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was employed in them."-"What did he follow?"-"He listened at the doors, and carried good news to those who were in expectation of pardons, or sentences, or favorable judgments; and, as he had good legs, he was always first with the news. My mother was always here as well as myself; she was not proud, she received money, and accepted of a few commissions. I was born and brought up in these gilded halls, and you see I have gold upon me."-" Your story is very singular; so you follow the footsteps of your mother?"—"No, sir; I do something else."-"And what is that?"-"I solicit lawsuits." -"Solicit lawsuits! I do not understand you."-"I am as well known as Barabbas all the advocates and attorneys are well known to be my friends, and many people apply to me to procure them counsel and defenders. Those who have recourse to me are not generally rich; and I apply to newcomers, persons without employment, who wish nothing better than to have an opportunity of making themselves known. Do you know, sir, that, such as you see me, I have made the fortune of a good dozen of the most famous advocates at this bar? Come, sir, take courage; with your good leave I shall also be the making of you." I was amused with listening to her; and as my servant did not arrive I continued the conversation.

"Very well, madam; have you any good affair at present?" "Yes, sir, I have several, and some of them excellent; I have a widow suspected of having concealed effects; another anxious that a contract of marriage drawn posterior to its date should be held good; I have girls who demand to be portioned; I have wives who wish a separation; and I have people of condition pursued by their creditors; you see, you have only to choose."

"My good woman," said I to her, "I have allowed you to speak, and I wish now to speak in my turn. I am young and entering on my career, and desirous of occasions of employment where I may appear to advantage; but the desire of labor and the itch of pleading will never induce me to undertake such bad causes as those you propose to me."-"Ah, ah!" said she, "you despise my clients, because I told you there was nothing to be gained; but listen: you shall be well paid, and even paid beforehand if you choose." I saw my servant at a distance; I rose, and said to the woman with a firm and determined tone, "No, you are not acquainted with me; I am a

man of honor. She laid hold of my hand, and said with a serious air, "Bravo! continue always to entertain the same sentiments."-"Ah, ah," said I to her, "you change your language." "Oh, yes," said she, "and the language which I now use is better than that I have quitted. Our conversation has not been without mystery; bear it in mind, and take care never to mention it. Adieu, sir, be always prudent and always honorable, and you will find your account in it." On this she went away, and I remained lost in astonishment. I could make nothing of the matter; but I afterwards learned that she was a spy; that she came for the purpose of sounding me; but I never either learned or wished to learn by whom she had been employed.

THE ITALIAN COMIC "MASKS."

In this city [Bologna], the mother of science and the Athens of Italy, complaints had been made some years before of my reformation, as having a tendency to suppress the four masks of the Italian comedy.

This sort of comedy was in greater estimation at Bologna than elsewhere. There were several persons of merit in that place, who took delight in composing outlines of pieces, which were very well represented there by citizens of great ability, and the delight of their country.

The amateurs of the old comedy, on seeing the rapid progress of the new, declared everywhere that it was unworthy of an Italian to give a blow to a species of comedy in which Italy had attained great distinction, and which no other nation had ever yet been able to imitate.

But what made the greatest impression on the discontented, was the suppression of masks, which my system appeared to threaten. It was said that these personages had for two centuries been the amusement of Italy, and that it ought not to be deprived of a species of comic diversion which it had created and so well supported.

Before venturing to give any opinion on this subject, I imagine the reader will have no objection to listen for a few minutes to a short account of the origin, employment, and effects of these four masks.

Comedy, which in all ages has been the favorite entertainment of polished nations, shared the fate of the arts and

sciences, and was buried under the ruins of the empire during the decay of letters.

The germ of comedy, however, was never altogether extinguished in the fertile bosom of Italy. Those who first endeavored to bring about its revival, not finding, in an ignorant age, writers of sufficient skill, had the boldness to draw out plans, to distribute them into acts and scenes, and to utter, extempore, the subjects, thoughts, and witticisms which they had concerted among themselves.

Those who could read (and neither the great nor the rich were of the number) found that in the comedies of Plautus and Terence there were always duped fathers, debauched sons, enamored girls, knavish servants, and mercenary maids; and, running over the different districts of Italy, they took the fathers from Venice and Bologna, and servants from Bergamo, and the lovers and waiting-maids from the dominions of Rome and Tuscany.

Written proofs are not to be expected of what took place in time when writing was not in use; but I prove my assertion in this way: Pantaloon has always been a Venetian, the Doctor a Bolognese, and Brighella and Harlequin, Bergamasks; and from these places, therefore, the comic personages called the four masks of the Italian comedy were taken by the players.

What I say on this subject is not altogether the creature of my imagination: I possess a manuscript of the fifteenth century, in very good preservation, and bound in parchment, containing a hundred and twenty subjects, or sketches of Italian pieces, called comedies of art, and of which the bases of the comic. humor are always Pantaloon, a Venetian merchant; the Doctor, a Bolognese jurisconsult; and Brighella and Harlequin, Bergamask valets, the first clever and sprightly, and the other a mere dolt. Their antiquity and their long existence indicate their origin.

With respect to their employment, Pantaloon and the Doctor, called by the Italians the two old men, represent the part of fathers, and the other parts where cloaks are worn.

The first is a merchant, because Venice in its ancient times was the richest and most extensively commercial country of Italy. He has always preserved the ancient Venetian costume; the black dress and the woolen bonnet are still worn in Venice; and the red under-waistcoat and breeches, cut out like drawers, with red stockings and slippers, are a most exact representation

of the equipment of the first inhabitants of the Adriatic marshes. The beard, which was considered as an ornament in those remote ages, has been caricatured, and rendered ridiculous in subsequent periods.

The second old man, called the Doctor, was taken from among the lawyers, for the sake of opposing a learned man to a merchant; and Bologna was selected, because in that city there existed a university, which, notwithstanding the ignorance of the times, still preserved the offices and emoluments of the professors.

In the dress of the Doctor, we observe the ancient costume of the university and bar of Bologna, which is nearly the same at this day; and the idea of the singular mask which covers his face and nose, was taken from a wine stain which disfigured the countenance of a jurisconsult in those times. This is a tradition still existing among the amateurs of the comedy of

art.

Brighella and Harlequin, called in Italy the two Zani, were taken from Bergamo; because, the former being a very sharp fellow, and the other a stupid clown, these two extremes are only to be found among the lower orders of that part of the country.

Brighella represents an intriguing, deceitful, and knavish valet. His dress is a species of livery; his swarthy mask is a caricature of the color of the inhabitants of those of the high mountains, tanned by the heat of the sun.

Some comedians, in this character, have taken the name of Fenocchio, Fiqueto, and Scapin; but they have always represented the same valet and the same Bergamask.

The harlequins have also assumed other names; they have been sometimes Tracagnins, Truffaldins, Gradelins, and Mezetins but they have always been stupid Bergamasks. Their dress is an exact representation of that of a poor devil who has picked up pieces of stuffs of different colors to patch his dress; his hat corresponds with his mendicity, and the hare's tail with which it is ornamented is still common in the dress of the peasantry of Bergamo.

I have thus, I trust, sufficiently demonstrated the origin and employment of the four masks of the Italian comedy; it now remains for me to mention the effects resulting from them.

The mask must always be very prejudicial to the action of the performer either in joy or sorrow; whether he be in love,

cross, or good-humored, the same features are always exhibited ; and however he may gesticulate and vary the tone, he can never convey by the countenance, which is the interpreter of the heart, the different passions with which he is inwardly agitated.

The masks of the Greeks and Romans were a sort of speaking trumpets, invented for the purpose of conveying the sound through the vast extent of their amphitheaters. Passions and sentiment were not, in those times, carried to the pitch of delicacy now indispensable. The actor must, in our days, possess a soul; and the soul under a mask is like a fire under ashes.

These were the reasons which induced me to endeavor the reform of the Italian theater, and to supply the place of farces with comedies.

AGAINST INCONSISTENCY IN OUR EXPECTATIONS.

BY ANNA LÆTITIA BARBAULD.

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[ANNA LETITIA AIKIN: An English miscellaneous writer; born in 1743; married Rochemont Barbauld, a Huguenot refugee, in 1774. A volume of "Miscellaneous Pieces," written with her brother, but the best of them hers, gave her reputation. She wrote "Hymns in Prose for Children," "Devotional Pieces," "Early Lessons," etc. She died in 1825.]

"What is more reasonable, than that they who take pains for anything, should get most in that particular for which they take pains? They have taken pains for power, you for right principles; they for riches, you for a proper use of the appearances of things: see whether they have the advantage of you in that for which you have taken pains, and which they neglect. If they are in power, and you not, why will not you speak the truth to yourself, that you do nothing for the sake of power, but that they do everything? No, but since I take care to have right principles, it is more reasonable that I should have power. Yes, in respect to what you take care about, your principles. But give up to others the things in which they have taken more care than you. Else it is just as if, because you have right principles, you should think it fit that when you shoot an arrow, you should hit the mark better than an archer, or that you should forge better than a smith.” - EPICTETUS.

AS MOST of the unhappiness in the world arises rather from disappointed desires than from positive evil, it is of the utmost consequence to attain just notions of the laws and order of the

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