Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/153

 12 s. vii. AUG. u, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 121 LONDON, AUGUST Ik, CONTENTS. No. 122. KOTES : Italian Stage-Scenery in the Eighteenth Century, 121 Arthur Aikin in Wales, 1807: From Ludlow to Dolgelley, 122 An English Army List of 1740, 125 41 Hodman " : " Squil" : Christ Church slang Massinger's Plays in the Nineteenth Century, 126 A Ghost and a Confession The Jubilee of the United Synagogue, 127 Carlyle's Inaccuracy 'Our London Letter,' 128. QUERIES : Governor Herbert of Nevis Shaw of Mosshead Arthurian Legends Sir PoUycarpus Wharton: William Brotherton Major-General Julius Caesar Stainsby House, Horsley Woodhouse, Derby Bishops Burnetnnd Bedell Liveries of the London Livery Guilds, 129 Major Dyngwell Michael Mountain Chinnery In Praise of Indexing -Biscuit China Macaulay Queries- Rivers Family Julia, Daughter of Caesar the Dictator '"throwing in the Towel" Emerson's 'English Traits,' 130 The Black Boy, Chelmsford-Cardinal Alexander's Epitaph An Old Palindrome Interpreted ' The Spectator ' Doctor of Decrees John Boardman, 131 "Aupiedde la Lettre "Author of Quotation Wanted, 182. REPLIES : The Crucifixion in Art : the Spear-wound, 132 Anglo-Csesareus " Stagnum " and " Offoldfall " Hurb*-cs Caroline Robert Herbert Arms of Joan of Arc, 133 Knglish Plays performed in Paris Prisoners "who have Survived Hanging, 134 Tutia Crimean War in. Fiction Palace of the Savoy. 135 Uucollected Tripling Items Abbot Kemeys Birr Gnaton, 136 "Curious Surnames Peacocks' Feathers Principal Lon- don Coffee Houses Black Mass, 137 Proposed Museum of Arts, 1787 Sailors' Chanties Wild Boar in Heraldry Delano's Journal of his Visit to America " Every Bullet has its Billet," 13S. NOTES ON BOOKS :-' Calendar of the Close Rolls : Richard II.'' Peetickay : an Essay towards the Abolition of Spelling ' ' The History of the Title Imperator under the Roman Empire.' Notices to Correspondents. ilotes. ITALIAN STAGE-SCENERY IN THE [EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: PIER JACOPO MARTELLO. IT T IS strange that no attempt has yet been made to describe Italian drama of the early Settecento in the only way which can render it interesting to modern students namely, by reproduction of the stage scenery which gave to those productions their peculiar interest. With the possible exception of local histories like Salvatore di Giacomo's '[San Carlino ' and a few indications in artistic monographs of no value the subject remains virgin. Professor Giorgio Barini lecturing in January of this year to the Neapolitan Scarlatti Association on the " Genesis anc development of the drama through music' gave a few examples of stage- decoration during the Seicento, notably the scenery f court-masques and pastorals like the Aminta ' and 'Pastor Fido.' Those ex- amples were culled from illustrated editions >f the period, but no attempt was made to give a coherent theory of stage -decoration. G. Boffitto's study in La Bibliofilia STovember, 1919, 'Due falsification! del Settecento nella storia dell' aeronauticae dell' aviazione ' showed the importance of the engravings attached to the final edition of the works of Pier Jacopo Martello in the development of scientific invention. But in a broader sense those illustrations have an extreme value for us : they are perhaps the only reliable indication in eighteenth century art of the contemporary stage-scenery, and as such furnish material for a reconstruction of stage- decoration. Martello belonged to that dramatic school in Italy which aimed at the establishment of a national theatre to combat the French Gravina, Conti and Calepio. It is interesting to note in this connexion that Conti proposed Shakespeare as his model. " If Shakespeare can devote his talents to a purely national drama in the historiss, then I may devote my work to Roman history." Lessing was not the first by any means to appreciate Shakes- peare. Martello's literary life was spent in writing plays in support of this ideal ; in- fluenced by Quinault, Corneille, Racine, La Fosse, Grange and the Greek dramatists he proposed to fuse both, French and Greek, into Italian. His theories were promulgated in a series of racy dialogues ' Tragedia Antica e Moderna ' and his adoption of the French Alexandrine in 'Del Verso Tragico. ' The edition of his works which remains of interest is in seven volumes, published in Bologna by Lelio della Volpe, vols 1-3, dated 1735, 4-5, 1723, 6-7, 1729. Each play contains one engraving and the epic ' Gli Occhi di Gesu ' in six books, has a series of heads of Christ drawn with singular beauty. As works of exquisite technique they would repay close examination by any artist, and those plates signed F. Aquila are almost perfect in execution with crisp line and vivacious colouring, rich shadows and velvety high lights on the flesh. To describe each plate would occupy too much space, but the following notes might excite enough interest to send the student to the books themselves. Frontispiece (vol. i.). A female figure representing a classical goddess, of a warrior
 * 'Cashft (Couchee) Peices of Brass "General Sir Thomas