Venetians with warmer enthusiasm than was a predilection for their own peculiar dialect, the Pugliese, by the States of Naples.

The Neapolitans, induced, it may be, by a higher feeling of national pride, or animated by that spirit of independence and desire for freedom which has always honourably distinguished them, above other people dwelling in the southern kingdoms of Europe; or else aided by the countenance of their Princes, who were desirous of establishing the native tongue;-from one or other of these causes, they have produced a far larger number of original and translated works, purely of a dialectical kind, than any nation whatever. Independently of their many dramatic and poetic compositions, as well as some popular novels written in the same style, productions essentially tending to foster among them a strong attachment for their basso linguagio, all the public acts and Royal Edicts were recorded in the Neapolitan dialect, from the reign of Alphonso of Aragon to that of Philip II. of Spain; and it is a circumstance worthy of notice, that, during this interval of a hundred and twelve years, there is not the slightest variation perceptible in the language.

At the head of the long catalogue of authors in the Neapolitan dialect, whom it would be easy to enumerate, must be placed Matteo Spinello of Giovenazzo, both from his being the earliest who endeavoured to write faithfully the colloquial language of the common people, as well as for the valuable contemporary accounts which his Diurnali contain. These chronicles, which may be found in the Collection of Muratori, are penned in the purest Neapolitan; and it is remarkable that, in the lapse of so many centuries, the dialect should have experienced such trifling change. As Spinello filled the office of auditor or judge, and was sent by his countrymen envoy to Manfred of Sicily, and shortly afterwards to Charles of Anjou, it is evident he must have been reputed a person of high character and attainments. The fact, therefore, of his employing his own dialect to narrate the momentous events he witnessed, may serve to show that, at that particular period, it was not held by men of letters in disrepute. The Cronica di Partenope, attributed to Giovanni Villani, was compiled soon afterwards. But, in the interval, no less eminent a personage than Boccacio, during a temporary residence at Naples, essayed to imitate the dialect of the country in an epistle addressed to Francesco di Bardi. As was to be anticipated in one who did not speak Neapolitan as his natural tongue, his epistle abounds in mistakes-phrases picked up by him in Sicily, where he had just been studying Greek, being constantly employed, instead of the inflexions appropriately Pugliese. However, notwithstanding these numerous defects, it is still

regarded by the Neapolitans as a valuable tribute from the great Novelist to the genius of their language. The Cronica di Partenope, currently assigned to Villani, viewed as a record of history, is of little value; and, even could it be shown to be really his production, it would nevertheless add but little to his fame. It deals in the most improbable and fabulous narrative, such indeed as only the merest lovers of fiction will admire. Virgil is exhibited in its pages as a wonderful magician, and clothed rather with the miraculous attributes of St Januarius, than commemorated as the poet who bequeathed his ashes to Pozzuoli. In describing the vast benefits he conferred upon Naples, it is stated that the salubrity of its air enabled him to compose his Georgics, and that by the aid of necromancy he dispelled the plague. It is singular enough that several Gallicisms now in disuse should occur throughout this romance, for it scarcely can be styled a history, acquired, no doubt, from an intercourse with the French, or those retainers who were attached to the court of Anjou. We look in vain for the simplicity and purity of style that marks the careful journal of Spinello. His work had undoubtedly contributed to raise the language of his countrymen; but the honour of exalting it to a much higher pitch, and fixing it upon a secure basis, was reserved for Alphonso of Aragon. This Prince, deservedly entitled the Magnificent, conceived the patriotic idea of consolidating the language of the nation he had conquered. By discarding from the official decrees of the state all those Latin and Tuscan words which had either imperceptibly crept in, or become modified with its extension, he hoped to place the vulgar Pugliese, or present Neapolitan, on such a solid foundation that it would become the language of the realm. It is mainly owing to these efforts that there exists at the present day a greater fixedness, and a wider dissemination of this dialect than any other can exhibit. The laws, graces, and privileges the decrees of the sovereign, the oaths of fidelity, the ordinances, rescripts, and despatches; in short, every negotiation or act of business connected with the affairs of the realm, he wished to be transacted and published in Neapolitan. Nor was it a vain conception; for the current language of the people was immediately used in that memorable parliament held in the church of San Lorenzo at Naples in 1442, and such words and inflexions adopted which may be considered as essentially of a provincial character. It would be ridiculous to imagine that this measure was adopted from necessity, through any existing ignorance of good Italian. The well-known talents of Alphonso, and his minister Panormita, contradict the supposition. There were, besides, several scholars of celebrity; for example, Aquilano and Tibaldeo, both elegant writers of Latin and Ita

lian, then resident in the capital. The well-known names of Foggio, Philelfo, Eneo Silvio, Pontano, and Sannazzaronot to mention a numerous band of scholars who helped, under the generous auspices of Alphonso, to recall learning from the great western metropolis, where she had taken refuge-forbid the assumption that the vulgar Pugliese was then countenanced through any unskilfulness or incapability of using a more polished medium of communication.

At the close of the fifteenth century, Tuppo published his translation of Æsop. Strictly speaking, his version is not given in a provincial form, but rather in the cultivated and general language spoken by the educated classes; several Latinisms, both in phraseology and in terms, being mixed up with his Italian. We must, however, do the author the justice to say, that, when he actually employs expressions peculiarly Neapolitan, it is evident to perceive that he does it, not so much because they partake of the burlesque, as from the idea that he deems them more agreeable and more appropriate than their Tuscan synonymes. Two other chronicles, written dialectically, appeared soon afterwards; but their language, instead of being Neapolitan, is the provincial of Lecce, which at that time bore a close analogy to the Sicilian and Calabrese. In the munificent encouragement bestowed upon literature by the Aragonian princes, theatrical compositions could not long be overlooked. It is, indeed, mainly owing to their patronage, that musical farces had their very birth. The Sophonisba of Trissino, generally considered the earliest specimen of the legitimate Italian drama, came forth in the year 1515; but twenty-three years before its appearance, Sannazzaro had produced a farce commemorating the victory obtained by the Castilians under Alphonso, Duke of Calabria, over the Moors of Granada. Whether this piece was in reality the foundation of the modern opera, as some have conjectured, will in no manner affect the present question. It was certainly then, for the first time, that the comic muse exchanged her buskin for the provincial brogue, being imitated in Neapolitan the succeeding year by Antonio Caracciolo. Is it not singular that this imitation, the only work that has served to rescue the name of its author from oblivion, should have incited Sannazzaro himself subsequently to employ his pen upon his native dialect? Yet such is the case; and in consequence of Caracciolo's travesty, the great rival of Bembo wrote his Lo Gliomero;-a suitable appellation for a production in which is collected together all the phrases and humorous terms of the old Neapolitan. If it be a circumstance worthy of their national pride, that Boccacio, under a feigned name, should have penned an epistle in the dialect of Naples, it is cer

tainly one deserving notice, that one of the most distinguished lyric poets Italy has produced, should not have considered it derogatory thus to exercise the fertility of his genius on the vulgar language of his countrymen. At the commencement of the seventeenth century appeared the celebrated Pentameron of Basile. Notwithstanding its continued popularity, notwithstanding its being the prototype for the fairy tales of Perrault, its chief value consists in displaying-though, it must be confessed, in imperfectly displaying-the dialect of Naples; for it not only abounds in gross licentiousness and impurities, but there is little invention in the stories, or attractiveness in the style, to recommend it. Nearly contemporary with Basile, but infinitely more skilful in their imitations, were Cortese and Sgruttendio; the former an elegant poet, endowed by nature with a rich and refined fancy, author of La Vajasse ide and several other pieces and dramas that have frequently been reprinted; the efforts of the latter were confined to lyrical and burlesque effusions. It has been said, by way of comparison of the three, that if the Pugliese find the representative of Boccacio in its novelist Basile, it will recognize Tasso in the octave rhymes of Cortese, and Petrarcha in the sonnets and sapphics of Sgruttendio. The name of Tasso immediately suggests the mention of two translations of his Gierusalemme Liberata; one produced in Neapolitan by Fasano, the other in Calabrese by Cusentino. Though his Aminta was rendered into Romaic verse, we are unaware whether it ever received the same kind of distinction from his own countrymen. Its rival, the Pastor Fido of Guarini, had been previously turned into the colloquial language of Naples by Basile. The fashion kept spreading with the increasing taste for literature; and even the classics themselves were presented in a dress familiar to the lowest order of readers. Virgil was translated by Stigliola; Calasso gave a provincial version of the first six books of Homer.

If we turn to the neighbouring dependency of Sicily, all the early acts of legislation will be found recorded in the dialect of that island-commencing in 1446 with the first Parliament whose proceedings have been preserved, and continuing until the middle of the sixteenth century. These circumstances are doubtless, in a great measure, attributable to the edict of Alphonso the Magnificent; though the merit of first cultivating Sicilian, and indeed Italian poetry, properly belongs to Frederick II. and his two sons. In the interesting journal of Spinello above alluded to, it is related that Manfred the elder often perambulated the streets of Barletta at the hour of midnight, attended by two Sicilian musicians, to whose skilful accompaniment with

their instruments he sung his own virelays and canzonets. It is to be lamented that only one or two specimens of his genius have been preserved; and there is a similar cause for regret with regard to his friend and contemporary, Pietro delle Vigne, the unfortunate secretary of Manfred's father. After this, we look in vain, through a long course of years, for any author either national or adventurous enough to woo the Muses in the dialect of Palermo. At length, after five centuries, one appearswe had almost said the only one-who invoked them in Sicilian. Who has not listened with pleasure to the Idyls of the Abbate Meli?-a poet alternately singing with equal success in the sprightliness of Anacreontic measures, or the melodious majesty of soft bucolics; enchanting the youthful by his fables, or the lover of lyrics by his odes; constantly reminding his reader of Theocritus, or Virgil, or Horace; soothing or arousing passions at his will, always master of an harmonious lyre.

Although the language of the Capitol does not differ so materially from that universally diffused throughout Italy, as does the Venetian, Pugliese, and Sicilian, it has a soft and sonorous cadence, and moreover claims both a provincial character and a provincial literature. To a romance of this description, Pinelli did not refuse to lend the aid of his burin. If we travel northwards, the ears are either struck by the harsh and aspirated pronunciation of the Tuscans, or by some peculiarity or other perceptible in each district, whilst we shall find the literature of each, in its turn, illustrated by provincial poetry. The comedies of Maggi, the rhymes of Tanzi, the apologies of Parini, and the verses of Balestrieri, delight the Milanese. After two centuries, Croce still continues with undiminished influence to charm the students of Bologna. Nor are their ears less captivated by the beauties lurking in the humorous dialogues of Negri and Allegri, or by the pleasant productions of Zanotti and Manfredi, of Lotto Lotti, Monti, Scanzani, and Landi. The Florentines continue to our own day to expatiate warmly on the stanze contadinesche of Lorenzo de Medici, Pulci, and Cigognini. Still do the Genoese rhapsodize about the graceful compositions of Foglietta, and the spirited burlesques of Ferrari. How delightful does the verse of Count Ermes Colloredo sound to the inhabitants of Friuli; with what elegance and enthusiasm does Vanetti vindicate the idiom of Roveredo! We admit that these various productions are not suited to the general reader; and that they cannot, therefore, be sufficiently appreciated by lovers of the common language; but it must be conceded that, if the ingenious authors who wrote them have provoked a certain degree of neglect, from having limited their productions to their own territory, they have, on the