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this house seems much higher than that
at Milan. The boxes are more orna-
mented with glasses, paintings, front-
cloths of velvet, or rich silks fringed;
and more room is allowed here in the pit,
to each auditor, than at Milan; every
seat turns up, and is locked till the per-
son comes who has taken it; and here
every row, and every box of each row,
is numbered, as in our playhouses, when
the pit and boxes are laid together.
The comedy was Il Saggio Amico, the
Prudent Friend, written by the Marchese
Albergati; it was the first which I had
ever seen in Italy without a Harlequin,
Colombine, Pierro, and Dottore: it was
more like a regular comedy than the Ita-
lian pieces usually are. There was a va-
let who personated a Milordo Inglese in it,
who gave away his sequins by handfuls,
with which the audience was very much
delighted. Some of the actors came on
with candles in their hands; it never
struck me before, but, on the English
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