ue. But amid all this writing, Dickens' "Pictures from
Italy" still holds a high and distinctive position. That the
descriptions, whether of places and works of art, or of life's
pageantry, and what may be called the social picturesque, should be
graphic, vivid, animated, was almost a matter of course. But _a
priori_, I think one might have feared lest he should "chaff" the
place and its inhabitants overmuch, and yield to the temptation of
making merriment over matters which hoar age and old associations had
hallowed. We can all imagine the kind of observation that would occur
to Sam Weller in strolling through St. Mark's at Venice, or the
Vatican; and, guessing beforehand, guessing before the "Pictures"
were produced, one might, I repeat, have been afraid lest Dickens
should go through Italy as a kind of educated Sam Weller. Such
prophecies would have been falsified by the event. The book as a whole
is very free from banter or _persiflage_. Once and again the comic
side of some situation strikes him, of course. Thus, after the
ceremony of the Pope washing the feet of thirteen poor men, in memory
of our Lord washing the feet of the Apostles, Dickens says: "The whole
thirteen sat down to dinner; grace said by the Pope; Peter in the
chair." But these humorous touches are rare, and not in bad taste;
while for the historic and artistic grandeurs of Italy he shows an
enthusiasm which is _individual_ and discriminating. We feel, in what
he says about painting, that we are getting the fresh impressions of a
man not specially trained in the study of the old masters, but who yet
succeeds, by sheer intuitive sympathy; in appreciating much of their
greatness. His criticism of the paintings at Venice, for instance, is
very decidedly superior to that of Macaulay. In brief the "Pictures,"
to give to the book the name which Dickens gave it, are painted with a
brush at once kindly and brilliant.

FOOTNOTES:

[19] He read "The Chimes" at his first reading as a paid reader.

CHAPTER IX.

The publication of the "Pictures," though I have dealt with it as a
sort of complement to Dickens' sojourn in Italy, carries us to the
year 1846. But before going on with the history of that year, there
are one or two points to be taken up in the history of 1845. The first
is the performance, on the 21st of September, of Ben Jonson's play of
"Every Man in his Humour," by a select company of amateur actors,
among whom Dickens held chief pla