motion become loofe, and the perfons in it are tumbled together on the ground. Of Lifa, (Elifabeth) fhe found fome handfome garters, be. caufe, doubtless, he was taken as a maid-fervant to the great house. The poetefs picked up all these fine articles, comes joyfully tripping along with them to the village, where the fwing ftands, and calls the other women and girls to the fwing.

Village-women, come to the fwing!
Bring your chickens, and bring your eggs,
Bring breeding geefe,
Bring ducks by couples,

Bring the feet of fwimming fowl,
Come to the fwing, and let us swing.
Shove the children into the cradle,
The father will nurfe the children.
I went to the swing to fwing,
And there I found many black-tockings,
Of Anna two stripped ribbands,
Of Lifa handsome garters,

Of the Kubija's daughter golden treffes,
Of the poor orphan only falfe treffes.

By way of conclufion, I will prefent you with a few more nuptial fonnets. The first of which muit incontestably have been written fomewhere in the period between the beginning of the year 1580 and the clofe of the year 1583, when the Swedes, Poles, and Ruffians, were all in the country at once. The Turks therein mentioned must be fynonymous with Tartars, a mistake that may eafily be pardoned in a nation fo very deficient in the fcience of geography.

X. A Wedding-fong. The good luck of a girl brought up in the manfion-houfe of the estate, with the nobleman's family, who is probably to be married to one of the upper fervants, is here celebrated. "Thou "know ft thy ftation, where thou "fafely fleepft: but we, thy parents, (it was doubtlefs in war time,)

"

Nor the Turkish fiery darts.

The lord of the manor was thy father,
The lady thy mother,

The lord's daughters thy fifters,
His fons thy half-brothers.
There thou kneweft where thou didst grow
up,

I

Knewest the life thou leddest,
Knewest the place where thou should sleep.
The goofe knows not the place,
The duck knows not the little place

Where it fhall fall down to die.

perhaps fhall die in the bog, Left to perish upon the earth, Or breathe out my life upon the hay-mowf.

XI. Bridal fonnet. A man in boots comes up to a German. The boor goes in a kind of flipper made of ruth-matting, tied fast to his feet by pack-thread.

Yerven is held to be the most fertile province in Efthonia. The condition of the peasants here is, in general, better than in the other circles. Hence the luxury of a cocked-hat. The maiden flatters herself with the hope of marrying a German, confequently to one above her rank, but at length gets nothing better than a boor from Yerven. Now to the fong itfelf:

Hark

Hark, my maid, my little bride! As thou greweft up in the house, Thou wenteft like a swan in the snow, Like a grey goofe in the hedge, Thou washedft thy hair in the water of the lake,

And thine eyes with the fuds of white foap; Thou thoughtest to conquer a man with boots,

And to get thee one with a handfome hat.
Thou fcornedft the eager youths
As the vileft slaves of Vierland,
For one cocked-hat from Yerven-

A

without pretending, as I faid at first, to equal them with the fongs of the deathlefs bards. Neverthelefs, the unprejudiced reader will discover feveral artless beauties in one or other. of them, and the investigator of mankind will get an infight into the genius of the nation.

For fuch as can difcern no traces. of delicate fentiment in them, for. fuch as have obferved no poignant ftrokes of farcasm in these specimens of national poefy; for fuch as do not conclude from them, that, with better ufage, greater culture, and a little allowance of liberty, we might ex-: pet this nation to produce beautiful. pieces in the various departments of poetry; and that then the delightful and melodious language of this people, by a greater cultivation, and a freer fcope, would be rendered more and more melodious and delightful, for them I did not write down thefe fpecimens, either in their original or in a tranflation. The feeming harshness of feveral vowels ftriking on one another in this language, entirely vanishes when heard with all its nuances from the mouth of an Efthonian.

PRACTICE generally beheld by foreigners in a falfe point of view, is the method obferved by the

where

where chufe to follow their own way, and to adhere to their own rules and customs; fo it is natural for them to find it a hardship, if all at once a confiderable portion of their actions are entirely diflocated.

The German Princes have already introduced into their Italian territo ries the method of counting the hours that prevails with us. The French dial, as it is called, which, to the comfort of foreigners, has long been placed on the Trinita di Monte, will foon point out to travellers, both within and without fide St Peter's, their customary hours. Our way of reckoning will therefore gradually become more common; though it will continue to meet with great op pofition on the part of the populace; and certainly they lofe by it a proper national cuftom, an hereditary mode of reprefentation, and an extremely fuitable habit.

How often do we hear travellers praifing the beautiful country, the happy climate, the clear blue fky, the breathing gales, and the balmy air of Italy; and all this is for the moft part true, and not exaggerated. But thence it follows, that all who can pass their time in the open air, chufe to do so, and enjoy in pleasure or in bufinefs the genial breath of heaven. How many workmen of various kinds are employed in the freets and high-ways? how many have fhops quite open on all fides? how many fland out with their articles of trade in the markets, the fquares, and in the courts? That with fuch a way of life, the moment when the fun fets and the night comes on, fhould be more difcriminate than with us, where it often happens that there is but little daylight the whole day long, is eafily feen. The day is actually at an end; all bufineffes of a certain kind should likewife be ended, and this point of time, as is fitting it fhould with a fenfible people, has the fame mark from one end of

the year to the other. It is now night [notte,] for the twenty-fourth hour is never ufed in fpeech, as in France they fay noon [midi,] and not twelve o'clock. The bells ring, every one fays a short prayer, the fervants light up the lamps, bring them into the room, and wish feliciffima notte.

From this epocha, which always returns at fun-fetting, till the next fun fetting, the time is divided into twenty-four hours; and as every one now, by long habit, knows as well when it is day, as in what hour noon and midnight fall; fo all kinds of reckonings are prefently made, in, which the Italians feem to find a plea fure and a fort of amusement. There is a natural conveniency in this way of counting the hours, in all affairs that have the fmallest reference to. day and night; and one eafily perceives how time came to be thus divided by a large body of people.

Thus, we find all work-fhops, fchools, public offices, banks, open at all feafons of the year, till night; and every perfon may tranfact his affairs till then. Has he leifure time upon his hands, he may continue his promenades till fun-fet, then repair to certain circles, and concert with them the amusements of the fucceeding day. From half past one till two in the night, all flock to the theatres. And thus a man feems to live, from the firft day of the year to the last, in the fame time, because he performs all that relates to day and night in the fame fucceffion; without giving himself the fmalleft concern, whether, according to our mode of com. putation, it be early or late.

By this means, the great concourfe of paffengers, both on foot and in carriages, which are feen in all the great towns in Italy, efpecially on Sundays and holidays, in the principal ftreets and fquares; and thus at the Corfo of Rome, and at the Car nival, an enormous multitude of in

tractable

feem to take great delight in this difguife.

Coachmen and lacquays frequently make a very decent figure as women, and especially if they are young and good-looking fellows, and are handfomely dreffed. On the other hand, one fees ladies of the middle stations as Pulcinellos, and the women of fashion look well and even beautifully in the officer's uniform. Every one feems to enjoy this frolic, in which we have all, when children, been often delighted; as an agreeable prolongation of juvenile follies. It is curious to fee how both fexes appear to amule themfelves in this felf-creation, by ufurping as much as poffible the prerogative of Tirefias.

In like manner, the young men who devote themfelves to the performance of female characters, take incredible pains to attain at perfection in art. They obferve the looks, the motions, the deportment of ladies in the nicest manner; they do their utmost to ape them in every particular, and give their voice the foftnefs and melody of that fex, even when they cannot alter its deeper tone, in hort, they strive as far as in their power lies, to diveft themselves entirely of their fex. They are as enamoured of every new fashion as any woman in the world can be; they employ the first-rate milliners to drefs and adorn them; and the principal actress of a theatre is very fuccefsful when the makes fo complete a figure.

As to the under parts, they, generally speaking, are not fo well filled; and it is not to be denied, that Columbine is often unable entirely to conceal her blue-beard. But as great improprieties are feen in the generality of the rest of the theatres, in refpect to the under-parts; and, excepting in the very capitals of other kingdoms, where greater care is taken of the ftage, there is fre

quently much reafon to complain of the unfkilfulness of performers of the third and fourth orders, and of the failure in the illufion that this occafions.

I attended the Roman theatre not free from prejudice; but I foon found myfelf reconciled, without thinking of it; I felt a pleasure hitherto unknown to me, and I remarked that many others fhared in it like wife. I ftrove to find out the caufe; and it feems to be that in this reprefentation, the idea of imitation, the fentiment of art, always remain alert, and by the proper performance only one kind of confcious illufion is produced.

We recollect to have feen an expert young man on the London stage, perform old characters with the completeft deception, and we cannot but recollect at the fame time, the twofold pleasure that actor gave us. In like manner, a double fatisfaction arifes from hence, that these perfons are not ladies, but ladies represented. The young man has ftudied the peculiarities of the female fex in their whole manner and deportment; he underhands them, and exhibits them to our view in quality of an artist ; he acts not himfelf, but a third, and properly a foreign nature. We enter fo much the more deeply into this reprefentation, as every one has obferved them, every one has confidered them, and it is not the fubject, but the refult of the subject, that is reprefented before us.

Now, as all art is thus eminently diftinguished from Gmple imitation; fo it is natural that at fuch a reprefentation we fhould feel a peculiar kind of pleasure, and overlook many imperfections in the execution of the whole.

It must indeed be neceffarily underftood, as was hinted above, that the parts must be fuitable to this kind of acting.

Thus the public could not refuse a general