MADNESS!
BELL!!
BOOTS!!
DESPAIR!!!!
[VENICE.]
THE ACCADEMIA.
GONDOLA ON THE LAGOON.
Sentiment spoken by Robinson, with marks of adhesion from Brown and Jones. "Oh, if there be an Elysium on earth, it is this, it is this!!"
+The Accademia.+
Scene I.
Brown (soliloquy). --"This is pleasant! To be quite alone here (dab), surrounded by these magnificent works (dab, dab, dab), and everything so quiet too--nothing to disturb one." (Dab) after a pause. "I wonder what Jones and Robinson are doing (dab, splash)--lying at full length in a gondola, I dare say--smoking (dab), I think I could spend my life in this place" (dab, dab).
"It is difficult to say which is the greatest pleasure, (another dab,) copying these splendid pictures, or painting from nature, those beautiful blue skies and crumbling old picturesque palaces, outside."
(Sings) --"'How happy could I be with either.'" (Prolonged pause, and great play with brush) --"Oh! That sunset last evening! As we lay out in our gondola upon the perfectly calm waters, by the Armenian convent, and watched the sun slowly going down behind the distant towers and spires of the 'City of the sea'--one mass of gold spreading all over the west!"
* * "Oh! Those clouds! (Another pause) Ah! That was happiness. One such hour is worth--let me see--how many years of one's life? * * and yet this is--"
Scene II.
He is set upon and surrounded by an English family, and the following dialogue ensues:--
The Mamma. --"What a delightful occupation, to be sure."
Young Lady (in a whisper). --"He is copying the Tintoret."
Youthful Son and Heir (with confidence). --"No, he ain't; he's doing that stunning big one with the rainbow, and three river gods."
Second Young Lady. --"It's sweetly pretty, isn't it!"
Papa (a British merchant, and of a practical turn). --"Very good--v-e-r-y good. Ahem! Now I wonder what one could make a year by that kind of thing."
Young Man (with glass in his eye). --"Slow, I should think."
At this point Brown's attention was attracted to a scuffle going on behind him amongst the junior members of the party. Two of the little innocents had taken a fancy to the same drawing (a copy of his favourite John Bellino), and after a brief, but fierce struggle for possession, had settled the difficulty by tearing it in two. (Party retires rather precipitately.)
[TRIESTE TO VIENNA.]
SKETCH MADE BY BROWN AT TRIESTE.
NOTE.--If any one doubts the fact, Jones and Robinson are ready to make affidavit of it.
ROBINSON SEARCHED AND INDIGNANT.
Such things never happen anywhere else.
[VIENNA.]
Arrived at Vienna, they visit the theatre. A gentleman there, unobtrusively pays them great attention.
SCENE--SHOP, VIENNA.
Jones to Brown-- "What do you say?"
Brown (who sees that Robinson is bent upon making a "magnificent addition" to himself, and that it is useless to expostulate). --"Oh, I think it is splendid; and if you will only appear in it in Pall Mall, when we get home again, you will make a sensation."
THEY VISIT THE PICTURE GALLERIES.
That man in the doorway seems to take a great interest in their movements.
THE PROMENADE.
Brown thinks it is the same man! What can he want?
THE PUBLIC GARDEN.