One man of peculiar strength and intrepidity often carried dismay into the hostile squadrons, as Goliah defied all the armies of Israel, and, with a big look, and a few arrogant words, struck so great a terror, that the host fled before him. Most European nations being imbued with military habits and manners for many centuries after their first rise, the part of a boasting coward was one of the broadest, and most obviously humorous characters, that could be presented to the spectators. Accordingly, the braggart Captain, though he has at length disappeared, was one of the most notorious personages on the early Italian, French, and English stage. Tinca, the braggart Captain in _La Talanta_, a comedy by Aretine, is a close copy of Thraso, the soldier in Terence, the play being taken from the _Eunuchus_, where Thraso is a chief character. But Spampana, the principal figure in the _Farsa Satira Morale_, a dramatic piece of the fifteenth century, by Venturino of Pesaro, was the original and genuine Capitano Glorioso, a character well known, and long distinguished in the Italian drama. He was generally equipped with a mantle and long rapier; and his personal qualities nearly resembled those of the Count di Culagna, the hero of Tassoni’s mock heroic poem _La Secchia Rapita_:— “Quest’ era un Cavalier bravo e galante, Ch’era fuor de perigli un Sacripante. Ma ne perigli un pezzo di polmone: Spesso ammazzato avea qualche gigante, E si scopriva poi, ch’era un cappone.” This military poltroon long kept possession of the Italian stage, under the appellations of Capitan Spavento and Spezzafer, till about the middle of the sixteenth century, when he yielded his place to the Capitano Spagnuolo, whose business was to utter Spanish rodomontades, to kick out the native Italian Captain in compliment to the Spaniards, and then quietly accept of a drubbing from Harlequin. When the Spaniards had entirely lost their influence in Italy, the Capitan Spagnuolo retreated from the stage, and was succeeded by that eternal poltroon, Scaramuccio, a character which was invented by Tiberio Fiurilli, the companion of the boyhood of Louis XIV(251). In imitation of the Italian captain, the early French dramatists introduced a personage, who patiently received blows while talking of dethroning emperors and distributing crowns. The part was first exhibited in _Le Brave_, by Baif, acted in 1567; but there is no character which comes so near to the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus, as that of Chasteaufort in Cyrano Bergerac’s _Pedant Joué_. In general, the French captains have more rodomontade and solemnity, with less buffoonery, than their Italian prototypes. The captain Matamore, in Corneille’s _Illusion Comique_, actually addresses the following lines to his valet:— “II est vrai que je rêve, et ne saurois resoudre, Lequel des deux je dois le premier mettre en poudre, Du grand Sophi de Perse, ou bien du grand Mogol.” And again—