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that this Encounter of Wits fhould take place in the Academy, which fhould be turned for the Occafion into a Theatre of Ladies and Cavaliers.

Ill would it become me, a Man without the leaft Eloquence or Imagination, to give the Details of this fanciful and extravagant Performance, which, for the Time, occupied every one of the smallest Pretenfions to Wit or Senfe. Ladies as well as Gentlemen took up the Gauntlet, fentimental Difcuffions were going on from Morning to Night, Precedents and Allufions hunted up from old Hiftories and Poets, till Nothing but Love, Love, Love, was heard of from one end of Ferrara to the other. It is enough to fay that Il Farfallo, the Butterfly of the Court, had his Finger in the Pie and made the most of it. I was fick of it, for my Part, and esteemed it Folly. I don't remember one of the Conclufions, not I, nor took any Pains to get up any of the Arguments at the Time; I remember lending Taffo the Money to get his best Coat out of Pawn, and giving him

a new Pair of fringed Gloves, for I could not bear that those who could not call him filly fhould call him fhabby. And I remember Madama Leonora wore a pale lilac Suit shot with Silver, and looked extremely beautiful; and that Signora Orfina kept her Ground fo well on the Question whether Women loved more deeply and conftantly than Men, that it was looked on as a drawn Battle, and Tasso called her his fair Enemy ever after. In the Main, I am minded to think the Lady was in the right on't, but in the particular Inftance, I confider Tafso to have fupported his Cause with Health, Liberty, and Life. But he was one of a thousand, and Heaven forbid there should be many to run the fame fad Course!

CHAPTER V.

Of Ser Pantaleone's being placed in an exceedingly embarrassing Situation.

HE third Day's Controverfy having ended, with great honour to Tasso, I hastened, while the Academy, the Court, and the very Streets were ringing with his Praises, to congratulate him in his own Lodgings, where I expected to find him in a perfect Tumult and Ecstasy of gratified Pride.

Inftead of which, there fate the poor young Fellow with his Arms caft upon the Table, and his Head upon his Arms, crying and fobbing like a Child.

"Who's there?" cries he, looking up with his Face all smeared with Tears, "Ser Pantaleone? Oh, Ser Pantaleone! my dear Father

is ill and dying at Oftia; neglected, pillaged, and deferted by his Servants, far away from his Children and his Friends!

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Here's a Sequel to my Conclufions! Instead of chopping Logic and bandying fantastic Speeches with all Comers, I would I had been many Miles on my Road to him ere this! I am about to repair the Evil as foon as I may, and have already fent for a Vetturino."

I waited to fee him off, confoling and cheering him all I could, and doing him the most substantial Service in my Power, by giving him a little ready Money. He embraced me heartily, bade me convey his Grief and Duty to the Princeffes, promised to write to me, and charged me to write to him.

In Place of a Letter from him, I got one shortly from the Doctor he had called in to his Father, telling me that Meffer Bernardo was dead, and that his pious Son, after tending him with a Woman's Duty and Affection, Day and Night, was now experiencing fo fevere a Reaction as to be fick in Bed, without Power to move Hand or Foot, but hoped

foon to be fufficiently reftored to return to Ferrara.

I fhed Tears for my excellent old Friend, and felt drawn all the more towards his Son, by the filial Duty with which he had smoothed his dying Pillow. I remembered them in my Prayers, and thought a good deal on the Subject of Death; how that all muft die, whether in Courts or Cottages, and fome a good Deal fooner than they look for or like; how that we are all growing older Day by Day, whether we look in our Mirrors or not, or are told of it by our Companions, or have it carefully concealed from us; how that, next to the Power of Death and old Age is the Power of Habit, which makes us fancy ourselves the fame to-day we were yesterday, and able to do the fame and be the fame this Year as a Year ago, or the Year before that; whereas it is quite otherwise; and every little ftiffening of the Joints, or attenuating of the Limbs, or ftooping of the Shoulders, or dulling of the Faculties, which we are fo apt to think accidental and vexatious, ought rather to be

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