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II.
THE CARNIVAL. THE CLOISTER OF BONAVENTURA.
ADVENTURES ON THE CORSO.
IT was one of the last and liveliest days of the carnival.
At noon the streets were already thronged with masks,
who roved about through the city in expectation of the
time for the general meeting on the Corso. They usually
assembled by groups, with laughter and jests. On the
Campo di Fiore the reader’s servant was stopped by a
small gathering of this kind. In the midst of the crowd,
two Punchinellos were disputing as to which had the
more majestic nose ; and before I knew a word of it, the
affair was submitted to my decision. I had a hard time
to extricate myself. The parties, sustained by eager ad-
vocates, surrounded me, with gesticulations, as if they
called all the powers of heaven and hell to witness in their
suit, and they rivalled each other in stroking their im-
mense noses caressingly against my shoulders, to convince
me of the eminent qualities of these features. When I
had finally pronounced judgment, the loser fell with a
sigh of despair into the arms of those around him, while
he whose naso now had the stranger’s testimony that it
was il pill maestoso, embraced me, and wished me a far,
far longer nose than his own.
Further on, upon the same square where the people’s
dentists are accustomed to pull up, in their wagons pasted
all over with blatant placards, stood a mask of Dulcamara,
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