At Chioggia, where still in the summer evenings _Orlando Furioso_ is read in the public places, and where artists go in quest of the old Venetian type, they sing a yet more impassioned little song. Oh, Morning Star, I ask of thee this grace, This only grace I ask of thee, and pray: The water where thou hast washed thy breast and face, In kindly pity throw it not away. Give it to me for medicine; I will take A draught before I sleep and when I wake; And if this medicine shall not make me whole, To earth my body, and to hell my soul! It must be added that Venetian folk-poesy lacks the innate sympathy with all beautiful natural things which pervades the poesy of the Apennines. This is in part the result of outward conditions: nature, though splendid, is unvaried at Venice. The temperament of the Venetian poet explains the rest. If he alludes to the _bel seren con tante stelle_, it is only to say that "it would be just the night to run away with somebody"--to which assertion he tacks the disreputable rider, "he who carries off girls is not called a thief, he is called an enamoured young man." Even in the most lovely and the most poetic of cities you cannot breathe the pure air of the hills. The Venetian is without the intense refinement of the Tuscan mountaineer, as he is without his love of natural beauty. The Tuscan but rarely mentions the beloved one's name--he respects it as the Eastern mystic respects the name of the Deity; the Venetian sings it out for the edification of all the boatmen of the canal. The Tuscan has come to regard a kiss as a thing too sacred to talk about; the Venetian has as few scruples on the subject as the poet of Sirmio. Nevertheless, it should be recognised that a not very blameable unreservedness of speech is the most serious charge to be brought against all save a small minority of Venetian singers. I believe that the able and conscientious collector, Signor Bernoni, has exercised but slight censorship over the mass of songs he has placed on record, notwithstanding which the number of those that can be accused of an immoral tendency is extremely limited. Whence it is to be inferred that the looseness of manners prevailing amongst the higher classes at Venice in the decadence of the Republic at no time became general in the lower and sounder strata of society.