ation Lelio detailed the story to his troop, hung up the
_Scenario_ in its usual place, and the whole company was ready at the
drawing of the curtain. The plot given in by La Motte was performed to
admiration; and all Paris witnessed the triumph. La Motte afterwards
composed this very comedy for the French theatre, _L'Amante difficile_,
yet still the extemporal one at the Italian theatre remained a more
permanent favourite; and the public were delighted by seeing the same
piece perpetually offering novelties and changing its character at the
fancy of the actors. This fact conveys an idea of dramatic execution
which does not enter into our experience. Riccoboni carried the
_Commedie dell' Arte_ to a new perfection, by the introduction of an
elegant fable and serious characters; and he raised the dignity of the
Italian stage, when he inscribed on its curtain,

"CASTIGAT RIDENDO MORES."

MASSINGER, MILTON, AND THE ITALIAN THEATRE.

The pantomimic characters and the extemporal comedy of Italy may have
had some influence even on our own dramatic poets: this source has
indeed escaped all notice; yet I incline to think it explains a
difficult point in Massinger, which has baffled even the keen spirit of
Mr. Gifford.

A passage in Massinger bears a striking resemblance with one in
Moliere's "Malade Imaginaire." It is in "The Emperor of the East," vol.
iii. 317. The Quack or "Empiric's" humorous notion is so closely that of
Moliere's, that Mr. Gifford, agreeing with Mr. Gilchrist, "finds it
difficult to believe the coincidence accidental;" but the greater
difficulty is, to conceive that "Massinger ever fell into Moliere's
hands." At that period, in the infancy of our literature, our native
authors and our own language were as insulated as their country. It is
more than probable that Massinger and Moliere had drawn from the same
source--the Italian Comedy. Massinger's "Empiric," as well as the
acknowledged copy of Moliere's "Medecin," came from the "Dottore" of the
Italian Comedy. The humour of these old Italian pantomimes was often as
traditionally preserved as proverbs. Massinger was a student of Italian
authors; and some of the lucky hits of their theatre, which then
consisted of nothing else but these burlesque comedies, might have
circuitously reached the English bard; and six-and-thirty years
afterwards, the same traditional jests might have been gleaned by the
Gallic one from the "Dottore," who was still r