Edmund Carrington, “A Day at Tivoli; or, The Olive Raccolta

Describing a scene in Italy, Carrington makes scornful allusions to improvisatori.

Performer Name:
 
Performance Venue:
 
Performance Date:
 
Author:
Carrington, Edmund
Date Written:
 
Language:
English
Publication Title:
The New Monthly Magazine and the Humorist
Article Title:
A Day at Tivoli; or, The Olive Raccolta
Page Numbers:
63: 56,58
Additional Info:
Part 3; Ed. at this time: Thomas Hood
Publisher:
Henry Colburn
Place of Publication:
London
Date Published:
1841

Text:

[56] It was the period of the olive raccolta, and the whole slope as you wind upwards from the plain, where spread the wrecks of Adrian's villa, to the summit where Tivoli lies nested among its olive-crowned heights, was one busy maze of glad excitement and stir; and those echoes of the crag resounded to the rustic laugh, with voices confusedly mingled, and at intervals, to the song of the rude jester, that modern Fescennine, the licensed ribald poet, dear to the Italian genius of buffoonery.

[…]

[58] The cellar of Italy indeed, whether north or south, has little wherewithal to warm us in its praises. What! have you Asti there? What have we to say to this? We'll tell you when we've tasted it. There! Why, the utmost we can say of "Asti" is, that it rhymes with "nasty," and so far would suit a British improvisatore.

Notes:

 

Collected by:
CB