and if he was of any school, it was that of the Venetian, Gasparo
Gozzi, who wrote pungent and amusing social satires in blank verse,
and published at Venice an essay-paper, like the "Spectator", the
name of which he turned into _l'Osservatore_. It dealt, like the
"Spectator" and all that race of journals, with questions of letters
and manners, and was long honored, like the "Spectator", as a model of
prose. With an apparent prevalence of French taste, there was in fact
much study by Italian authors of English literature at this time,
which was encouraged by Dr. Johnson's friend, Baretti, the author of
the famous _Frusta Letteraria_ (Literary Scourge), which drew blood
from so many authorlings, now bloodless; it was wielded with more
severity than wisdom, and fell pretty indiscriminately upon the bad
and the good. It scourged among others Goldoni, the greatest master of
the comic art then living, but it spared our Parini, the first part of
whose poem Baretti salutes with many kindly phrases, though he cannot
help advising him to turn the poem into rhyme. But when did a critic
ever know less than a poet about a poet's business?


III

The first part of Parini's Day is Morning, that mature hour at which
the hero awakes from the glories and fatigues of the past night. His
valet appears, and throwing open the shutters asks whether he will
have coffee or chocolate in bed, and when he has broken his fast and
risen, the business of the day begins. The earliest comer is perhaps
the dancing-master, whose elegant presence we must not deny ourselves:

He, entering, stops
Erect upon the threshold, elevating