The Romans are
not nearly so dramatic as the Neapolitans or Venetians or even as the
Tuscans; but once in the same pleasance I saw a controversy between
school-boys which was carried on with an animation full of beauty and
finish. They argued back and forth, not violently, but vividly, and one
whom I admired most enforced his reasons with charming gesticulations,
whirling from his opponents with quick turns of his body and many a
renunciatory retirement, and then facing about and advancing again upon
the unconvinced. I decided that his admirable drama had been studied
from the histrionics of his mother in domestic scenes; and, if I had
been one of those other boys, I should have come over to his side
instantly.
The Roman manners vary from Roman to Roman, just as our own manners, if
we had any, would vary from New-Yorker to New-Yorker. Zola thinks the
whole population is more or less spoiled with the conceit of Rome's
ancient greatness, and shows it. One could hardly blame them if this
were so; but I did not see any strong proof of it, though I could have
imagined it on occasion.
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