With increasing knowledge of the language, I learned to enjoy best the
unmusical theatre, and went oftener to the comedy than the opera. It is
hardly by any chance that the Italians play ill, and I have seen excellent
acting at the Venetian theatres, both in the modern Italian comedy, which
is very rich and good, and in the elder plays of Goldoni--compositions
deliciously racy when seen in Venice, where alone their admirable fidelity
of drawing and coloring can be perfectly appreciated. The best comedy is
usually given to the educated classes at the pretty Teatro Apollo, while a
bloodier and louder drama is offered to the populace at Teatro Malibran,
where on a Sunday night you may see the plebeian life of the city in one
of its most entertaining and characteristic phases. The sparings of the
whole week which have not been laid out for chances in the lottery, are
spent for this evening's amusement; and in the vast pit you see, besides
the families of comfortable artisans who can evidently afford it, a
multitude of the ragged poor, whose presence, even at the low rate of
eight or ten soldi [Footnote: The soldo is the hundredth part of the
Austrian florin, which is worth about forty-nine cents of American money.]
apiece, it is hard to account for. It is very peremptory, this audience,
in its likes and dislikes, and applauds and hisses with great vehemence.
It likes best the sanguinary local spectacular drama; it cheers and cheers
again every allusion to Venice; and when the curtain rises on some well-
known Venetian scene, it has out the scene-painter by name three times--
which is all the police permits. The auditors wear their hats in the pit,
but deny that privilege to the people in the boxes, and raise stormy and
wrathful cries of _cappello!_ till these uncover. Between acts, they
indulge in excesses of water flavored with anise, and even go to the
extent of candied nuts and fruits, which are hawked about the theatre, and
sold for two soldi the stick,--with the tooth-pick on which they are
spitted thrown into the bargain.