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472 APPENDIX, 25
Place-the termination of the most noble square in the world-the centre of the most noble city-its purple marbles were, in the winter of 1849, the customary gambling tables of the idle children of Venice; and the parts which flank the Great Entrance, that very entrance where “Barbarossa flung his mantle off,”1 were the counters of a common bazaar for children’s toys, carts, dolls, and small pewter spoons and dishes; German caricatures, and books of the Opera, mixed with those of the offices of religion; the caricatures being fastened with twine round the porphyry shafts of the church. One Sunday, the 24th of February, 1850, the book-stall being somewhat more richly laid out than usual, I noted down the titles of a few of the books in the order in which they lay, and I give them below. The irony conveyed by the juxtaposition of the three in italics appears too shrewd to be accidental; but the fact was actually so.
Along the edge of the white plinth were a row of two kinds of books, Officium Beatæ Virg. M.; and Officium Hebdomadæ sanctæ, juxta Forman Missalis et Breviarii Romani sub Urbano VIII. correcti.
Behind these lay, side by side, the following:-
Don Desiderio. Dramma Giocoso per Musica.
Breve Esposizione della Carattere di vera Religione.
On the top of this latter, keeping its leaves open,
La Figlia del Reggimento. Melodramma comica.
Carteggio di Madama la Marchesa di Pompadour, ossia raccolta di Lettere scritte della Medesima.
Istruzioni di morale Condotta per le Figlie.
Francesca di Rimini. Dramma per Musica.
Then, a little farther on, after a mass of plays:-
Orazioni a Gesu Nazareno e a Maria addolorata.
Semiramide; Melodramma tragico da rappresentarsi nel Gran Teatro il Fenice.
Modo di orare per l’Acquisto del S. Giubileo, conceduto a tutto il Mondo Cattolico da S. S. Gregorio XVI.
Le due illustre Rivali, Melodramma in Tre Atti, da rappresentarsi nel nuovo Gran Teatro il Fenice.
Il Cristiano secondo il Cuore di Gesu, per la Pratica delle sue Virtue.
Traduzione dell’ Idioma Italiana.
La chiava Chinese; Commedia del Sig. Abate Pietro Chiari.
La Pelarina; Intermezzo di Tre Parti per Musica.
Il Cavaliero e la Dama; Commedia in Tre Atti in Prosa.
I leave these facts without comment.2 But this being the last piece of Appendix I have to add to the present volume, I would desire to close its pages with a question to my readers-a statistical question-which, I doubt not, is being accurately determined for us all elsewhere, and which, therefore, it seems to me, our time would not be wasted in determining for ourselves.
There has now been peace between England and the continental powers about thirty-five years, and during that period the English have visited the continent at the rate of many thousands a year, staying there, I suppose, on the average, each two or three months; nor these an inferior kind of English,
1 [Rogers: see above, p. 28.]
2 [Compare the advertisements copied from St. Mark’s at a later date: Fors Clavigera, letter 78.]
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[Version 0.04: March 2008]
