The Diary of an Ennuyée

PREFACE.

"WITH regard to a certain little DIARY, of which it has been thought proper to give here a new edition, what shall I say? If I have cheated some gentle readers out of much superfluous sympathy— as it has been averred-it was certainly without design. I can but repeat here the excuse already inserted in another place,' that the work in question was not written for publication, nor would ever have been printed but for accidental circumstances; that the title under which it appeared was not given by the writer, but the publisher, who at the time knew nothing of the real author: and that some false dates, unimportant circumstances, and fictitious characters, were afterwards interpolated, to conceal, if possible, the real purport and origin of the work; for the intention was not to create an illusion, by giving to fiction the appearance of truth; but, in fact, to conceal truth by throwing over it the veil of fiction.' I regret, that even this deception

was practised, but would plead in excuse that the basis of that little book was truth; that it was, in reality, what it assumed to be, ‘a true picture of natural and feminine feeling.' I confess, that to go over the pages again for the purpose of correction, and for the first time, since their publication, has been rather a painful task: once or twice I have felt inclined to make the amende honorable. They contain some opinions which I have seen reason to alter or modify; they record some feelings which I would rather have forgotten; and Italy has since undergone some social and political changes: but the observations on art and natural scenery remain as applicable now as they were ten years ago; and I found I could make no alterations, no corrections, which would not detract from the sole merit the book could ever have possessed, and which, I presume, it still retains,—its truth as a picture of mind."

A. J.

[From "Visits and Sketches, at Home and Abroad."]

CONTENTS.

Calais; Biddy Fudge; Necessity of writing a Diary; Diary

of a Blue Devil; Rouen; Joan of Arc; Paris; Comic

Scenes in the Champs Elisées; Anecdote; Edmonde;

Story of Genevieve; Illness of the Writer; Le Solitaire;

Paris from the Pont des Arts; Contrast of English and

French Manners; Remarks on Paris...... Page 17-30

First Impression of Mountain Scenery; the Jura; the

Italian Alps; Geneva; Anecdotes of Josephine and of

Marie Louise; Mad. de Staël and M. Rocca; Panorama

of Lausanne; Departure from Geneva; La Meillerie

Vevai; Scenery between Geneva and the Simplon;

Village of Davedro; Sorrowful Reflections; Anecdote

of Rousseau and the Heloise; Milan; Shrine of St.

Carlo Borromeo; Scenes and Anecdotes; Venus and

Hercules transformed into Saints; the Brera; Marriage

of the Virgin; Remarks on the Hagar...
30-46

Opera and Madame Bellocchi; Vigano the celebrated
Ballet Master; his Didone Abbandonata; Exceptionable
Scene introduced; its Effects; Vigano's Prometteo;
Medal struck in his Honor; Remarks on Dancing; on
the Scala Theatre; Anecdotes of Count Bubna; the
Archduke Reignier; the Mint; Medal presented to
Belzoni; Milanese Airs; Stanzas for Music; Brescia

and Mr. L.; a Compound Goose; a Specimen of a New

Genius of Fools; Sirmione and Catullus; Adelaide of

Burgundy.....
46-58

Verona; Funeral of a Noble; the Amphitheatre; Romeo

and Juliet; Novel of Louis Da Porta; Palladio; his

Olympic Theatre; Padua; Venice at Sunset; Venice

at Night; Assumption of Titian; Canova's Designs for

the Monument of Titian; the Ganymede of Praxiteles;

Splendor of the Churches at Venice; the Manfrini

Palace; Picture alluded to by Lord Byron; the Bar-

berigo Palace; Titian's last Picture; Excursion to the

Island of St. Lazaro with the British Consul; the

Padre Pasquale; Theatres; Characteristic Anecdote;

Comical Tragedy; Mrs. H., wife of the British Consul;

Lord Byron; Characteristic Marginal Notes, written

by Lord Byron in D'Israeli's Essays on the Literary

Character.......

........58—72

Public Gardens at Venice; an Eccentric Traveller; Re-

marks on Venice as a Residence; Rise and Decline of

its Commerce; Society; Jealousy of the Austrian

Police; Silk Mills; Disagreeable and painful Impres-

sions of Bologna; Tasso and the Hospital of St. Anna,

at Ferrara; Present State of that City; Covigliajo in

the Apennines; Contrast between the Scenery of the

Alps and the Apennines; Horrible Assassinations at the

Inn of Covigliajo; Fate of the Murderers; Scene in an

Italian Inn...
.72-83

Florence; Influence of the Scenery; Gallery; Venus de'
Medicis; the Casina; Moonlight at Florence; the Niobe;
Mr. Cockerell; the Dying Alexander; the Mercury of
John of Bologna; Melancholy Thoughts; Samuel Rogers
and the Venus de' Medicis; Carlo Dolce's La Poesia,