of _opera buffa_ in the sense in which the
mobile, mercurial, excitable Italians have understood it and written
it. In this case it is the Fantastic element which is _paramount_,
proceeding partly from the quips of individual characters, partly from
the _bizarre_ play of chance. The Fantastic element comes pop into our
everyday lives, and turns everything topsy-turvy. One ought to have to
say, "Yes; that really _is_ Brown (or Jones, or Robinson) in that
snuff-coloured Sunday coat of his with the brass buttons, which we all
know so well. And what in the name of fortune 's the fellow going on
like _that_ for?" Picture to yourself some respectable family--uncles,
aunts, and so forth--and a little languishing daughter; throw in two or
three students, be-singing their cousin's eyes and playing the guitar
under the windows. Let the tricksy sprite Puck pop suddenly into the
middle of them! The result you may imagine. All the fat's in the fire;
everything is at sixes and sevens; everybody goes darting in every
direction, gesticulating and grimacing, skipping and posturing, as if a
whole hive of bees were let loose in their bonnets. Some strange planet
rules the ascendant; the nets of haphazard are set, and will catch the
most respectable folk if their noses happen to be just the least bit
longer than the average. I consider that the very essence of _opera
buffa_ lies in this incursion of the Fanciful-Fantastic, the
preposterous and absurd, into actual, everyday life, and the
incongruities that result. And it is just the power of catching hold of
this fanciful-fantastic element--which generally lies rather far off
and out of the way--and bringing it, with vividness, into everyday
life, which makes the acting of Italian buffo actors so inimitable.
They catch the indications given by the author, and their acting
clothes the skeleton which he has sketched with flesh and colour.'

"_Ferdinand_. 'I think I follow you quite. What you mean is, that in
the _opera buffa_ the Fantastic element takes the place of the Romantic
(which, in general terms, you consider an essential principle of
opera), and the art of the poet has to consist in this--that the
characters must appear, not only with much finish, and standing out in
_alto-relievo_, as well as being poetically true, but so clearly drawn
as well from everyday life, and so full of individual character, that
the spectator at once says, "Look there! that's my next-door neighbour,
whom I