happily imagined, to satisfy the inquiries and silence. the doubts of strangers. For one English traveller who has read Dante or thinks anything of Can Grande on entering this city, ten thousand call to mind that Romeo and Juliet, according to their historian-poet, lived, and loved, and died in Verona; and I may add that Lord Byron and myself talked a great deal more of Shakspeare than of Catullus, or Claudian, or Dante, and listened attentively to the guide, who told us the true story, out of the tragedy, and added, that, although Juliet died so long ago as 1303, the Montecchi and Capuletti families were not yet quite extinct. But this was long before the days of handbooks. We carried off a chip of the red marble from the tomb itself, like true believers.* The so-called tomb of King Pepin, although partly underground, has been less respected than that of the Scaligers. The vault was opened, and the body, whose ever it was, carried away-some said by the French. The Germans had as little respect for the church and cemetery and tomb of St. Zeno, the patron saint of Verona, for they converted the cloisters into a cavalry barrack. The sexton, showing the place, remarked that the said French and Germans were "dui bovi”—a true impartial Italian contempt for all Transalpines. Both *See Lord Byron's Letter of Nov. 17, 1816, in Moore's Life, quarto, vol. ii. p. 50. See also Murray's Handbook, which laughs at the sentimental young and elderly ladies who do as we did. † See the ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE OF ITALY, vol. i. plate v. these oxen had spared a beautiful fresco in the cloisters -an infant Jesus. The Martyrdom of St. George, in the church of that name, by Paul Veronese, and the famous Assumption, by Titian, in the cathedral, had not gained admirers by their return from Paris; for they were in positions where it was very difficult to see them distinctly, and were, moreover, exposed to injury from damp, and candle-smoke, and incense. Verona has been fortunate in producing a writer who devoted much of his life and learning to illustrate his native city, and whose partiality, fond as it is, seldom betrays him into exaggeration. Maffei's great work, 'Verona Illustrata,' has been abridged for the use of strangers, who might find it inconvenient to travel with the five volumes of the last Milan edition of 1826; but, in truth, the curiosity of foreigners is generally monopolized by the amphitheatre, and is contented with a glance at the other Roman remains. The double gateway of Gallienus is much of the same merit as his arch at Rome; but I cannot say that it struck me as being overloaded with ornament.* Being the first I had seen in Italy, I read the inscription with the interest with which any record of the masters of the Roman world inspired me in those days; and when I saw the "Coss" felt some awe, without much considering who the con * "L'architettura di questa porta benchè viziosa per l'eccesso degli ornamenti e per licenze in essa usate mostra l'arte già guasta ma non perduta.”—VERONA ILLUST. P. III. cap. 2, vol. iv. p. 72, edit. Milan, 1826. suls were and what the emperor was. The Arco di Gavi, which Palladio called "most beautiful," the work of a period of art superior to that of Vitruvius, according to Scammozzi, was taken down by the French at their first conquest of Lombardy. Maffei, however, terms it part of the skeleton of an arch.* Two of the arches of the Ponte di Pietra, which abut upon the Castello Vecchio, are a Roman work; all that remains of the ancient theatre can only be seen inside a house in the Piazzetta del Redentore. These and some fragments of the old wall of Gallienus are, so far as I am aware, the only ancient remains of a city which, for relics of Roman magnificence, has been ranked next to Rome. But the Lapidario of Maffei, the successor of the Philharmonic Museum, which attracted the attention of Mabillon, has been much increased since the death of its illustrious founder; and the Athenian Will, which the French carried to Paris, has been restored to the collection. Verona, from the days of Constantine, has been the great bulwark of Upper Italy. That conqueror, in his struggle for empire, fought his first important battle under its walls; and here it was that, in 1848, the fate "Parte dello scheletro d' un arco, celebratissimo parimente dagli architetti."-VERON. ILLUS. vol. iv. p. 83. "E poichè Verona in maggior copia ne ha conservato di qualunque altra città eccettuando Roma."-VERON. ILLUS. vol. iv. cap. 11, p. 62. ITER ITALIC., tom. i. cap. 16. He travelled in 1685. of the peninsula was decided; so that, in one sense, Verona might in these days be called, as she was in the time of the Scaligers,― "Città ricca e nobile, Donna e Reina delle terre Italiche."* When I passed some days there in 1845, every height appeared to me crowned by a battery commanding the city; and I was told that the Austrians were still adding to the defences of the citadel. * Canzone diretta a Mastin della Scala.—(VERON. ILLUS. tom. iv. cap. prim. p. 61.) Of all the recorded follies of very learned men, perhaps no one is quite equal to that of the two l'Escales, father and son, who made themselves ridiculous and miserable by a futile attempt to prove that they were descended from these Veronese princes. The worthy offspring of the miniature painter, Bordoni, were indeed not content with the antiquity of the Scaligers, but the younger of them, Joseph, carried his pedigree up to Alain. Verona to Montebello - Olimpic Theatre CHAPTER VI. Vicenza Palladian villa of Count Capra Effect of political condition on dramatic writing - Goldoni - Modern melodrames - Condition of Italian actors The Sette Comuni - Padua - The University - The Bo Tomb of Antenor Livy - Famous natives of Padua St. Anthony -- THE Country between Verona and Montebello appeared to Burnett, nearly two centuries ago, to be better cultivated than any other part of Italy. The merit of the culture is not easily determined by a passing traveller, but nothing can exceed the beauty of it, nor the apparent richness. The vines hang in festoons from rows of mulberry-trees, in fields of clover, and millet, and maize, and other grains. The neighbouring hills are clothed with vineyards and gardens to their summits, and are studded with white villages and villas, with, here and there, an old castle, or a walled town, upon a distant height. The country, on the day we passed (1816), seemed to have poured forth all its population into the roads. All classes, gaily or neatly dressed, were hurrying to the fair at Verona; groups of children were playing in the fields by the road-side, and one little girl was swinging on a festoon of vine-tendrils between the mulberry-trees. There was nothing in the scene to remind |