The Assemblies that are most frequented by Foreigners, are those of Mesdames Corsini, the Pope’s Nieces, the Duke of Santo Bueno, and the Countess of Bolognetti. These are the three Houses at Rome where there is most Company, and where Foreigners are most civilly entertain’d. The Duke has a Concert at his House every Friday, at which are present all the People of Distinction at Rome. Madame de Bolognetti has a grand Assembly every Sunday, which begins with a great Levee of Women, for the most part well-dress’d, who lend their Ears to two or three prating Abbés, lolling carelessly on the Backs of their Chairs. A Foreigner enters, and salutes the Company respectfully; but no Lady gives heed to him, except Madame Bolognetti, a fine young Lady, who is the only one that rises; and she does her best to entertain the poor Stranger in French, which she talks very prettily. Many other Ladies both understand, and can speak this Language; but whether it is owing to Timorousness or Ill-nature, they don’t care to talk it; which is so true, that I remember the first Time I travell’d hither, I one Day accosted a very amiable
Lady in the French Tongue, because then I did not understand the Italian; but she answer’d me in good French, Sir, I neither speak nor understand the French Language. She then turn’d about, and in a Moment I saw a well-looking Abbé come in, who talk’d with her in private all the Evening, and probably in such a Language as she understood.
After the Levee they fall to play, but ’tis at such Games as we Ultramontains know no more of than Magic; viz. such as Tarot, Pazzica, Premiere, and Milchiades. As to the last of these, I take it to be like the Languages, which ’tis difficult to be Master of, unless People begin to learn them when they are young. It would take up a Man’s whole Life to learn to know the Cards, whereof at one Game they play with 99, which are painted too with very extraordinary Figures of Popes, Devils, &c. and it often happens, that the Devil takes up the Pope. During the Conclave they play at Pharao, but the Pope has prohibited all Games of Hazard, which was an Injury to many Houses that subsisted by the Money for the Cards.
The private Assemblies differ only from the public ones, in that they have not so much Company. There is generally the Mistress of the House, and a Dozen Petits-colets, who really are the Petits-Maîtres of this Place, supposing them to be Italians; for you are not to imagine that these Gentlemen will suffer a poor Ultramontain Abbé to put in a Word, because they think he has neither Sense nor Merit. As this is a Country of Priests, you shall see ten Sparks of the Band to one of the Sword. ’Tis true, that the Abbé wears the same Habit as the Gentlemen of the Gown, and as all others do who are not able to lay out much Money in Cloaths; so that when you see a Petit-colet come out of any suspicious Places, you must beware
of Mistakes; for they are not always Priests, nor even Clergymen.
The third Class of Assemblies, where there is no Gaming, is generally at the House of some Prince; there I spend my Evenings with great Pleasure and Freedom; yet ’tis at one of the chief Houses of Rome, and really the Conversation is held in one of the finest Apartments in the World. I enter a very spacious magnificent Room, illuminated by a Couple of Wax Candles, so that if Custom had not taught me the way, I shou’d be at a Loss where to salute the Master and Mistress of the House: These two little Candles are plac’d in great Candlesticks of Silver upon old-fashion’d Stands of the same Metal. A Fountain of solid Silver, from which the Water spouts with a soft Murmur, invites me agreeably to Slumber; and it seems as if those in the Room were afraid to awake me; for they do nothing but whisper, and not a Mortal stirs from the Spot in which his good or ill Fortune plac’d him, because it wou’d be a Crime even to move a Chair; so that unless one had a speaking Trumpet, a Man must be content to converse with his next Neighbour. The Moment one enters the Room, two Pages in a black Livery attend us with Ice upon Salvers, but I don’t accept it every time ’tis offer’d; for if I did, my Stomach wou’d have long ago been congeal’d like the frozen Ocean. This profound Silence, this murmuring Fountain, all these Cardinals, Prelates and Abbats, dress’d in Black; the two Wax Candles, giving a dismal Light; all this, I say, together, makes the Assembly look like Mutes posted to watch a Corpse, and I assure you that a Church-yard itself does not put me more in mind of Mortality. Nevertheless it sometimes happens that one or other of the Company raises his Voice, and relates the News of the Day. This is generally confin’d to what is done
within the City; for what was said by the Pope, the contrary Effect of some Medicine, or else some Cardinal or Prelate, the Heat or Cold of the Weather, and the Age of the Moon, are the common Topics. And after having thoroughly canvass’d these momentous Subjects till Midnight, all the Company retires with their Heads as empty as their Stomachs.
Can you think, Sir, after what I have told you, that a Foreigner passes his Time here well? No, truly, Rome is a City that a young Gentleman indeed ought absolutely to see; for here he will conceive a perfect Notion of Architecture, establish himself in a Taste for Painting and Sculpture, and acquire a true Idea of the Magnificence of old Rome: But when he has digested all this, I would advise him to be gone, since there is nothing more for him to learn, and he is in Danger of forgetting every thing. There is not so much as one good Fencing Master, and scarce a Master of the Languages that understands the Italian; and those who are Dabblers in this Way are generally Foreigners, who have neither Accent nor Method. All that a young Gentleman can learn here is Architecture, and the Canon Law; for as to Ecclesiastical History, there are few People that are Masters of it in its Purity.
A Gentleman that lives beyond the Mountains will here be apt to forget the good Manners he may have contracted in France, or elsewhere; for, I say it again, the Generality of the Romans know nothing more than Ceremony, because they are ignorant of good Manners, and there’s scarce one of them in a thousand that has the Air of a Man of Quality: To be a Judge of this, one must see them at Table, and in what a very slovenly Manner they behave at their Meals, which is owing to their eating generally alone; for they then loll so
much at Table, that when they dine in Company, they are at a Loss what to do. They are not only nasty in their manner of eating, but in their Cloaths; for I believe there is not above one out of thirty that puts on fresh Linen every Day. I remember that in 1719, when I was in France, a Reformado Colonel, who, tho’ an Italian, was in the French Service, often came to me in a Morning, and seeing me dress myself, told me one Day that he observ’d I follow’d the French Fashion strictly: I ask’d him, In what? He made Answer, In my changing my Shirt every Day. Nevertheless I wou’d not have you think that this Slovenliness is general; for there are People as much perfum’d here as elsewhere; and you may take my Word for it, that a Petit-Maître at Rome is as great a Fop as the pertest French Petit-Maître. Indeed they are more rare here than elsewhere, because no young Sparks are admitted to the Assemblies before they are twenty Years of Age.