the Prometteo by Beethoven, is well known in
England, but to produce the ballet on our stage, as it was exhibited
here, would be impossible. The entire tribe of our dancers and
figurantes, with their jumpings, twirlings, quiverings, and
pirouettings, must be first annihilated; and Vigano, or Didelot, or
Noverre rise again to inform the whole corps de ballet with another
soul and the whole audience with another spirit:--for

--"Poiche paga il volgo sciocco, e giusto
Scioccamente '_ballar_' per dargli gusto."

The Theatre of the Scala, notwithstanding the vastness of my
expectations, did not disappoint me. I heard it criticised as being
dark and gloomy; for only the stage is illuminated: but when I
remember how often I have left our English theatres with dazzled eyes
and aching head,--distracted by the multiplicity of objects and faces,
and "blasted with excess of light,"--I feel reconciled to this
peculiarity; more especially as it heightens beyond measure the
splendour of the stage effect.

We have the Countess Bubna's box while we are here. She scarcely ever
goes herself, being obliged to hold a sort of military drawing-room
almost every evening. Her husband, General Bubna, has the command of
the Austrian forces in the north of Italy: and though the Archduke
Reinier is nominal viceroy, all real power seems lodged in Bubna's
bands. He it was who suppressed the insurrection in Piedmont during
the last struggle for liberty: 'twas his vocation--more the pity.
Eight hundred of the Milanese, at the head of them Count Melzi, were
connected with the Carbonari and the Piedmontese insurgents. On Count
Bubna's return from his expedition, a list of these malcontents being
sent to him by the police, he refused even to look at it, and merely
saying that it was the business of the police to _surveiller_ those
persons, but _he_ must be allowed to be ignorant of their names,
publicly tore the paper. The same night he visited the theatre,
accompanied by Count Melzi, was received with acclamations, and has
since been deservedly popular.

Bubna is a heavy gross-looking man, a victim to the gout, and with
nothing martial or captivating in his exterior. He has talents,
however, and those not only of a military cast. He was generally
employed to arrange the affairs of the Emperor of Austria with
Napoleon. His loyalty to his own sovereign, and the soldier-like
frankness and integrity of his character, gained him the esteem of t