mistresses.--PICART'S RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES.]

[Footnote 41: _--therefore be advis'd_.; Therefore be not precipitant;
consider well what you are about to do.]

[Footnote 42: _--with warning all as blunt:_; That is, as gross as the
dull metal.]




HISTORICAL NOTES TO ACT FIRST.


(A) The foundation of Venice is attributed to the inhabitants of the
surrounding districts, who fled from the cruelty of Attila, King of the
Huns, and took refuge among the islets at the mouth of the Brenta. Here,
about the middle of the fifth century, they founded two small towns,
called Rivoalto and Malmocco, and, being in a manner shut out from all
other modes of employment, naturally devoted themselves to commerce. In
this way they soon became prosperous, and their numbers increased so
rapidly, that in the year 697 they made application to the Emperor to be
elected into a body politic, and obtained authority to elect a chief, to
whom they gave the name of Duke or Doge. The town, continuing to
increase, gradually extended its buildings to the adjacent islands, and,
at the same time, acquired considerable tracts of territory on the
mainland, then inhabited by the Veneti, from whence the rising city is
supposed to have borrowed its name of Venetia or Venice.

(B) This is the heart of Venice, and is one of the most imposing