not such as are contrary to it. After the statue of his late Majesty with the sword and shield reversed in the pediment of the East India House, we cannot be surprized to hear of sundry celebrated steeds who have both legs on the same side off the ground at the same time. Such is the case with the above named Venetian horses, with those of Castor and Pollux (as they are called) on the Capitol, and that of Nonius Balbus, at Naples; but we are a little surprised to hear that such a mode of ambling has been supported as natural; and that two writers, Boul and Baldinucci, have gravely argued in favour of a practice, of the non-existence of which they might have satisfied themselves inter equitandum. The obelisk in the area of St. Peter's, stands about eleven feet south of a line drawn from the centre of the dome through the middle door; this is a singular error, which we do not recollect to have seen noticed before. Mr. Burton mentions the following interesting anecdote, relative to the erection of this obelisk. "So great was the interest excited by this undertaking, and so much importance was attached by the pope to the solemnity of its execution, that during the elevation of the Obelisk, it was ordered, that no person should speak, under pain of death. One of the Bresca family of the ancient Republic of S. Remo being present at the time, and seeing the ropes on the point of breaking from the great friction, violated the order for silence by calling for water. The pope, instead of inflicting the sentence upon him, asked him to name his reward. He selected the privilege of supplying palms for the Papal Chapel on Palm Sunday: a privilege, which is still claimed by the Bresca family. A painting of the operation of the removal is now in the Vatican Library, in which the seizing of this man by the guards is represented *." P. 235. year 1615, In the tablet was dug up near the Porta Capena, with an incription in memory of L. Scipio, son of Scipio Barbatus. We give the two first lines below. "HONC. OINO. PLOIRUME. CONSENTIUNT. R DUONORO. OPTUMO. FUISE. VIRO," &c. Or in Augustan orthography, "HUNC UNUM PLURIMI CONSENTIUNT ROMÆ BONORUM OPTIMUM FUISSE VIRUM," &C. "This inscription," says Mr. Hobhouse, " was neglected as bad grammar, and an evident forgery. The objectors * Vide Angiolo Rocca, de Biblioth. Vat. 250. Taja, Descrip. del Palazzo Vat. 140. quoted Cicero to prove that the tomb of the Scipios must be without the Porta Capena, &c." 170. The objectors might have quoted a less obvious passage from Cicero, than that in the Tusculan questions, to prove that the inscription was not bad grammar. Mr. Burton has cited the words, and by an error of the press, or the pen, has given a false reference, De Senectute XVII. It is in the treatise de finibus bonorum et malorum 11. 34. that Cicero speaks of the monument of Calatinus, which he declares to be ad portam (Capenam) bearing these words. "Uno ore cui plurima consentiunt gentes populi primarium fuisse virum." When Cicero, who must have known the matter perfectly, speaks of these words as engraven on the tomb of Calatinus, we see no reason to agree with Mr. Burton, that he was thinking of the tomb of Lucius Scipio: but we see strong reason for not agreeing with the antiquaries, who hold that to be bad grammar which Cicero bas quoted without vituperation. The broken walls in the Circus of Caracalla, shew several large earthen vessels inclosed in the brick work. Mr. Burton ingeniously conjectures that they were placed there to assist the voice of the actors; and he cites Vitruvius to prove that this contrivance was used in theatres. We have no doubt that such was the custom; but we do not think him equally happy in endeavouring to refer to it; Audiat ille Testarum crepitus. It is of dancing girls from Gaditania, the South of Spain, that Juvenal (X1. 170.) is here speaking. The lascivious movements of the fandango, still in use, are clearly described by him; and the fandango, as is well known, is danced with castagnets-we recollect the occurrence of the word testa in somewhat of a similar sense only in one other place. Suetonius, describing the rabble of applauders (they exceeded 5000) which Nero distributed over the theatre whenever he sung in public, says they were called bombos et imbrices, et testas (Suet. Nero, XX). The two first words are plainly derived from the hum of bees, and the plashing of rain; the third may fairly be assigned to the clinking of castagnets. Such probably was also the scabellorum crepitus, to which Caligula was used to dance; not to mention the ožußaqav Lovin, which has given Casaubon so much trouble in Athenæus. In his account of the voyage of the Egyptians to the feast of Diana at Bubastis, Herodotus informs us, "a pev άι μέν τινες τῶν γυναικῶν κροτάλα ἔχουσαι κροταλίζουσι” (11. 60.) and the same instruments are twice referred to by Euripides, as used in the rites of Cybele and Bacchus. κρόταλα δὲ βρόμια διαπρύσιον έντα κέλαδον ἀνεβία. συχὶ Διόνυσος τάδε, Helena. 1307. ον κρόταλα χαλχοῦ τυμπάνων τ' αράγματα. Cyclops. 204. We have perhaps multiplied passages very uselessly, to explain a matter which scarcely admits of doubt; but our respect for Mr. Burton's scholarship is so sincere, that we would not seem to differ from him, unless we were backed by most ample authorities. Whatever the testæ may signify, that the ancients excelled us in practical acoustics, must be readily admitted by any one who frequents the boxes of our patent play-houses: for Mr. Burton assures us, that he has stood on the highest seat in the remains of the theatre at Taormina (Taurominium) in Sicily, and not only heard distinctly the sound of a voice speaking from the stage, but even the tearing of a piece of paper on it, appeared quite near him. Horace Walpole named a circular room at the end of his great gallery at Strawberry Hill, a Tribune. The title has often puzzled us; and as Mr. Burton explains its origin, Horace Walpole was guilty of a misnomer. "The nave or Testudo in a Basilica was finished in a curved form, and called Tribunal, because causes were heard there: hence the term Tribune is applied to that end of the Roman churches which is behind the high altar, and which in the oldest churches generally preserved the curved form. Thus we find in Prudentius; Fronte sub adversa gradibus sublime Tribunal Tollitur, Antistes, prædicat unde Deum. Mr. Burton considers St. Peter's to be "a monument much more vast and magnificent than any which Republican or Imperial Rome has left." Even, the Colosseum, which as an uncovered building is no great wonder of art, exceeds it in length but by fifteen Roman palms, and is far inferior in splendour of decoration. The dimensions of the temple of Jupiter in the Capitol, were but 200 feet by 185; the Parthenon was 230 by 98. In height too, St. Peter's overtops the great Pyramid of Gyges, by 37 feet; and in turn, St. Peter's was surpassed by the spire of old St. Paul's, which at one period arrived at the stupendous altitude of 520 feet. In the Via delle IV. Fontane is a church dedicated to S. Carlo, the area of which covers exactly the same space as one of the four pillars which support the dome of St. Peter's; nor does this appear particularly small in the inside. M. Angelo, when the pillars were completed, insisted that nothing should be altered, or added to his design. Bernini undertook to make a stair case within each of the columns. He finished that which still remains behind the statue of St. Veronica, when the whole building gave a crash like thunder, and frightened the daring architect out of any farther attempt. "It was calculated, that 500 pounds weight of rope was used in the finishing of this dome, and 30,000 pounds weight of iron. Above 1100 beams were employed in one story only of the dome, 100 of which were so large that two men could not embrace them." P. 411. "To bring St. Peter's to its present form required three centuries and a half; and up to 1694 it was calculated, that forty-seven millions of scudi (upwards of ten and a half millions sterling) had been expended upon it." P. 412. The Mosaics cost between 4 and 5000 a piece. In the monument of Paul III. are two fine marble images of Prudence and Justice. The naked figure of the latter has been spoilt, by being covered with a drapery of bronze to satisfy the supererogatory delicacy of one of the later pontiffs. We remember a magnificent Titian, which underwent a similar fate, but with better luck in the end. It was a rape of Ganymede, in which the rich azure of the clouds, finely contrasted with the dark plumage of the eagle, upon whose back the shepherd boy was striding. When the picture passed from the Colonna gallery, the fastidious purchaser requested a confidential artist to cover the limbs of the cup-bearer with a scarlet shawl. The painter's occupation was at stake: he did as little as he could to save his employer's prudery; and the picture is now in its original state, having got rid of its temporary veil of body colour. It was from the expression of a wish to the same effect, respecting M. Angelo's Last Judgment, that Pius IV. acquired the name of Brachettone. In the Church of St. Paul is a series of portraits of the Popes, from St. Peter to Pius VII. It had terminated, in a manner, with the last Pontiff, having gone round the Church, and his picture being next to that of St. Peter. The tradition, that whenever this occurred, the Popedom was to be abolished, was well nigh verified. His present Holiness has commenced a new cycle. The Roman Catholics howe possess, by anticipation, a catalogue of all the Popes from A. D. 1143 till Doomsday. It was framed by St. Malachy, who was born at, and Archbishop of, Armagh, and was the first saint who received regular canonization. "Among other proofs of his supernatural powers, he left a list of all the popes from Celestin II. 1143, to the end of time. The fact is now pretty well ascertained, that this was an invention of the cardinals assembled in conclave to elect a pope upon the death of Urban VII. in 1590. The partisans of Cardinal Simoncelli, afterwards Gregory XIV. brought forward this list as a prophecy of St. Malachy; and the words which were considered indicative of his election were, de Antiquitate Urbis,' as the Cardinal was a native of Orvieto, the Latin name of which was Urbs Vetus. No mention is made of the existence of such a prophecy till 1600, when it was published by Arnold de Wyon, a Benedictine of Douay: and if we look to each prediction and its completion before the time of Gregory XIV. we shall see very clearly, that the framers of it went upon good historical grounds; but after his time the application of the prophecies is extremely forced. To make this clear, I will give the three popes who succeeded each other immediately after the death of St. Malachy, and then the three who followed Gregory XIV. 1143. Ex castris Tiberis. 1144. Inimicus expulsus. Celestin II. Born at a castle on the Tiber. Of the family of Caccianemici in Bologna. 1145. Exmagnitudine montis. Eugenius III. Of Grandimont near Pisa. "In these cases the agreement is very evident: but in the three cases which immediately follow Gregory XIV. there is a striking difference. "The last pope, Pius VI. had the symbol Peregrinus Apostolicus, which of course was accomplished by his journey to Vienna. |