I are well" [Patois]] I hope you and mamma are so also. Naples
and Rome are two drowsy cities. A scheni Schrift!
net wor? [Footnote: "Fine writing, is it not?" [Patois.]] Write
to me, and do not be so lazy. Altrimente avrete qualche bastonate
di me. Quel plaisir! Je te casserai la tete. [Footnote:
"Otherwise I will cudgel you soundly. What a pleasure--to break
your head!"] I am delighted with the thoughts of the portraits
[of his mother and sister, who had promised to have their
likenesses taken], und i bi korios wias da gleich sieht; wons ma
gfoin, so los i mi und den Vodan a so macho. Maidli, lass Da
saga, wo list dan gwesa he? [Footnote: "And I am anxious to see
what they are like, and then I will have my father and myself
also taken. Fair maiden, say, where have you been, eh?"
[Patois.]] The opera here is Jomelli's; it is fine, but too grave
and old-fashioned for this stage. Madame de' Amicis sings
incomparably, and so does Aprile, who used to sing at Milan. The
dancing is miserably pretentious. The theatre beautiful. The King
has been brought up in the rough Neapolitan fashion, and at the
opera always stands on a stool, so that he may look a little
taller than the Queen, who is beautiful and so gracious, for she
bowed to me in the most condescending manner no less than six
times on the Molo.



15.

Naples, June 16, 1770.

I AM well and lively and happy as ever, and as glad to travel. I