splendid description and from a subject taken from the Oriental history
entitled _Macbet Sultan of Delhi_. How the Mogul Sultan came to have the
name of Macbet I know not. On the _plafond_ of the _Pergola_ is an
allegorical painting representing the restored Kings of Europe replaced on
their thrones by Valor and Justice. The decorations at this theatre are not
quite so splendid as those of the _Scala_ at Milan, but living horses and
military evolutions seem to be annexed to every historical _Ballo_. Horses
indeed appear to be an indispensable ingredient in the _Balli_ in the large
cities of Italy.

In the _Teatro Cocomera_, comedies are performed, and very generally those
of the inexhaustible Goldoni. I saw the _Bugiardo_ very fairly performed at
this theatre. The story is nearly the same as that of our piece, _The
Liar_, which is I believe imitated from _Le Menteur_ of Corneille. The
actor who did the Liar was a very good one. The actresses screamed too much
and were rather coarse. Another night at the theatre I saw a piece call'd
_II furioso_, a _comédie larmoyante_ which was interesting and well given;
but the voice of the prompter was occasionally too loud. Tragedies are very
seldom played; the language of Alfieri could never, I will not say be given
with effect, but even conceived by the modern actors. It would be like a
tragedy of Sophocles performed by boys at school. There is another reason
too why these tragedies are not given; they abound too much in republican
and patriotic sentiments to be grateful to the ears of the Princes who
reign in Italy, all of whom being of foreign extraction and unshackled by
constitutions, come under the denomination of those beings called by Greeks
[Greek: Turannoi], I use this word in its Greek sense. Of the Tuscan
Government it is but justice to say that from the days of Leopold to the
present day it was and is a mild, just and paternal government, more so
perhaps than any in Europe; and the only one that can any way reconcile one
altogether to those lines of Pope: