cloaks thrown over their shoulders; young women, with bare heads of thick
black hair; old women, all fluff and fangs; wooden-shod peasants, with
hooded cloaks of coarse brown; then boys--and boys. They all enjoy the
spectacle with approval, and take the drama _au grand serieux_,
uttering none of the gibes which sometimes attend efforts to please in our
own country. Even when the hat, or other instrument of extortion, is
passed round, and they give nothing, and when the manager, in an excess of
fury and disappointment, calls out, "Ah! sons of dogs! I play no more to
you!" and closes the theatre, they quietly and unresentfully disperse.
Though, indeed, _fioi de cani_ means no great reproach in Venetian
parlance; and parents of the lower classes caressingly address their
children in these terms. Whereas to call one Figure of a Pig, is to wreak
upon him the deadliest insult which can be put into words.

In the _commedia a braccio_, before mentioned as the inheritance of
the Marionette, the dramatist furnished merely the plot, and the outline
of the action; the players filled in the character and dialogue. With any
people less quick-witted than the Italians, this sort of comedy must have
been insufferable, but it formed the delight of that people till the
middle of the last century, and even after Goldoni went to Paris he
furnished his Italian players with the _commedia a braccio_. I have
heard some very passable _gags_ at the Marionette, but the real
_commedia a braccio_ no longer exists, and its familiar and
invariable characters perform written plays.

Facanapa is a modern addition to the old stock of _dramatis
personae_, and he is now without doubt the popular favorite in Venice.
He is always, like Pantalon, a Venetian; but whereas the latter is always
a merchant, Facanapa is any thing that the exigency of the play demands.
He is a dwarf, even among puppets, and his dress invariably consists of