by giving him a dinner and a tobacco pipe. After the premature death of Prince Henry, the Chargé d'Affaires attempted to arrange a marriage between Prince Charles and another princess of the Medici; but this scheme also failed, and Henrietta Maria finally disposed of the aspirations of the Grand Duke.

So long as Lotti was employed in these negotiations he enjoyed high favour at at Court, sat in the seats of the mighty at grand weddings, shared the feasts of great men, and was playfully smitten on the cheek by Anne of Denmark. His popularity was mainly due to his tact and his ready wit; some of it he may have owed to the fact that he was largely responsible for the fine quality of the presents sent to James and Anne from Tuscany. The wisest fool in Europe, as Henry of Navarre called James, was probably, like many non-smokers, rather greedy; at any rate, he had the good taste to appreciate the excellent wines of Val d'Arno. Anne preferred the rare brocades and the books, being especially delighted with a copy of the 'Pastor Fido.' Lotti gives a list of one consignment of wines, and notes how the journey affected them. The moscatelli and a Greek wine of Lietine were the most appreciated; the Trebbiano survived the voyage, but lost sweetness and strength; a certain red wine, though it was

the English taste, and the reason of this, Lotti says, is that in England, "as every one cannot get sweet wine, they use an enormous quantity of sugar in the same glass as the wine." Sack, presumably. The King prefers a wine "clear as water, strong but delicate, and, above all, sweet." Lotti advises the Grand Duke to try the experiment of sending new wines from Florence, as these are held by the English to be the best and most delicate in the world. Besides the wine, the Grand Duke sent horses, mules, olives, cheeses-marzolino and parmigiano,-sausages and all kinds of preserved delicacies.

Prince Henry's taste soared higher than a mere appreciation of sausages. He wanted pictures, statues, and books for a beautiful library" that he was planning, and he showed no hesitation in asking for them. Especially he desired to possess "the portraits of the many illustrious persons that are in the galleries of Their Serene Highnesses," and Lotti describes his joy when these arrived. The Prince was especially delighted with such portraits as that of Castruccio the great captain, of Pico della Mirandola, and of Machiavelli ; when he looked at the Popes and Cardinals and Saints he said nothing, but made a comical grimace which "moved his suite to laughter." The young Prince expressed a wish to possess "the plan of the stair

case which ascends to the Library of San Lorenzo, the load-stone which is found in the Isle of Elba and the book of Galileo"; he also wanted a certain cement for waterpipes, "balls filled with air from Rome," and strings for his lute.

What fun he must have had in unpacking them all!

But though the Medici were so lavish in their offerings to the royal family, they treated their own representative somewhat parsimoniously. Lotti, no doubt, was naturally extravagant, and the fact that he was in high favour and, though he ranked below them, was often given precedence over the ambassadors of other foreign States, made him eager to cut a splendid figure at the Court. He was continually demanding larger allowances, and when these were slow in coming he borrowed money right and left and tried to improve his resources by reckless gambling. His private expenses, too, must have been considerable, for he seems to have kept open house for a large and merry company of Italians-Florentines, Neapolitans, Venetians, and Savoyards, -who passed the nights with wine and song, burlesque speeches, and "tearing off each other's clothes "a form of diversion once not uncommon in our own sedate universities, but unusual, I believe, in diplomatic circles. These gay "academies or conversations seem to have caused a certain amount of scandal, and we find De

66

Servi the painter (of whom hereafter) forbidding his son to attend them because of their obscenities and evil practices." But De Servi was a rancid kind of person, and probably his paternal fears were exaggerated. Except for presiding at these revels and for his extravagance, Lotti does not seem to be strictly qualified as a scapigliato: he was amiable, gay, and generous; he was also a hard-working and highly intelligent diplomat. As Signor Gargano remarks, his final departure from England must have been widely and sincerely regretted.

A ridiculous episode which he describes in one of his letters is interesting, in that it probably arose from the jealousy between the English and Scots parties at the Court. Earlier, in 1605, there had been trouble because the Scots had been lampooned in Eastward Ho' by Jonson, Marston, and Chapman, the insulting passages having probably been interpolated by an actor, and Lotti describes a similar affair. similar affair. A comedy was performed containing a scene in which a lady was serenaded by all kinds of instruments, each being supposed to represent a certain district of England. "Lastly, a man appeared with a bagpipe, which was not only utterly inharmonious, but made such a noise that it drowned and ruined all the music; the musician, having asserted that he was a Scotsman, was driven off the stage, and informed that he must be

As the subject of his most popular tragedy, Giovan Battista Niccolini chose the legend of Antonio Foscarini; Signor Gargano has given us the truth about that ill-fated figure. Niccolini's hero, the son of the Doge Alvise Foscarini, returns to Venice from Switzerland to find that his betrothed, Teresa Navagero, has married a Contarini, one of the Inquisitors. He contrives to obtain an interview with her, is surprised by Contarini, and leaps from a window into an adjacent garden, which belongs to the Spanish Ambassador. A recent decree of the Senate has ordained that it is a capital offence secretly to enter the dwelling of a foreign emissary; Foscarini is arrested as a traitor, keeps silence in order not to compromise Teresa, and is executed. The true story is different. Foscarini was not a young and romantic hero: he was fifty-two years old when he was strangled in prison, his corpse being afterwards hung in chains between the two columns of the Piazzetta. He merits a place among the scapigliati; for though he was intelligent, his character was extremely eccentric, and his behaviour often ludicrously ir

Foscarini's death was a terrible error of justice, but the judges, as Signor Gargano points out, were honestly convinced of his guilt. The information was laid against him by a certain Girolamo Vano di Salò, who stated that Foscarini was accustomed to go to the house of the Countess of Arundel, who was living in Venice for religious reasons, and there to meet the Spanish and Florentine secretaries. The Countess's name does not seem to have appeared in the indictment, but Venice, then as now, was the paradise of gossips, and their tongues wagged so freely that Lady Arundel persuaded the English Ambassador, Sir Henry Wotton, to obtain for her an audience with the Doge and the Senate, who issued a decree completely exonerating her. Soon afterwards Foscarini's innocence was established; Vano and his accomplices confessed that everything they had alleged was false, and were condemned to death. The body of their unhappy victim was brought with much pomp and and circumstance to Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, and buried in the family tomb of the Foscarini.

sembled that of Panurge. He mocked at the religious activities of a certain Donna Aloisia, who was popularly known as "the Saint," and when he met Lady Hay's coach in the street and it did not make way for him, he offered non so che insolenza to the coachman. When Lady Hay complained, he put the blame on his own footmen, and had them cast into prison. Lady Hay, greatly to her credit, managed to obtain their freedom, and gave each of them a sum of money. The Ambassador promptly deducted the same amount from their wages.

The letters give many other instances of his fantastic behaviour both at home and in public. He shocked his chaplain and his colleagues; did not pay his servants; annoyed people at the theatre, and generally acted with a total lack of decorum in the most inappropriate places. If Galli's account of him were correct, he must certainly have been eccentric almost to madness; but, of course, it is largely inspired by Muscorno's performances and the gossip at Lotti's. Many of Foscarini's contemporaries speak highly of his ability he was bizarre in his daily life, but when he was confronted with difficult problems he acted with wisdom and dignity.

He returned to Venice in 1615, and it was in 1618 that Muscorno first openly attacked him. The counts alleged against him were four: that he had

betrayed secret documents to foreign officials; that he had led a scandalous life; had indulged in irreligious practices, and had arranged that a Huguenot minister should be sent to Venice in order to make converts. The Senate was so far impressed by this information as to order Contarini and Barbarigo, the Ambassadors in France and England, to make a systematic inquiry into Foscarini's former behaviour; the Ambassadors managed to rake up an enormous mass of evidence against him-lies, for the most part, or at any rate gross distortions of the truth. Foscarini was evidently unpopular with his own countrymen; most of the witnesses were Italian; but Sir Thomas Lake, Lord Hay, and Sir Henry Wotton seem to have made depositions. Barbarigo's long indictment faithfully reproduces many of the ridiculous allegations which used to amuse the guests at Lotti's suppers, and it is not difficult to imagine the sinister figure of Muscorno at the Ambassador's elbow whilst he was writing. Barbarigo, however, seems honestly to have tried to sift the evidence, and many of the witnesses, when interrogated by him, either retracted or greatly modified their previous statements.

Meanwhile Foscarini was imprisoned in Venice. As soon as he had read the informations from London and Paris he realised that the true enemy was Muscorno, and he denounced his former secretary