on removing a bone to their own country,) and the less the mind of both orator and hearers, may be conjustifiable larcenies of the Swiss postillions, who carried ceived from the difference between what we read of them off to sell for knife-handles, a purpose for which the emotions then and there produced, and those we the whiteness imbibed by the bleaching of years had ourselves experience in the perusal in the closet. It rendered them in great request. Of these relics I is one thing to read the Iliad at Sigæum and on the ventured to bring away as much as may have made a tumuli, or by the springs with Mount Ida above, and quarter of a hero, for which the sole excuse is, that if the plain and rivers and Archipelago around you; and I had not, the next passer by might have perverted them another to trim your taper over it in a snug libraryto worse uses than the careful preservation which I in-this I know. tend for them. 15. Levell'd Aventicum hath strew'd her subject lands. Aventicum (near Morat) was the Roman capital of And held within their urn one mind, one heart, one dust. Julia Alpinula, a young Aventian priestess, died soon after a vain endeavour to save her father, condemned to death as a traitor by Aulus Cæcina. Her epitaph was discovered many years ago;-it is thus Julia Alpinula Hic jaceo Were the early and rapid progress of what is called Methodism to be attributed to any cause beyond the enthusiasm excited by its vehement faith and doctrines (the truth or error of which I presume neither to canvass nor to question) I should venture to ascribe it to the practice of preaching in the fields, and the unstudied and extemporaneous effusions of its teachers. The Mussulmans, whose erroneous devotion (at least in the lower orders) is most sincere, and therefore impressive, are accustomed to repeat their prescribed orisons and prayers wherever they may be at the stated hours-of course frequently in the open air, kneeling upon a light mat, (which they carry for the purpose of a bed or cushion as required :) the ceremony lasts some minutes, during which they are totally absorbed, and only living in their supplication: nothing can disturb them. On me the simple and entire sincerity of these men, and the spirit which appeared to be within and upon them, made a far greater impression than any general rite which was ever performed in places of worship, of which I have seen those of almost every I know of no human composition so affecting as this, persuasion under the sun; including most of our own nor a history of deeper interest. These are the names sectaries, and the Greek, the Catholic, the Armenian, and actions which ought not to perish, and to which we the Lutheran, the Jewish, and the Mahometan. Many turn with a true and healthy tenderness, from the of the negroes, of whom there are numbers in the Turk. wretched and glittering detail of a confused mass of ish empire, are idolaters, and have free exercise of their conquests and battles, with which the mind is roused belief and its rites: some of these I had a distant view for a time to a false and feverish sympathy, from whence of at Patras, and from what I could make out of them, it recurs at length with all the nausea consequent on they appeared to be of a truly Pagan description, and Buch intoxication. not very agreeable to a spectator. Vixi annos xxIII. 17. In the sun's face, like yonder Alpine snow. (July 20th.) I this day observed for some time the 21. The sky is changed!—and such a change! Oh night, Stanza xcii, line 1. The thunder-storms to which these lines refer OL. curred on the 13th of June, 1816, at midnight. I have seen among the Acroceraunian mountains of Chimari several more terrible, but none more beautiful. 22. And sunset into rose-hues sees them wrought. Stanza xcix. line 5. Rousseau's Heloise, Lettre 17, part 4, note. "Ces montagnes sont si hautes qu'une demi-heure après le soleil couche, leurs sommets sont encore éclairés de ses rayons; dont le rouge forme sur ces cimes blanches une belle couleur de rose qu'on apperçoit de fort loin." This applies more particularly to the heights over Meillerie. "J'allai à Vevay loger à la Clef, et pendant deux jours que j'y restai sans voir personne, je pris pour cette ville un amour qui m'a suivi dans tous mes voyages, et qui m'y a fait établir enfin les héros de mon roman. Je dirois volontiers à ceux qui ont du goût et qui sont sensibles; allez à Vevai-visitez le pays, examinez les sites, promenez-vous sur le lac, et dites si la Nature n'a pas fait ce beau pays pour une Julie, pour une Claire, et pour un St. Preux; mais ne les y cherchez pas." Les Confessions, livre iv. page 306, Lyons ed. 1796. I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs; Stanza i, lines 1 and 2. THE Communication between the ducal palace and In July, 1816, I made a voyage round the Lake of the prisons of Venice is by a gloomy bridge, or covered Geneva; and as far as my own observations have led gallery, high above the water, and divided by a stone me, in a not uninterested nor inattentive survey of all wall into a passage and a cell. The state dungeons, the scenes most celebrated by Rousseau in his "Heloise," called "pozzi," or wells, were sunk in the thick walls of I can safely say, that in this there is no exaggeration, the palace; and the prisoner when taken out to die was It would be difficult to see Clarens, (with the scenes conducted across the gallery to the other side, and around it, Vevay, Chillon, Boveret, St. Gingo, Meillerie, being then led back into the other compartment, or cell, Eivan, and the entrances of the Rhone,) without being upon the bridge, was there strangled. The low portal forcibly struck with its peculiar adaptation to the per- through which the criminal was taken into this cell is sons and events with which it has been peopled. But now walled up; but the passage is still open, and is still this is not all: the feeling with which all around Clarens, known by the name of the Bridge of Sighs. The pozzi are and the opposite rocks of Meillerie, is invested, is of a under the flooring of the chamber at the foot of the bridge. still higher and more comprehensive order than the mere They were formerly twelve, but on the first arrival of the sympathy with individual passion; it is a sense of the French, the Venetians hastily blocked or broke up the existence of love in its most extended and sublime ca- deeper of these dungeons. You may still, however, pacity, and of our own participation of its good and of descend by a trap-door, and crawl down through holes, its glory: it is the great principle of the universe, which half-choked by rubbish, to the depth of two stories is there more condensed, but not less manifested; below the first range. If you are in want of consolaand of which, though knowing ourselves a part, we tion for the extinction of patrician power, perhaps you lose our individuality, and mingle in the beauty of the may find it there; scarcely a ray of light glimmers into whole. If Rousseau had never written, nor lived, the same associations would not less have belonged to such scenes. He has added to the interest of his works by their adoption; he has shown his sense of their beauty by the selection; but they have done that for him which no human being could do for them. the narrow gallery which leads to the cells, and the places of confinement themselves are totally dark. A small hole in the wall admitted the damp air of the passages, and served for the introduction of the pri soner's food. A wooden pallet, raised a foot from the ground, was the only furniture. The conductors tell you that a light was not allowed. The cells are about I had the fortune (good or evil as it might be) to sail five paces in length, two and a half in width, and seven from Meillerie (where we landed for some time) to St. feet in height. They are directly beneath one another, Gingo during a lake storm, which added to the magnifi- and respiration is somewhat difficult in the lower holes. cence of all around, although occasionally accompanied Only one prisoner was found when the republicans by danger to the boat, which was small and overloaded, descended into these hideous recesses, and he is said It was over this very part of the lake that Rousseau has driven the boat of St. Preux and Madame Wolmar to Meillerie for shelter during a tempest, On gaining the shore at St. Gingo, I found that the wind had been sufficiently strong to blow down some fine old chestnut-trees on the lower part of the moun tains. to have been confined sixteen years. But the inmates of the dungeons beneath had left traces of their repentance, or of their despair, which are still visible, and may perhaps owe something to recent ingenuity. Some of the detained appear to have offended against, and others to have belonged to, the sacred body, not only from their signatures, but from the churches and belfries On the opposite height of Clarens is a chateau. The which they have scratched upon the walls. The reader hills are covered with vineyards, and interspersed with may not object to see a specimen of the records prompted some small but beautiful woods; one of these was by so terrific a solitude. As nearly as they could named the "Bosquet de Julie," and it is remarkable be copied by more than one pencil, three of them are as that, though long ago cut down by the brutal selfishness follows: of the monks of St. Bernard, (to whom the land appertained,) that the ground might be enclosed into a vineyard for the miserable drones of an execrable superstition, the inhabitants of Clarens still point out the spot where its trees stood, calling it by the name which consecrated and survived them. Rousseau has not been particularly fortunate in the preservation of the "local habitations" he has given to "airy nothings." The Prior of Great St. Bernard has cut down some of his woods for the sake of a few casks of wine, and Buonaparte has levelled part of the rocks of Meillerie in improving the road to the Simplon. The road is an excellent one, but I cannot quite agree with a remark which I heard made, that "La route vaut Dueux que les souvenirs." 1. NON TI FIDAR AD ALCUNO PENSA e TACI 1607. ADI 2. GENARO. FUI RE. 2. UN PARLAR POCHO et UN PENSAR AL FINE PUO DARE LA VITA A NOI ALTRI MESCHINI 1805 EGO 10HN BAPTISTA AD 3. DE CHI MI FIDO GUARDAMI DIO V. LA S TA H A NA C. K. R. affecting than his performance, which habit alone can make attractive. The recitative was shrill, screaming, and monotonous, and the gondolier behind assisted his voice by holding his hand to one side of his mouth. The carpenter used a quiet action, which he evidently endeavoured to restrain; but was too much interested in his subject altogether to repress. From these men we learnt that singing is not confined to the gondoliers, and that, although the chant is seldom, if ever, voluntary, there are still several amongst the lower classes who are acquainted with a few stanzas. The copyist has followed, not corrected the solecisms; some of which are however not quite so decided, since the letters were evidently scratched in the dark. It only need be observed, that bestemmia and mangiar may to row and sing at the same time. Although the verses It does not appear that it is usual for the performers be read in the first 'inscription, which was probably of the Jerusalem are no longer casually heard, there is written by a prisoner confined for some act of impiety committed at a funeral; that Cortellarius is the name yet much music upon the Venetian canals; and upon of a parish on terra firma, near the sea; and that the holydays, those strangers who are not near or informed last initials evidently are put for Viva la santa Chiesa Kattolica Romana. In Venice Tasso's echoes are no more. enough to distinguish the words, may fancy that many of the gondolas still resound with the strains of Tasso, The writer of some remarks which appeared in the Curiosities of Literature must excuse his being twice quoted; for, with the exception of some phrases a little too ambitious and extravagant, he has furnished a very exact, as well as agreeable, description. "In Venice the gondoliers know by heart long pas. sages from Ariosto and Tasso, and often chant them with a peculiar melody. But this talent seems at present on the decline :—at least, after taking some pains, I could find no more than two persons who delivered to me in this way a passage from Tasso. I must add, that the late Mr. Berry once chanted to me a passage in Tasso in the manner, as he assured me, of the gon doliers. Stanza iii. line 1. The well-known song of the gondoliers, of alternate stanzas from Tasso's Jerusalem, has died with the "There are always two concerned, who alternately independence of Venice. Editions of the poem, with sing the strophes. We know the melody eventually by the original on one column, and the Venetian variations Rousseau, to whose songs it is printed; it has properly on the other, as sung by the boatmen, were once com- no melodious movement, and is a sort of medium be nn, and are still to be found. The following extract tween the canto fermo and the canto figurato; it apwill serve to show the difference between the Tuscan proaches to the former by recitativical declamation, and epic and the "Canta alla Barcariola." to the latter by passages and course, by which one syllable is detained and embellished. ORIGINAL. Canto l'arme pietose, e 'l capitano Che 'l gran Sepolcro liberò di Cristo. E in van 'Inferno a lui s' oppose, e in vanc VENETIAN. L'arme pietose de cantar gho vogia, E de Goffredo la immortal braura Missier Pluton non l' ha bu mai paura: "I entered a gondola by noonlight; one singer placed himself forwards, and the other aft, and thus proceeded to St. Georgio. One began the song: when he had ended his strophe, the other took up the lay, and so continued the song alternately Throughout the whole of it, the same notes invariably returned, but, according to the subject matter of the strophe, they laid a greater or a smaller stress, sometimes on one, and sometimes on another note, and indeed changed the enunciation of the whole strophe as the object of the altered. poem "On the whole, however, the sounds were hoarse and screaming: they seemed, in the manner of all rude uncivilized men, to make the excellency of their singing in the force of their voice: one seemed desirous of conquering the other by the strength of his lungs; and so far from receiving delight from this scene (shut up as 1 was in the box of the gondola,) I found myself in a very unpleasant situation. "My companion, to whom I communicated this cir cumstance, being very desirous to keep up the credit of On the 7th of last January, the author of Childe his countrymen, assured me that this singing was very Harold, and another Englishman, the writer of this delightful when heard at a distance. Accordingly we notice, rowed to the Lido with two singers, one of whom got out upon the shore, leaving one of the singers in the was a carpenter, and the other a gondolier. The former gondola, while the other went to the distance of some placed himself at the prow, the latter at the stern of the hundred paces. They now began to sing against one boat. A little after leaving the quay of the Piazzetta, another, and I kept walking up and down between them they began to sing, and continued their exercise until both, so as always to leave him who was to begin his we arrived at the island. They gave us, amongst other part. I frequently stood still and hearkened to the one essays, the death of Clorinda, and the palace of Armida; and to the other. and did not sing the Venetian, but the Tuscan verses. "Here the scene was properly introduced. The The carpenter, however, who was the cleverer of the strong declamatory, and, as it were, shrieking sound, met two, and was frequently obliged to prompt his compa- the ear from far, and called forth the attention; the nion, told us that he could translate the original. He quickly succeeding transitions, which necessarily re added, that he could sing almost three hundred stanzas, quired to be sung in a lower tone, seemed like plaintive but had not spirits (morbin was the word he used) to strains succeeding the vociferations of emotion or of learn any more, or to sing what he already knew: a pain. The other, who listened attentively, immediately man must have idle time on his hands to acquire, or to began where the former left off, answering him in milder repeat, and, said the poor fellow, "look at my clothes or more vehement notes, according as the purport of and at me; I am starving." This speech was more the strophe required. The sleepy canals, the lofty buildings, the splendour of the moon, the deep shadows of the few gondolas that moved like spirits hither and thither, increased the striking peculiarity of the scene; |