iaeval roughness, and chains the
dramatic art itself to the slab over his grave? Perhaps, my dear Smith,
the immortal Bunn is right after all. Perhaps, if all managers were to
follow his example for forty years--if for forty years mankind were
condemned to the wilderness of operas, and divertisements, and
farces--we should forget the flavour of the flesh-pots (furnished by
Shakspeare) which has so completely mastered our taste;--some Joshua
would lead us into a chosen land, and feed us with all manner of
delights;--the stage, I mean, would come, like the aloe, to a second
flower, only resembling its ancient crown in its life and beauty, but
smelling of the present time.

For no beer, you will grant, is so pleasant as that which has the froth
on. Its freshness even compensates for its want of strength. But if, in
addition to being fresher by two hundred years than the tap of William
Shakspeare of Stratford, it were as strong--as cunningly mixed of malt
and hops--and had as beautiful a flavour as his had when it was first
brewed--eh! Smith? What do you think, then? Isn't it worth while to live
forty years on the chance? isn't it worth while to be teetotallers in
the meantime? to live upon slops and gruel? Gentlemen, I propose the
health of Mr Lumley and Mr Bunn.

I remain, my dear Smith,
Your admirer and friend,
G. BOBSON.

BIRBONIANA; OR, ITALIAN ANTIQUARIES AND ANTICHITA.

"Birbone--a Jew, a cheat, a rogue, a vagabond, a liar, a coiner, an
utterer of all things base and false--an Antiquary!"--BARETTI'S
_Italian Dict_.

"Ah me! it is a dangerous freak,
When men _will_ dabble with Antique."--_Hudibras(?)_

SCENE I.--THE INTRODUCTION.

We will now introduce the reader to an antiquarian scene or two _chez
nous_, transcribed from our journal as we entered them therein at the
time. When it was currently understood throughout Naples--it did not
take long for the report to spread--that we were a professed purchaser
of antiquities, and "at home" to antiquaries, we were besieged all day
and every day by a host of dealers, jewellers and Jews, whom the waiters
were weary of announcing, and were still obliged to announce, who came
with bundles under their arms, filled with things "ugly and old
exceedingly," which they wished to dispose of as bargains, and hoped we
would purchase. They came early in the morning; they braved the fiery
heat of noon; they bided their time whilst we sat at dinne