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diff --git a/14972.txt b/14972.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d95182c --- /dev/null +++ b/14972.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11158 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece +by John Addington Symonds + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece + +Author: John Addington Symonds + +Release Date: February 8, 2005 [EBook #14972] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES IN ITALY *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Leonard Johnson and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + + + + SKETCHES AND STUDIES IN ITALY AND GREECE + + + + + + BY JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS + + AUTHOR OF "RENAISSANCE IN ITALY", "STUDIES OF THE GREEK POETS," ETC + + + + + + FIRST SERIES + + + + + NEW EDITION + + LONDON + JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. + 1914 + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE + + +In preparing this new edition of the late J.A. Symonds's three volumes +of travels, 'Sketches in Italy and Greece,' 'Sketches and Studies +in Italy,' and 'Italian Byways,' nothing has been changed except the +order of the Essays. For the convenience of travellers a topographical +arrangement has been adopted. This implied a new title to cover the +contents of all three volumes, and 'Sketches and Studies in Italy +and Greece' has been chosen as departing least from the author's own +phraseology. + +HORATIO F. BROWN. +Venice: _June_ 1898. + + + + + + + + CONTENTS + + + THE LOVE OF THE ALPS + + WINTER NIGHTS AT DAVOS + + BACCHUS IN GRAUBUeNDEN + + OLD TOWNS OF PROVENCE + + THE CORNICE + + AJACCIO + + MONTE GENEROSO + + LOMBARD VIGNETTES + + COMO AND IL MEDEGHINO + + BERGAMO AND BARTOLOMMEO COLLEONI + + CREMA AND THE CRUCIFIX + + CHERUBINO AT THE SCALA THEATRE + + A VENETIAN MEDLEY + + THE GONDOLIER'S WEDDING + + A CINQUE CENTO BRUTUS + + TWO DRAMATISTS OF THE LAST CENTURY + + + + + + + SKETCHES AND STUDIES + + IN + + ITALY AND GREECE + + + + + + +_THE LOVE OF THE ALPS_[1] + + +Of all the joys in life, none is greater than the joy of arriving on +the outskirts of Switzerland at the end of a long dusty day's journey +from Paris. The true epicure in refined pleasures will never travel +to Basle by night. He courts the heat of the sun and the monotony +of French plains,--their sluggish streams and never-ending poplar +trees--for the sake of the evening coolness and the gradual approach +to the great Alps, which await him at the close of the day. It is +about Mulhausen that he begins to feel a change in the landscape. +The fields broaden into rolling downs, watered by clear and running +streams; the green Swiss thistle grows by riverside and cowshed; pines +begin to tuft the slopes of gently rising hills; and now the sun has +set, the stars come out, first Hesper, then the troop of lesser lights; +and he feels--yes, indeed, there is now no mistake--the well-known, +well-loved magical fresh air, that never fails to blow from snowy +mountains and meadows watered by perennial streams. The last hour is +one of exquisite enjoyment, and when he reaches Basle, he scarcely +sleeps all night for hearing the swift Rhine beneath the balconies, +and knowing that the moon is shining on its waters, through the town, +beneath the bridges, between pasture-lands and copses, up the still +mountain-girdled valleys to the ice-caves where the water springs. +There is nothing in all experience of travelling like this. We may +greet the Mediterranean at Marseilles with enthusiasm; on entering +Rome by the Porta del Popolo, we may reflect with pride that we +have reached the goal of our pilgrimage, and are at last among +world-shaking memories. But neither Rome nor the Riviera wins our +hearts like Switzerland. We do not lie awake in London thinking of +them; we do not long so intensely, as the year comes round, to revisit +them. Our affection is less a passion than that which we cherish for +Switzerland. + +Why, then, is this? What, after all, is the love of the Alps, and when +and where did it begin? It is easier to ask these questions than to +answer them. The classic nations hated mountains. Greek and Roman +poets talk of them with disgust and dread. Nothing could have been +more depressing to a courtier of Augustus than residence at Aosta, +even though he found his theatres and triumphal arches there. Wherever +classical feeling has predominated, this has been the case. Cellini's +Memoirs, written in the height of pagan Renaissance, well express +the aversion which a Florentine or Roman felt for the inhospitable +wildernesses of Switzerland.[2] Dryden, in his dedication to 'The +Indian Emperor,' says, 'High objects, it is true, attract the sight; +but it looks up with pain on craggy rocks and barren mountains, and +continues not intent on any object which is wanting in shades and +green to entertain it.' Addison and Gray had no better epithets than +'rugged,' 'horrid,' and the like for Alpine landscape. The classic +spirit was adverse to enthusiasm for mere nature. Humanity was too +prominent, and city life absorbed all interests,--not to speak of what +perhaps is the weightiest reason--that solitude, indifferent +accommodation, and imperfect means of travelling, rendered mountainous +countries peculiarly disagreeable. It is impossible to enjoy art or +nature while suffering from fatigue and cold, dreading the attacks of +robbers, and wondering whether you will find food and shelter at the +end of your day's journey. Nor was it different in the Middle Ages. +Then individuals had either no leisure from war or strife with the +elements, or else they devoted themselves to the salvation of their +souls. But when the ideas of the Middle Ages had decayed, when +improved arts of life had freed men from servile subjection to daily +needs, when the bondage of religious tyranny had been thrown off and +political liberty allowed the full development of tastes and +instincts, when, moreover, the classical traditions had lost their +power, and courts and coteries became too narrow for the activity of +man,--then suddenly it was discovered that Nature in herself possessed +transcendent charms. It may seem absurd to class them all together; +yet there is no doubt that the French Revolution, the criticism of the +Bible, Pantheistic forms of religious feeling, landscape-painting, +Alpine travelling, and the poetry of Nature, are all signs of the same +movement--of a new Renaissance. Limitations of every sort have been +shaken off during the last century; all forms have been destroyed, all +questions asked. The classical spirit loved to arrange, model, +preserve traditions, obey laws. We are intolerant of everything that +is not simple, unbiassed by prescription, liberal as the wind, and +natural as the mountain crags. We go to feed this spirit of freedom +among the Alps. What the virgin forests of America are to the +Americans, the Alps are to us. What there is in these huge blocks and +walls of granite crowned with ice that fascinates us, it is hard to +analyse. Why, seeing that we find them so attractive, they should have +repelled our ancestors of the fourth generation and all the world +before them, is another mystery. We cannot explain what rapport there +is between our human souls and these inequalities in the surface of +the earth which we call Alps. Tennyson speaks of + + Some vague emotion of delight + In gazing up an Alpine height, + +and its vagueness eludes definition. The interest which physical +science has created for natural objects has something to do with it. +Curiosity and the charm of novelty increase this interest. No towns, +no cultivated tracts of Europe however beautiful, form such a contrast +to our London life as Switzerland. Then there is the health and joy +that comes from exercise in open air; the senses freshened by good +sleep; the blood quickened by a lighter and rarer atmosphere. Our +modes of life, the breaking down of class privileges, the extension of +education, which contribute to make the individual greater and society +less, render the solitude of mountains refreshing. Facilities of +travelling and improved accommodation leave us free to enjoy the +natural beauty which we seek. Our minds, too, are prepared to +sympathise with the inanimate world; we have learned to look on the +universe as a whole, and ourselves as a part of it, related by close +ties of friendship to all its other members Shelley's, Wordsworth's, +Goethe's poetry has taught us this; we are all more or less +Pantheists, worshippers of 'God in Nature,' convinced of the +omnipresence of the informing mind. + +Thus, when we admire the Alps, we are after all but children of +the century. We follow its inspiration blindly; and while we think +ourselves spontaneous in our ecstasy, perform the part for which we +have been trained from childhood by the atmosphere in which we live. +It is this very unconsciousness and universality of the impulse we +obey which makes it hard to analyse. Contemporary history is difficult +to write; to define the spirit of the age in which we live is still +more difficult; to account for 'impressions which owe all their force +to their identity with themselves' is most difficult of all. We must +be content to feel, and not to analyse. + +Rousseau has the credit of having invented the love of Nature. Perhaps +he first expressed, in literature, the pleasures of open life among +the mountains, of walking tours, of the '_ecole buissonniere_,' +away from courts, and schools, and cities, which it is the fashion now +to love. His bourgeois birth and tastes, his peculiar religious +and social views, his intense self-engrossment,--all favoured the +development of Nature-worship. But Rousseau was not alone, nor yet +creative, in this instance. He was but one of the earliest to seize +and express a new idea of growing humanity. For those who seem to be +the most original in their inauguration of periods are only such +as have been favourably placed by birth and education to imbibe the +floating creeds of the whole race. They resemble the first cases of an +epidemic, which become the centres of infection and propagate disease. +At the time of Rousseau's greatness the French people were initiative. +In politics, in literature, in fashions, and in philosophy, they had +for some time led the taste of Europe. But the sentiment which first +received a clear and powerful expression in the works of Rousseau, +soon declared itself in the arts and literature of other nations. +Goethe, Wordsworth, and the earlier landscape-painters, proved that +Germany and England were not far behind the French. In England this +love of Nature for its own sake is indigenous, and has at all times +been peculiarly characteristic of our genius. Therefore it is not +surprising that our life and literature and art have been foremost +in developing the sentiment of which we are speaking. Our poets, +painters, and prose writers gave the tone to European thought in this +respect. Our travellers in search of the adventurous and picturesque, +our Alpine Club, have made of Switzerland an English playground. + +The greatest period in our history was but a foreshadowing of this. +To return to Nature-worship was but to reassume the habits of the +Elizabethan age, altered indeed by all the changes of religion, +politics, society, and science which the last three centuries have +wrought, yet still, in its original love of free open life among the +fields and woods, and on the sea, the same. Now the French national +genius is classical. It reverts to the age of Louis XIV., and +Rousseauism in their literature is as true an innovation and +parenthesis as Pope-and-Drydenism was in ours. As in the age of the +Reformation, so in this, the German element of the modern character +predominates. During the two centuries from which we have emerged, the +Latin element had the upper hand. Our love of the Alps is a Gothic, a +Teutonic, instinct; sympathetic with all that is vague, infinite, and +insubordinate to rules, at war with all that is defined and systematic +in our genius. This we may perceive in individuals as well as in the +broader aspects of arts and literatures. The classically minded man, +the reader of Latin poets, the lover of brilliant conversation, +the frequenter of clubs and drawing-rooms, nice in his personal +requirements, scrupulous in his choice of words, averse to unnecessary +physical exertion, preferring town to country life, _cannot_ +deeply feel the charm of the Alps. Such a man will dislike German art, +and however much he may strive to be Catholic in his tastes, will find +as he grows older that his liking for Gothic architecture and modern +painting diminish almost to aversion before an increasing admiration +for Greek peristyles and the Medicean Venus. If in respect of +speculation all men are either Platonists or Aristotelians, in respect +of taste all men are either Greek or German. + +At present the German, the indefinite, the natural, commands; the +Greek, the finite, the cultivated, is in abeyance. We who talk so +much about the feeling of the Alps, are creatures, not creators of our +_cultus_,--a strange reflection, proving how much greater man is +than men, the common reason of the age in which we live than our own +reasons, its constituents and subjects. + +Perhaps it is our modern tendency to 'individualism' which makes the +Alps so much to us. Society is there reduced to a vanishing point--no +claims are made on human sympathies--there is no need to toil in +yoke-service with our fellows. We may be alone, dream our own +dreams, and sound the depths of personality without the reproach of +selfishness, without a restless wish to join in action or money-making +or the pursuit of fame. To habitual residents among the Alps this +absence of social duties and advantages may be barbarising, even +brutalising. But to men wearied with too much civilisation, +and deafened by the noise of great cities, it is beyond measure +refreshing. Then, again, among the mountains history finds no place. +The Alps have no past nor present nor future. The human beings who +live upon their sides are at odds with nature, clinging on for bare +existence to the soil, sheltering themselves beneath protecting rocks +from avalanches, damming up destructive streams, all but annihilated +every spring. Man, who is paramount in the plain, is nothing here. His +arts and sciences, and dynasties, and modes of life, and mighty works, +and conquests and decays, demand our whole attention in Italy or +Egypt. But here the mountains, immemorially the same, which were, +which are, and which are to be, present a theatre on which the soul +breathes freely and feels herself alone. Around her on all sides is +God, and Nature, who is here the face of God and not the slave of man. +The spirit of the world hath here not yet grown old. She is as young +as on the first day; and the Alps are a symbol of the self-creating, +self-sufficing, self-enjoying universe which lives for its own ends. +For why do the slopes gleam with flowers, and the hillsides deck +themselves with grass, and the inaccessible ledges of black rock bear +their tufts of crimson primroses and flaunting tiger-lilies? Why, +morning after morning, does the red dawn flush the pinnacles of Monte +Rosa above cloud and mist unheeded? Why does the torrent shout, the +avalanche reply in thunder to the music of the sun, the trees and +rocks and meadows cry their 'Holy, Holy, Holy'? Surely not for us. +We are an accident here, and even the few men whose eyes are fixed +habitually upon these things are dead to them--the peasants do not +even know the names of their own flowers, and sigh with envy when you +tell them of the plains of Lincolnshire or Russian steppes. + +But indeed there is something awful in the Alpine elevation above +human things. We do not love Switzerland merely because we associate +its thought with recollections of holidays and joyfulness. Some of +the most solemn moments of life are spent high up above among the +mountains, on the barren tops of rocky passes, where the soul has +seemed to hear in solitude a low controlling voice. It is almost +necessary for the development of our deepest affections that some sad +and sombre moments should be interchanged with hours of merriment and +elasticity. It is this variety in the woof of daily life which endears +our home to us; and perhaps none have fully loved the Alps who have +not spent some days of meditation, or it may be of sorrow, among their +solitudes. Splendid scenery, like music, has the power to make 'of +grief itself a fiery chariot for mounting above the sources of grief,' +to ennoble and refine our passions, and to teach us that our lives +are merely moments in the years of the eternal Being. There are many, +perhaps, who, within sight of some great scene among the Alps, upon +the height of the Stelvio or the slopes of Muerren, or at night in +the valley of Courmayeur, have felt themselves raised above cares +and doubts and miseries by the mere recognition of unchangeable +magnificence; have found a deep peace in the sense of their own +nothingness. It is not granted to us everyday to stand upon these +pinnacles of rest and faith above the world. But having once stood +there, how can we forget the station? How can we fail, amid the +tumult of our common cares, to feel at times the hush of that far-off +tranquillity? When our life is most commonplace, when we are ill or +weary in city streets, we can remember the clouds upon the mountains +we have seen, the sound of innumerable waterfalls, and the scent of +countless flowers. A photograph of Bisson's or of Braun's, the name of +some well-known valley, the picture of some Alpine plant, rouses the +sacred hunger in our souls, and stirs again the faith in beauty and +in rest beyond ourselves which no man can take from us. We owe a +deep debt of gratitude to everything which enables us to rise above +depressing and enslaving circumstances, which brings us nearer in some +way or other to what is eternal in the universe, and which makes us +know that, whether we live or die, suffer or enjoy, life and gladness +are still strong in the world. On this account, the proper attitude +of the soul among the Alps is one of silence. It is almost impossible +without a kind of impiety to frame in words the feelings they inspire. +Yet there are some sayings, hallowed by long usage, which throng +the mind through a whole summer's day, and seem in harmony with its +emotions--some portions of the Psalms or lines of greatest poets, +inarticulate hymns of Beethoven and Mendelssohn, waifs and strays not +always apposite, but linked by strong and subtle chains of feeling +with the grandeur of the mountains. This reverential feeling for +the Alps is connected with the Pantheistic form of our religious +sentiments to which I have before alluded. It is a trite remark, that +even devout men of the present generation prefer temples _not_ +made with hands to churches, and worship God in the fields more +contentedly than in their pews. What Mr. Ruskin calls 'the instinctive +sense of the divine presence not formed into distinct belief' lies at +the root of our profound veneration for the nobler aspects of mountain +scenery. This instinctive sense has been very variously expressed by +Goethe in Faust's celebrated confession of faith, by Shelley in the +stanzas of 'Adonais,' which begin 'He is made one with nature,' by +Wordsworth in the lines on Tintern Abbey, and lately by Mr. Roden Noel +in his noble poems of Pantheism. It is more or less strongly felt by +all who have recognised the indubitable fact that religious belief is +undergoing a sure process of change from the dogmatic distinctness of +the past to some at present dimly descried creed of the future. Such +periods of transition are of necessity full of discomfort, doubt, and +anxiety, vague, variable, and unsatisfying. The men in whose spirits +the fermentation of the change is felt, who have abandoned their +old moorings, and have not yet reached the haven for which they are +steering, cannot but be indistinct and undecided in their faith. The +universe of which they form a part becomes important to them in its +infinite immensity. The principles of beauty, goodness, order and law, +no longer connected in their minds with definite articles of faith, +find symbols in the outer world. They are glad to fly at certain +moments from mankind and its oppressive problems, for which religion +no longer provides a satisfactory solution, to Nature, where they +vaguely localise the spirit that broods over us controlling all our +being. To such men Goethe's hymn is a form of faith, and born of such +a mood are the following far humbler verses:-- + + At Muerren let the morning lead thee out + To walk upon the cold and cloven hills, + To hear the congregated mountains shout + Their paean of a thousand foaming rills. + Raimented with intolerable light + The snow-peaks stand above thee, row on row + Arising, each a seraph in his might; + An organ each of varied stop doth blow. + Heaven's azure dome trembles through all her spheres, + Feeling that music vibrate; and the sun + Raises his tenor as he upward steers, + And all the glory-coated mists that run + Below him in the valley, hear his voice, + And cry unto the dewy fields, Rejoice! + +There is a profound sympathy between music and fine scenery: they both +affect us in the same way, stirring strong but undefined emotions, +which express themselves in 'idle tears,' or evoking thoughts 'which +lie,' as Wordsworth says, 'too deep for tears,' beyond the reach +of any words. How little we know what multitudes of mingling +reminiscences, held in solution by the mind, and colouring its fancy +with the iridescence of variable hues, go to make up the sentiments +which music or which mountains stir! It is the very vagueness, +changefulness, and dreamlike indistinctness of these feelings which +cause their charm; they harmonise with the haziness of our beliefs and +seem to make our very doubts melodious. For this reason it is obvious +that unrestrained indulgence in the pleasures of music or of scenery +may tend to destroy habits of clear thinking, sentimentalise the mind, +and render it more apt to entertain embryonic fancies than to bring +ideas to definite perfection. + +If hours of thoughtfulness and seclusion are necessary to the +development of a true love for the Alps, it is no less essential to a +right understanding of their beauty that we should pass some wet and +gloomy days among the mountains. The unclouded sunsets and sunrises +which often follow one another in September in the Alps, have +something terrible. They produce a satiety of splendour, and oppress +the mind with a sense of perpetuity. I remember spending such a season +in one of the Oberland valleys, high up above the pine-trees, in +a little chalet. Morning after morning I awoke to see the sunbeams +glittering on the Eiger and the Jungfrau; noon after noon the +snow-fields blazed beneath a steady fire; evening after evening they +shone like beacons in the red light of the setting sun. Then peak by +peak they lost the glow; the soul passed from them, and they stood +pale yet weirdly garish against the darkened sky. The stars came out, +the moon shone, but not a cloud sailed over the untroubled heavens. +Thus day after day for several weeks there was no change, till I was +seized with an overpowering horror of unbroken calm. I left the valley +for a time; and when I returned to it in wind and rain, I found that +the partial veiling of the mountain heights restored the charm which +I had lost and made me feel once more at home. The landscape takes a +graver tone beneath the mist that hides the higher peaks, and +comes drifting, creeping, feeling, through the pines upon their +slopes--white, silent, blinding vapour-wreaths around the sable +spires. Sometimes the cloud descends and blots out everything. Again +it lifts a little, showing cottages and distant Alps beneath its +skirts. Then it sweeps over the whole valley like a veil, just broken +here and there above a lonely chalet or a thread of distant dangling +torrent foam. Sounds, too, beneath the mist are more strange. The +torrent seems to have a hoarser voice and grinds the stones more +passionately against its boulders. The cry of shepherds through the +fog suggests the loneliness and danger of the hills. The bleating +of penned sheep or goats, and the tinkling of the cowbells, are +mysteriously distant and yet distinct in the dull dead air. Then, +again, how immeasurably high above our heads appear the domes and +peaks of snow revealed through chasms in the drifting cloud; how +desolate the glaciers and the avalanches in gleams of light that +struggle through the mist! There is a leaden glare peculiar to clouds, +which makes the snow and ice more lurid. Not far from the house where +I am writing, the avalanche that swept away the bridge last winter is +lying now, dripping away, dank and dirty, like a rotting whale. I can +see it from my window, green beech-boughs nodding over it, forlorn +larches bending their tattered branches by its side, splinters of +broken pine protruding from its muddy caves, the boulders on its +flank, and the hoarse hungry torrent tossing up its tongues to lick +the ragged edge of snow. Close by, the meadows, spangled with yellow +flowers and red and blue, look even more brilliant than if the sun +were shining on them. Every cup and blade of grass is drinking. But +the scene changes; the mist has turned into rain-clouds, and the +steady rain drips down, incessant, blotting out the view. Then, too, +what a joy it is if the clouds break towards evening with a north +wind, and a rainbow in the valley gives promise of a bright to-morrow! +We look up to the cliffs above our heads, and see that they have just +been powdered with the snow that is a sign of better weather. + +Such rainy days ought to be spent in places like Seelisberg and +Muerren, at the edge of precipices, in front of mountains, or above a +lake. The cloud-masses crawl and tumble about the valleys like a brood +of dragons; now creeping along the ledges of the rock with sinuous +self-adjustment to its turns and twists; now launching out into +the deep, repelled by battling winds, or driven onward in a coil of +twisted and contorted serpent curls. In the midst of summer these wet +seasons often end in a heavy fall of snow. You wake some morning to +see the meadows which last night were gay with July flowers huddled +up in snow a foot in depth. But fair weather does not tarry long to +reappear. You put on your thickest boots and sally forth to find the +great cups of the gentians full of snow, and to watch the rising of +the cloud-wreaths under the hot sun. Bad dreams or sickly thoughts, +dissipated by returning daylight or a friend's face, do not fly away +more rapidly and pleasantly than those swift glory-coated mists that +lose themselves we know not where in the blue depths of the sky. + +In contrast with these rainy days nothing can be more perfect than +clear moonlight nights. There is a terrace upon the roof of the inn at +Courmayeur where one may spend hours in the silent watches, when all +the world has gone to sleep beneath. The Mont Chetif and the Mont +de la Saxe form a gigantic portal not unworthy of the pile that lies +beyond. For Mont Blanc resembles a vast cathedral; its countless +spires are scattered over a mass like that of the Duomo at Milan, +rising into one tower at the end. By night the glaciers glitter in the +steady moon; domes, pinnacles, and buttresses stand clear of clouds. +Needles of every height and most fantastic shapes rise from the +central ridge, some solitary, like sharp arrows shot against the sky, +some clustering into sheaves. On every horn of snow and bank of grassy +hill stars sparkle, rising, setting, rolling round through the long +silent night. Moonlight simplifies and softens the landscape. Colours +become scarcely distinguishable, and forms, deprived of half their +detail, gain in majesty and size. The mountains seem greater far by +night than day--higher heights and deeper depths, more snowy pyramids, +more beetling crags, softer meadows, and darker pines. The whole +valley is hushed, but for the torrent and the chirping grasshopper and +the striking of the village clocks. The black tower and the houses of +Courmayeur in the foreground gleam beneath the moon until she reaches +the edge of the Cramont, and then sinks quietly away, once more +to reappear among the pines, then finally to leave the valley dark +beneath the shadow of the mountain's bulk. Meanwhile the heights of +snow still glitter in the steady light: they, too, will soon be dark, +until the dawn breaks, tinging them with rose. + +But it is not fair to dwell exclusively upon the more sombre aspect of +Swiss beauty when there are so many lively scenes of which to speak. +The sunlight and the freshness and the flowers of Alpine meadows form +more than half the charm of Switzerland. The other day we walked to a +pasture called the Col de Checruit, high up the valley of Courmayeur, +where the spring was still in its first freshness. Gradually we +climbed, by dusty roads and through hot fields where the grass had +just been mown, beneath the fierce light of the morning sun. Not a +breath of air was stirring, and the heavy pines hung overhead upon +their crags, as if to fence the gorge from every wandering breeze. +There is nothing more oppressive than these scorching sides of narrow +rifts, shut in by woods and precipices. But suddenly the valley +broadened, the pines and larches disappeared, and we found ourselves +upon a wide green semicircle of the softest meadows. Little rills of +water went rushing through them, rippling over pebbles, rustling under +dock leaves, and eddying against their wooden barriers. Far and wide +'you scarce could see the grass for flowers,' while on every side +the tinkling of cow-bells, and the voices of shepherds calling to one +another from the Alps, or singing at their work, were borne across the +fields. As we climbed we came into still fresher pastures, where the +snow had scarcely melted. There the goats and cattle were collected, +and the shepherds sat among them, fondling the kids and calling them +by name. When they called, the creatures came, expecting salt and +bread. It was pretty to see them lying near their masters, playing and +butting at them with their horns, or bleating for the sweet rye-bread. +The women knitted stockings, laughing among themselves, and singing +all the while. As soon as we reached them, they gathered round to +talk. An old herdsman, who was clearly the patriarch of this Arcadia, +asked us many questions in a slow deliberate voice. We told him who +we were, and tried to interest him in the cattle-plague, which he +appeared to regard as an evil very unreal and far away--like the +murrain upon Pharaoh's herds which one reads about in Exodus. But +he was courteous and polite, doing the honours of his pasture with +simplicity and ease. He took us to his chalet and gave us bowls of +pure cold milk. It was a funny little wooden house, clean and dark. +The sky peeped through its tiles, and if shepherds were not in the +habit of sleeping soundly all night long, they might count the setting +and rising stars without lifting their heads from the pillow. He told +us how far pleasanter they found the summer season than the long cold +winter which they have to spend in gloomy houses in Courmayeur. This, +indeed, is the true pastoral life which poets have described--a happy +summer holiday among the flowers, well occupied with simple cares, and +harassed by 'no enemy but winter and rough weather.' + +Very much of the charm of Switzerland belongs to simple things--to +greetings from the herdsmen, the 'Guten Morgen,' and 'Guten Abend,' +that are invariably given and taken upon mountain paths; to the tame +creatures, with their large dark eyes, who raise their heads one +moment from the pasture while you pass; and to the plants that grow +beneath your feet. The latter end of May is the time when spring +begins in the high Alps. Wherever sunlight smiles away a patch of +snow, the brown turf soon becomes green velvet, and the velvet stars +itself with red and white and gold and blue. You almost see the grass +and lilies grow. First come pale crocuses and lilac soldanellas. These +break the last dissolving clods of snow, and stand upon an island, +with the cold wall they have thawed all round them. It is the fate +of these poor flowers to spring and flourish on the very skirts +of retreating winter; they soon wither--the frilled chalice of the +soldanella shrivels up and the crocus fades away before the grass +has grown; the sun, which is bringing all the other plants to life, +scorches their tender petals. Often when summer has fairly come, +you still may see their pearly cups and lilac bells by the side of +avalanches, between the chill snow and the fiery sun, blooming and +fading hour by hour. They have as it were but a Pisgah view of the +promised land, of the spring which they are foremost to proclaim. Next +come the clumsy gentians and yellow anemones, covered with soft +down like fledgling birds. These are among the earliest and hardiest +blossoms that embroider the high meadows with a diaper of blue and +gold. About the same time primroses and auriculas begin to tuft the +dripping rocks, while frail white fleur-de-lis, like flakes of +snow forgotten by the sun, and golden-balled ranunculuses join with +forget-me-nots and cranesbill in a never-ending dance upon the grassy +floor. Happy, too, is he who finds the lilies-of-the-valley clustering +about the chestnut boles upon the Colma, or in the beechwood by +the stream at Macugnaga, mixed with garnet-coloured columbines and +fragrant white narcissus, which the people of the villages call +'Angiolini.' There, too, is Solomon's seal, with waxen bells and +leaves expanded like the wings of hovering butterflies. But these +lists of flowers are tiresome and cold; it would be better to draw +the portrait of one which is particularly fascinating. I think that +botanists have called it _Saxifraga cotyledon_; yet, in spite +of its long name, it is beautiful and poetic. London-pride is the +commonest of all the saxifrages; but the one of which I speak is as +different from London-pride as a Plantagenet upon his throne from that +last Plantagenet who died obscure and penniless some years ago. It is +a great majestic flower, which plumes the granite rocks of Monte Rosa +in the spring. At other times of the year you see a little tuft of +fleshy leaves set like a cushion on cold ledges and dark places of +dripping cliffs. You take it for a stonecrop--one of those weeds +doomed to obscurity, and safe from being picked because they are so +uninviting--and you pass it by incuriously. But about June it puts +forth its power, and from the cushion of pale leaves there springs a +strong pink stem, which rises upward for a while, and then curves +down and breaks into a shower of snow-white blossoms. Far away the +splendour gleams, hanging like a plume of ostrich-feathers from the +roof of rock, waving to the wind, or stooping down to touch the water +of the mountain stream that dashes it with dew. The snow at evening, +glowing with a sunset flush, is not more rosy-pure than this cascade +of pendent blossoms. It loves to be alone--inaccessible ledges, chasms +where winds combat, or moist caverns overarched near thundering falls, +are the places that it seeks. I will not compare it to a spirit of the +mountains or to a proud lonely soul, for such comparisons desecrate +the simplicity of nature, and no simile can add a glory to the flower. +It seems to have a conscious life of its own, so large and glorious +it is, so sensitive to every breath of air, so nobly placed upon its +bending stem, so royal in its solitude. I first saw it years ago on +the Simplon, feathering the drizzling crags above Isella. Then we +found it near Baveno, in a crack of sombre cliff beneath the mines. +The other day we cut an armful opposite Varallo, by the Sesia, and +then felt like murderers; it was so sad to hold in our hands the +triumph of those many patient months, the full expansive life of +the flower, the splendour visible from valleys and hillsides, the +defenceless creature which had done its best to make the gloomy places +of the Alps most beautiful. + +After passing many weeks among the high Alps it is a pleasure to +descend into the plains. The sunset, and sunrise, and the stars of +Lombardy, its level horizons and vague misty distances, are a source +of absolute relief after the narrow skies and embarrassed prospects of +a mountain valley. Nor are the Alps themselves ever more imposing than +when seen from Milan or the church-tower of Chivasso or the terrace +of Novara, with a foreground of Italian cornfields and old city towers +and rice-ground, golden-green beneath a Lombard sun. Half veiled +by clouds, the mountains rise like visionary fortress walls of a +celestial city--unapproachable, beyond the range of mortal feet. +But those who know by old experience what friendly chalets, and cool +meadows, and clear streams are hidden in their folds and valleys, +send forth fond thoughts and messages, like carrier-pigeons, from the +marble parapets of Milan, crying, 'Before another sun has set, I too +shall rest beneath the shadow of their pines!' It is in truth not more +than a day's journey from Milan to the brink of snow at Macugnaga. But +very sad it is to _leave_ the Alps, to stand upon the terraces +of Berne and waft ineffectual farewells. The unsympathising Aar +rushes beneath; and the snow-peaks, whom we love like friends, abide +untroubled by the coming and the going of the world. The clouds drift +over them--the sunset warms them with a fiery kiss. Night comes, and +we are hurried far away to wake beside the Seine, remembering, with a +pang of jealous passion, that the flowers on Alpine meadows are still +blooming, and the rivulets still flowing with a ceaseless song, while +Paris shops are all we see, and all we hear is the dull clatter of a +Paris crowd. + + +_THE ALPS IN WINTER_ + + +The gradual approach of winter is very lovely in the high Alps. The +valley of Davos, where I am writing, more than five thousand feet +above the sea, is not beautiful, as Alpine valleys go, though it has +scenery both picturesque and grand within easy reach. But when summer +is passing into autumn, even the bare slopes of the least romantic +glen are glorified. Golden lights and crimson are cast over the +grey-green world by the fading of innumerable plants. Then the larches +begin to put on sallow tints that deepen into orange, burning against +the solid blue sky like amber. The frosts are severe at night, and the +meadow grass turns dry and wan. The last lilac crocuses die upon the +fields. Icicles, hanging from watercourse or mill-wheel, glitter in +the noonday sunlight. The wind blows keenly from the north, and now +the snow begins to fall and thaw and freeze, and fall and thaw again. +The seasons are confused; wonderful days of flawless purity are +intermingled with storm and gloom. At last the time comes when a great +snowfall has to be expected. There is hard frost in the early morning, +and at nine o'clock the thermometer stands at 2 deg.. The sky is clear, +but it clouds rapidly with films of cirrus and of stratus in the south +and west. Soon it is covered over with grey vapour in a level sheet, +all the hill-tops standing hard against the steely heavens. The cold +wind from the west freezes the moustache to one's pipe-stem. By noon +the air is thick with a coagulated mist; the temperature meanwhile has +risen, and a little snow falls at intervals. The valleys are filled +with a curious opaque blue, from which the peaks rise, phantom-like +and pallid, into the grey air, scarcely distinguishable from their +background. The pine-forests on the mountain-sides are of darkest +indigo. There is an indescribable stillness and a sense of incubation. +The wind has fallen. Later on, the snow-flakes flutter silently and +sparely through the lifeless air. The most distant landscape is quite +blotted out. After sunset the clouds have settled down upon the hills, +and the snow comes in thick, impenetrable fleeces. At night our hair +crackles and sparkles when we brush it. Next morning there is a foot +and a half of finely powdered snow, and still the snow is falling. +Strangely loom the chalets through the semi-solid whiteness. Yet the +air is now dry and singularly soothing. The pines are heavy with their +wadded coverings; now and again one shakes himself in silence, and his +burden falls in a white cloud, to leave a black-green patch upon the +hillside, whitening again as the imperturbable fall continues. The +stakes by the roadside are almost buried. No sound is audible. Nothing +is seen but the snow-plough, a long raft of planks with a heavy stone +at its stem and a sharp prow, drawn by four strong horses, and driven +by a young man erect upon the stem. + +So we live through two days and nights, and on the third a north wind +blows. The snow-clouds break and hang upon the hills in scattered +fleeces; glimpses of blue sky shine through, and sunlight glints along +the heavy masses. The blues of the shadows are everywhere intense. As +the clouds disperse, they form in moulded domes, tawny like sunburned +marble in the distant south lands. Every chalet is a miracle of +fantastic curves, built by the heavy hanging snow. Snow lies mounded +on the roads and fields, writhed into loveliest wreaths, or outspread +in the softest undulations. All the irregularities of the hills are +softened into swelling billows like the mouldings of Titanic statuary. + +It happened once or twice last winter that such a clearing after +snowfall took place at full moon. Then the moon rose in a swirl of +fleecy vapour--clouds above, beneath, and all around. The sky was +blue as steel, and infinitely deep with mist-entangled stars. The horn +above which she first appears stood carved of solid black, and through +the valley's length from end to end yawned chasms and clefts of liquid +darkness. As the moon rose, the clouds were conquered, and massed into +rolling waves upon the ridges of the hills. The spaces of open sky +grew still more blue. At last the silver light came flooding over all, +and here and there the fresh snow glistened on the crags. There is +movement, palpitation, life of light through earth and sky. To walk +out on such a night, when the perturbation of storm is over and the +heavens are free, is one of the greatest pleasures offered by this +winter life. It is so light that you can read the smallest print with +ease. The upper sky looks quite black, shading by violet and sapphire +into turquoise upon the horizon. There is the colour of ivory upon +the nearest snow-fields, and the distant peaks sparkle like silver, +crystals glitter in all directions on the surface of the snow, white, +yellow, and pale blue. The stars are exceedingly keen, but only a few +can shine in the intensity of moonlight. The air is perfectly still, +and though icicles may be hanging from beard and moustache to the furs +beneath one's chin, there is no sensation of extreme cold. + +During the earlier frosts of the season, after the first snows have +fallen, but when there is still plenty of moisture in the ground, +the loveliest fern-fronds of pure rime may be found in myriads on the +meadows. They are fashioned like perfect vegetable structures, opening +fan-shaped upon crystal stems, and catching the sunbeams with the +brilliancy of diamonds. Taken at certain angles, they decompose light +into iridescent colours, appearing now like emeralds, rubies, or +topazes, and now like Labrador spar, blending all hues in a wondrous +sheen. When the lake freezes for the first time, its surface is of +course quite black, and so transparent that it is easy to see the +fishes swimming in the deep beneath; but here and there, where rime +has fallen, there sparkle these fantastic flowers and ferns and mosses +made of purest frost. Nothing, indeed, can be more fascinating than +the new world revealed by frost. In shaded places of the valley you +may walk through larches and leafless alder thickets by silent farms, +all silvered over with hoar spangles--fairy forests, where the flowers +and foliage are rime. The streams are flowing half-frozen over rocks +sheeted with opaque green ice. Here it is strange to watch the swirl +of water freeing itself from these frost-shackles, and to see it +eddying beneath the overhanging eaves of frailest crystal-frosted +snow. All is so silent, still, and weird in this white world, that one +marvels when the spirit of winter will appear, or what shrill voices +in the air will make his unimaginable magic audible. Nothing happens, +however, to disturb the charm, save when a sunbeam cuts the chain of +diamonds on an alder bough, and down they drift in a thin cloud of +dust. It may be also that the air is full of floating crystals, +like tiniest most restless fire-flies rising and falling and passing +crosswise in the sun-illumined shade of tree or mountain-side. + +It is not easy to describe these beauties of the winter-world; and yet +one word must be said about the sunsets. Let us walk out, therefore, +towards the lake at four o'clock in mid-December. The thermometer is +standing at 3 deg., and there is neither breath of wind nor cloud. Venus +is just visible in rose and sapphire, and the thin young moon is +beside her. To east and south the snowy ranges burn with yellow fire, +deepening to orange and crimson hues, which die away and leave a +greenish pallor. At last, the higher snows alone are livid with a last +faint tinge of light, and all beneath is quite white. But the tide +of glory turns. While the west grows momently more pale, the eastern +heavens flush with afterglow, suffuse their spaces with pink and +violet. Daffodil and tenderest emerald intermingle; and these colours +spread until the west again has rose and primrose and sapphire +wonderfully blent, and from the burning skies a light is cast upon the +valley--a phantom light, less real, more like the hues of molten +gems, than were the stationary flames of sunset. Venus and the moon +meanwhile are silvery clear. Then the whole illumination fades like +magic. + +All the charms of which I have been writing are combined in a +sledge-drive. With an arrowy gliding motion one passes through the +snow-world as through a dream. In the sunlight the snow surface +sparkles with its myriad stars of crystals. In the shadow it ceases +to glitter, and assumes a blueness scarcely less blue than the sky. +So the journey is like sailing through alternate tracts of light +irradiate heavens, and interstellar spaces of the clearest and most +flawless ether. The air is like the keen air of the highest glaciers. +As we go, the bells keep up a drowsy tinkling at the horse's head. +The whole landscape is transfigured--lifted high up out of +commonplaceness. The little hills are Monte Rosas and Mont Blancs. +Scale is annihilated, and nothing tells but form. There is hardly +any colour except the blue of sky and shadow. Everything is traced in +vanishing tints, passing from the almost amber of the distant sunlight +through glowing white into pale greys and brighter blues and deep +ethereal azure. The pines stand in black platoons upon the hillsides, +with a tinge of red or orange on their sable. Some carry masses of +snow. Others have shaken their plumes free. The chalets are like fairy +houses or toys, waist-deep in stores of winter fuel. With their mellow +tones of madder and umber on the weather-beaten woodwork relieved +against the white, with fantastic icicles and folds of snow depending +from their eaves, or curled like coverlids from roof and window-sill, +they are far more picturesque than in the summer. Colour, wherever it +is found, whether in these cottages or in a block of serpentine by +the roadside, or in the golden bulrush blades by the lake shore, takes +more than double value. It is shed upon the landscape like a spiritual +and transparent veil. Most beautiful of all are the sweeping lines of +pure untroubled snow, fold over fold of undulating softness, billowing +along the skirts of the peaked hills. There is no conveying the +charm of immaterial, aerial, lucid beauty, the feeling of purity and +aloofness from sordid things, conveyed by the fine touch on all our +senses of light, colour, form, and air, and motion, and rare tinkling +sound. The magic is like a spirit mood of Shelley's lyric verse. And, +what is perhaps most wonderful, this delicate delight may be enjoyed +without fear in the coldest weather. It does not matter how low the +temperature may be, if the sun is shining, the air dry, and the wind +asleep. + +Leaving the horse-sledges on the verge of some high hill-road, and +trusting oneself to the little hand-sledge which the people of the +Grisons use, and which the English have christened by the Canadian +term 'toboggan,' the excitement becomes far greater. The hand-sledge +is about three feet long, fifteen inches wide, and half a foot above +the ground, on runners shod with iron. Seated firmly at the back, +and guiding with the feet in front, the rider skims down precipitous +slopes and round perilous corners with a rapidity that beats a horse's +pace. Winding through sombre pine-forests, where the torrent roars +fitfully among caverns of barbed ice, and the glistening mountains +tower above in their glory of sun-smitten snow, darting round the +frozen ledges at the turnings of the road, silently gliding at a speed +that seems incredible, it is so smooth, he traverses two or three +miles without fatigue, carried onward by the mere momentum of his +weight. It is a strange and great joy. The toboggan, under these +conditions, might be compared to an enchanted boat shooting the rapids +of a river; and what adds to its fascination is the entire loneliness +in which the rider passes through those weird and ever-shifting scenes +of winter radiance. Sometimes, when the snow is drifting up the pass, +and the world is blank behind, before, and all around, it seems like +plunging into chaos. The muffled pines loom fantastically through +the drift as we rush past them, and the wind, ever and anon, detaches +great masses of snow in clouds from their bent branches. Or again at +night, when the moon is shining, and the sky is full of flaming +stars, and the snow, frozen to the hardness of marble, sparkles with +innumerable crystals, a new sense of strangeness and of joy is given +to the solitude, the swiftness, and the silence of the exercise. +No other circumstances invest the poetry of rapid motion with more +fascination. Shelley, who so loved the fancy of a boat inspired with +its own instinct of life, would have delighted in the game, and would +probably have pursued it recklessly. At the same time, as practised +on a humbler scale nearer home, in company, and on a run selected for +convenience rather than for picturesqueness, tobogganing is a very +Bohemian amusement. No one who indulges in it can count on avoiding +hard blows and violent upsets, nor will his efforts to maintain his +equilibrium at the dangerous corners be invariably graceful. + +Nothing, it might be imagined, could be more monotonous than an Alpine +valley covered up with snow. And yet to one who has passed many months +in that seclusion Nature herself presents no monotony; for the changes +constantly wrought by light and cloud and alternations of weather +on this landscape are infinitely various. The very simplicity of the +conditions seems to assist the supreme artist. One day is wonderful +because of its unsullied purity; not a cloud visible, and the pines +clothed in velvet of rich green beneath a faultless canopy of light. +The next presents a fretwork of fine film, wrought by the south wind +over the whole sky, iridescent with delicate rainbow tints within the +influences of the sun, and ever-changing shape. On another, when the +turbulent Foehn is blowing, streamers of snow may be seen flying from +the higher ridges against a pallid background of slaty cloud, while +the gaunt ribs of the hills glisten below with fitful gleams of lurid +light. At sunrise, one morning, stealthy and mysterious vapours clothe +the mountains from their basement to the waist, while the peaks are +glistening serenely in clear daylight. Another opens with silently +falling snow. A third is rosy through the length and breadth of the +dawn-smitten valley. It is, however, impossible to catalogue the +indescribable variety of those beauties, which those who love nature +may enjoy by simply waiting on the changes of the winter in a single +station of the Alps. + + * * * * * + + + + +_WINTER NIGHTS AT DAVOS_ + + +I + +Light, marvellously soft yet penetrating, everywhere diffused, +everywhere reflected without radiance, poured from the moon high above +our heads in a sky tinted through all shades and modulations of blue, +from turquoise on the horizon to opaque sapphire at the zenith--_dolce +color_. (It is difficult to use the word _colour_ for this scene +without suggesting an exaggeration. The blue is almost indefinable, +yet felt. But if possible, the total effect of the night landscape +should be rendered by careful exclusion of tints from the +word-palette. The art of the etcher is more needed than that of the +painter.) Heaven overhead is set with stars, shooting intensely, +smouldering with dull red in Aldeboran, sparkling diamond-like in +Sirius, changing from orange to crimson and green in the swart fire of +yonder double star. On the snow this moonlight falls tenderly, not in +hard white light and strong black shadow, but in tones of cream and +ivory, rounding the curves of drift. The mountain peaks alone glisten +as though they were built of silver burnished by an agate. Far away +they rise diminished in stature by the all-pervading dimness of bright +light, that erases the distinctions of daytime. On the path before our +feet lie crystals of many hues, the splinters of a thousand gems. In +the wood there are caverns of darkness, alternating with spaces of +star-twinkled sky, or windows opened between russet stems and solid +branches for the moony sheen. The green of the pines is felt, although +invisible, so soft in substance that it seems less like velvet than +some materialised depth of dark green shadow. + +II + +Snow falling noiseless and unseen. One only knows that it is falling +by the blinking of our eyes as the flakes settle on their lids and +melt. The cottage windows shine red, and moving lanterns of belated +wayfarers define the void around them. Yet the night is far from dark. +The forests and the mountain-bulk beyond the valley loom softly large +and just distinguishable through a pearly haze. The path is purest +trackless whiteness, almost dazzling though it has no light. This was +what Dante felt when he reached the lunar sphere: + + Parova a me, che nube ne coprisse + Lucida, spessa, solida e pulita. + +Walking silent, with insensible footfall, slowly, for the snow is deep +above our ankles, we wonder what the world would be like if this were +all. Could the human race be acclimatised to this monotony (we say) +perhaps emotion would be rarer, yet more poignant, suspended brooding +on itself, and wakening by flashes to a quintessential mood. Then +fancy changes, and the thought occurs that even so must be a planet, +not yet wholly made, nor called to take her place among the sisterhood +of light and song. + +III + +Sunset was fading out upon the Rhaetikon and still reflected from the +Seehorn on the lake, when we entered the gorge of the Fluela--dense +pines on either hand, a mounting drift of snow in front, and faint +peaks, paling from rose to saffron, far above, beyond. There was +no sound but a tinkling stream and the continual jingle of our +sledge-bells. We drove at a foot's pace, our horse finding his own +path. When we left the forest, the light had all gone except for some +almost imperceptible touches of primrose on the eastern horns. It was +a moonless night, but the sky was alive with stars, and now and then +one fell. The last house in the valley was soon passed, and we entered +those bleak gorges where the wind, fine, noiseless, penetrating like +an edge of steel, poured slantwise on us from the north. As we rose, +the stars to west seemed far beneath us, and the Great Bear sprawled +upon the ridges of the lower hills outspread. We kept slowly moving +onward, upward, into what seemed like a thin impalpable mist, but +was immeasurable tracts of snow. The last cembras were left behind, +immovable upon dark granite boulders on our right. We entered a +formless and unbillowed sea of greyness, from which there rose dim +mountain-flanks that lost themselves in air. Up, ever up, and +still below us westward sank the stars. We were now 7500 feet above +sea-level, and the December night was rigid with intensity of frost. +The cold, and movement, and solemnity of space, drowsed every sense. + +IV + +The memory of things seen and done in moonlight is like the memory of +dreams. It is as a dream that I recall the night of our tobogganing to +Klosters, though it was full enough of active energy. The moon was in +her second quarter, slightly filmed with very high thin clouds, that +disappeared as night advanced, leaving the sky and stars in all their +lustre. A sharp frost, sinking to three degrees above zero Fahrenheit, +with a fine pure wind, such wind as here they call 'the mountain +breath.' We drove to Wolfgang in a two-horse sledge, four of us +inside, and our two Christians on the box. Up there, where the Alps of +Death descend to join the Lakehorn Alps, above the Wolfswalk, there +is a world of whiteness--frozen ridges, engraved like cameos of aerial +onyx upon the dark, star-tremulous sky; sculptured buttresses of snow, +enclosing hollows filled with diaphanous shadow, and sweeping aloft +into the upland fields of pure clear drift. Then came the swift +descent, the plunge into the pines, moon-silvered on their frosted +tops. The battalions of spruce that climb those hills defined the +dazzling snow from which they sprang, like the black tufts upon an +ermine robe. At the proper moment we left our sledge, and the big +Christian took his reins in hand to follow us. Furs and greatcoats +were abandoned. Each stood forth tightly accoutred, with short coat, +and clinging cap, and gaitered legs for the toboggan. Off we started +in line, with but brief interval between, at first slowly, then +glidingly, and when the impetus was gained, with darting, bounding, +almost savage swiftness--sweeping round corners, cutting the hard +snow-path with keen runners, avoiding the deep ruts, trusting to +chance, taking advantage of smooth places, till the rush and swing and +downward swoop became mechanical. Space was devoured. Into the massy +shadows of the forest, where the pines joined overhead, we pierced +without a sound, and felt far more than saw the great rocks with their +icicles; and out again, emerging into moonlight, met the valley spread +beneath our feet, the mighty peaks of the Silvretta and the vast blue +sky. On, on, hurrying, delaying not, the woods and hills rushed by. +Crystals upon the snow-banks glittered to the stars. Our souls would +fain have stayed to drink these marvels of the moon-world, but our +limbs refused. The magic of movement was upon us, and eight minutes +swallowed the varying impressions of two musical miles. The village +lights drew near and nearer, then the sombre village huts, and soon +the speed grew less, and soon we glided to our rest into the sleeping +village street. + +V + +It was just past midnight. The moon had fallen to the western horns. +Orion's belt lay bar-like on the opening of the pass, and Sirius shot +flame on the Seehorn. A more crystalline night, more full of fulgent +stars, was never seen, stars everywhere, but mostly scattered in large +sparkles on the snow. Big Christian went in front, tugging toboggans +by their strings, as Gulliver, in some old woodcut, drew the fleets +of Lilliput. Through the brown wood-chalets of Selfrangr, up to the +undulating meadows, where the snow slept pure and crisp, he led us. +There we sat awhile and drank the clear air, cooled to zero, but +innocent and mild as mother Nature's milk. Then in an instant, down, +down through the hamlet, with its chalets, stables, pumps, and logs, +the slumbrous hamlet, where one dog barked, and darkness dwelt upon +the path of ice, down with the tempest of a dreadful speed, that +shot each rider upward in the air, and made the frame of the toboggan +tremble--down over hillocks of hard frozen snow, dashing and bounding, +to the river and the bridge. No bones were broken, though the race was +thrice renewed, and men were spilt upon the roadside by some furious +plunge. This amusement has the charm of peril and the unforeseen. In +no wise else can colder, keener air be drunken at such furious speed. +The joy, too, of the engine-driver and the steeplechaser is upon us. +Alas, that it should be so short! If only roads were better made for +the purpose, there would be no end to it; for the toboggan cannot lose +his wind. But the good thing fails at last, and from the silence of +the moon we pass into the silence of the fields of sleep. + +VI + +The new stable is a huge wooden building, with raftered lofts to stow +the hay, and stalls for many cows and horses. It stands snugly in an +angle of the pine-wood, bordering upon the great horse-meadow. Here +at night the air is warm and tepid with the breath of kine. Returning +from my forest walk, I spy one window yellow in the moonlight with a +lamp. I lift the latch. The hound knows me, and does not bark. I enter +the stable, where six horses are munching their last meal. Upon the +corn-bin sits a knecht. We light our pipes and talk. He tells me of +the valley of Arosa (a hawk's flight westward over yonder hills), how +deep in grass its summer lawns, how crystal-clear its stream, how blue +its little lakes, how pure, without a taint of mist, 'too beautiful to +paint,' its sky in winter! This knecht is an Ardueser, and the valley +of Arosa lifts itself to heaven above his Langwies home. It is his +duty now to harness a sleigh for some night-work. We shake hands and +part--I to sleep, he for the snow. + +VII + +The lake has frozen late this year, and there are places in it where +the ice is not yet firm. Little snow has fallen since it froze--about +three inches at the deepest, driven by winds and wrinkled like the +ribbed sea-sand. Here and there the ice-floor is quite black and +clear, reflecting stars, and dark as heaven's own depths. Elsewhere it +is of a suspicious whiteness, blurred in surface, with jagged cracks +and chasms, treacherously mended by the hand of frost. Moving slowly, +the snow cries beneath our feet, and the big crystals tinkle. These +are shaped like fern-fronds, growing fan-wise from a point, and set +at various angles, so that the moonlight takes them with capricious +touch. They flash, and are quenched, and flash again, light darting to +light along the level surface, while the sailing planets and the stars +look down complacent at this mimicry of heaven. Everything above, +around, beneath, is very beautiful--the slumbrous woods, the snowy +fells, and the far distance painted in faint blue upon the tender +background of the sky. Everything is placid and beautiful; and yet the +place is terrible. For, as we walk, the lake groans, with throttled +sobs, and sudden cracklings of its joints, and sighs that shiver, +undulating from afar, and pass beneath our feet, and die away in +distance when they reach the shore. And now and then an upper crust +of ice gives way; and will the gulfs then drag us down? We are in +the very centre of the lake. There is no use in thinking or in taking +heed. Enjoy the moment, then, and march. Enjoy the contrast between +this circumambient serenity and sweetness, and the dreadful sense of +insecurity beneath. Is not, indeed, our whole life of this nature? +A passage over perilous deeps, roofed by infinity and sempiternal +things, surrounded too with evanescent forms, that like these +crystals, trodden underfoot, or melted by the Foehn-wind into dew, +flash, in some lucky moment, with a light that mimics stars! But to +allegorise and sermonise is out of place here. It is but the expedient +of those who cannot etch sensation by the burin of their art of words. + +VIII + +It is ten o'clock upon Sylvester Abend, or New Year's Eve. Herr Buol +sits with his wife at the head of his long table. His family and +serving folk are round him. There is his mother, with little Ursula, +his child, upon her knee. The old lady is the mother of four comely +daughters and nine stalwart sons, the eldest of whom is now a grizzled +man. Besides our host, four of the brothers are here to-night; the +handsome melancholy Georg, who is so gentle in his speech; Simeon, +with his diplomatic face; Florian, the student of medicine; and +my friend, colossal-breasted Christian. Palmy came a little later, +worried with many cares, but happy to his heart's core. No optimist +was ever more convinced of his philosophy than Palmy. After them, +below the salt, were ranged the knechts and porters, the marmiton +from the kitchen, and innumerable maids. The board was tesselated with +plates of birnen-brod and eier-brod, kuechli and cheese and butter; and +Georg stirred grampampuli in a mighty metal bowl. For the uninitiated, +it may be needful to explain these Davos delicacies. Birnen-brod +is what the Scotch would call a 'bun,' or massive cake, composed of +sliced pears, almonds, spices, and a little flour. Eier-brod is a +saffron-coloured sweet bread, made with eggs; and kuechli is a kind +of pastry, crisp and flimsy, fashioned into various devices of cross, +star, and scroll. Grampampuli is simply brandy burnt with sugar, the +most unsophisticated punch I ever drank from tumblers. The frugal +people of Davos, who live on bread and cheese and dried meat all the +year, indulge themselves but once with these unwonted dainties in the +winter. + +The occasion was cheerful, and yet a little solemn. The scene was +feudal. For these Buols are the scions of a warrior race: + + A race illustrious for heroic deeds; + Humbled, but not degraded. + +During the six centuries through which they have lived nobles in +Davos, they have sent forth scores of fighting men to foreign lands, +ambassadors to France and Venice and the Milanese, governors to +Chiavenna and Bregaglia and the much-contested Valtelline. Members of +their house are Counts of Buol-Schauenstein in Austria, Freiherrs of +Muhlingen and Berenberg in the now German Empire. They keep the patent +of nobility conferred on them by Henri IV. Their ancient coat--parted +per pale azure and argent, with a dame of the fourteenth century +bearing in her hand a rose, all counterchanged--is carved in wood and +monumental marble on the churches and old houses hereabouts. And from +immemorial antiquity the Buol of Davos has sat thus on Sylvester Abend +with family and folk around him, summoned from alp and snowy field to +drink grampampuli and break the birnen-brod. + +These rites performed, the men and maids began to sing--brown arms +lounging on the table, and red hands folded in white aprons--serious +at first in hymn-like cadences, then breaking into wilder measures +with a jodel at the close. There is a measured solemnity in the +performance, which strikes the stranger as somewhat comic. But the +singing was good; the voices strong and clear in tone, no hesitation +and no shirking of the melody. It was clear that the singers enjoyed +the music for its own sake, with half-shut eyes, as they take dancing, +solidly, with deep-drawn breath, sustained and indefatigable. But +eleven struck; and the two Christians, my old friend, and Palmy, said +we should be late for church. They had promised to take me with them +to see bell-ringing in the tower. All the young men of the village +meet, and draw lots in the Stube of the Rathhaus. One party tolls the +old year out; the other rings the new year in. He who comes last is +sconced three litres of Veltliner for the company. This jovial fine +was ours to pay to-night. + +When we came into the air, we found a bitter frost; the whole sky +clouded over; a north wind whirling snow from alp and forest through +the murky gloom. The benches and broad walnut tables of the Bathhaus +were crowded with men, in shaggy homespun of brown and grey frieze. +Its low wooden roof and walls enclosed an atmosphere of smoke, denser +than the external snow-drift. But our welcome was hearty, and we found +a score of friends. Titanic Fopp, whose limbs are Michelangelesque in +length; spectacled Morosani; the little tailor Kramer, with a French +horn on his knees; the puckered forehead of the Baumeister; the +Troll-shaped postman; peasants and woodmen, known on far excursions +upon pass and upland valley. Not one but carried on his face the +memory of winter strife with avalanche and snow-drift, of horses +struggling through Fluela whirlwinds, and wine-casks tugged across +Bernina, and haystacks guided down precipitous gullies at thundering +speed 'twixt pine and pine, and larches felled in distant glens beside +the frozen watercourses. Here we were, all met together for one hour +from our several homes and occupations, to welcome in the year with +clinked glasses and cries of _Prosit Neujahr!_ + +The tolling bells above us stopped. Our turn had come. Out into the +snowy air we tumbled, beneath the row of wolves' heads that adorn the +pent-house roof. A few steps brought us to the still God's acre, +where the snow lay deep and cold upon high-mounded graves of many +generations. We crossed it silently, bent our heads to the low Gothic +arch, and stood within the tower. It was thick darkness there. But +far above, the bells began again to clash and jangle confusedly, with +volleys of demonic joy. Successive flights of ladders, each ending in +a giddy platform hung across the gloom, climb to the height of some +hundred and fifty feet; and all their rungs were crusted with frozen +snow, deposited by trampling boots. For up and down these stairs, +ascending and descending, moved other than angels--the friezejacketed +Buerschen, Grisons bears, rejoicing in their exercise, exhilarated with +the tingling noise of beaten metal. We reached the first room safely, +guided by firm-footed Christian, whose one candle just defined the +rough walls and the slippery steps. There we found a band of boys, +pulling ropes that set the bells in motion. But our destination +was not reached. One more aerial ladder, perpendicular in darkness, +brought us swiftly to the home of sound. It is a small square chamber, +where the bells are hung, filled with the interlacement of enormous +beams, and pierced to north and south by open windows, from whose +parapets I saw the village and the valley spread beneath. The fierce +wind hurried through it, charged with snow, and its narrow space was +thronged with men. Men on the platform, men on the window-sills, +men grappling the bells with iron arms, men brushing by to reach the +stairs, crossing, recrossing, shouldering their mates, drinking +red wine from gigantic beakers, exploding crackers, firing squibs, +shouting and yelling in corybantic chorus. They yelled and shouted, +one could see it by their open mouths and glittering eyes; but not +a sound from human lungs could reach our ears. The overwhelming +incessant thunder of the bells drowned all. It thrilled the tympanum, +ran through the marrow of the spine, vibrated in the inmost entrails. +Yet the brain was only steadied and excited by this sea of brazen +noise. After a few moments I knew the place and felt at home in it. +Then I enjoyed a spectacle which sculptors might have envied. For they +ring the bells in Davos after this fashion:--The lads below set them +going with ropes. The men above climb in pairs on ladders to the beams +from which they are suspended. Two mighty pine-trees, roughly squared +and built into the walls, extend from side to side across the belfry. +Another from which the bells hang, connects these massive trunks +at right angles. Just where the central beam is wedged into the +two parallel supports, the ladders reach them from each side of the +belfry, so that, bending from the higher rung of the ladder, and +leaning over, stayed upon the lateral beam, each pair of men can keep +one bell in movement with their hands. Each comrade plants one leg +upon the ladder, and sets the other knee firmly athwart the horizontal +pine. Then round each other's waist they twine left arm and right. The +two have thus become one man. Right arm and left are free to grasp the +bell's horns, sprouting at its crest beneath the beam. With a grave +rhythmic motion, bending sideward in a close embrace, swaying and +returning to their centre from the well-knit loins, they drive the +force of each strong muscle into the vexed bell. The impact is earnest +at first, but soon it becomes frantic. The men take something from +each other of exalted enthusiasm. This efflux of their combined +energies inspires them and exasperates the mighty resonance of metal +which they rule. They are lost in a trance of what approximates to +dervish passion--so thrilling is the surge of sound, so potent are the +rhythms they obey. Men come and tug them by the heels. One grasps +the starting thews upon their calves. Another is impatient for their +place. But they strain still, locked together, and forgetful of the +world. At length they have enough: then slowly, clingingly unclasp, +turn round with gazing eyes, and are resumed, sedately, into the +diurnal round of common life. Another pair is in their room upon the +beam. + +The Englishman who saw these things stood looking up, enveloped in his +ulster with the grey cowl thrust upon his forehead, like a monk. One +candle cast a grotesque shadow of him on the plastered wall. And when +his chance came, though he was but a weakling, he too climbed and for +some moments hugged the beam, and felt the madness of the swinging +bell. Descending, he wondered long and strangely whether he +ascribed too much of feeling to the men he watched. But no, that was +impossible. There are emotions deeply seated in the joy of exercise, +when the body is brought into play, and masses move in concert, of +which the subject is but half conscious. Music and dance, and the +delirium of battle or the chase, act thus upon spontaneous natures. +The mystery of rhythm and associated energy and blood tingling +in sympathy is here. It lies at the root of man's most tyrannous +instinctive impulses. + +It was past one when we reached home, and now a meditative man might +well have gone to bed. But no one thinks of sleeping on Sylvester +Abend. So there followed bowls of punch in one friend's room, where +English, French, and Germans blent together in convivial Babel; and +flasks of old Montagner in another. Palmy, at this period, wore an +archdeacon's hat, and smoked a churchwarden's pipe; and neither were +his own, nor did he derive anything ecclesiastical or Anglican from +the association. Late in the morning we must sally forth, they said, +and roam the town. For it is the custom here on New Year's night to +greet acquaintances, and ask for hospitality, and no one may +deny these self-invited guests. We turned out again into the grey +snow-swept gloom, a curious Comus--not at all like Greeks, for we had +neither torches in our hands nor rose-wreaths to suspend upon a lady's +door-posts. And yet I could not refrain, at this supreme moment +of jollity, in the zero temperature, amid my Grisons friends, from +humming to myself verses from the Greek Anthology:-- + + The die is cast! Nay, light the torch! + I'll take the road! Up, courage, ho! + Why linger pondering in the porch? + Upon Love's revel we will go! + + Shake off those fumes of wine! Hang care + And caution! What has Love to do + With prudence? Let the torches flare! + Quick, drown the doubts that hampered you! + + Cast weary wisdom to the wind! + One thing, but one alone, I know: + Love bent e'en Jove and made him blind + Upon Love's revel we will go! + +And then again:-- + + I've drunk sheer madness! Not with wine, + But old fantastic tales, I'll arm + My heart in heedlessness divine, + And dare the road, nor dream of harm! + + I'll join Love's rout! Let thunder break, + Let lightning blast me by the way! + Invulnerable Love shall shake + His aegis o'er my head to-day. + +This last epigram was not inappropriate to an invalid about to begin +the fifth act in a roystering night's adventure. And still once +more:-- + + Cold blows the winter wind; 'tis Love, + Whose sweet eyes swim with honeyed tears, + That bears me to thy doors, my love, + Tossed by the storm of hopes and fears. + + Cold blows the blast of aching Love; + But be thou for my wandering sail, + Adrift upon these waves of love, + Safe harbour from the whistling gale! + +However, upon this occasion, though we had winter-wind enough, and +cold enough, there was not much love in the business. My arm was +firmly clenched in Christian Buol's, and Christian Palmy came +behind, trolling out songs in Italian dialect, with still recurring +_canaille_ choruses, of which the facile rhymes seemed mostly +made on a prolonged _amu-u-u-r_. It is noticeable that Italian +ditties are specially designed for fellows shouting in the streets at +night. They seem in keeping there, and nowhere else that I could ever +see. And these Davosers took to them naturally when the time for Comus +came. It was between four and five in the morning, and nearly all the +houses in the place were dark. The tall church-tower and spire loomed +up above us in grey twilight. The tireless wind still swept thin +snow from fell and forest. But the frenzied bells had sunk into their +twelvemonth's slumber, which shall be broken only by decorous tollings +at less festive times. I wondered whether they were tingling still +with the heart-throbs and with the pressure of those many arms? Was +their old age warmed, as mine was, with that gust of life--the young +men who had clung to them like bees to lily-bells, and shaken all +their locked-up tone and shrillness into the wild winter air? Alas! +how many generations of the young have handled them; and they are +still there, frozen in their belfry; and the young grow middle-aged, +and old, and die at last; and the bells they grappled in their lust +of manhood toll them to their graves, on which the tireless wind will, +winter after winter, sprinkle snow from alps and forests which they +knew. + +'There is a light,' cried Christian, 'up in Anna's window!' 'A light! +a light!' the Comus shouted. But how to get at the window, which is +pretty high above the ground, and out of reach of the most ardent +revellers? We search a neighbouring shed, extract a stable-ladder, and +in two seconds Palmy has climbed to the topmost rung, while Christian +and Georg hold it firm upon the snow beneath. Then begins a passage +from some comic opera of Mozart's or Cimarosa's--an escapade familiar +to Spanish or Italian students, which recalls the stage. It is an +episode from 'Don Giovanni,' translated to this dark-etched scene +of snowy hills, and Gothic tower, and mullioned windows deep embayed +beneath their eaves and icicles. _Deh vieni alla finestra!_ sings +Palmy-Leporello; the chorus answers: _Deh vieni! Perche non vieni +ancora?_ pleads Leporello; the chorus shouts: _Perche? Mio +amu-u-u-r_, sighs Leporello; and Echo cries, _amu-u-u-r!_ All +the wooing, be it noticed, is conducted in Italian. But the actors +murmur to each other in Davoser Deutsch, 'She won't come, Palmy! It is +far too late; she is gone to bed. Come down; you'll wake the village +with your caterwauling!' But Leporello waves his broad archdeacon's +hat, and resumes a flood of flexible Bregaglian. He has a shrewd +suspicion that the girl is peeping from behind the window curtain; +and tells us, bending down from the ladder, in a hoarse stage-whisper, +that we must have patience; 'these girls are kittle cattle, who take +long to draw: but if your lungs last out, they're sure to show.' And +Leporello is right. Faint heart ne'er won fair lady. From the summit +of his ladder, by his eloquent Italian tongue, he brings the shy bird +down at last. We hear the unbarring of the house door, and a comely +maiden, in her Sunday dress, welcomes us politely to her ground-floor +sitting-room. The Comus enters, in grave order, with set speeches, +handshakes, and inevitable _Prosits_! It is a large low chamber, +with a huge stone stove, wide benches fixed along the walls, and a +great oval table. We sit how and where we can. Red wine is produced, +and eier-brod and kuechli. Fraeulein Anna serves us sedately, holding +her own with decent self-respect against the inrush of the revellers. +She is quite alone; but are not her father and mother in bed above, +and within earshot? Besides, the Comus, even at this abnormal hour and +after an abnormal night, is well conducted. Things seem slipping into +a decorous wine-party, when Leporello readjusts the broad-brimmed +hat upon his head, and very cleverly acts a little love-scene for our +benefit. Fraeulein Anna takes this as a delicate compliment, and the +thing is so prettily done in truth, that not the sternest taste could +be offended. Meanwhile another party of night-wanderers, attracted by +our mirth, break in. More _Prosits_ and clinked glasses follow; +and with a fair good-morning to our hostess, we retire. + +It is too late to think of bed. 'The quincunx of heaven,' as Sir +Thomas Browne phrased it on a dissimilar occasion, 'runs low.... The +huntsmen are up in America; and not in America only, for the huntsmen, +if there are any this night in Graubuenden, have long been out upon the +snow, and the stable-lads are dragging the sledges from their sheds +to carry down the mails to Landquart. We meet the porters from the +various hotels, bringing letter-bags and luggage to the post. It is +time to turn in and take a cup of black coffee against the rising sun. + +IX + +Some nights, even in Davos, are spent, even by an invalid, in bed. +A leaflet, therefore, of 'Sleep-chasings' may not inappropriately +be flung, as envoy to so many wanderings on foot and sledge upon the +winter snows. + +The first is a confused medley of things familiar and things strange. +I have been dreaming of far-away old German towns, with gabled houses +deep in snow; dreaming of chalets in forgotten Alpine glens, where +wood-cutters come plunging into sleepy light from gloom, and sinking +down beside the stove to shake the drift from their rough shoulders; +dreaming of vast veils of icicles upon the gaunt black rocks in places +where no foot of man will pass, and where the snow is weaving eyebrows +over the ledges of grey whirlwind-beaten precipices; dreaming +of Venice, forlorn beneath the windy drip of rain, the gas lamps +flickering on the swimming piazzetta, the barche idle, the gondolier +wrapped in his thread-bare cloak, alone; dreaming of Apennines, with +world-old cities, brown, above the brown sea of dead chestnut boughs; +dreaming of stormy tides, and watchers aloft in lighthouses when day +is finished; dreaming of dead men and women and dead children in the +earth, far down beneath the snow-drifts, six feet deep. And then +I lift my face, awaking, from my pillow; the pallid moon is on the +valley, and the room is filled with spectral light. + +I sleep, and change my dreaming. This is a hospice in an unfrequented +pass, between sad peaks, beside a little black lake, overdrifted with +soft snow. I pass into the house-room, gliding silently. An old man +and an old woman are nodding, bowed in deepest slumber, by the stove. +A young man plays the zither on a table. He lifts his head, still +modulating with his fingers on the strings. He looks right through me +with wide anxious eyes. He does not see me, but sees Italy, I know, +and some one wandering on a sandy shore. + +I sleep, and change my dreaming. This is S. Stephen's Church in Wien. +Inside, the lamps are burning dimly in the choir. There is fog in the +aisles; but through the sleepy air and over the red candles flies a +wild soprano's voice, a boy's soul in its singing sent to heaven. + +I sleep, and change my dreaming. From the mufflers in which his +father, the mountebank, has wrapped the child, to carry him across +the heath, a little tumbling-boy emerges in soiled tights. He is half +asleep. His father scrapes the fiddle. The boy shortens his red belt, +kisses his fingers to us, and ties himself into a knot among the +glasses on the table. + +I sleep, and change my dreaming. I am on the parapet of a huge +circular tower, hollow like a well, and pierced with windows at +irregular intervals. The parapet is broad, and slabbed with red +Verona marble. Around me are athletic men, all naked, in the strangest +attitudes of studied rest, down-gazing, as I do, into the depths +below. There comes a confused murmur of voices, and the tower is +threaded and rethreaded with great cables. Up these there climb to us +a crowd of young men, clinging to the ropes and flinging their bodies +sideways on aerial trapezes. My heart trembles with keen joy and +terror. For nowhere else could plastic forms be seen more beautiful, +and nowhere else is peril more apparent. Leaning my chin upon the +utmost verge, I wait. I watch one youth, who smiles and soars to me; +and when his face is almost touching mine, he speaks, but what he says +I know not. + +I sleep, and change my dreaming. The whole world rocks to its +foundations. The mountain summits that I know are shaken. They bow +their bristling crests. They are falling, falling on us, and the earth +is riven. I wake in terror, shouting: INSOLITIS TREMUERUNT MOTIBUS +ALPES! An earthquake, slight but real, has stirred the ever-wakeful +Vesta of the brain to this Virgilian quotation. + +I sleep, and change my dreaming. Once more at night I sledge alone +upon the Klosters road. It is the point where the woods close over it +and moonlight may not pierce the boughs. There come shrill cries of +many voices from behind, and rushings that pass by and vanish. Then +on their sledges I behold the phantoms of the dead who died in Davos, +longing for their homes; and each flies past me, shrieking in the +still cold air; and phosphorescent like long meteors, the pageant +turns the windings of the road below and disappears. + +I sleep, and change my dreaming. This is the top of some high +mountain, where the crags are cruelly tortured and cast in enormous +splinters on the ledges of cliffs grey with old-world ice. A ravine, +opening at my feet, plunges down immeasurably to a dim and distant +sea. Above me soars a precipice embossed with a gigantic ice-bound +shape. As I gaze thereon, I find the lineaments and limbs of a Titanic +man chained and nailed to the rock. His beard has grown for centuries, +and flowed this way and that, adown his breast and over to the stone +on either side; and the whole of him is covered with a greenish ice, +ancient beyond the memory of man. 'This is Prometheus,' I whisper to +myself, 'and I am alone on Caucasus.' + + * * * * * + + + + +BACCHUS IN GRAUBUeNDEN + + +I + +Some years' residence in the Canton of the Grisons made me familiar +with all sorts of Valtelline wine; with masculine but rough _Inferno_, +generous _Forzato_, delicate _Sassella_, harsher _Montagner_, the +raspberry flavour of _Grumello_, the sharp invigorating twang of +_Villa_. The colour, ranging from garnet to almandine or ruby, told me +the age and quality of wine; and I could judge from the crust it forms +upon the bottle, whether it had been left long enough in wood to +ripen. I had furthermore arrived at the conclusion that the best +Valtelline can only be tasted in cellars of the Engadine or Davos, +where this vintage matures slowly in the mountain air, and takes a +flavour unknown at lower levels. In a word, it had amused my leisure +to make or think myself a connoisseur. My literary taste was tickled +by the praise bestowed in the Augustan age on Rhaetic grapes by Virgil: + + Et quo te carmine dicam, + Rhaetica? nec cellis ideo contende Falernis. + +I piqued myself on thinking that could the poet but have drank +one bottle at Samaden--where Stilicho, by the way, in his famous +recruiting expedition may perhaps have drank it--he would have been +less chary in his panegyric. For the point of inferiority on which he +seems to insist, namely, that Valtelline wine does not keep well +in cellar, is only proper to this vintage in Italian climate. Such +meditations led my fancy on the path of history. Is there truth, +then, in the dim tradition that this mountain land was colonised +by Etruscans? Is _Ras_ the root of Rhaetia? The Etruscans were +accomplished wine-growers, we know. It was their Montepulciano which +drew the Gauls to Rome, if Livy can be trusted. Perhaps they first +planted the vine in Valtelline. Perhaps its superior culture in that +district may be due to ancient use surviving in a secluded Alpine +valley. One thing is certain, that the peasants of Sondrio and Tirano +understand viticulture better than the Italians of Lombardy. + +Then my thoughts ran on to the period of modern history, when the +Grisons seized the Valtelline in lieu of war-pay from the Dukes of +Milan. For some three centuries they held it as a subject province. +From the Rathhaus at Davos or Chur they sent their nobles--Von +Salis and Buol, Planta and Sprecher von Bernegg--across the hills as +governors or podestas to Poschiavo, Sondrio, Tirano, and Morbegno. +In those old days the Valtelline wines came duly every winter over +snow-deep passes to fill the cellars of the Signori Grigioni. That +quaint traveller Tom Coryat, in his so-called 'Crudities,' notes +the custom early in the seventeenth century. And as that custom +then obtained, it still subsists with little alteration. The +wine-carriers--Weinfuehrer, as they are called--first scaled +the Bernina pass, halting then as now, perhaps at Poschiavo and +Pontresina. Afterwards, in order to reach Davos, the pass of the +Scaletta rose before them--a wilderness of untracked snow-drifts. The +country-folk still point to narrow, light hand-sledges, on which the +casks were charged before the last pitch of the pass. Some wine came, +no doubt, on pack-saddles. A meadow in front of the Dischma-Thal, +where the pass ends, still bears the name of the Ross-Weid, or +horse-pasture. It was here that the beasts of burden used for this +wine-service, rested after their long labours. In favourable weather +the whole journey from Tirano would have occupied at least four days, +with scanty halts at night. + +The Valtelline slipped from the hands of the Grisons early in this +century. It is rumoured that one of the Von Salis family negotiated +matters with Napoleon more for his private benefit than for the +interests of the state. However this may have been, when the +Graubuenden became a Swiss Canton, after four centuries of sovereign +independence, the whole Valtelline passed to Austria, and so +eventually to Italy. According to modern and just notions of +nationality, this was right. In their period of power, the Grisons +masters had treated their Italian dependencies with harshness. The +Valtelline is an Italian valley, connected with the rest of +the peninsula by ties of race and language. It is, moreover, +geographically linked to Italy by the great stream of the Adda, which +takes its rise upon the Stelvio, and after passing through the Lake of +Como, swells the volume of the Po. + +But, though politically severed from the Valtelline, the Engadiners +and Davosers have not dropped their old habit of importing its best +produce. What they formerly levied as masters, they now acquire by +purchase. The Italian revenue derives a large profit from the frontier +dues paid at the gate between Tirano and Poschiavo on the Bernina +road. Much of the same wine enters Switzerland by another route, +travelling from Sondrio to Chiavenna and across the Spluegen. But until +quite recently, the wine itself could scarcely be found outside the +Canton. It was indeed quoted upon Lombard wine-lists. Yet no one drank +it; and when I tasted it at Milan, I found it quite unrecognisable. +The fact seems to be that the Graubuendeners alone know how to deal +with it; and, as I have hinted, the wine requires a mountain climate +for its full development. + +II + +The district where the wine of Valtellina is grown extends, roughly +speaking, from Tirano to Morbegno, a distance of some fifty-four +miles. The best sorts come from the middle of this region. High up +in the valley, soil and climate are alike less favourable. Low down +a coarser, earthier quality springs from fat land where the valley +broadens. The northern hillsides to a very considerable height above +the river are covered with vineyards. The southern slopes on the left +bank of the Adda, lying more in shade, yield but little. Inferno, +Grumello, and Perla di Sassella are the names of famous vineyards. +Sassella is the general name for a large tract. Buying an Inferno, +Grumello, or Perla di Sassella wine, it would be absurd to suppose +that one obtained it precisely from the eponymous estate. But as each +of these vineyards yields a marked quality of wine, which is taken +as standard-giving, the produce of the whole district may be broadly +classified as approaching more or less nearly to one of these accepted +types. The Inferno, Grumello, and Perla di Sassella of commerce are +therefore three sorts of good Valtelline, ticketed with famous names +to indicate certain differences of quality. Montagner, as the +name implies, is a somewhat lighter wine, grown higher up in the +hill-vineyards. And of this class there are many species, some +approximating to Sassella in delicacy of flavour, others approaching +the tart lightness of the Villa vintage. This last takes its title +from a village in the neighbourhood of Tirano, where a table-wine is +chiefly grown. + +Forzato is the strongest, dearest, longest-lived of this whole family +of wines. It is manufactured chiefly at Tirano; and, as will be +understood from its name, does not profess to belong to any one of the +famous localities. Forzato or Sforzato, forced or enforced, is in fact +a wine which has undergone a more artificial process. In German the +people call it Strohwein, which also points to the method of its +preparation. The finest grapes are selected and dried in the sun +(hence the _Stroh_) for a period of eight or nine weeks. When +they have almost become raisins, they are pressed. The must is heavily +charged with sugar, and ferments powerfully. Wine thus made requires +several years to ripen. Sweet at first, it takes at last a very fine +quality and flavour, and is rough, almost acid, on the tongue. Its +colour too turns from a deep rich crimson to the tone of tawny port, +which indeed it much resembles. + +Old Forzato, which has been long in cask, and then perhaps three years +in bottle, will fetch at least six francs, or may rise to even ten +francs a flask. The best Sassella rarely reaches more than five +francs. Good Montagner and Grumello can be had perhaps for four +francs; and Inferno of a special quality for six francs. Thus the +average price of old Valtelline wine may be taken as five francs a +bottle. These, I should observe, are hotel prices. + +Valtelline wines bought in the wood vary, of course, according to +their age and year of vintage. I have found that from 2.50 fr. to 3.50 +fr. per litre is a fair price for sorts fit to bottle. The new wine of +1881 sold in the following winter at prices varying from 1.05 fr. to +1.80 fr. per litre. + +It is customary for the Graubuenden wine-merchants to buy up the whole +produce of a vineyard from the peasants at the end of the vintage. +They go in person or depute their agents to inspect the wine, make +their bargains, and seal the cellars where the wine is stored. Then, +when the snow has fallen, their own horses with sleighs and trusted +servants go across the passes to bring it home. Generally they have +some local man of confidence at Tirano, the starting-point for the +homeward journey, who takes the casks up to that place and sees them +duly charged. Merchants of old standing maintain relations with the +same peasants, taking their wine regularly; so that from Lorenz Gredig +at Pontresina or Andreas Gredig at Davos Doerfli, from Fanconi at +Samaden, or from Giacomi at Chiavenna, special qualities of wine, the +produce of certain vineyards, are to be obtained. Up to the present +time this wine trade has been conducted with simplicity and honesty by +both the dealers and the growers. One chief merit of Valtelline wine +is that it is pure. How long so desirable a state of things will +survive the slow but steady development of an export business may be +questioned. + +III + +With so much practical and theoretical interest in the produce of +the Valtelline to stimulate my curiosity, I determined to visit the +district at the season when the wine was leaving it. It was the winter +of 1881-82, a winter of unparalleled beauty in the high Alps. Day +succeeded day without a cloud. Night followed night with steady +stars, gliding across clear mountain ranges and forests of dark pines +unstirred by wind. I could not hope for a more prosperous season; and +indeed I made such use of it, that between the months of January and +March I crossed six passes of the Alps in open sleighs--the Fluela +Bernina, Spluegen, Julier, Maloja, and Albula--with less difficulty and +discomfort in mid-winter than the traveller may often find on them in +June. + +At the end of January, my friend Christian and I left Davos long +before the sun was up, and ascended for four hours through the +interminable snow-drifts of the Fluela in a cold grey shadow. The +sun's light seemed to elude us. It ran along the ravine through which +we toiled; dipped down to touch the topmost pines above our heads; +rested in golden calm upon the Schiahorn at our back; capriciously +played here and there across the Weisshorn on our left, and made the +precipices of the Schwartzhorn glitter on our right. But athwart our +path it never fell until we reached the very summit of the pass. +Then we passed quietly into the full glory of the winter morning--a +tranquil flood of sunbeams, pouring through air of crystalline purity, +frozen and motionless. White peaks and dark brown rocks soared up, +cutting a sky of almost purple blueness. A stillness that might be +felt brooded over the whole world; but in that stillness there was +nothing sad, no suggestion of suspended vitality. It was the stillness +rather of untroubled health, of strength omnipotent but unexerted. + +From the Hochspitz of the Fluela the track plunges at one bound into +the valley of the Inn, following a narrow cornice carved from the +smooth bank of snow, and hung, without break or barrier, a +thousand feet or more above the torrent. The summer road is lost in +snow-drifts. The galleries built as a protection from avalanches, +which sweep in rivers from those grim, bare fells above, are blocked +with snow. Their useless arches yawn, as we glide over or outside +them, by paths which instinct in our horse and driver traces. As a fly +may creep along a house-roof, slanting downwards we descend. One whisk +from the swinged tail of an avalanche would hurl us, like a fly, into +the ruin of the gaping gorge. But this season little snow has fallen +on the higher hills; and what still lies there, is hard frozen. +Therefore we have no fear, as we whirl fast and faster from the +snow-fields into the black forests of gnarled cembras and wind-wearied +pines. Then Suess is reached, where the Inn hurries its shallow waters +clogged with ice-floes through a sleepy hamlet. The stream is pure and +green; for the fountains of the glaciers are locked by winter frosts; +and only clear rills from perennial sources swell its tide. At Suess +we lost the sun, and toiled in garish gloom and silence, nipped by the +ever-deepening cold of evening, upwards for four hours to Samaden. + +The next day was spent in visiting the winter colony at San Moritz, +where the Kulm Hotel, tenanted by some twenty guests, presented in its +vastness the appearance of a country-house. One of the prettiest spots +in the world is the ice-rink, fashioned by the skill of Herr Caspar +Badrutt on a high raised terrace, commanding the valley of the Inn and +the ponderous bulwarks of Bernina. The silhouettes of skaters, defined +against that landscape of pure white, passed to and fro beneath a +cloudless sky. Ladies sat and worked or read on seats upon the ice. +Not a breath of wind was astir, and warm beneficent sunlight flooded +the immeasurable air. Only, as the day declined, some iridescent films +overspread the west; and just above Maloja the apparition of a +mock sun--a well-defined circle of opaline light, broken at regular +intervals by four globes--seemed to portend a change of weather. This +forecast fortunately proved delusive. We drove back to Samaden across +the silent snow, enjoying those delicate tints of rose and violet and +saffron which shed enchantment for one hour over the white monotony of +Alpine winter. + +At half-past eight next morning, the sun was rising from behind Pitz +Languard, as we crossed the Inn and drove through Pontresina in the +glorious light, with all its huge hotels quite empty and none but a +few country-folk abroad. Those who only know the Engadine in summer +have little conception of its beauty. Winter softens the hard details +of bare rock, and rounds the melancholy grassless mountain flanks, +suspending icicles to every ledge and spangling the curved surfaces +of snow with crystals. The landscape gains in purity, and, what sounds +unbelievable, in tenderness. Nor does it lose in grandeur. Looking +up the valley of the Morteratsch that morning, the glaciers were +distinguishable in hues of green and sapphire through their veil of +snow; and the highest peaks soared in a transparency of amethystine +light beneath a blue sky traced with filaments of windy cloud. Some +storm must have disturbed the atmosphere in Italy, for fan-shaped +mists frothed out around the sun, and curled themselves above the +mountains in fine feathery wreaths, melting imperceptibly into air, +until, when we had risen above the cembras, the sky was one deep solid +blue. + +All that upland wilderness is lovelier now than in the summer; and on +the morning of which I write, the air itself was far more summery than +I have ever known it in the Engadine in August. We could scarcely +bear to place our hands upon the woodwork of the sleigh because of +the fierce sun's heat. And yet the atmosphere was crystalline with +windless frost. As though to increase the strangeness of these +contrasts, the pavement of beaten snow was stained with red drops +spilt from wine-casks which pass over it. + +The chief feature of the Bernina--what makes it a dreary pass enough +in summer, but infinitely beautiful in winter--is its breadth; +illimitable undulations of snow-drifts; immensity of open sky; +unbroken lines of white, descending in smooth curves from glittering +ice-peaks. + +A glacier hangs in air above the frozen lakes, with all its green-blue +ice-cliffs glistening in intensest light. Pitz Palu shoots aloft +like sculptured marble, delicately veined with soft aerial shadows of +translucent blue. At the summit of the pass all Italy seems to burst +upon the eyes in those steep serried ranges, with their craggy crests, +violet-hued in noonday sunshine, as though a bloom of plum or grape +had been shed over them, enamelling their jagged precipices. + +The top of the Bernina is not always thus in winter. It has a bad +reputation for the fury of invading storms, when falling snow +hurtles together with snow scooped from the drifts in eddies, and the +weltering white sea shifts at the will of whirlwinds. The Hospice then +may be tenanted for days together by weather-bound wayfarers; and a +line drawn close beneath its roof shows how two years ago the whole +building was buried in one snow-shroud. This morning we lounged about +the door, while our horses rested and postillions and carters pledged +one another in cups of new Veltliner. + +The road takes an awful and sudden dive downwards, quite irrespective +of the carefully engineered post-track. At this season the path is +badly broken into ruts and chasms by the wine traffic. In some places +it was indubitably perilous: a narrow ledge of mere ice skirting +thinly clad hard-frozen banks of snow, which fell precipitately +sideways for hundreds of sheer feet. We did not slip over this +parapet, though we were often within an inch of doing so. Had our +horse stumbled, it is not probable that I should have been writing +this. + +When we came to the galleries which defend the road from avalanches, +we saw ahead of us a train of over forty sledges ascending, all +charged with Valtelline wine. Our postillions drew up at the inner +side of the gallery, between massive columns of the purest ice +dependent from the rough-hewn roof and walls of rock. A sort of open +_loggia_ on the farther side framed vignettes of the Valtelline +mountains in their hard cerulean shadows and keen sunlight. Between +us and the view defiled the wine-sledges; and as each went by, the +men made us drink out of their _trinketti_. These are oblong, +hexagonal wooden kegs, holding about fourteen litres, which the carter +fills with wine before he leaves the Valtelline, to cheer him on the +homeward journey. You raise it in both hands, and when the bung has +been removed, allow the liquor to flow stream-wise down your throat. +It was a most extraordinary Bacchic procession--a pomp which, though +undreamed of on the banks of the Ilissus, proclaimed the deity of +Dionysos in authentic fashion. Struggling horses, grappling at the +ice-bound floor with sharp-spiked shoes; huge, hoarse drivers, some +clad in sheepskins from Italian valleys, some brown as bears in rough +Graubuenden homespun; casks, dropping their spilth of red wine on the +snow; greetings, embracings; patois of Bergamo, Romansch, and German +roaring around the low-browed vaults and tingling ice pillars; +pourings forth of libations of the new strong Valtelline on breasts +and beards;--the whole made up a scene of stalwart jollity and +manful labour such as I have nowhere else in such wild circumstances +witnessed. Many Davosers were there, the men of Andreas Gredig, Valaer, +and so forth; and all of these, on greeting Christian, forced us to +drain a _Schluck_ from their unmanageable cruses. Then on they +went, crying, creaking, struggling, straining through the corridor, +which echoed deafeningly, the gleaming crystals of those hard Italian +mountains in their winter raiment building a background of still +beauty to the savage Bacchanalian riot of the team. + +How little the visitors who drink Valtelline wine at S. Moritz or +Davos reflect by what strange ways it reaches them. A sledge can +scarcely be laden with more than one cask of 300 litres on the ascent; +and this cask, according to the state of the road, has many times to +be shifted from wheels to runners and back again before the journey +is accomplished. One carter will take charge of two horses, and +consequently of two sledges and two casks, driving them both by voice +and gesture rather than by rein. When they leave the Valtelline, the +carters endeavour, as far as possible, to take the pass in gangs, lest +bad weather or an accident upon the road should overtake them singly. +At night they hardly rest three hours, and rarely think of sleeping, +but spend the time in drinking and conversation. The horses are fed +and littered; but for them too the night-halt is little better than +a baiting-time. In fair weather the passage of the mountain is not +difficult, though tiring. But woe to men and beasts alike if they +encounter storms! Not a few perish in the passes; and it frequently +happens that their only chance is to unyoke the horses and leave the +sledges in a snow-wreath, seeking for themselves such shelter as +may possibly be gained, frost-bitten, after hours of battling with +impermeable drifts. The wine is frozen into one solid mass of rosy ice +before it reaches Pontresina. This does not hurt the young vintage, +but it is highly injurious to wine of some years' standing. The perils +of the journey are aggravated by the savage temper of the drivers. +Jealousies between the natives of rival districts spring up; and there +are men alive who have fought the whole way down from Fluela Hospice +to Davos Platz with knives and stones, hammers and hatchets, wooden +staves and splintered cart-wheels, staining the snow with blood, and +bringing broken pates, bruised limbs, and senseless comrades home to +their women to be tended. + +Bacchus Alpinus shepherded his train away from us to northward, and we +passed forth into noonday from the gallery. It then seemed clear that +both conductor and postillion were sufficiently merry. The plunge they +took us down those frozen parapets, with shriek and _jauchzen_ +and cracked whips, was more than ever dangerous. Yet we reached La +Rosa safely. This is a lovely solitary spot, beside a rushing stream, +among grey granite boulders grown with spruce and rhododendron: a +veritable rose of Sharon blooming in the desert. The wastes of the +Bernina stretch above, and round about are leaguered some of the most +forbidding sharp-toothed peaks I ever saw. Onwards, across the silent +snow, we glided in immitigable sunshine, through opening valleys and +pine-woods, past the robber-huts of Pisciadella, until at evenfall we +rested in the roadside inn at Poschiavo. + +IV + +The snow-path ended at Poschiavo; and when, as usual, we started on +our journey next day at sunrise, it was in a carriage upon wheels. +Yet even here we were in full midwinter. Beyond Le Prese the lake +presented one sheet of smooth black ice, reflecting every peak and +chasm of the mountains, and showing the rocks and water-weeds in the +clear green depths below. The glittering floor stretched away for +acres of untenanted expanse, with not a skater to explore those dark +mysterious coves, or strike across the slanting sunlight poured +from clefts in the impendent hills. Inshore the substance of the +ice sparkled here and there with iridescence like the plumelets of +a butterfly's wing under the microscope, wherever light happened to +catch the jagged or oblique flaws that veined its solid crystal. + +From the lake the road descends suddenly for a considerable distance +through a narrow gorge, following a torrent which rushes among granite +boulders. Chestnut trees begin to replace the pines. The sunnier +terraces are planted with tobacco, and at a lower level vines appear +at intervals in patches. One comes at length to a great red gate +across the road, which separates Switzerland from Italy, and where the +export dues on wine are paid. The Italian custom-house is +romantically perched above the torrent. Two courteous and elegant +_finanzieri_, mere boys, were sitting wrapped in their military +cloaks and reading novels in the sun as we drove up. Though they made +some pretence of examining the luggage, they excused themselves with +sweet smiles and apologetic eyes--it was a disagreeable duty! + +A short time brought us to the first village in the Valtelline, +where the road bifurcates northward to Bormio and the Stelvio pass, +southward to Sondrio and Lombardy. It is a little hamlet, known by +the name of La Madonna di Tirano, having grown up round a pilgrimage +church of great beauty, with tall Lombard bell-tower, pierced with +many tiers of pilastered windows, ending in a whimsical spire, and +dominating a fantastic cupola building of the earlier Renaissance. +Taken altogether, this is a charming bit of architecture, +picturesquely set beneath the granite snow-peaks of the Valtelline. +The church, they say, was raised at Madonna's own command to stay the +tide of heresy descending from the Engadine; and in the year 1620, the +bronze statue of S. Michael, which still spreads wide its wings above +the cupola, looked down upon the massacre of six hundred Protestants +and foreigners, commanded by the patriot Jacopo Robustelli. + +From Madonna the road leads up the valley through a narrow avenue of +poplar-trees to the town of Tirano. We were now in the district where +Forzato is made, and every vineyard had a name and history. In Tirano +we betook ourself to the house of an old acquaintance of the Buol +family, Bernardo da Campo, or, as the Graubuendeners call him, Bernard +Campbell. We found him at dinner with his son and grandchildren in a +vast, dark, bare Italian chamber. It would be difficult to find a more +typical old Scotchman of the Lowlands than he looked, with his clean +close-shaven face, bright brown eyes, and snow-white hair escaping +from a broad-brimmed hat. He might have sat to a painter for some +Covenanter's portrait, except that there was nothing dour about him, +or for an illustration to Burns's 'Cotter's Saturday Night.' The air +of probity and canniness combined with a twinkle of dry humour was +completely Scotch; and when he tapped his snuff-box, telling stories +of old days, I could not refrain from asking him about his pedigree. +It should be said that there is a considerable family of Campells or +Campbells in the Graubuenden, who are fabled to deduce their stock from +a Scotch Protestant of Zwingli's time; and this made it irresistible +to imagine that in our friend Bernardo I had chanced upon a notable +specimen of atavism. All he knew, however, was, that his first +ancestor had been a foreigner, who came across the mountains to Tirano +two centuries ago.[3] + +This old gentleman is a considerable wine-dealer. He sent us with his +son, Giacomo, on a long journey underground through his cellars, where +we tasted several sorts of Valtelline, especially the new Forzato, +made a few weeks since, which singularly combines sweetness with +strength, and both with a slight effervescence. It is certainly the +sort of wine wherewith to tempt a Polyphemus, and not unapt to turn a +giant's head. + +Leaving Tirano, and once more passing through the poplars by Madonna, +we descended the valley all along the vineyards of Villa and the vast +district of Sassella. Here and there, at wayside inns, we stopped to +drink a glass of some particular vintage; and everywhere it seemed as +though god Bacchus were at home. The whole valley on the right side of +the Adda is one gigantic vineyard, climbing the hills in tiers and +terraces, which justify its Italian epithet of _Teatro di Bacco_. The +rock is a greyish granite, assuming sullen brown and orange tints +where exposed to sun and weather. The vines are grown on stakes, not +trellised over trees or carried across boulders, as is the fashion at +Chiavenna or Terlan. Yet every advantage of the mountain is adroitly +used; nooks and crannies being specially preferred, where the sun's +rays are deflected from hanging cliffs. The soil seems deep, and is of +a dull yellow tone. When the vines end, brushwood takes up the growth, +which expires at last in crag and snow. Some alps and chalets, dimly +traced against the sky, are evidences that a pastoral life prevails +above the vineyards. Pan there stretches the pine-thyrsus down to +vine-garlanded Dionysos. + +The Adda flows majestically among willows in the midst, and the valley +is nearly straight. The prettiest spot, perhaps, is at Tresenda or +S. Giacomo, where a pass from Edolo and Brescia descends from the +southern hills. But the Valtelline has no great claim to beauty of +scenery. Its chief town, Sondrio, where we supped and drank some +special wine called _il vino de' Signori Grigioni_, has been +modernised in dull Italian fashion. + +V + +The hotel at Sondrio, La Maddalena, was in carnival uproar of +masquers, topers, and musicians all night through. It was as much as +we could do to rouse the sleepy servants and get a cup of coffee +ere we started in the frozen dawn. 'Verfluchte Maddalena!' grumbled +Christian as he shouldered our portmanteaus and bore them in hot haste +to the post. Long experience only confirms the first impression, that, +of all cold, the cold of an Italian winter is most penetrating. As +we lumbered out of Sondrio in a heavy diligence, I could have fancied +myself back once again at Radicofani or among the Ciminian hills. The +frost was penetrating. Fur-coats would not keep it out; and we longed +to be once more in open sledges on Bernina rather than enclosed in +that cold coupe. Now we passed Grumello, the second largest of the +renowned vine districts; and always keeping the white mass of Monte di +Disgrazia in sight, rolled at last into Morbegno. Here the Valtelline +vintage properly ends, though much of the ordinary wine is probably +supplied from the inferior produce of these fields. It was past +noon when we reached Colico, and saw the Lake of Como glittering in +sunlight, dazzling cloaks of snow on all the mountains, which look as +dry and brown as dead beech-leaves at this season. Our Bacchic journey +had reached its close; and it boots not here to tell in detail how we +made our way across the Spluegen, piercing its avalanches by low-arched +galleries scooped from the solid snow, and careering in our sledges +down perpendicular snow-fields, which no one who has crossed that +pass from the Italian side in winter will forget. We left the refuge +station at the top together with a train of wine-sledges, and passed +them in the midst of the wild descent. Looking back, I saw two of +their horses stumble in the plunge and roll headlong over. Unluckily +in one of these somersaults a man was injured. Flung ahead into the +snow by the first lurch, the sledge and wine-cask crossed him like a +garden-roller. Had his bed not been of snow, he must have been crushed +to death; and as it was, he presented a woeful appearance when he +afterwards arrived at Spluegen. + +VI + +Though not strictly connected with the subject of this paper, I shall +conclude these notes of winter wanderings in the high Alps with an +episode which illustrates their curious vicissitudes. + +It was late in the month of March, and nearly all the mountain roads +were open for wheeled vehicles. A carriage and four horses came to +meet us at the termination of a railway journey in Bagalz. We spent +one day in visiting old houses of the Grisons aristocracy at Mayenfeld +and Zizers, rejoicing in the early sunshine, which had spread the +fields with spring flowers--primroses and oxlips, violets, anemones, +and bright blue squills. At Chur we slept, and early next morning +started for our homeward drive to Davos. Bad weather had declared +itself in the night. It blew violently, and the rain soon changed to +snow, frozen by a bitter north blast. Crossing the dreary heath of +Lenz was both magnificent and dreadful. By the time we reached Wiesen, +all the forests were laden with snow, the roads deep in snow-drifts, +the whole scene wintrier than it had been the winter through. + +At Wiesen we should have stayed, for evening was fast setting in. But +in ordinary weather it is only a two hours drive from Wiesen to Davos. +Our coachman made no objections to resuming the journey, and our four +horses had but a light load to drag. So we telegraphed for supper to +be prepared, and started between five and six. + +A deep gorge has to be traversed, where the torrent cleaves its way +between jaws of limestone precipices. The road is carried along ledges +and through tunnels in the rock. Avalanches, which sweep this passage +annually from the hills above, give it the name of Zuege, or the +Snow-Paths. As we entered the gorge darkness fell, the horses dragged +more heavily, and it soon became evident that our Tyrolese driver was +hopelessly drunk. He nearly upset us twice by taking sharp turns in +the road, banged the carriage against telegraph posts and jutting +rocks, shaved the very verge of the torrent in places where there +was no parapet, and, what was worst of all, refused to leave his box +without a fight. The darkness by this time was all but total, and a +blinding snow-storm swept howling through the ravine. At length we +got the carriage to a dead-stop, and floundered out in deep wet +snow toward some wooden huts where miners in old days made their +habitation. The place, by a curious, perhaps unconscious irony, is +called Hoffnungsau, or the Meadow of Hope. Indeed, it is not ill +named; for many wanderers, escaping, as we did, from the dreadful +gorge of Avalanches on a stormy night, may have felt, as we now felt, +their hope reviving when they reached this shelter. + +There was no light; nothing above, beneath, around, on any side, but +tearing tempest and snow whirled through the ravine. The horses +were taken out of the carriage; on their way to the stable, which +fortunately in these mountain regions will be always found beside the +poorest habitation, one of them fell back across a wall and nearly +broke his spine. Hoffnungsau is inhabited all through the year. In its +dismal dark kitchen we found a knot of workmen gathered together, and +heard there were two horses on the premises besides our own. It then +occurred to us that we might accomplish the rest of the journey with +such sledges as they bring the wood on from the hills in winter, if +coal-boxes or boxes of any sort could be provided. These should be +lashed to the sledges and filled with hay. We were only four persons; +my wife and a friend should go in one, myself and my little girl in +the other. No sooner thought of than put into practice. These original +conveyances were improvised, and after two hours' halt on the Meadow +of Hope, we all set forth again at half-past eight. + +I have rarely felt anything more piercing than the grim cold of that +journey. We crawled at a foot's pace through changeful snow-drifts. +The road was obliterated, and it was my duty to keep a petroleum +stable-lamp swinging to illuminate the untracked wilderness. My little +girl was snugly nested in the hay, and sound asleep with a deep white +covering of snow above her. Meanwhile, the drift clave in frozen +masses to our faces, lashed by a wind so fierce and keen that it +was difficult to breathe it. My forehead-bone ached, as though with +neuralgia, from the mere mask of icy snow upon it, plastered on with +frost. Nothing could be seen but millions of white specks, whirled +at us in eddying concentric circles. Not far from the entrance to the +village we met our house-folk out with lanterns to look for us. It was +past eleven at night when at last we entered warm rooms and refreshed +ourselves for the tiring day with a jovial champagne supper. Horses, +carriage, and drunken driver reached home next morning. + + * * * * * + + + + +OLD TOWNS OF PROVENCE + + +Travellers journeying southward from Paris first meet with olive-trees +near Montdragon or Monselimart--little towns, with old historic names, +upon the road to Orange. It is here that we begin to feel ourselves +within the land of Provence, where the Romans found a second Italy, +and where the autumn of their antique civilisation was followed, +almost without an intermediate winter of barbarism, by the light and +delicate springtime of romance. Orange itself is full of Rome. Indeed, +the ghost of the dead empire seems there to be more real and living +than the actual flesh and blood of modern time, as represented by +narrow dirty streets and mean churches. It is the shell of the huge +theatre, hollowed from the solid hill, and fronted with a wall that +seems made rather to protect a city than to form a sounding-board for +a stage, which first tells us that we have reached the old Arausio. Of +all theatres this is the most impressive, stupendous, indestructible, +the Colosseum hardly excepted; for in Rome herself we are prepared +for something gigantic, while in the insignificant Arausio--a sort +of antique Tewkesbury--to find such magnificence, durability, and +vastness, impresses one with a nightmare sense that the old lioness +of Empire can scarcely yet be dead. Standing before the colossal, +towering, amorphous precipice which formed the background of the +scena, we feel as if once more the 'heart-shaking sound of Consul +Romanus' might be heard; as if Roman knights and deputies, arisen from +the dead, with faces hard and stern as those of the warriors carved on +Trajan's frieze, might take their seats beneath us in the orchestra, +and, after proclamation made, the mortmain of imperial Rome be laid +upon the comforts, liberties, and little gracefulnesses of our modern +life. Nor is it unpleasant to be startled from such reverie by the +voice of the old guardian upon the stage beneath, sonorously devolving +the vacuous Alexandrines with which he once welcomed his ephemeral +French emperor from Algiers. The little man is dim with distance, +eclipsed and swallowed up by the shadows and grotesque fragments of +the ruin in the midst of which he stands. But his voice--thanks to the +inimitable constructive art of the ancient architect, which, even +in the desolation of at least thirteen centuries, has not lost its +cunning-emerges from the pigmy throat, and fills the whole vast hollow +with its clear, if tiny, sound. Thank heaven, there is no danger of +Roman resurrection here! The illusion is completely broken, and we +turn to gather the first violets of February, and to wonder at the +quaint postures of a praying mantis on the grass grown tiers and +porches fringed with fern. + +The sense of Roman greatness which is so oppressive in Orange and in +many other parts of Provence, is not felt at Avignon. Here we exchange +the ghost of Imperial for the phantom of Ecclesiastical Rome. The +fixed epithet of Avignon is Papal; and as the express train rushes +over its bleak and wind-tormented plain, the heavy dungeon-walls and +battlemented towers of its palace fortress seem to warn us off, and +bid us quickly leave the Babylon of exiled impious Antichrist. Avignon +presents the bleakest, barest, greyest scene upon a February morning, +when the incessant mistral is blowing, and far and near, upon desolate +hillside and sandy plain, the scanty trees are bent sideways, the +crumbling castle turrets shivering like bleached skeletons in the dry +ungenial air. Yet inside the town, all is not so dreary. The Papal +palace, with its terrible Glaciere, its chapel painted by Simone +Memmi, its endless corridors and staircases, its torture-chamber, +funnel-shaped to drown and suffocate--so runs tradition--the shrieks +of wretches on the rack, is now a barrack, filled with lively little +French soldiers, whose politeness, though sorely taxed, is never +ruffled by the introduction of inquisitive visitors into their +dormitories, eating-places, and drill-grounds. And strange, indeed, +it is to see the lines of neat narrow barrack beds, between which the +red-legged little men are shaving, polishing their guns, or mending +their trousers, in those vaulted halls of popes and cardinals, those +vast presence-chambers and audience-galleries, where Urban entertained +S. Catherine, where Rienzi came, a prisoner, to be stared at. Pass by +the Glaciere with a shudder, for it has still the reek of blood about +it; and do not long delay in the cheerless dungeon of Rienzi. Time and +regimental whitewash have swept these lurking-places of old crime very +bare; but the parable of the seven devils is true in more senses than +one, and the ghosts that return to haunt a deodorised, disinfected, +garnished sepulchre are almost more ghastly than those which have +never been disturbed from their old habitations. + +Little by little the eye becomes accustomed to the bareness and +greyness of this Provencal landscape; and then we find that the +scenery round Avignon is eminently picturesque. The view from Les +Doms--which is a hill above the Pope's palace, the Acropolis, as it +were, of Avignon--embraces a wide stretch of undulating champaign, +bordered by low hills, and intersected by the flashing waters of the +majestic Rhone. Across the stream stands Villeneuve, like a castle +of romance, with its round stone towers fronting the gates and +battlemented walls of the Papal city. A bridge used to connect the two +towns, but it is now broken. The remaining fragment is of solid build, +resting on great buttresses, one of which rises fantastically above +the bridge into a little chapel. Such, one might fancy, was the +bridge which Ariosto's Rodomonte kept on horse against the Paladins of +Charlemagne, when angered by the loss of his love. Nor is it difficult +to imagine Bradamante spurring up the slope against him with her magic +lance in rest, and tilting him into the tawny waves beneath. + +On a clear October morning, when the vineyards are taking their last +tints of gold and crimson, and the yellow foliage of the poplars by +the river mingles with the sober greys of olive-trees and willows, +every square inch of this landscape, glittering as it does with light +and with colour, the more beautiful for its subtlety and rarity, would +make a picture. Out of many such vignettes let us choose one. We are +on the shore close by the ruined bridge, the rolling muddy Rhone in +front; beyond it, by the towing-path, a tall strong cypress-tree rises +beside a little house, and next to it a crucifix twelve feet or more +in height, the Christ visible afar, stretched upon His red cross; +arundo donax is waving all around, and willows near; behind, far off, +soar the peaked hills, blue and pearled with clouds; past the cypress, +on the Rhone, comes floating a long raft, swift through the stream, +its rudder guided by a score of men: one standing erect upon the prow +bends forward to salute the cross; on flies the raft, the tall reeds +rustle, and the cypress sleeps. + +For those who have time to spare in going to or from the south it +is worth while to spend a day or two in the most comfortable and +characteristic of old French inns, the Hotel de l'Europe, at Avignon. +Should it rain, the museum of the town is worth a visit. It contains +Horace Vernet's not uncelebrated picture of Mazeppa, and another, less +famous, but perhaps more interesting, by swollen-cheeked David, the +'genius in convulsion,' as Carlyle has christened him. His canvas +is unfinished. Who knows what cry of the Convention made the painter +fling his palette down and leave the masterpiece he might have +spoiled? For in its way the picture is a masterpiece. There lies Jean +Barrad, drummer, aged fourteen, slain in La Vendee, a true patriot, +who, while his life-blood flowed away, pressed the tricolor cockade +to his heart, and murmured 'Liberty!' David has treated his subject +classically. The little drummer-boy, though French enough in feature +and in feeling, lies, Greek-like, naked on the sand--a very Hyacinth +of the Republic, La Vendee's Ilioneus. The tricolor cockade and the +sentiment of upturned patriotic eyes are the only indications of his +being a hero in his teens, a citizen who thought it sweet to die for +France. + +In fine weather a visit to Vaucluse should by no means be omitted, +not so much, perhaps, for Petrarch's sake as for the interest of the +drive, and for the marvel of the fountain of the Sorgues. For some +time after leaving Avignon you jog along the level country between +avenues of plane-trees; then comes a hilly ridge, on which the olives, +mulberries, and vineyards join their colours and melt subtly into +distant purple. After crossing this we reach L'Isle, an island +village girdled by the gliding Sorgues, overshadowed with gigantic +plane-boughs, and echoing to the plash of water dripped from mossy +fern-tufted millwheels. Those who expect Petrarch's Sorgues to be +some trickling poet's rill emerging from a damp grotto, may well be +astounded at the rush and roar of this azure river so close upon +its fountain-head. It has a volume and an arrow-like rapidity that +communicate the feeling of exuberance and life. In passing, let it not +be forgotten that it was somewhere or other in this 'chiaro fondo di +Sorga,' as Carlyle describes, that Jourdain, the hangman-hero of the +Glaciere, stuck fast upon his pony when flying from his foes, and had +his accursed life, by some diabolical providence, spared for future +butcheries. On we go across the austere plain, between fields of +madder, the red roots of the 'garance' lying in swathes along the +furrows. In front rise ash-grey hills of barren rock, here and there +crimsoned with the leaves of the dwarf sumach. A huge cliff stands up +and seems to bar all passage. Yet the river foams in torrents at our +side. Whence can it issue? What pass or cranny in that precipice is +cloven for its escape? These questions grow in interest as we enter +the narrow defile of limestone rocks which leads to the cliff-barrier, +and find ourselves among the figs and olives of Vaucluse. Here is the +village, the little church, the ugly column to Petrarch's memory, +the inn, with its caricatures of Laura, and its excellent trout, the +bridge and the many-flashing, eddying Sorgues, lashed by millwheels, +broken by weirs, divided in its course, channelled and dyked, yet +flowing irresistibly and undefiled. Blue, purple, greened by moss and +water-weeds, silvered by snow-white pebbles, on its pure smooth bed +the river runs like elemental diamond, so clear and fresh. The rocks +on either side are grey or yellow, terraced into oliveyards, with here +and there a cypress, fig, or mulberry tree. Soon the gardens cease, +and lentisk, rosemary, box, and ilex--shrubs of Provence--with here +and there a sumach out of reach, cling to the hard stone. And so at +last we are brought face to face with the sheer impassable precipice. +At its basement sleeps a pool, perfectly untroubled; a lakelet in +which the sheltering rocks and nestling wild figs are glassed as in a +mirror--a mirror of blue-black water, like amethyst or fluor-spar--so +pure, so still, that where it laps the pebbles you can scarcely say +where air begins and water ends. This, then, is Petrarch's 'grotto;' +this is the fountain of Vaucluse. Up from its deep reservoirs, from +the mysterious basements of the mountain, wells the silent stream; +pauseless and motionless it fills its urn, rises unruffled, glides +until the brink is reached, then overflows, and foams, and dashes +noisily, a cataract, among the boulders of the hills. Nothing at +Vaucluse is more impressive than the contrast between the tranquil +silence of the fountain and the roar of the released impetuous river. +Here we can realise the calm clear eyes of sculptured water-gods, +their brimming urns, their gushing streams, the magic of the +mountain-born and darkness-cradled flood. Or again, looking up at the +sheer steep cliff, 800 feet in height, and arching slightly roofwise, +so that no rain falls upon the cavern of the pool, we seem to see the +stroke of Neptune's trident, the hoof of Pegasus, the force of Moses' +rod, which cleft rocks and made water gush forth in the desert. There +is a strange fascination in the spot. As our eyes follow the white +pebble which cleaves the surface and falls visibly, until the veil +of azure is too thick for sight to pierce, we feel as if some glamour +were drawing us, like Hylas, to the hidden caves. At least, we long to +yield a prized and precious offering to the spring, to grace the nymph +of Vaucluse with a pearl of price as token of our reverence and love. + +Meanwhile nothing has been said about Petrarch, who himself said much +about the spring, and complained against those very nymphs to whom we +have in wish, at least, been scattering jewels, that they broke his +banks and swallowed up his gardens every winter. At Vaucluse Petrarch +loved, and lived, and sang. He has made Vaucluse famous, and will +never be forgotten there. But for the present the fountain is even +more attractive than the memory of the poet.[4] + +The change from Avignon to Nismes is very trying to the latter place; +for Nismes is not picturesquely or historically interesting. It is a +prosperous modern French town with two almost perfect Roman +monuments--Les Arenes and the Maison Carree. The amphitheatre is a +complete oval, visible at one glance. Its smooth white stone, even +where it has not been restored, seems unimpaired by age; and Charles +Martel's conflagration, when he burned the Saracen hornet's nest +inside it, has only blackened the outer walls and arches venerably. +Utility and perfect adaptation of means to ends form the beauty of +Roman buildings. The science of construction and large intelligence +displayed in them, their strength, simplicity, solidity, and purpose, +are their glory. Perhaps there is only one modern edifice--Palladio's +Palazzo della Ragione at Vicenza--which approaches the dignity and +loftiness of Roman architecture; and this it does because of its +absolute freedom from ornament, the vastness of its design, and the +durability of its material. The temple, called the Maison Carree, at +Nismes, is also very perfect, and comprehended at one glance. Light, +graceful, airy, but rather thin and narrow, it reminds one of the +temple of Fortuna Virilis at Rome. + +But if Nismes itself is not picturesque, its environs contain the +wonderful Pont du Gard. A two or three hours' drive leads through a +desolate country to the valley of the Cardon, where suddenly, at a +turn of the road, one comes upon the aqueduct. It is not within the +scope of words to describe the impression produced by those vast +arches, row above row, cutting the deep blue sky. The domed summer +clouds sailing across them are comprehended in the gigantic span of +their perfect semicircles, which seem rather to have been described +by Miltonic compasses of Deity than by merely human mathematics. Yet, +standing beneath one of the vaults and looking upward, you may read +Roman numerals in order from I. to X., which prove their human origin +well enough. Next to their strength, regularity, and magnitude, the +most astonishing point about this triple tier of arches, piled one +above the other to a height of 180 feet above a brawling stream +between two barren hills, is their lightness. The arches are not +thick; the causeway on the top is only just broad enough for three men +to walk abreast. So smooth and perpendicular are the supporting walls +that scarcely a shrub or tuft of grass has grown upon the aqueduct +in all these years. And yet the huge fabric is strengthened by no +buttress, has needed no repair. This lightness of structure, combined +with such prodigious durability, produces the strongest sense of +science and self-reliant power in the men who designed it. None but +Romans could have built such a monument, and have set it in such a +place--a wilderness of rock and rolling hill, scantily covered with +low brushwood, and browsed over by a few sheep--for such a purpose, +too, in order to supply Nemausus with pure water. The modern town does +pretty well without its water; but here subsists the civilisation +of eighteen centuries past intact: the human labour yet remains, +the measuring, contriving mind of man, shrinking from no obstacles, +spanning the air, and in one edifice combining gigantic strength and +perfect beauty. It is impossible not to echo Rousseau's words in such +a place, and to say with him: 'Le retentissement de mes pas dans ces +immenses voutes me faisait croire entendre la forte voix de ceux +qui les avaient baties. Je me perdais comme un insecte dans cette +immensite. Je sentais, tout en me faisant petit, je ne sais quoi +qui m'elevait l'ame; et je me disais en soupirant, Que ne suis-je ne +Romain!' + +There is nothing at Arles which produces the same deep and indelible +impression. Yet Arles is a far more interesting town than Nismes, +partly because of the Rhone delta which begins there, partly because +of its ruinous antiquity, and partly also because of the strong local +character of its population. The amphitheatre of Arles is vaster and +more sublime in its desolation than the tidy theatre at Nismes; the +crypts, and dens, and subterranean passages suggest all manner of +speculation as to the uses to which they may have been appropriated; +while the broken galleries outside, intricate and black and cavernous, +like Piranesi's etchings of the 'Carceri,' present the wildest +pictures of greatness in decay, fantastic dilapidation. The ruins of +the smaller theatre, again, with their picturesquely grouped fragments +and their standing columns, might be sketched for a frontispiece to +some dilettante work on classical antiquities. For the rest, perhaps +the Aliscamps, or ancient Roman burial-ground, is the most interesting +thing at Arles, not only because of Dante's celebrated lines in the +canto of 'Farinata:'-- + + Si come ad Arli ove 'l Rodano stagna, + Fanno i sepolcri tutto 'l loco varo; + +but also because of the intrinsic picturesqueness of this avenue of +sepulchres beneath green trees upon a long soft grassy field. + +But as at Avignon and Nismes, so also at Arles, one of the chief +attractions of the place lies at a distance, and requires a special +expedition. The road to Les Baux crosses a true Provencal desert where +one realises the phrase, 'Vieux comme les rochers de Provence,'--a +wilderness of grey stone, here and there worn into cart-tracks, and +tufted with rosemary, box, lavender, and lentisk. On the way it passes +the Abbaye de Mont Majeur, a ruin of gigantic size, embracing all +periods of architecture; where nothing seems to flourish now but +henbane and the wild cucumber, or to breathe but a mumble-toothed and +terrible old hag. The ruin stands above a desolate marsh, its vast +Italian buildings of Palladian splendour looking more forlorn in their +decay than the older and austerer mediaeval towers, which rise up proud +and patient and defiantly erect beneath the curse of time. When at +length what used to be the castle town of Les Baux is reached, you +find a naked mountain of yellow sandstone, worn away by nature into +bastions and buttresses and coigns of vantage, sculptured by ancient +art into palaces and chapels, battlements and dungeons. Now art and +nature are confounded in one ruin. Blocks of masonry lie cheek by jowl +with masses of the rough-hewn rock; fallen cavern vaults are heaped +round fragments of fan-shaped spandrel and clustered column-shaft; the +doors and windows of old pleasure-rooms are hung with ivy and wild fig +for tapestry; winding staircases start midway upon the cliff, and lead +to vacancy. High overhead suspended in mid-air hang chambers--lady's +bower or poet's singing-room--now inaccessible, the haunt of hawks and +swallows. Within this rocky honeycomb--'cette ville en monolithe,' +as it has been aptly called, for it is literally scooped out of one +mountain block--live about two hundred poor people, foddering their +wretched goats at carved piscina and stately sideboards, erecting mud +beplastered hovels in the halls of feudal princes. Murray is wrong in +calling the place a mediaeval town in its original state, for anything +more purely ruinous, more like a decayed old cheese, cannot possibly +be conceived. The living only inhabit the tombs of the dead. At +the end of the last century, when revolutionary effervescence was +beginning to ferment, the people of Arles swept all its feudality +away, defacing the very arms upon the town gate, and trampling the +palace towers to dust. + +The castle looks out across a vast extent of plain over Arles, the +stagnant Rhone, the Camargue, and the salt pools of the lingering sea. +In old days it was the eyrie of an eagle race called Seigneurs of Les +Baux; and whether they took their title from the rock, or whether, +as genealogists would have it, they gave the name of Oriental +Balthazar--their reputed ancestor, one of the Magi--to the rock +itself, remains a mystery not greatly worth the solving. + +Anyhow, here they lived and flourished, these feudal princes, bearing +for their ensign a silver comet of sixteen rays upon a field of +gules--themselves a comet race, baleful to the neighbouring lowlands, +blazing with lurid splendour over wide tracts of country, a burning, +raging, fiery-souled, swift-handed tribe, in whom a flame unquenchable +glowed from son to sire through twice five hundred years until, in +the sixteenth century, they were burned out, and nothing remained but +cinders--these broken ruins of their eyrie, and some outworn and dusty +titles. Very strange are the fate and history of these same titles: +King of Arles, for instance, savouring of troubadour and high romance; +Prince of Tarentum, smacking of old plays and Italian novels; Prince +of Orange, which the Nassaus, through the Chalons, seized in all its +emptiness long after the real principality had passed away, and came +therewith to sit on England's throne. + +The Les Baux in their heyday were patterns of feudal nobility. They +warred incessantly with Counts of Provence, archbishops and burghers +of Arles, Queens of Naples, Kings of Aragon. Crusading, pillaging, +betraying, spending their substance on the sword, and buying it again +by deeds of valour or imperial acts of favour, tuning troubadour +harps, presiding at courts of love,--they filled a large page in the +history of Southern France. The Les Baux were very superstitious. In +the fulness of their prosperity they restricted the number of their +dependent towns, or _places baussenques_, to seventy-nine, +because these numbers in combination were thought to be of good omen +to their house. Beral des Baux, Seigneur of Marseilles, was one day +starting on a journey with his whole force to Avignon. He met an old +woman herb-gathering at daybreak, and said, 'Mother, hast thou seen +a crow or other bird?' 'Yea,' answered the crone, 'on the trunk of a +dead willow.' Beral counted upon his fingers the day of the year, and +turned bridle. With troubadours of name and note they had dealings, +but not always to their own advantage, as the following story +testifies. When the Baux and Berengers were struggling for the +countship of Provence, Raymond Berenger, by his wife's counsel, went, +attended by troubadours, to meet the Emperor Frederick at Milan. +There he sued for the investiture and ratification of Provence. His +troubadours sang and charmed Frederick; and the Emperor, for the joy +he had in them, wrote his celebrated lines beginning-- + + Plas mi cavalier Francez. + +And when Berenger made his request he met with no refusal. Hearing +thereof, the lords of Baux came down in wrath with a clangour of armed +men. But music had already gained the day; and where the Phoebus of +Provence had shone, the AEolus of storm-shaken Les Baux was powerless. +Again, when Blacas, a knight of Provence, died, the great Sordello +chanted one of his most fiery hymns, bidding the princes of +Christendom flock round and eat the heart of the dead lord. 'Let +Rambaude des Baux,' cries the bard, with a sarcasm that is clearly +meant, but at this distance almost unintelligible, 'take also a good +piece, for she is fair and good and truly virtuous; let her keep it +well who knows so well to husband her own weal.' But the poets were +not always adverse to the house of Baux. Fouquet, the beautiful and +gentle melodist whom Dante placed in paradise, served Adelaisie, wife +of Berald, with long service of unhappy love, and wrote upon her +death 'The Complaint of Berald des Baux for Adelaisie.' Guillaume de +Cabestan loved Berangere des Baux, and was so loved by her that she +gave him a philtre to drink, whereof he sickened and grew mad. Many +more troubadours are cited as having frequented the castle of Les +Baux, and among the members of the princely house were several poets. + +Some of them were renowned for beauty. We hear of a Cecile, called +Passe Rose, because of her exceeding loveliness; also of an unhappy +Francois, who, after passing eighteen years in prison, yet won the +grace and love of Joan of Naples by his charms. But the real temper of +this fierce tribe was not shown among troubadours, or in the courts of +love and beauty. The stern and barren rock from which they sprang, and +the comet of their scutcheon, are the true symbols of their nature. +History records no end of their ravages and slaughters. It is a +tedious catalogue of blood--how one prince put to fire and sword the +whole town of Courthezon; how another was stabbed in prison by his +wife; how a third besieged the castle of his niece, and sought to +undermine her chamber, knowing her the while to be in childbed; how a +fourth was flayed alive outside the walls of Avignon. There is nothing +terrible, splendid, and savage, belonging to feudal history, of which +an example may not be found in the annals of Les Baux, as narrated by +their chronicler, Jules Canonge. + +However abrupt may seem the transition from these memories of +the ancient nobles of Les Baux to mere matters of travel and +picturesqueness, it would be impossible to take leave of the old +towns of Provence without glancing at the cathedrals of S. Trophime +at Arles, and of S. Gilles--a village on the border of the dreary +flamingo-haunted Camargue. Both of these buildings have porches +splendidly encrusted with sculptures, half classical, half mediaeval, +marking the transition from ancient to modern art. But that of S. +Gilles is by far the richer and more elaborate. The whole facade of +this church is one mass of intricate decoration; Norman arches +and carved lions, like those of Lombard architecture, mingling +fantastically with Greek scrolls of fruit and flowers, with elegant +Corinthian columns jutting out upon the church steps, and with the old +conventional wave-border that is called Etruscan in our modern jargon. +From the midst of florid fret and foliage lean mild faces of saints +and Madonnas. Symbols of evangelists with half-human, half-animal +eyes and wings, are interwoven with the leafy bowers of cupids. Grave +apostles stand erect beneath acanthus wreaths that ought to crisp the +forehead of a laughing Faun or Bacchus. And yet so full, exuberant, +and deftly chosen are these various elements, that there remains no +sense of incongruity or discord. The mediaeval spirit had much trouble +to disentangle itself from classic reminiscences; and fortunately for +the picturesqueness of S. Gilles, it did not succeed. How strangely +different is the result of this transition in the south from those +severe and rigid forms which we call Romanesque in Germany and +Normandy and England! + + * * * * * + + + + +THE CORNICE + + +It was a dull afternoon in February when we left Nice, and drove +across the mountains to Mentone. Over hill and sea hung a thick mist. +Turbia's Roman tower stood up in cheerless solitude, wreathed round +with driving vapour, and the rocky nest of Esa seemed suspended in +a chaos between sea and sky. Sometimes the fog broke and showed us +Villafranca, lying green and flat in the deep blue below: sometimes a +distant view of higher peaks swam into sight from the shifting cloud. +But the whole scene was desolate. Was it for this that we had left our +English home, and travelled from London day and night? At length we +reached the edge of the cloud, and jingled down by Roccabruna and the +olive-groves, till one by one Mentone's villas came in sight, and at +last we found ourselves at the inn door. That night, and all next day +and the next night, we heard the hoarse sea beat and thunder on the +beach. The rain and wind kept driving from the south, but we consoled +ourselves with thinking that the orange-trees and every kind of flower +were drinking in the moisture and waiting to rejoice in sunlight which +would come. + +It was a Sunday morning when we woke and found that the rain had gone, +the sun was shining brightly on the sea, and a clear north wind was +blowing cloud and mist away. Out upon the hills we went, not caring +much what path we took; for everything was beautiful, and hill +and vale were full of garden walks. Through lemon-groves,--pale, +golden-tender trees,--and olives, stretching their grey boughs against +the lonely cottage tiles, we climbed, until we reached the pines and +heath above. Then I knew the meaning of Theocritus for the first time. +We found a well, broad, deep, and clear, with green herbs growing at +the bottom, a runlet flowing from it down the rocky steps, maidenhair, +black adiantum, and blue violets, hanging from the brink and mirrored +in the water. This was just the well in _Hylas_. Theocritus +has been badly treated. They call him a court poet, dead to Nature, +artificial in his pictures. Yet I recognised this fountain by his +verse, just as if he had showed me the very spot. Violets grow +everywhere, of every shade, from black to lilac. Their stalks are +long, and the flowers 'nod' upon them, so that I see how the Greeks +could make them into chaplets--how Lycidas wore his crown of white +violets[5] lying by the fireside elbow-deep in withered asphodel, +watching the chestnuts in the embers, and softly drinking deep healths +to Ageanax far off upon the waves. It is impossible to go wrong in +these valleys. They are cultivated to the height of about five hundred +feet above the sea, in terraces laboriously built up with walls, +earthed and manured, and irrigated by means of tanks and aqueducts. +Above this level, where the virgin soil has not been yet reclaimed, +or where the winds of winter bring down freezing currents from the +mountains through a gap or gully of the lower hills, a tangled growth +of heaths and arbutus, and pines, and rosemarys, and myrtles, continue +the vegetation, till it finally ends in bare grey rocks and peaks some +thousand feet in height. Far above all signs of cultivation on these +arid peaks, you still may see villages and ruined castles, built +centuries ago for a protection from the Moorish pirates. To these +mountain fastnesses the people of the coast retreated when they +descried the sails of their foes on the horizon. In Mentone, not very +long ago, old men might be seen who in their youth were said to have +been taken captive by the Moors; and many Arabic words have found +their way into the patois of the people. + +There is something strangely fascinating in the sight of these ruins +on the burning rocks, with their black sentinel cypresses, immensely +tall and far away. Long years and rain and sunlight have made these +castellated eyries one with their native stone. It is hard to trace +in their foundations where Nature's workmanship ends and where man's +begins. What strange sights the mountain villagers must see! The vast +blue plain of the unfurrowed deep, the fairy range of Corsica hung +midway between the sea and sky at dawn or sunset, the stars so close +above their heads, the deep dew-sprinkled valleys, the green pines! On +penetrating into one of these hill-fortresses, you find that it is +a whole village, with a church and castle and piazza, some few feet +square, huddled together on a narrow platform. We met one day three +magnates of Gorbio taking a morning stroll backwards and forwards, +up and down their tiny square. Vehemently gesticulating, loudly +chattering, they talked as though they had not seen each other for ten +years, and were but just unloading their budgets of accumulated news. +Yet these three men probably had lived, eaten, drunk, and talked +together from the cradle to that hour: so true it is that use +and custom quicken all our powers, especially of gossiping and +scandal-mongering. S. Agnese is the highest and most notable of all +these villages. The cold and heat upon its absolutely barren rock +must be alike intolerable. In appearance it is not unlike the Etruscan +towns of Central Italy; but there is something, of course, far more +imposing in the immense antiquity and the historical associations of +a Narni, a Fiesole, a Chiusi, or an Orvieto. Sea-life and rusticity +strike a different note from that of those Apennine-girdled seats of +dead civilisation, in which nations, arts, and religions have gone by +and left but few traces,--some wrecks of giant walls, some excavated +tombs, some shrines, where monks still sing and pray above the relics +of the founders of once world-shaking, now almost forgotten, orders. +Here at Mentone there is none of this; the idyllic is the true note, +and Theocritus is still alive. + +We do not often scale these altitudes, but keep along the terraced +glades by the side of olive-shaded streams. The violets, instead of +peeping shyly from hedgerows, fall in ripples and cascades over mossy +walls among maidenhair and spleen-worts. They are very sweet, and the +sound of trickling water seems to mingle with their fragrance in a +most delicious harmony. Sound, smell, and hue make up one chord, the +sense of which is pure and perfect peace. The country-people are +kind, letting us pass everywhere, so that we make our way along their +aqueducts and through their gardens, under laden lemon-boughs, the +pale fruit dangling at our ears, and swinging showers of scented dew +upon us as we pass. Far better, however, than lemon or orange trees, +are the olives. Some of these are immensely old, numbering, it is +said, five centuries, so that Petrarch may almost have rested beneath +their shade on his way to Avignon. These veterans are cavernous with +age: gnarled, split, and twisted trunks, throwing out arms that break +into a hundred branches; every branch distinct, and feathered with +innumerable sparks and spikelets of white, wavy, greenish light. +These are the leaves, and the stems are grey with lichens. The sky and +sea--two blues, one full of sunlight and the other purple--set these +fountains of perennial brightness like gems in lapis-lazuli. At a +distance the same olives look hoary and soft--a veil of woven light +or luminous haze. When the wind blows their branches all one way, +they ripple like a sea of silver. But underneath their covert, in +the shade, grey periwinkles wind among the snowy drift of allium. The +narcissus sends its arrowy fragrance through the air, while, far and +wide, red anemones burn like fire, with interchange of blue and lilac +buds, white arums, orchises, and pink gladiolus. Wandering there, and +seeing the pale flowers, stars white and pink and odorous, we dream +of Olivet, or the grave Garden of the Agony, and the trees seem always +whispering of sacred things. How people can blaspheme against the +olives, and call them imitations of the willow, or complain that they +are shabby shrubs, I do not know.[6] + +This shore would stand for Shelley's Island of Epipsychidion, or +the golden age which Empedocles describes, when the mild nations +worshipped Aphrodite with incense and the images of beasts and +yellow honey, and no blood was spilt upon her altars--when 'the trees +flourished with perennial leaves and fruit, and ample crops adorned +their boughs through all the year.' This even now is literally true of +the lemon-groves, which do not cease to flower and ripen. Everything +fits in to complete the reproduction of Greek pastoral life. The goats +eat cytisus and myrtle on the shore; a whole flock gathered round me +as I sat beneath a tuft of golden green euphorbia the other day, and +nibbled bread from my hands. The frog still croaks by tank and +fountain, 'whom the Muses have ordained to sing for aye,' in +spite of Bion's death. The narcissus, anemone, and hyacinth still tell +their tales of love and death. Hesper still gazes on the shepherd +from the mountain-head. The slender cypresses still vibrate, the pines +murmur. Pan sleeps in noontide heat, and goat-herds and wayfaring +men lie down to slumber by the roadside, under olive-boughs in which +cicadas sing. The little villages high up are just as white, the +mountains just as grey and shadowy when evening falls. Nothing is +changed--except ourselves. I expect to find a statue of Priapus or +pastoral Pan, hung with wreaths of flowers--the meal cake, honey, and +spilt wine upon his altar, and young boys and maidens dancing round. +Surely, in some far-off glade, by the side of lemon-grove or garden, +near the village, there must be still a pagan remnant of glad +Nature-worship. Surely I shall chance upon some Thyrsis piping in the +pine-tree shade, or Daphne flying from the arms of Phoebus. So I dream +until I come upon the Calvary set on a solitary hillock, with its +prayer-steps lending a wide prospect across the olives and the +orange-trees, and the broad valleys, to immeasurable skies and purple +seas. There is the iron cross, the wounded heart, the spear, the reed, +the nails, the crown of thorns, the cup of sacrificial blood, the +title, with its superscription royal and divine. The other day we +crossed a brook and entered a lemon-field, rich with blossoms +and carpeted with red anemones. Everything basked in sunlight and +glittered with exceeding brilliancy of hue. A tiny white chapel stood +in a corner of the enclosure. Two iron-grated windows let me +see inside: it was a bare place, containing nothing but a wooden +praying-desk, black and worm-eaten, an altar with its candles and no +flowers, and above the altar a square picture brown with age. On the +floor were scattered several pence, and in a vase above the holy-water +vessel stood some withered hyacinths. As my sight became accustomed to +the gloom, I could see from the darkness of the picture a pale Christ +nailed to the cross with agonising upward eyes and ashy aureole above +the bleeding thorns. Thus I stepped suddenly away from the outward +pomp and bravery of nature to the inward aspirations, agonies, +and martyrdoms of man--from Greek legends of the past to the real +Christian present--and I remembered that an illimitable prospect has +been opened to the world, that in spite of ourselves we must turn our +eyes heavenward, inward, to the infinite unseen beyond us and within +our souls. Nothing can take us back to Phoebus or to Pan. Nothing +can again identify us with the simple natural earth. '_Une immense +esperance a traverse la terre_,' and these chapels, with their deep +significances, lurk in the fair landscape like the cares of real life +among our dreams of art, or like a fear of death and the hereafter in +the midst of opera music. It is a strange contrast. The worship of men +in those old times was symbolised by dances in the evening, banquets, +libations, and mirth-making. 'Euphrosyne' was alike the goddess of +the righteous mind and of the merry heart. Old withered women telling +their rosaries at dusk; belated shepherds crossing themselves beneath +the stars when they pass the chapel; maidens weighed down with +Margaret's anguish of unhappy love; youths vowing their life to +contemplation in secluded cloisters,--these are the human forms which +gather round such chapels; and the motto of the worshippers consists +in this, 'Do often violence to thy desire.' In the Tyrol we have seen +whole villages praying together at daybreak before their day's work, +singing their _Miserere_ and their _Gloria_ and their _Dies Irae_, to +the sound of crashing organs and jangling bells; appealing in the +midst of Nature's splendour to the Spirit which is above Nature, which +dwells in darkness rather than light, and loves the yearnings and +contentions of our soul more than its summer gladness and peace. Even +the olives here tell more to us of Olivet and the Garden than of the +oil-press and the wrestling-ground. The lilies carry us to the Sermon +on the Mount, and teach humility, instead of summoning up some legend +of a god's love for a mortal. The hillside tanks and running streams, +and water-brooks swollen by sudden rain, speak of Palestine. We call +the white flowers stars of Bethlehem. The large sceptre-reed; the +fig-tree, lingering in barrenness when other trees are full of fruit; +the locust-beans of the Caruba:--for one suggestion of Greek idylls +there is yet another, of far deeper, dearer power. + +But who can resist the influence of Greek ideas at the Cap S. Martin? +Down to the verge of the sea stretch the tall, twisted stems of Levant +pines, and on the caverned limestone breaks the deep blue water. +Dazzling as marble are these rocks, pointed and honeycombed with +constant dashing of the restless sea, tufted with corallines and grey +and purple seaweeds in the little pools, but hard and dry and rough +above tide level. Nor does the sea always lap them quietly; for the +last few days it has come tumbling in, roaring and raging on the beach +with huge waves crystalline in their transparency, and maned with +fleecy spray. Such were the rocks and such the swell of breakers when +Ulysses grasped the shore after his long swim. Samphire, very salt and +fragrant, grows in the rocky honeycomb; then lentisk and beach-loving +myrtle, both exceeding green and bushy; then rosemary and euphorbia +above the reach of spray. Fishermen, with their long reeds, sit lazily +perched upon black rocks above blue waves, sunning themselves as much +as seeking sport. One distant tip of snow, seen far away behind the +hills, reminds us of an alien, unremembered winter. While dreaming +there, this fancy came into my head: Polyphemus was born yonder in +the Gorbio Valley. There he fed his sheep and goats, and on the hills +found scanty pasture for his kine. He and his mother lived in the +white house by the cypress near the stream where tulips grow. Young +Galatea, nursed in the caverns of these rocks, white as the foam, and +shy as the sea fishes, came one morning up the valley to pick mountain +hyacinths, and little Polyphemus led the way. He knew where violets +and sweet narcissus grew, as well as Galatea where pink coralline +and spreading sea-flowers with their waving arms. But Galatea, having +filled her lap with bluebells, quite forgot the leaping kids, and +piping Cyclops, and cool summer caves, and yellow honey, and black +ivy, and sweet vine, and water cold as Alpine snow. Down the swift +streamlet she danced laughingly, and made herself once more bitter +with the sea. But Polyphemus remained,--hungry, sad, gazing on the +barren sea, and piping to the mockery of its waves. + +Filled with these Greek fancies, it is strange to come upon a little +sandstone dell furrowed by trickling streams and overgrown with +English primroses; or to enter the village of Roccabruna, with its +mediaeval castle and the motto on its walls, _Tempora labuntur +tacitisque senescimus annis_. A true motto for the town, where the +butcher comes but once a week, and where men and boys, and dogs, and +palms, and lemon-trees grow up and flourish and decay in the same +hollow of the sunny mountain-side. Into the hard conglomerate of the +hill the town is built; house walls and precipices mortised into one +another, dovetailed by the art of years gone by, and riveted by +age. The same plants grow from both alike--spurge, cistus, rue, and +henbane, constant to the desolation of abandoned dwellings. From the +castle you look down on roofs, brown tiles and chimney-pots, set one +above the other like a big card-castle. Each house has its foot on a +neighbour's neck, and its shoulder set against the native stone. The +streets meander in and out, and up and down, overarched and balconied, +but very clean. They swarm with children, healthy, happy, little +monkeys, who grow fat on salt fish and yellow polenta, with oil and +sun _ad libitum_. + +At night from Roccabruna you may see the flaring gas-lamps of the +gaming-house at Monaco, that Armida's garden of the nineteenth +century. It is the sunniest and most sheltered spot of all the coast. +Long ago Lucan said of Monaco, '_Non Corus in illum jus habet aut +Zephyrus_;' winter never comes to nip its tangled cactuses, and +aloes, and geraniums. The air swoons with the scent of lemon-groves; +tall palm-trees wave their graceful branches by the shore; music of +the softest and the loudest swells from the palace; cool corridors +and sunny seats stand ready for the noontide heat or evening calm; +without, are olive-gardens, green and fresh and full of flowers. But +the witch herself holds her high court and never-ending festival of +sin in the painted banquet-halls and among the green tables. + +Let us leave this scene and turn with the country-folk of Roccabruna +to S. Michael's Church at Mentone. High above the sea it stands, +and from its open doors you look across the mountains with their +olive-trees. Inside the church is a seething mass of country-folk and +townspeople, mostly women, and these almost all old, but picturesque +beyond description; kerchiefs of every colour, wrinkles of every shape +and depth, skins of every tone of brown and yellow, voices of every +gruffness, shrillness, strength, and weakness. Wherever an empty +corner can be found, it is soon filled by tottering babies and +mischievous children. The country-women come with their large dangling +earrings of thin gold, wearing pink tulips or lemon-buds in their +black hair. A low buzz of gossiping and mutual recognition keeps the +air alive. The whole service seems a holiday--a general enjoyment of +gala dresses and friendly greetings, very different from the +silence, immobility, and _noli me tangere_ aspect of an English +congregation. Over all drones, rattles, snores, and shrieks the organ; +wailing, querulous, asthmatic, incomplete, its everlasting nasal +chant--always beginning, never ending, through a range of two or three +notes ground into one monotony. The voices of the congregation +rise and sink above it. These southern people, like the Arabs, the +Apulians, and the Spaniards, seem to find their music in a hurdy-gurdy +swell of sound. The other day we met a little girl, walking and +spinning, and singing all the while, whose song was just another +version of this chant. It has a discontented plaintive wail, as if it +came from some vast age, and were a cousin of primeval winds. + +At first sight, by the side of Mentone, San Remo is sadly prosaic. The +valleys seem to sprawl, and the universal olives are monotonously grey +upon their thick clay soil. Yet the wealth of flowers in the fat +earth is wonderful. One might fancy oneself in a weedy farm flower-bed +invaded by stray oats and beans and cabbages and garlic from the +kitchen-garden. The country does not suggest a single Greek idea. +It has no form or outline--no barren peaks, no spare and difficult +vegetation. The beauty is rich but tame--valleys green with oats and +corn, blossoming cherry-trees, and sweet bean-fields, figs coming into +leaf, and arrowy bay-trees by the side of sparkling streams: here and +there a broken aqueduct or rainbow bridge hung with maidenhair and +briar and clematis and sarsaparilla. + +In the cathedral church of San Siro on Good Friday they hang the +columns and the windows with black; they cover the pictures and deface +the altar; above the high altar they raise a crucifix, and below they +place a catafalque with the effigy of the dead Christ. To this sad +symbol they address their prayers and incense, chant their 'litanies +and lurries,' and clash the rattles, which commemorate their rage +against the traitor Judas. So far have we already passed away from the +Greek feeling of Mentone. As I listened to the hideous din, I could +not but remember the Theocritean burial of Adonis. Two funeral beds +prepared: two feasts recurring in the springtime of the year. What a +difference beneath this superficial similarity--[Greek: kalos nekus +oia katheudon]--_attritus aegra macie_. But the fast of Good +Friday is followed by the festival of Easter. That, after all, is the +chief difference. + +After leaving the cathedral we saw a pretty picture in a dull old +street of San Remo--three children leaning from a window, blowing +bubbles. The bubbles floated down the street, of every colour, round +and trembling, like the dreams of life which children dream. The town +is certainly most picturesque. It resembles a huge glacier of houses +poured over a wedge of rock, running down the sides and along the +ridge, and spreading itself into a fan between two torrents on the +shore below. House over house, with balcony and staircase, convent +turret and church tower, palm-trees and olives, roof gardens and +clinging creepers--this white cataract of buildings streams downward +from the lazar-house, and sanctuary, and sandstone quarries on the +hill. It is a mass of streets placed close above each other, and +linked together with arms and arches of solid masonry, as a protection +from the earthquakes, which are frequent at San Remo. The walls are +tall, and form a labyrinth of gloomy passages and treacherous blind +alleys, where the Moors of old might meet with a ferocious welcome. +Indeed, San Remo is a fortress as well as a dwelling-place. Over its +gateways may still be traced the pipes for molten lead, and on its +walls the eyeloops for arrows, with brackets for the feet of archers. +Masses of building have been shaken down by earthquakes. The ruins of +what once were houses gape with blackened chimneys and dark forlorn +cellars; mazes of fungus and unhealthy weeds among the still secure +habitations. Hardly a ray of light penetrates the streets; one learns +the meaning of the Italian word _uggia_ from their cold and +gloom. During the day they are deserted by every one but babies and +witchlike old women--some gossiping, some sitting vacant at the house +door, some spinning or weaving, or minding little children--ugly and +ancient as are their own homes, yet clean as are the streets. The +younger population goes afield; the men on mules laden for the hills, +the women burdened like mules with heavy and disgusting loads. It is +an exceptionally good-looking race; tall, well-grown, and strong.--But +to the streets again. The shops in the upper town are few, chiefly +wine-booths and stalls for the sale of salt fish, eggs, and bread, +or cobblers' and tinkers' ware. Notwithstanding the darkness of their +dwellings, the people have a love of flowers; azaleas lean from their +windows, and vines, carefully protected by a sheath of brickwork, +climb the six stories, to blossom out into a pergola upon the roof. +Look at that mass of greenery and colours, dimly seen from beneath, +with a yellow cat sunning herself upon the parapet! To reach such a +garden and such sunlight who would not mount six stories and thread +a labyrinth of passages? I should prefer a room upon the east side of +the town, looking southward to the Molo and the sea, with a sound +of water beneath, and a palm soaring up to fan my window with his +feathery leaves. + +The shrines are little spots of brightness in the gloomy streets. +Madonna with a sword; Christ holding His pierced and bleeding heart; +l'Eterno Padre pointing to the dead Son stretched upon His knee; some +souls in torment; S. Roch reminding us of old plagues by the spot upon +his thigh;--these are the symbols of the shrines. Before them stand +rows of pots filled with gillyflowers, placed there by pious, simple, +praying hands--by maidens come to tell their sorrows to our Lady rich +in sorrow, by old women bent and shrivelled, in hopes of paradise or +gratitude for happy days, when Madonna kept Cecchino faithful to his +home, or saved the baby from the fever. + +Lower down, between the sea and the hill, is the municipal, +aristocratic, ecclesiastical quarter of San Remo. There stands the +Palace Borea--a truly princely pile, built in the last Renaissance +style of splendour, with sea-nymphs and dolphins, and satyric heads, +half lips, half leafage, round about its doors and windows. Once it +formed the dwelling of a feudal family, but now it is a roomy +anthill of a hundred houses, shops, and offices, the Boreas of to-day +retaining but a portion of one flat, and making profit of the rest. +There, too, are the barracks and the syndic's hall; the Jesuits' +school, crowded with boys and girls; the shops for clothes, +confectionery, and trinkets; the piazza, with its fountain and +tasselled planes, and flowery chestnut-trees, a mass of greenery. +Under these trees the idlers lounge, boys play at leap-frog, men at +bowls. Women in San Remo work all day, but men and boys play for the +most part at bowls or toss-penny or leap-frog or morra. San Siro, the +cathedral, stands at one end of the square. Do not go inside; it has +a sickly smell of immemorial incense and garlic, undefinable and +horrible. Far better looks San Siro from the parapet above the +torrent. There you see its irregular half-Gothic outline across a +tangle of lemon-trees and olives. The stream rushes by through high +walls, covered with creepers, spanned by ferny bridges, feathered by +one or two old tufty palms. And over all rises the ancient turret of +San Siro, like a Spanish giralda, a minaret of pinnacles and pyramids +and dome bubbles, with windows showing heavy bells, old clocks, and +sundials painted on the walls, and a cupola of green and yellow tiles +like serpent-scales, to crown the whole. The sea lies beyond, and +the house-roofs break it with grey horizontal lines. Then there are +convents, legions of them, large white edifices, Jesuitical apparently +for the most part, clanging importunate bells, leaning rose-blossoms +and cypress-boughs over their jealous walls. + +Lastly, there is the port--the mole running out into the sea, the quay +planted with plane-trees, and the fishing-boats--by which San Remo is +connected with the naval glory of the past--with the Riviera that gave +birth to Columbus--with the Liguria that the Dorias ruled--with the +great name of Genoa. The port is empty enough now; but from the pier +you look back on San Remo and its circling hills, a jewelled town +set in illimitable olive greyness. The quay seems also to be the +cattle-market. There the small buff cows of North Italy repose after +their long voyage or march, kneeling on the sandy ground or rubbing +their sides against the wooden cross awry with age and shorn of all +its symbols. Lambs frisk among the boats; impudent kids nibble +the drooping ears of patient mules. Hinds in white jackets and +knee-breeches made of skins, lead shaggy rams and fiercely bearded +goats, ready to butt at every barking dog, and always seeking +opportunities of flight. Farmers and parish priests in black +petticoats feel the cattle and dispute about the price, or whet their +bargains with a draught of wine. Meanwhile the nets are brought on +shore glittering with the fry of sardines, which are cooked like +whitebait, with cuttlefish--amorphous objects stretching shiny feelers +on the hot dry sand--and prickly purple eggs of the sea-urchin. Women +go about their labour through the throng, some carrying stones upon +their heads, or unloading boats and bearing planks of wood in single +file, two marching side by side beneath one load of lime, others +scarcely visible under a stack of oats, another with her baby in its +cradle fast asleep. + +San Remo has an elder brother among the hills, which is called San +Romolo, after one of the old bishops of Genoa. Who San Remo was is +buried in remote antiquity; but his town has prospered, while of San +Romolo nothing remains but a ruined hill-convent among pine-trees. The +old convent is worth visiting. Its road carries you into the heart of +the sierra which surrounds San Remo, a hill-country something like +the Jura, undulating and green to the very top with maritime pines and +pinasters. Riding up, you hear all manner of Alpine sounds; brawling +streams, tinkling cowbells, and herdsmen calling to each other on the +slopes. Beneath you lies San Remo, scarcely visible; and over it the +great sea rises ever so far into the sky, until the white sails hang +in air, and cloud and sea-line melt into each other indistinguishably. +Spanish chestnuts surround the monastery with bright blue gentians, +hepaticas, forget-me-nots, and primroses about their roots. The house +itself is perched on a knoll with ample prospect to the sea and to +the mountains, very near to heaven, within a theatre of noble +contemplations and soul-stirring thoughts. If Mentone spoke to me of +the poetry of Greek pastoral life, this convent speaks of mediaeval +monasticism--of solitude with God, above, beneath, and all around, of +silence and repose from agitating cares, of continuity in prayer, and +changelessness of daily life. Some precepts of the _Imitatio_ +came into my mind: 'Be never wholly idle; read or write, pray or +meditate, or work with diligence for the common needs.' 'Praiseworthy +is it for the religious man to go abroad but seldom, and to seem to +shun, and keep his eyes from men.' 'Sweet is the cell when it is often +sought, but if we gad about, it wearies us by its seclusion.' Then I +thought of the monks so living in this solitude; their cell windows +looking across the valley to the sea, through summer and winter, under +sun and stars. Then would they read or write, what long melodious +hours! or would they pray, what stations on the pine-clad hills! or +would they toil, what terraces to build and plant with corn, what +flowers to tend, what cows to milk and pasture, what wood to cut, +what fir-cones to gather for the winter fire! or should they yearn for +silence, silence from their comrades of the solitude, what whispering +galleries of God, where never human voice breaks loudly, but winds +and streams and lonely birds disturb the awful stillness! In such a +hermitage as this, only more wild, lived S. Francis of Assisi, among +the Apennines.[7] It was there that he learned the tongues of beasts +and birds, and preached them sermons. Stretched for hours motionless +on the bare rocks, coloured like them and rough like them in his brown +peasant's serge, he prayed and meditated, saw the vision of Christ +crucified, and planned his order to regenerate a vicious age. So still +he lay, so long, so like a stone, so gentle were his eyes, so kind +and low his voice, that the mice nibbled breadcrumbs from his wallet, +lizards ran over him, and larks sang to him in the air. There, too, in +those long, solitary vigils, the Spirit of God came upon him, and the +spirit of Nature was even as God's Spirit, and he sang: 'Laudato sia +Dio mio Signore, con tutte le creature, specialmente messer lo frate +sole; per suor luna, e per le stelle; per frate vento e per l'aire, e +nuvolo, e sereno e ogni tempo.' Half the value of this hymn would +be lost were we to forget how it was written, in what solitudes and +mountains far from men, or to ticket it with some abstract word +like Pantheism. Pantheism it is not; but an acknowledgment of that +brotherhood, beneath the love of God, by which the sun and moon and +stars, and wind and air and cloud, and clearness and all weather, and +all creatures, are bound together with the soul of man. + +Few, of course, were like S. Francis. Probably no monk of San Romolo +was inspired with his enthusiasm for humanity, or had his revelation +of the Divine Spirit inherent in the world. Still fewer can have felt +the aesthetic charm of Nature but most vaguely. It was as much as they +could boast, if they kept steadily to the rule of their order, and +attended to the concerns each of his own soul. A terrible selfishness, +if rightly considered; but one which accorded with the delusion that +this world is a cave of care, the other world a place of torture or +undying bliss, death the prime object of our meditation, and lifelong +abandonment of our fellow-men the highest mode of existence. Why, +then, should monks, so persuaded of the riddle of the earth, have +placed themselves in scenes so beautiful? Why rose the Camaldolis and +Chartreuses over Europe? white convents on the brows of lofty hills, +among the rustling boughs of Vallombrosas, in the grassy meadows of +Engelbergs,--always the eyries of Nature's lovers, men smitten with +the loveliness of earth? There is surely some meaning in these poetic +stations. + +Here is a sentence of the _Imitatio_ which throws some light upon +the hymn of S. Francis and the sites of Benedictine monasteries, by +explaining the value of natural beauty for monks who spent their life +in studying death: 'If thy heart were right, then would every creature +be to thee a mirror of life, and a book of holy doctrine. There is no +creature so small and vile that does not show forth the goodness +of God.' With this sentence bound about their foreheads, walked Fra +Angelico and S. Francis. To men like them the mountain valleys and the +skies, and all that they contained, were full of deep significance. +Though they reasoned '_de conditione humanae miseriae_,' and '_de +contemptu mundi_,' yet the whole world was a pageant of God's +glory, a testimony to His goodness. Their chastened senses, pure +hearts, and simple wills were as wings by which they soared above the +things of earth, and sent the music of their souls aloft with every +other creature in the symphony of praise. To them, as to Blake, the +sun was no mere blazing disc or ball, but 'an innumerable company +of the heavenly host singing, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God +Almighty."' To them the winds were brothers, and the streams were +sisters--brethren in common dependence upon God their Father, brethren +in common consecration to His service, brethren by blood, brethren by +vows of holiness. Unquestioning faith rendered this world no puzzle; +they overlooked the things of sense because the spiritual things +were ever present, and as clear as day. Yet did they not forget +that spiritual things are symbolised by things of sense; and so the +smallest herb of grass was vital to their tranquil contemplations. +We who have lost sight of the invisible world, who set our affections +more on things of earth, fancy that because these monks despised the +world, and did not write about its landscapes, therefore they were +dead to its beauty. This is mere vanity: the mountains, stars, seas, +fields, and living things were only swallowed up in the one thought of +God, and made subordinate to the awfulness of human destinies. We +to whom hills are hills, and seas are seas, and stars are ponderable +quantities, speak, write, and reason of them as of objects interesting +in themselves. The monks were less ostensibly concerned about such +things, because they only found in them the vestibules and symbols of +a hidden mystery. + +The contrast between the Greek and mediaeval modes of regarding +Nature is not a little remarkable. Both Greeks and monks, judged by +nineteenth-century standards, were unobservant of natural beauties. +They make but brief and general remarks upon landscapes and the like. +The [Greek: pontion te kumaton anerithmon gelasma] is very +rare. But the Greeks stopped at the threshold of Nature; the forces +they found there, the gods, were inherent in Nature, and distinct. +They did not, like the monks, place one spiritual power, omnipotent +and omnipresent, above all, and see in Nature lessons of Divine +government. We ourselves having somewhat overstrained the latter point +of view, are now apt to return vaguely to Greek fancies. Perhaps, too, +we talk so much about scenery because it is scenery to us, and the +life has gone out of it. + +I cannot leave the Cornice without one word about a place which lies +between Mentone and San Remo. Bordighera has a beauty which is quite +distinct from both. Palms are its chief characteristics. They lean +against the garden walls, and feather the wells outside the town, +where women come with brazen pitchers to draw water. In some of the +marshy tangles of the plain, they spring from a thick undergrowth of +spiky leaves, and rear their tall aerial arms against the deep blue +background of the sea or darker purple of the distant hills. White +pigeons fly about among their branches, and the air is loud with +cooings and with rustlings, and the hoarser croaking of innumerable +frogs. Then, in the olive-groves that stretch along the level shore, +are labyrinths of rare and curious plants, painted tulips and white +periwinkles, flinging their light of blossoms and dark glossy leaves +down the swift channels of the brawling streams. On each side of the +rivulets they grow, like sister cataracts of flowers instead of spray. +At night fresh stars come out along the coast, beneath the stars +of heaven; for you can see the lamps of Ventimiglia and Mentone +and Monaco, and, far away, the lighthouses upon the promontories of +Antibes and the Estrelles. At dawn, a vision of Corsica grows from +the sea. The island lies eighty miles away, but one can trace the +dark strip of irregular peaks glowing amid the gold and purple of the +rising sun. If the air is clear and bright, the snows and overvaulting +clouds which crown its mountains shine all day, and glitter like an +apparition in the bright blue sky. 'Phantom fair,' half raised above +the sea, it stands, as unreal and transparent as the moon when seen in +April sunlight, yet not to be confounded with the shape of any cloud. +If Mentone speaks of Greek legends, and San Romolo restores the +monastic past, we feel ourselves at Bordighera transported to the +East; and lying under its tall palms can fancy ourselves at Tyre or +Daphne, or in the gardens of a Moslem prince. + + Note.--Dec. 1873. My old impressions are renewed and confirmed + by a third visit, after seven years, to this coast. For purely + idyllic loveliness, the Cornice is surpassed by nothing in + the South. A very few spots in Sicily, the road between + Castellammare and Amalfi, and the island of Corfu, are its + only rivals in this style of scenery. From Cannes to Sestri is + one continuous line of exquisitely modulated landscape beauty, + which can only be fully appreciated by travellers in carriage + or on foot. + + * * * * * + + + + +_AJACCIO_ + + +It generally happens that visitors to Ajaccio pass over from the +Cornice coast, leaving Nice at night, and waking about sunrise to find +themselves beneath the frowning mountains of Corsica. The difference +between the scenery of the island and the shores which they have +left is very striking. Instead of the rocky mountains of the Cornice, +intolerably dry and barren at their summits, but covered at their base +with villages and ancient towns and olive-fields, Corsica presents a +scene of solitary and peculiar grandeur. The highest mountain-tops are +covered with snow, and beneath the snow-level to the sea they are +as green as Irish or as English hills, but nearly uninhabited and +uncultivated. Valleys of almost Alpine verdure are succeeded by +tracts of chestnut wood and scattered pines, or deep and flowery +brushwood--the 'maquis' of Corsica, which yields shelter to its +traditional outlaws and bandits. Yet upon these hillsides there +are hardly any signs of life; the whole country seems abandoned to +primeval wildness and the majesty of desolation. Nothing can possibly +be more unlike the smiling Riviera, every square mile of which is +cultivated like a garden, and every valley and bay dotted over with +white villages. After steaming for a few hours along this savage +coast, the rocks which guard the entrance to the bay of Ajaccio, +murderous-looking teeth and needles ominously christened Sanguinari, +are passed, and we enter the splendid land-locked harbour, on the +northern shore of which Ajaccio is built. About three centuries ago +the town, which used to occupy the extreme or eastern end of the bay, +was removed to a more healthy point upon the northern coast, so that +Ajaccio is quite a modern city. Visitors who expect to find in it +the picturesqueness of Genoa or San Remo, or even of Mentone, will +be sadly disappointed. It is simply a healthy, well-appointed town of +recent date, the chief merits of which are, that it has wide streets, +and is free, externally at least, from the filth and rubbish of most +southern seaports. + +But if Ajaccio itself is not picturesque, the scenery which +it commands, and in the heart of which it lies, is of the most +magnificent. The bay of Ajaccio resembles a vast Italian lake--a Lago +Maggiore, with greater space between the mountains and the shore. +From the snow-peaks of the interior, huge granite crystals clothed in +white, to the southern extremity of the bay, peak succeeds peak and +ridge rises behind ridge in a line of wonderful variety and beauty. +The atmospheric changes of light and shadow, cloud and colour, on this +upland country, are as subtle and as various as those which lend their +beauty to the scenery of the lakes, while the sea below is blue and +rarely troubled. One could never get tired with looking at this view. +Morning and evening add new charms to its sublimity and beauty. In the +early morning Monte d'Oro sparkles like a Monte Rosa with its fresh +snow, and the whole inferior range puts on the crystal blueness of +dawn among the Alps. In the evening, violet and purple tints and +the golden glow of Italian sunset lend a different lustre to the +fairyland. In fact, the beauties of Switzerland and Italy are +curiously blended in this landscape. + +In soil and vegetation the country round Ajaccio differs much from the +Cornice. There are very few olive-trees, nor is the cultivated ground +backed up so immediately by stony mountains; but between the seashore +and the hills there is plenty of space for pasture-land, and orchards +of apricot and peach-trees, and orange gardens. This undulating +champaign, green with meadows and watered with clear streams, is very +refreshing to the eyes of Northern people, who may have wearied of the +bareness and greyness of Nice or Mentone. It is traversed by excellent +roads, recently constructed on a plan of the French Government, which +intersect the country in all directions, and offer an infinite variety +of rides or drives to visitors. The broken granite of which these +roads are made is very pleasant for riding over. Most of the hills +through which they strike, after starting from Ajaccio, are +clothed with a thick brushwood of box, ilex, lentisk, arbutus, +and laurustinus, which stretches down irregularly into vineyards, +olive-gardens, and meadows. It is, indeed, the native growth of the +island; for wherever a piece of ground is left untilled, the macchi +grow up, and the scent of their multitudinous aromatic blossoms is so +strong that it may be smelt miles out at sea. Napoleon, at S. Helena, +referred to this fragrance when he said that he should know Corsica +blindfold by the smell of its soil. Occasional woods of holm oak make +darker patches on the landscape, and a few pines fringe the side of +enclosure walls or towers. The prickly pear runs riot in and out +among the hedges and upon the walls, diversifying the colours of the +landscape with its strange grey-green masses and unwieldy fans. In +spring, when peach and almond trees are in blossom, and when the +roadside is starred with asphodels, this country is most beautiful in +its gladness. The macchi blaze with cistus flowers of red and silver. +Golden broom mixes with the dark purple of the great French lavender, +and over the whole mass of blossom wave plumes of Mediterranean heath +and sweet-scented yellow coronilla. Under the stems of the ilex peep +cyclamens, pink and sweet; the hedgerows are a tangle of vetches, +convolvuluses, lupines, orchises, and alliums, with here and there a +purple iris. It would be difficult to describe all the rare and lovely +plants which are found here in a profusion that surpasses even the +flower-gardens of the Cornice, and reminds one of the most favoured +Alpine valleys in their early spring. + +Since the French occupied Corsica they have done much for the island +by improving its harbours and making good roads, and endeavouring +to mitigate the ferocity of the people. But they have many things to +contend against, and Corsica is still behind the other provinces of +France. The people are idle, haughty, umbrageous, fiery, quarrelsome, +fond of gipsy life, and retentive through generations of old feuds and +prejudices to an almost inconceivable extent. Then the nature of the +country itself offers serious obstacles to its proper colonisation +and cultivation. The savage state of the island and its internal feuds +have disposed the Corsicans to quit the seaboard for their mountain +villages and fortresses, so that the great plains at the foot of the +hills are unwholesome for want of tillage and drainage. Again, +the mountains themselves have in many parts been stripped of their +forests, and converted into mere wildernesses of macchi stretching +up and down their slopes for miles and miles of useless desolation. +Another impediment to proper cultivation is found in the old habit of +what is called free pasturage. The highland shepherds are allowed +by the national custom to drive down their flocks and herds to the +lowlands during the winter, so that fences are broken, young crops +are browsed over and trampled down, and agriculture becomes a mere +impossibility. The last and chief difficulty against which the French +have had to contend, and up to this time with apparent success, is +brigandage. The Corsican system of brigandage is so very different +from that of the Italians, Sicilians, and Greeks, that a word may be +said about its peculiar character. In the first place, it has nothing +at all to do with robbery and thieving. The Corsican bandit took to a +free life among the macchi, not for the sake of supporting himself by +lawless depredation, but because he had put himself under a legal and +social ban by murdering some one in obedience to the strict code of +honour of his country. His victim may have been the hereditary foe of +his house for generations, or else the newly made enemy of yesterday. +But in either case, if he had killed him fairly, after a due +notification of his intention to do so, he was held to have fulfilled +a duty rather than to have committed a crime. He then betook himself +to the dense tangles of evergreens which I have described, where he +lived upon the charity of countryfolk and shepherds. In the eyes of +those simple people it was a sacred duty to relieve the necessities of +the outlaws, and to guard them from the bloodhounds of justice. There +was scarcely a respectable family in Corsica who had not one or more +of its members thus _alla campagna_, as it was euphemistically +styled. The Corsicans themselves have attributed this miserable state +of things to two principal causes. The first of these was the ancient +bad government of the island: under its Genoese rulers no justice was +administered, and private vengeance for homicide or insult became a +necessary consequence among the haughty and warlike families of +the mountain villages. Secondly, the Corsicans have been from time +immemorial accustomed to wear arms in everyday life. They used to sit +at their house doors and pace the streets with musket, pistol, dagger, +and cartouch-box on their persons; and on the most trivial occasion +of merriment or enthusiasm they would discharge their firearms. This +habit gave a bloody termination to many quarrels, which might have +ended more peaceably had the parties been unarmed; and so the seeds +of _vendetta_ were constantly being sown. Statistics published +by the French Government present a hideous picture of the state of +bloodshed in Corsica even during this century. In one period of thirty +years (between 1821 and 1850) there were 4319 murders in the island. +Almost every man was watching for his neighbour's life, or seeking how +to save his own; and agriculture and commerce were neglected for this +grisly game of hide-and-seek. In 1853 the French began to take strong +measures, and, under the Prefect Thuillier, they hunted the bandits +from the macchi, killing between 200 and 300 of them. At the same time +an edict was promulgated against bearing arms. It is forbidden to sell +the old Corsican stiletto in the shops, and no one may carry a gun, +even for sporting purposes, unless he obtains a special licence. These +licences, moreover, are only granted for short and precisely measured +periods. + +In order to appreciate the stern and gloomy character of the +Corsicans, it is necessary to leave the smiling gardens of Ajaccio, +and to visit some of the more distant mountain villages--Vico, Cavro, +Bastelica, or Bocognano, any of which may easily be reached from the +capital. Immediately after quitting the seaboard, we enter a country +austere in its simplicity, solemn without relief, yet dignified by its +majesty and by the sense of freedom it inspires. As we approach the +mountains, the macchi become taller, feathering man-high above the +road, and stretching far away upon the hills. Gigantic masses of +granite, shaped like buttresses and bastions, seem to guard the +approaches to these hills; while, looking backward over the green +plain, the sea lies smiling in a haze of blue among the rocky horns +and misty headlands of the coast. There is a stateliness about the +abrupt inclination of these granite slopes, rising from their frowning +portals by sharp _aretes_ to the snows piled on their summits, +which contrasts in a strange way with the softness and beauty of +the mingling sea and plain beneath. In no landscape are more various +qualities combined; in none are they so harmonised as to produce so +strong a sense of majestic freedom and severe power. Suppose that we +are on the road to Corte, and have now reached Bocognano, the first +considerable village since we left Ajaccio. Bocognano might be chosen +as typical of Corsican hill-villages, with its narrow street, and +tall tower-like houses of five or six stories high, faced with +rough granite, and pierced with the smallest windows and very narrow +doorways. These buildings have a mournful and desolate appearance. +There is none of the grandeur of antiquity about them; no sculptured +arms or castellated turrets, or balconies or spacious staircases, +such as are common in the poorest towns of Italy. The signs of warlike +occupation which they offer, and their sinister aspect of vigilance, +are thoroughly prosaic. They seem to suggest a state of society in +which feud and violence were systematised into routine. There is no +relief to the savage austerity of their forbidding aspect; no signs +of wealth or household comfort; no trace of art, no liveliness and +gracefulness of architecture. Perched upon their coigns of vantage, +these villages seem always menacing, as if Saracen pirates, or Genoese +marauders, or bandits bent on vengeance, were still for ever on the +watch. Forests of immensely old chestnut-trees surround Bocognano on +every side, so that you step from the village streets into the shade +of woods that seem to have remained untouched for centuries. The +country-people support themselves almost entirely upon the fruit of +these chestnuts; and there is a large department of Corsica called +Castagniccia, from the prevalence of these trees and the sustenance +which the inhabitants derive from them. Close by the village brawls +a torrent, such as one may see in the Monte Rosa valleys or the +Apennines, but very rarely in Switzerland. It is of a pure green +colour, absolutely like Indian jade, foaming round the granite +boulders, and gliding over smooth slabs of polished stone, and eddying +into still, deep pools fringed with fern. Monte d'Oro, one of the +largest mountains of Corsica, soars above, and from his snows the +purest water, undefiled by glacier mud or the _debris_ of +avalanches, melts away. Following the stream, we rise through the +macchi and the chestnut woods, which grow more sparely by degrees, +until we reach the zone of beeches. Here the scene seems suddenly +transferred to the Pyrenees; for the road is carried along abrupt +slopes, thickly set with gigantic beech-trees, overgrown with pink and +silver lichens. In the early spring their last year's leaves are still +crisp with hoar-frost; one morning's journey has brought us from the +summer of Ajaccio to winter on these heights, where no flowers are +visible but the pale hellebore and tiny lilac crocuses. Snow-drifts +stretch by the roadside, and one by one the pioneers of the vast +pine-woods of the interior appear. A great portion of the pine-forest +(_Pinus larix_, or Corsican pine, not larch) between Bocognano +and Corte had recently been burned by accident when we passed by. +Nothing could be more forlorn than the black leafless stems and +branches emerging from the snow. Some of these trees were mast-high, +and some mere saplings. Corte itself is built among the mountain +fastnesses of the interior. The snows and granite cliffs of Monte +Rotondo overhang it to the north-west, while two fair valleys lead +downward from its eyrie to the eastern coast. The rock on which it +stands rises to a sharp point, sloping southward, and commanding the +valleys of the Golo and the Tavignano. Remembering that Corte was the +old capital of Corsica, and the centre of General Paoli's government, +we are led to compare the town with Innsprueck, Meran, or Grenoble. +In point of scenery and situation it is hardly second to any of these +mountain-girdled cities; but its poverty and bareness are scarcely +less striking than those of Bocognano. + +The whole Corsican character, with its stern love of justice, its +furious revengefulness and wild passion for freedom, seems to be +illustrated by the peculiar elements of grandeur and desolation in +this landscape. When we traverse the forest of Vico or the rocky +pasture-lands of Niolo, the history of the Corsican national heroes, +Giudice della Rocca and Sampiero, becomes intelligible, nor do we fail +to understand some of the mysterious attraction which led the more +daring spirits of the island to prefer a free life among the macchi +and pine-woods to placid lawful occupations in farms and villages. +The lives of the two men whom I have mentioned are so prominent in +Corsican history, and are so often still upon the lips of the common +people, that it may be well to sketch their outlines in the foreground +of the Salvator Rosa landscape just described. Giudice was the +governor of Corsica, as lieutenant for the Pisans, at the end of the +thirteenth century. At that time the island belonged to the republic +of Pisa, but the Genoese were encroaching on them by land and sea, +and the whole life of their brave champion was spent in a desperate +struggle with the invaders, until at last he died, old, blind, and in +prison, at the command of his savage foes. Giudice was the title which +the Pisans usually conferred upon their governor, and Della Rocca +deserved it by right of his own inexorable love of justice. Indeed, +justice seems to have been with him a passion, swallowing up all other +feelings of his nature. All the stories which are told of him turn +upon this point in his character; and though they may not be strictly +true, they illustrate the stern virtues for which he was celebrated +among the Corsicans, and show what kind of men this harsh and gloomy +nation loved to celebrate as heroes. This is not the place either to +criticise these legends or to recount them at full length. The most +famous and the most characteristic may, however, be briefly told. On +one occasion, after a victory over the Genoese, he sent a message +that the captives in his hands should be released if their wives and +sisters came to sue for them. The Genoese ladies embarked, and +arrived in Corsica, and to Giudice's nephew was intrusted the duty +of fulfilling his uncle's promise. In the course of executing his +commission, the youth was so smitten with the beauty of one of the +women that he dishonoured her. Thereupon Giudice had him at once put +to death. Another story shows the Spartan justice of this hero in +a less savage light. He was passing by a cowherd's cottage, when he +heard some young calves bleating. On inquiring what distressed them, +he was told that the calves had not enough milk to drink after the +farm people had been served. Then Giudice made it a law that the +calves throughout the land should take their fill before the cows were +milked. + +Sampiero belongs to a later period of Corsican history. After a long +course of misgovernment the Genoese rule had become unbearable. There +was no pretence of administering justice, and private vengeance had +full sway in the island. The sufferings of the nation were so great +that the time had come for a new judge or saviour to rise among them. +Sampiero was the son of obscure parents who lived at Bastelica. But +his abilities very soon declared themselves, and made a way for him in +the world. He spent his youth in the armies of the Medici and of the +French Francis, gaining great renown as a brave soldier. Bayard became +his friend, and Francis made him captain of his Corsican bands. But +Sampiero did not forget the wrongs of his native land while thus on +foreign service. He resolved, if possible, to undermine the power +of Genoa, and spent the whole of his manhood and old age in one +long struggle with their great captain, Stephen Doria. Of his stern +patriotism and Roman severity of virtue the following story is a +terrible illustration. Sampiero, though a man of mean birth, had +married an heiress of the noble Corsican house of the Ornani. His +wife, Vannina, was a woman of timid and flexible nature, who, though +devoted to her husband, fell into the snares of his enemies. During +his absence on an embassy to Algiers the Genoese induced her to leave +her home at Marseilles and to seek refuge in their city, persuading +her that this step would secure the safety of her child. She was +starting on her journey when a friend of Sampiero arrested her, and +brought her back to Aix, in Provence. Sampiero, when he heard of these +events, hurried to France, and was received by a relative of his, +who hinted that he had known of Vannina's projected flight. 'E tu hai +taciuto?' was Sampiero's only answer, accompanied by a stroke of his +poignard that killed the lukewarm cousin. Sampiero now brought his +wife from Aix to Marseilles, preserving the most absolute silence on +the way, and there, on entering his house, he killed her with his own +hand. It is said that he loved Vannina passionately; and when she was +dead, he caused her to be buried with magnificence in the church of S. +Francis. Like Giudice, Sampiero fell at last a prey to treachery. The +murder of Vannina had made the Ornani his deadly foes. In order to +avenge her blood, they played into the hands of the Genoese, and laid +a plot by which the noblest of the Corsicans was brought to death. +First, they gained over to their scheme a monk of Bastelica, called +Ambrogio, and Sampiero's own squire and shield-bearer, Vittolo. By +means of these men, in whom he trusted, he was drawn defenceless and +unattended into a deeply wooded ravine near Cavro, not very far from +his birthplace, where the Ornani and their Genoese troops surrounded +him. Sampiero fired his pistols in vain, for Vittolo had loaded them +with the shot downwards. Then he drew his sword, and began to lay +about him, when the same Vittolo, the Judas, stabbed him from +behind, and the old lion fell dead by his friend's hand. Sampiero was +sixty-nine when he died, in the year 1567. It is satisfactory to know +that the Corsicans have called traitors and foes to their country +Vittoli for ever. These two examples of Corsican patriots are enough; +we need not add to theirs the history of Paoli--a milder and more +humane, but scarcely less heroic leader. Paoli, however, in the +hour of Corsica's extremest peril, retired to England, and died in +philosophic exile. Neither Giudice nor Sampiero would have acted thus. +The more forlorn the hope, the more they struggled. + +Among the old Corsican customs which are fast dying out, but +which still linger in the remote valleys of Niolo and Vico, is the +_vocero_, or funeral chant, improvised by women at funerals over +the bodies of the dead. Nothing illustrates the ferocious temper and +savage passions of the race better than these _voceri_, many of +which have been written down and preserved. Most of them are songs +of vengeance and imprecation, mingled with hyperbolical laments and +utterances of extravagant grief, poured forth by wives and sisters at +the side of murdered husbands and brothers. The women who sing them +seem to have lost all milk of human kindness, and to have exchanged +the virtues of their sex for Spartan fortitude and the rage of furies. +While we read their turbid lines we are carried in imagination to one +of the cheerless houses of Bastelica or Bocognano, overshadowed by its +mournful chestnut-tree, on which the blood of the murdered man is yet +red. The _gridata_, or wake, is assembled in a dark room. On the +wooden board, called _tola_, the corpse lies stretched; and round +it are women, veiled in the blue-black mantle of Corsican costume, +moaning and rocking themselves upon their chairs. The _pasto_ or +_conforto_, food supplied for mourners, stands upon a side table, +and round the room are men with savage eyes and bristling beards, +armed to the teeth, keen for vengeance. The dead man's musket and +pocket-pistol lie beside him, and his bloody shirt is hung up at his +head. Suddenly, the silence, hitherto only disturbed by suppressed +groans and muttered curses, is broken by a sharp cry. A woman rises: +it is the sister of the dead man; she seizes his shirt, and holding +it aloft with Maenad gestures and frantic screams, gives rhythmic +utterance to her grief and rage. 'I was spinning, when I heard a great +noise: it was a gunshot, which went into my heart, and seemed a voice +that cried, "Run, thy brother is dying." I ran into the room above; +I took the blow into my breast; I said, "Now he is dead, there is +nothing to give me comfort. Who will undertake thy vengeance? When I +show thy shirt, who will vow to let his beard grow till the murderer +is slain? Who is there left to do it? A mother near her death? A +sister? Of all our race there is only left a woman, without kin, poor, +orphan, and a girl. Yet, O my brother! never fear. For thy vengeance +thy sister is enough! + + '"Ma per fa la to bindetta, + Sta siguru, basta anch ella! + +Give me the pistol; I will shoulder the gun; I will away to the +hills. My brother, heart of thy sister, thou shalt be avenged!"' A +_vocero_ declaimed upon the bier of Giammatteo and Pasquale, +two cousins, by the sister of the former, is still fiercer and more +energetic in its malediction. This Erinnys of revenge prays Christ and +all the saints to extirpate the murderer's whole race, to shrivel it +up till it passes from the earth. Then, with a sudden and vehement +transition to the pathos of her own sorrow, she exclaims:-- + + 'Halla mai bista nissunu + Tumba l'omi pe li canti?' + +It appears from these words that Giammatteo's enemies had killed him +because they were jealous of his skill in singing. Shortly after, +she curses the curate of the village, a kinsman of the murderer, for +refusing to toll the funeral bells; and at last, all other threads of +rage and sorrow being twined and knotted into one, she gives loose +to her raging thirst for blood: 'If only I had a son, to train like +a sleuth-hound, that he might track the murderer! Oh, if I had a son! +Oh, if I had a lad!' Her words seem to choke her, and she swoons, and +remains for a short time insensible. When the Bacchante of revenge +awakes, it is with milder feelings in her heart: 'O brother mine, +Matteo! art thou sleeping? Here I will rest with thee and weep till +daybreak.' It is rare to find in literature so crude and intense +an expression of fiery hatred as these untranslatable _voceri_ +present. The emotion is so simple and so strong that it becomes +sublime by mere force, and affects us with a strange pathos when +contrasted with the tender affection conveyed in such terms of +endearment as 'my dove,' 'my flower,' 'my pheasant,' 'my bright +painted orange,' addressed to the dead. In the _voceri_ it often +happens that there are several interlocutors: one friend questions and +another answers; or a kinswoman of the murderer attempts to justify +the deed, and is overwhelmed with deadly imprecations. Passionate +appeals are made to the corpse: 'Arise! Do you not hear the women cry? +Stand up. Show your wounds, and let the fountains of your blood flow! +Alas! he is dead; he sleeps; he cannot hear!' Then they turn again to +tears and curses, feeling that no help or comfort can come from the +clay-cold form. The intensity of grief finds strange language for its +utterance. A girl, mourning over her father, cries:-- + + 'Mi l'hannu crucifissatu + Cume Ghiesu Cristu in croce.' + +Once only, in Viale's collection, does any friend of the dead remember +mercy. It is an old woman, who points to the crucifix above the bier. + +But all the _voceri_ are not so murderous. Several are composed +for girls who died unwedded and before their time, by their mothers +or companions. The language of these laments is far more tender and +ornate. They praise the gentle virtues and beauty of the girl, her +piety and helpful household ways. The most affecting of these dirges +is that which celebrates the death of Romana, daughter of Dariola +Danesi. Here is a pretty picture of the girl: 'Among the best and +fairest maidens you were like a rose among flowers, like the moon +among stars; so far more lovely were you than the loveliest. The +youths in your presence were like lighted torches, but full of +reverence; you were courteous to all, but with none familiar. In +church they gazed at you, but you looked at none of them; and after +mass you said, "Mother, let us go." Oh! who will console me for your +loss? Why did the Lord so much desire you? But now you rest in heaven, +all joy and smiles; for the world was not worthy of so fair a face. +Oh, how far more beautiful will Paradise be now!' Then follows a +piteous picture of the old bereaved mother, to whom a year will seem +a thousand years, who will wander among relatives without affection, +neighbours without love; and who, when sickness comes, will have no +one to give her a drop of water, or to wipe the sweat from her brow, +or to hold her hand in death. Yet all that is left for her is to wait +and pray for the end, that she may join again her darling. + +But it is time to return to Ajaccio itself. At present the attractions +and ornaments of the town consist of a good public library, Cardinal +Fesch's large but indifferent collection of pictures, two monuments +erected to Napoleon, and Napoleon's house. It will always be the chief +pride of Ajaccio that she gave birth to the great emperor. Close to +the harbour, in a public square by the sea-beach, stands an equestrian +statue of the conqueror, surrounded by his four brothers on foot. They +are all attired in Roman fashion, and are turned seaward, to the west, +as if to symbolise the emigration of this family to subdue Europe. +There is something ludicrous and forlorn in the stiffness of the +group--something even pathetic, when we think how Napoleon gazed +seaward from another island, no longer on horseback, no longer +laurel-crowned, an unthroned, unseated conqueror, on S. Helena. His +father's house stands close by. An old Italian waiting-woman, who had +been long in the service of the Murats, keeps it and shows it. She +has the manners of a lady, and can tell many stories of the various +members of the Buonaparte family. Those who fancy that Napoleon was +born in a mean dwelling of poor parents will be surprised to find so +much space and elegance in these apartments. Of course his family was +not rich by comparison with the riches of French or English nobles. +But for Corsicans they were well-to-do, and their house has an air of +antique dignity. The chairs of the entrance-saloon have been literally +stripped of their coverings by enthusiastic visitors; the horse-hair +stuffing underneath protrudes itself with a sort of comic pride, as +if protesting that it came to be so tattered in an honourable service. +Some of the furniture seems new; but many old presses, inlaid with +marbles, agates, and lapis-lazuli, such as Italian families preserve +for generations, have an air of respectable antiquity about them. Nor +is there any doubt that the young Napoleon led his minuets beneath +the stiff girandoles of the formal dancing-room. There, too, in a +dark back chamber, is the bed in which he was born. At its foot is a +photograph of the Prince Imperial sent by the Empress Eugenie, who, +when she visited the room, wept much _pianse molto_ (to use the +old lady's phrase)--at seeing the place where such lofty destinies +began. On the wall of the same room is a portrait of Napoleon himself +as the young general of the republic--with the citizen's unkempt +hair, the fierce fire of the Revolution in his eyes, a frown upon his +forehead, lips compressed, and quivering nostrils; also one of his +mother, the pastille of a handsome woman, with Napoleonic eyes +and brows and nose, but with a vacant simpering mouth. Perhaps +the provincial artist knew not how to seize the expression of this +feature, the most difficult to draw. For we cannot fancy that Letizia +had lips without the firmness or the fulness of a majestic nature. + +The whole first story of this house belonged to the Buonaparte family. +The windows look out partly on a little court and partly on narrow +streets. It was, no doubt, the memory of this home that made Napoleon, +when emperor, design schemes for the good of Corsica--schemes that +might have brought him more honour than many conquests, but which +he had no time or leisure to carry out. On S. Helena his mind often +reverted to them, and he would speak of the gummy odours of the macchi +wafted from the hillsides to the seashore. + + * * * * * + + + + +_MONTE GENEROSO_ + +The long hot days of Italian summer were settling down on plain and +country when, in the last week of May, we travelled northward from +Florence and Bologna seeking coolness. That was very hard to find in +Lombardy. The days were long and sultry, the nights short, without a +respite from the heat. Milan seemed a furnace, though in the Duomo and +the narrow shady streets there was a twilight darkness which at least +looked cool. Long may it be before the northern spirit of improvement +has taught the Italians to despise the wisdom of their forefathers, +who built those sombre streets of palaces with overhanging eaves, +that, almost meeting, form a shelter from the fiercest sun. The lake +country was even worse than the towns; the sunlight lay all day asleep +upon the shining waters, and no breeze came to stir their surface or +to lift the tepid veil of haze, through which the stony mountains, +with their yet unmelted patches of winter snow, glared as if in +mockery of coolness. + +Then we heard of a new inn, which had just been built by an +enterprising Italian doctor below the very top of Monte Generoso. +There was a picture of it in the hotel at Cadenabbia, but this gave +but little idea of any particular beauty. A big square house, +with many windows, and the usual ladies on mules, and guides with +alpenstocks, advancing towards it, and some round bushes growing near, +was all it showed. Yet there hung the real Monte Generoso above our +heads, and we thought it must be cooler on its height than by the +lake-shore. To find coolness was the great point with us just then. +Moreover, some one talked of the wonderful plants that grew among its +rocks, and of its grassy slopes enamelled with such flowers as make +our cottage gardens at home gay in summer, not to speak of others +rarer and peculiar to the region of the Southern Alps. Indeed, the +Generoso has a name for flowers, and it deserves it, as we presently +found. + +This mountain is fitted by its position for commanding one of the +finest views in the whole range of the Lombard Alps. A glance at the +map shows that. Standing out pre-eminent among the chain of lower +hills to which it belongs, the lakes of Lugano and Como with their +long arms enclose it on three sides, while on the fourth the plain of +Lombardy with its many cities, its rich pasture-lands and cornfields +intersected by winding river-courses and straight interminable +roads, advances to its very foot. No place could be better chosen for +surveying that contrasted scene of plain and mountain, which forms +the great attraction of the outlying buttresses of the central Alpine +mass. The superiority of the Monte Generoso to any of the similar +eminences on the northern outskirts of Switzerland is great. In +richness of colour, in picturesqueness of suggestion, in sublimity and +breadth of prospect, its advantages are incontestable. The reasons for +this superiority are obvious. On the Italian side the transition from +mountain to plain is far more abrupt; the atmosphere being clearer, +a larger sweep of distance is within our vision; again, the sunlight +blazes all day long upon the very front and forehead of the distant +Alpine chain, instead of merely slanting along it, as it does upon the +northern side. + +From Mendrisio, the village at the foot of the mountain, an easy +mule-path leads to the hotel, winding first through English-looking +hollow lanes with real hedges, which are rare in this country, +and English primroses beneath them. Then comes a forest region of +luxuriant chestnut-trees, giants with pink boles just bursting into +late leafage, yellow and tender, but too thin as yet for shade. +A little higher up, the chestnuts are displaced by wild laburnums +bending under their weight of flowers. The graceful branches meet +above our heads, sweeping their long tassels against our faces as we +ride beneath them, while the air for a good mile is full of fragrance. +It is strange to be reminded in this blooming labyrinth of the dusty +suburb roads and villa gardens of London. The laburnum is pleasant +enough in S. John's Wood or the Regent's Park in May--a tame +domesticated thing of brightness amid smoke and dust. But it is +another joy to see it flourishing in its own home, clothing acres of +the mountain-side in a very splendour of spring-colour, mingling its +paler blossoms with the golden broom of our own hills, and with +the silver of the hawthorn and wild cherry. Deep beds of +lilies-of-the-valley grow everywhere beneath the trees; and in the +meadows purple columbines, white asphodels, the Alpine spiraea, tall, +with feathery leaves, blue scabious, golden hawkweeds, turkscap +lilies, and, better than all, the exquisite narcissus poeticus, with +its crimson-tipped cup, and the pure pale lilies of San Bruno, are +crowded in a maze of dazzling brightness. Higher up the laburnums +disappear, and flaunting crimson peonies gleam here and there upon +the rocks, until at length the gentians and white ranunculuses of the +higher Alps displace the less hardy flowers of Italy. + +About an hour below the summit of the mountain we came upon the inn, +a large clean building, with scanty furniture and snowy wooden floors, +guiltless of carpets. It is big enough to hold about a hundred guests; +and Doctor Pasta, who built it, a native of Mendrisio, was gifted +either with much faith or with a real prophetic instinct.[8] Anyhow he +deserves commendation for his spirit of enterprise. As yet the house +is little known to English travellers: it is mostly frequented by +Italians from Milan, Novara, and other cities of the plain, who call +it the Italian Righi, and come to it, as cockneys go to Richmond, +for noisy picnic excursions, or at most for a few weeks' +_villeggiatura_ in the summer heats. When we were there in May +the season had scarcely begun, and the only inmates besides ourselves +were a large party from Milan, ladies and gentlemen in holiday guise, +who came, stayed one night, climbed the peak at sunrise, and departed +amid jokes and shouting and half-childish play, very unlike the doings +of a similar party in sober England. After that the stillness of +nature descended on the mountain, and the sun shone day after day upon +that great view which seemed created only for ourselves. And what +a view it was! The plain stretching up to the high horizon, where a +misty range of pink cirrus-clouds alone marked the line where earth +ended and the sky began, was islanded with cities and villages +innumerable, basking in the hazy shimmering heat. Milan, seen through +the doctor's telescope, displayed its Duomo perfect as a microscopic +shell, with all its exquisite fretwork, and Napoleon's arch of triumph +surmounted by the four tiny horses, as in a fairy's dream. Far off, +long silver lines marked the lazy course of Po and Ticino, while +little lakes like Varese and the lower end of Maggiore spread +themselves out, connecting the mountains with the plain. Five minutes' +walk from the hotel brought us to a ridge where the precipice fell +suddenly and almost sheer over one arm of Lugano Lake. Sullenly +outstretched asleep it lay beneath us, coloured with the tints of +fluor-spar, or with the changeful green and azure of a peacock's +breast. The depth appeared immeasurable. San Salvadore had receded +into insignificance: the houses and churches and villas of Lugano +bordered the lake-shore with an uneven line of whiteness. And over all +there rested a blue mist of twilight and of haze, contrasting with the +clearness of the peaks above. It was sunset when we first came here; +and, wave beyond wave, the purple Italian hills tossed their crested +summits to the foot of a range of stormy clouds that shrouded the high +Alps. Behind the clouds was sunset, clear and golden; but the +mountains had put on their mantle for the night, and the hem of their +garment was all we were to see. And yet--over the edge of the topmost +ridge of cloud, what was that long hard line of black, too solid and +immovable for cloud, rising into four sharp needles clear and well +defined? Surely it must be the familiar outline of Monte Rosa itself, +the form which every one who loves the Alps knows well by heart, which +picture-lovers know from Ruskin's woodcut in the 'Modern Painters.' +For a moment only the vision stayed: then clouds swept over it again, +and from the place where the empress of the Alps had been, a pillar of +mist shaped like an angel's wing, purple and tipped with gold, shot up +against the pale green sky. That cloud-world was a pageant in itself, +as grand and more gorgeous perhaps than the mountains would have been. +Deep down through the hollows of the Simplon a thunderstorm was +driving; and we saw forked flashes once and again, as in a distant +world, lighting up the valleys for a moment, and leaving the darkness +blacker behind them as the storm blurred out the landscape forty miles +away. Darkness was coming to us too, though our sky was clear and the +stars were shining brightly. At our feet the earth was folding itself +to sleep; the plain was wholly lost; little islands of white mist had +formed themselves, and settled down upon the lakes and on their marshy +estuaries; the birds were hushed; the gentian-cups were filling to the +brim with dew. Night had descended on the mountain and the plain; the +show was over. + +The dawn was whitening in the east next morning, when we again +scrambled through the dwarf beechwood to the precipice above the lake. +Like an ink-blot it lay, unruffled, slumbering sadly. Broad sheets of +vapour brooded on the plain, telling of miasma and fever, of which we +on the mountain, in the pure cool air, knew nothing. The Alps were +all there now--cold, unreal, stretching like a phantom line of snowy +peaks, from the sharp pyramids of Monte Viso and the Grivola in the +west to the distant Bernina and the Ortler in the east. Supreme among +them towered Monte Rosa--queenly, triumphant, gazing down in proud +pre-eminence, as she does when seen from any point of the Italian +plain. There is no mountain like her. Mont Blanc himself is scarcely +so regal; and she seems to know it, for even the clouds sweep humbled +round her base, girdling her at most, but leaving her crown clear and +free. Now, however, there were no clouds to be seen in all the sky. +The mountains had a strange unshriven look, as if waiting to be +blessed. Above them, in the cold grey air, hung a low black arch +of shadow, the shadow of the bulk of the huge earth, which still +concealed the sun. Slowly, slowly this dark line sank lower, till, +one by one, at last, the peaks caught first a pale pink flush; then +a sudden golden glory flashed from one to the other, as they leapt +joyfully into life. It is a supreme moment this first burst of life +and light over the sleeping world, as one can only see it on rare days +and in rare places like the Monte Generoso. The earth--enough of it at +least for us to picture to ourselves the whole--lies at our feet; and +we feel as the Saviour might have felt, when from the top of that +high mountain He beheld the kingdoms of the world and all the glory of +them. Strangely and solemnly may we image to our fancy the lives that +are being lived down in those cities of the plain: how many are waking +at this very moment to toil and a painful weariness, to sorrow, or to +'that unrest which men miscall delight;' while we upon our mountain +buttress, suspended in mid-heaven and for a while removed from daily +cares, are drinking in the beauty of the world that God has made so +fair and wonderful. From this same eyrie, only a few years ago, the +hostile armies of France, Italy, and Austria might have been watched +moving in dim masses across the plains, for the possession of which +they were to clash in mortal fight at Solferino and Magenta. All is +peaceful now. It is hard to picture the waving cornfields trodden +down, the burning villages and ransacked vineyards, all the horrors of +real war to which that fertile plain has been so often the prey. But +now these memories of + + Old, unhappy, far-off things, + And battles long ago, + +do but add a calm and beauty to the radiant scene that lies before us. +And the thoughts which it suggests, the images with which it stores +our mind, are not without their noblest uses. The glory of the world +sinks deeper into our shallow souls than we well know; and the spirit +of its splendour is always ready to revisit us on dark and dreary days +at home with an unspeakable refreshment. Even as I write, I seem to +see the golden glow sweeping in broad waves over the purple hills +nearer and nearer, till the lake brightens at our feet, and the +windows of Lugano flash with sunlight, and little boats creep forth +across the water like spiders on a pond, leaving an arrowy track of +light upon the green behind them, while Monte Salvadore with its tiny +chapel and a patch of the further landscape are still kept in darkness +by the shadow of the Generoso itself. The birds wake into song as the +sun's light comes; cuckoo answers cuckoo from ridge to ridge; dogs +bark; and even the sounds of human life rise up to us: children's +voices and the murmurs of the market-place ascending faintly from the +many villages hidden among the chestnut-trees beneath our feet; while +the creaking of a cart we can but just see slowly crawling along the +straight road by the lake, is heard at intervals. + +The full beauty of the sunrise is but brief. Already the low lakelike +mists we saw last night have risen and spread, and shaken themselves +out into masses of summer clouds, which, floating upward, threaten to +envelop us upon our vantage-ground. Meanwhile they form a changeful +sea below, blotting out the plain, surging up into the valleys with +the movement of a billowy tide, attacking the lower heights like the +advance-guard of a besieging army, but daring not as yet to invade the +cold and solemn solitudes of the snowy Alps. These, too, in time, when +the sun's heat has grown strongest, will be folded in their midday +pall of sheltering vapour. + +The very summit of Monte Generoso must not be left without a word of +notice. The path to it is as easy as the sheep-walks on an English +down, though cut along grass-slopes descending at a perilously sharp +angle. At the top the view is much the same, as far as the grand +features go, as that which is commanded from the cliff by the hotel. +But the rocks here are crowded with rare Alpine flowers--delicate +golden auriculas with powdery leaves and stems, pale yellow cowslips, +imperial purple saxifrages, soldanellas at the edge of lingering +patches of the winter snow, blue gentians, crocuses, and the frail, +rosy-tipped ranunculus, called glacialis. Their blooming time is +brief. When summer comes the mountain will be bare and burned, like +all Italian hills. The Generoso is a very dry mountain, silent and +solemn from its want of streams. There is no sound of falling waters +on its crags; no musical rivulets flow down its sides, led carefully +along the slopes, as in Switzerland, by the peasants, to keep their +hay-crops green and gladden the thirsty turf throughout the heat +and drought of summer. The soil is a Jurassic limestone: the rain +penetrates the porous rock, and sinks through cracks and fissures, to +reappear above the base of the mountain in a full-grown stream. This +is a defect in the Generoso, as much to be regretted as the want of +shade upon its higher pastures. Here, as elsewhere in Piedmont, the +forests are cut for charcoal; the beech-scrub, which covers large +tracts of the hills, never having the chance of growing into trees +much higher than a man. It is this which makes an Italian mountain +at a distance look woolly, like a sheep's back. Among the brushwood, +however, lilies-of-the-valley and Solomon's seals delight to grow; +and the league-long beds of wild strawberries prove that when the +laburnums have faded, the mountain will become a garden of feasting. + +It was on the crest of Monte Generoso, late one afternoon in May, that +we saw a sight of great beauty. The sun had yet about an hour before +it sank behind the peaks of Monte Rosa, and the sky was clear, except +for a few white clouds that floated across the plain of Lombardy. Then +as we sat upon the crags, tufted with soldanellas and auriculas, +we could see a fleecy vapour gliding upward from the hollows of the +mountain, very thin and pale, yet dense enough to blot the landscape +to the south and east from sight. It rose with an imperceptible +motion, as the Oceanides might have soared from the sea to comfort +Prometheus in the tragedy of AEschylus. Already the sun had touched its +upper edge with gold, and we were expecting to be enveloped in a mist; +when suddenly upon the outspread sheet before us there appeared two +forms, larger than life, yet not gigantic, surrounded with haloes of +such tempered iridescence as the moon half hidden by a summer cloud is +wont to make. They were the glorified figures of ourselves; and what +we did, the phantoms mocked, rising or bowing, or spreading wide their +arms. Some scarce-felt breeze prevented the vapour from passing across +the ridge to westward, though it still rose from beneath, and kept +fading away into thin air above our heads. Therefore the vision lasted +as long as the sun stayed yet above the Alps; and the images with +their aureoles shrank and dilated with the undulations of the mist. +I could not but think of that old formula for an anthropomorphic +Deity--'the Brocken-spectre of the human spirit projected on the mists +of the Non-ego.' Even like those cloud-phantoms are the gods made in +the image of man, who have been worshipped through successive ages of +the world, gods dowered with like passions to those of the races +who have crouched before them, gods cruel and malignant and lustful, +jealous and noble and just, radiant or gloomy, the counterparts of men +upon a vast and shadowy scale. But here another question rose. If +the gods that men have made and ignorantly worshipped be really +but glorified copies of their own souls, where is the sun in this +parallel? Without the sun's rays the mists of Monte Generoso could +have shown, no shadowy forms. Without some other power than the mind +of man, could men have fashioned for themselves those ideals that they +named their gods? Unseen by Greek, or Norseman, or Hindoo, the potent +force by which alone they could externalise their image, existed +outside them, independent of their thought. Nor does the trite epigram +touch the surface of the real mystery. The sun, the human beings on +the mountain, and the mists are all parts of one material universe: +the transient phenomenon we witnessed was but the effect of a chance +combination. Is, then, the anthropomorphic God as momentary and as +accidental in the system of the world as that vapoury spectre? The +God in whom we live and move and have our being must be far more +all-pervasive, more incognisable by the souls of men, who doubt not +for one moment of His presence and His power. Except for purposes of +rhetoric the metaphor that seemed so clever fails. Nor, when once such +thoughts have been stirred in us by such a sight, can we do better +than repeat Goethe's sublime profession of a philosophic mysticism. +This translation I made one morning on the Pasterze Gletscher beneath +the spires of the Gross Glockner:-- + + To Him who from eternity, self-stirred, + Himself hath made by His creative word! + To Him, supreme, who causeth Faith to be, + Trust, Hope, Love, Power, and endless Energy! + To Him, who, seek to name Him as we will, + Unknown within Himself abideth still! + + Strain ear and eye, till sight and sense be dim; + Thou'lt find but faint similitudes of Him: + Yea, and thy spirit in her flight of flame + Still strives to gauge the symbol and the name: + Charmed and compelled thou climb'st from height to height, + And round thy path the world shines wondrous bright; + Time, Space, and Size, and Distance cease to be, + And every step is fresh infinity. + What were the God who sat outside to scan + The spheres that 'neath His finger circling ran? + God dwells within, and moves the world and moulds, + Himself and Nature in one form enfolds: + Thus all that lives in Him and breathes and is, + Shall ne'er His puissance, ne'er His spirit miss. + + The soul of man, too, is an universe: + Whence follows it that race with race concurs + In naming all it knows of good and true + God,--yea, its own God; and with homage due + Surrenders to His sway both earth and heaven; + Fears Him, and loves, where place for love is given. + + * * * * * + + + + +_LOMBARD VIGNETTES_ + + +ON THE SUPERGA + +This is the chord of Lombard colouring in May. Lowest in the scale: +bright green of varied tints, the meadow-grasses mingling with willows +and acacias, harmonised by air and distance. Next, opaque blue--the +blue of something between amethyst and lapis-lazuli--that belongs +alone to the basements of Italian mountains. Higher, the roseate +whiteness of ridged snow on Alps or Apennines. Highest, the blue of +the sky, ascending from pale turquoise to transparent sapphire filled +with light. A mediaeval mystic might have likened this chord to the +spiritual world. For the lowest region is that of natural life, of +plant and bird and beast, and unregenerate man; it is the place of +faun and nymph and satyr, the plain where wars are fought and cities +built, and work is done. Thence we climb to purified humanity, the +mountains of purgation, the solitude and simplicity of contemplative +life not yet made perfect by freedom from the flesh. Higher comes that +thin white belt, where are the resting places of angelic feet, the +points whence purged souls take their flight toward infinity. Above +all is heaven, the hierarchies ascending row on row to reach the light +of God. + +This fancy occurred to me as I climbed the slope of the Superga, +gazing over acacia hedges and poplars to the mountains bare in morning +light. The occasional occurrence of bars across this chord--poplars +shivering in sun and breeze, stationary cypresses as black as night, +and tall campanili with the hot red shafts of glowing brick--adds just +enough of composition to the landscape. Without too much straining of +the allegory, the mystic might have recognised in these aspiring bars +the upward effort of souls rooted in the common life of earth. + +The panorama, unrolling as we ascend, is enough to overpower a lover +of beauty. There is nothing equal to it for space and breadth and +majesty. Monte Rosa, the masses of Mont Blanc blent with the Grand +Paradis, the airy pyramid of Monte Viso, these are the battlements of +that vast Alpine rampart, in which the vale of Susa opens like a gate. +To west and south sweep the Maritime Alps and the Apennines. Beneath, +glides the infant Po; and where he leads our eyes, the plain is only +limited by pearly mist. + +A BRONZE BUST OF CALIGULA AT TURIN + +The Albertina bronze is one of the most precious portraits of +antiquity, not merely because it confirms the testimony of the green +basalt bust in the Capitol, but also because it supplies an even more +emphatic and impressive illustration to the narrative of Suetonius. + +Caligula is here represented as young and singularly beautiful. It is +indeed an ideal Roman head, with the powerful square modelling, the +crisp short hair, low forehead and regular firm features, proper to +the noblest Roman type. The head is thrown backward from the throat; +and there is a something of menace or defiance or suffering in the +suggestion of brusque movement given to the sinews of the neck. This +attitude, together with the tension of the forehead, and the fixed +expression of pain and strain communicated by the lines of the +mouth--strong muscles of the upper lip and abruptly chiselled under +lip--in relation to the small eyes, deep set beneath their cavernous +and level brows, renders the whole face a monument of spiritual +anguish. I remember that the green basalt bust of the Capitol has the +same anxious forehead, the same troubled and overburdened eyes; but +the agony of this fretful mouth, comparable to nothing but the mouth +of Pandolfo Sigismondo Malatesta, and, like that, on the verge +of breaking into the spasms of delirium, is quite peculiar to the +Albertina bronze. It is just this which the portrait of the Capitol +lacks for the completion of Caligula. The man who could be so +represented in art had nothing wholly vulgar in him. The brutality +of Caracalla, the overblown sensuality of Nero, the effeminacy of +Commodus or Heliogabalus, are all absent here. This face idealises +the torture of a morbid soul. It is withal so truly beautiful that it +might easily be made the poem of high suffering or noble passion. +If the bronze were plastic, I see how a great sculptor, by but few +strokes, could convert it into an agonising Stephen or Sebastian. As +it is, the unimaginable touch of disease, the unrest of madness, made +Caligula the genius of insatiable appetite; and his martyrdom was the +torment of lust and ennui and everlasting agitation. The accident of +empire tantalised him with vain hopes of satisfying the Charybdis +of his soul's sick cravings. From point to point he passed of empty +pleasure and unsatisfying cruelty, for ever hungry; until the malady +of his spirit, unrestrained by any limitations, and with the right +medium for its development, became unique--the tragic type of +pathological desire. What more than all things must have plagued a man +with that face was probably the unavoidable meanness of his career. +When we study the chapters of Suetonius, we are forced to feel that, +though the situation and the madness of Caligula were dramatically +impressive, his crimes were trivial and, small. In spite of the vast +scale on which he worked his devilish will, his life presents a total +picture of sordid vice, differing only from pot-house dissipation and +schoolboy cruelty in point of size. And this of a truth is the Nemesis +of evil. After a time, mere tyrannous caprice must become commonplace +and cloying, tedious to the tyrant, and uninteresting to the student +of humanity: nor can I believe that Caligula failed to perceive this +to his own infinite disgust. + +Suetonius asserts that he was hideously ugly. How are we to square +this testimony with the witness of the bronze before us? What changed +the face, so beautiful and terrible in youth, to ugliness that shrank +from sight in manhood? Did the murderers find it blurred in its fine +lineaments, furrowed with lines of care, hollowed with the soul's +hunger? Unless a life of vice and madness had succeeded in making +Caligula's face what the faces of some maniacs are--the bloated ruin +of what was once a living witness to the soul within--I could fancy +that death may have sanctified it with even more beauty than this +bust of the self-tormented young man shows. Have we not all seen the +anguish of thought-fretted faces smoothed out by the hands of the +Deliverer? + +FERRARI AT VERCELLI + +It is possible that many visitors to the Cathedral of Como have +carried away the memory of stately women with abundant yellow hair and +draperies of green and crimson, in a picture they connect thereafter +with Gaudenzio Ferrari. And when they come to Milan, they are probably +both impressed and disappointed by a Martyrdom of S. Catherine in the +Brera, bearing the same artist's name. If they wish to understand this +painter, they must seek him at Varallo, at Saronno, and at Vercelli. +In the Church of S. Cristoforo in Vercelli, Gaudenzio Ferrari at the +full height of his powers showed what he could do to justify Lomazzo's +title chosen for him of the Eagle. He has indeed the strong wing and +the swiftness of the king of birds. And yet the works of few really +great painters--and among the really great we place Ferrari--leave +upon the mind a more distressing sense of imperfection. Extraordinary +fertility of fancy, vehement dramatic passion, sincere study of +nature, and great command of technical resources are here (as +elsewhere in Ferrari's frescoes) neutralised by an incurable defect of +the combining and harmonising faculty, so essential to a masterpiece. +There is stuff enough of thought and vigour and imagination to make +a dozen artists. And yet we turn away disappointed from the crowded, +dazzling, stupefying wilderness of forms and faces on these mighty +walls. + +All that Ferrari derived from actual life--the heads of single +figures, the powerful movement of men and women in excited action, the +monumental pose of two praying nuns--is admirably rendered. His angels +too, in S. Cristoforo as elsewhere, are quite original; not only in +their type of beauty, which is terrestrial and peculiar to Ferrari, +without a touch of Correggio's sensuality; but also in the intensity +of their emotion, the realisation of their vitality. Those which hover +round the Cross in the fresco of the 'Crucifixion' are as passionate +as any angels of the Giottesque masters in Assisi. Those again which +crowd the Stable of Bethlehem in the 'Nativity' yield no point of +idyllic charm to Gozzoli's in the Riccardi Chapel. + +The 'Crucifixion' and the 'Assumption of Madonna' are very tall +and narrow compositions, audacious in their attempt to fill almost +unmanageable space with a connected action. Of the two frescoes the +'Crucifixion,' which has points of strong similarity to the same +subject at Varallo, is by far the best. Ferrari never painted anything +at once truer to life and nobler in tragic style than the fainting +Virgin. Her face expresses the very acme of martyrdom--not exaggerated +nor spasmodic, but real and sublime--in the suffering of a stately +matron. In points like this Ferrari cannot be surpassed. Raphael could +scarcely have done better; besides, there is an air of sincerity, a +stamp of popular truth, in this episode, which lies beyond Raphael's +sphere. It reminds us rather of Tintoretto. + +After the 'Crucifixion,' I place the 'Adoration of the Magi,' full +of fine mundane motives and gorgeous costumes; then the 'Sposalizio' +(whose marriage, I am not certain), the only grandly composed picture +of the series, and marked by noble heads; then the 'Adoration of +the Shepherds,' with two lovely angels holding the bambino. The +'Assumption of the Magdalen'--for which fresco there is a valuable +cartoon in the Albertina Collection at Turin--must have been a fine +picture; but it is ruined now. An oil altar-piece in the choir of the +same church struck me less than the frescoes. It represents Madonna +and a crowd of saints under an orchard of apple-trees, with cherubs +curiously flung about almost at random in the air. The motive of the +orchard is prettily conceived and carried out with spirit. + +What Ferrari possessed was rapidity of movement, fulness and richness +of reality, exuberance of invention, excellent portraiture, dramatic +vehemence, and an almost unrivalled sympathy with the swift and +passionate world of angels. What he lacked was power of composition, +simplicity of total effect, harmony in colouring, control over his +own luxuriance, the sense of tranquillity. He seems to have sought +grandeur in size and multitude, richness, eclat, contrast. Being the +disciple of Lionardo and Raphael, his defects are truly singular. As +a composer, the old leaven of Giovenone remained in him; but he felt +the dramatic tendencies of a later age, and in occasional episodes he +realised them with a force and _furia_ granted to very few of the +Italian painters. + +LANINI AT VERCELLI + +The Casa Mariano is a palace which belonged to a family of that name. +Like many houses of the sort in Italy, it fell to vile uses; and +its hall of audience was turned into a lumber-room. The Operai of +Vercelli, I was told, bought the palace a few years ago, restored the +noble hall, and devoted a smaller room to a collection of pictures +valuable for students of the early Vercellese style of painting. Of +these there is no need to speak. The great hall is the gem of the Casa +Mariano. It has a coved roof, with a large flat oblong space in +the centre of the ceiling. The whole of this vault and the lunettes +beneath were painted by Lanini; so runs the tradition of the +fresco-painter's name; and though much injured by centuries of +outrage, and somewhat marred by recent restoration, these frescoes +form a precious monument of Lombard art. The object of the painter's +design seems to have been the glorification of Music. In the central +compartment of the roof is an assembly of the gods, obviously borrowed +from Raphael's 'Marriage of Cupid and Psyche' in the Farnesina +at Rome. The fusion of Roman composition with Lombard execution +constitutes the chief charm of this singular work, and makes it, so +far as I am aware, unique. Single figures of the goddesses, and the +whole movement of the scene upon Olympus, are transcribed without +attempt at concealment. And yet the fresco is not a barefaced copy. +The manner of feeling and of execution is quite different from that of +Raphael's school. The poetry and sentiment are genuinely Lombard. None +of Raphael's pupils could have carried out his design with a delicacy +of emotion and a technical skill in colouring so consummate. What, +we think, as we gaze upward, would the Master have given for such a +craftsman? The hardness, coarseness, and animal crudity of the Roman +School are absent: so also is their vigour. But where the grace of +form and colour is so soft and sweet, where the high-bred calm of +good company is so sympathetically rendered, where the atmosphere of +amorous languor and of melody is so artistically diffused, we cannot +miss the powerful modelling and rather vulgar _tours de force_ of +Giulio Romano. The scale of tone is silvery golden. There are no hard +blues, no coarse red flesh-tints, no black shadows. Mellow lights, +the morning hues of primrose, or of palest amber, pervade the whole +society. It is a court of gentle and harmonious souls; and though +this style of beauty might cloy, at first sight there is something +ravishing in those yellow-haired white-limbed, blooming deities. No +movement of lascivious grace as in Correggio, no perturbation of +the senses as in some of the Venetians, disturbs the rhythm of their +music; nor is the pleasure of the flesh, though felt by the painter +and communicated to the spectator, an interruption to their divine +calm. The white, saffron-haired goddesses are grouped together +like stars seen in the topaz light of evening, like daffodils half +smothered in snowdrops, and among them, Diana, with the crescent +on her forehead, is the fairest. Her dream-like beauty need fear +no comparison with the Diana of the Camera di S. Paolo. Apollo and +Bacchus are scarcely less lovely in their bloom of earliest manhood; +honey-pale, as Greeks would say; like statues of living electron; +realising Simaetha's picture of her lover and his friend: + +[Greek: + + tois d' en xanthotera men elichrysoio geneias, + stethea de stilbonta poly pleon e tu Selana.[9]] + +It was thus that the almost childlike spirit of the Milanese painters +felt the antique: how differently from their Roman brethren! It was +thus that they interpreted the lines of their own poets:-- + + E i tuoi capei piu volte ho somigliati + Di Cerere a le paglie secche o bionde + Dintorno crespi al tuo capo legati.[10] + +Yet the painter of this hall--whether we are to call him Lanini or +another--was not a composer. Where he has not robbed the motives and +the distribution of the figures from Raphael, he has nothing left but +grace of detail. The intellectual feebleness of his style may be seen +in many figures of women playing upon instruments of music, ranged +around the walls. One girl at the organ is graceful; another with a +tambourine has a sort of Bassarid beauty. But the group of Apollo, +Pegasus, and a Muse upon Parnassus, is a failure in its meaningless +frigidity, while few of these subordinate compositions show power of +conception or vigour of design. + +Lanini, like Sodoma, was a native of Vercelli; and though he was +Ferrari's pupil, there is more in him of Luini or of Sodoma than of +his master. He does not rise at any point to the height of these +three great masters, but he shares some of Luini's and Sodoma's fine +qualities, without having any of Ferrari's force. A visit to the +mangled remnants of his frescoes in S. Caterina will repay the student +of art. This was once, apparently, a double church, or a church with +the hall and chapel of a _confraternita_ appended to it. One portion +of the building was painted with the history of the Saint; and very +lovely must this work have been, to judge by the fragments which have +recently been rescued from whitewash, damp, and ruthless mutilation. +What wonderful Lombard faces, half obliterated on the broken wall and +mouldering plaster, smile upon us like drowned memories swimming up +from the depths of oblivion! Wherever three or four are grouped +together, we find an exquisite little picture--an old woman and two +young women in a doorway, for example, telling no story, but touching +us with simple harmony of form. Nothing further is needed to render +their grace intelligible. Indeed, knowing the faults of the school, we +may seek some consolation by telling ourselves that these incomplete +fragments yield Lanini's best. In the coved compartments of the roof, +above the windows, ran a row of dancing boys; and these are still most +beautifully modelled, though the pallor of recent whitewash is upon +them. All the boys have blonde hair. They are naked, with scrolls or +ribbons wreathed around them, adding to the airiness of their +continual dance. Some of the loveliest are in a room used to stow away +the lumber of the church--old boards and curtains, broken lanterns, +candle-ends in tin sconces, the musty apparatus of festival +adornments, and in the midst of all a battered, weather-beaten bier. + +THE PIAZZA OF PIACENZA + +The great feature of Piacenza is its famous piazza--romantically, +picturesquely perfect square, surpassing the most daring attempts +of the scene-painter, and realising a poet's dreams. The space is +considerable, and many streets converge upon it at irregular angles. +Its finest architectural feature is the antique Palace of the Commune: +Gothic arcades of stone below, surmounted by a brick building with +wonderfully delicate and varied terra-cotta work in the round-arched +windows. Before this facade, on the marble pavement, prance the bronze +equestrian statues of two Farnesi--insignificant men, exaggerated +horses, flying drapery--as _barocco_ as it is possible to be +in style, but so splendidly toned with verdigris, so superb in their +_bravura_ attitude, and so happily placed in the line of two +streets lending far vistas from the square into the town beyond, that +it is difficult to criticise them seriously. They form, indeed, an +important element in the pictorial effect, and enhance the terra-cotta +work of the facade by the contrast of their colour. + +The time to see this square is in evening twilight--that wonderful +hour after sunset--when the people are strolling on the pavement, +polished to a mirror by the pacing of successive centuries, and +when the cavalry soldiers group themselves at the angles under the +lamp-posts or beneath the dimly lighted Gothic arches of the Palace. +This is the magical mellow hour to be sought by lovers of the +picturesque in all the towns of Italy, the hour which, by its tender +blendings of sallow western lights with glimmering lamps, casts the +veil of half shadow over any crudeness and restores the injuries +of Time; the hour when all the tints of these old buildings are +intensified, etherealised, and harmonised by one pervasive glow. When +I last saw Piacenza, it had been raining all day; and ere sundown a +clearing had come from the Alps, followed by fresh threatenings of +thunderstorms. The air was very liquid. There was a tract of yellow +sunset sky to westward, a faint new moon half swathed in mist above, +and over all the north a huge towered thundercloud kept flashing +distant lightnings. The pallid primrose of the West, forced down and +reflected back from that vast bank of tempest, gave unearthly beauty +to the hues of church and palace--tender half-tones of violet and +russet paling into greys and yellows on what in daylight seemed but +dull red brick. Even the uncompromising facade of S. Francesco helped; +and the Dukes were like statues of the 'Gran Commendatore,' waiting +for Don Giovanni's invitation. + +MASOLINO AT CASTIGLIONE D'OLONA + +Through the loveliest Arcadian scenery of woods and fields and +rushing waters the road leads downward from Varese to Castiglione. +The Collegiate Church stands on a leafy hill above the town, with fair +prospect over groves and waterfalls and distant mountains. Here in the +choir is a series of frescoes by Masolino da Panicale, the master +of Masaccio, who painted them about the year 1428. 'Masolinus de +Florentia pinxit' decides their authorship. The histories of the +Virgin, S. Stephen and S. Lawrence, are represented: but the injuries +of time and neglect have been so great that it is difficult to judge +them fairly. All we feel for certain is that Masolino had not yet +escaped from the traditional Giottesque mannerism. Only a group of +Jews stoning Stephen, and Lawrence before the tribunal, remind us by +dramatic energy of the Brancacci Chapel. + +The Baptistery frescoes, dealing with the legend of S. John, show a +remarkable advance; and they are luckily in better preservation. A +soldier lifting his two-handed sword to strike off the Baptist's head +is a vigorous figure, full of Florentine realism. Also in the Baptism +in Jordan we are reminded of Masaccio by an excellent group of +bathers--one man taking off his hose, another putting them on again, +a third standing naked with his back turned, and a fourth shivering +half-dressed with a look of curious sadness on his face. The nude has +been carefully studied and well realised. The finest composition of +this series is a large panel representing a double action--Salome at +Herod's table begging for the Baptist's head, and then presenting +it to her mother Herodias. The costumes are quattrocento Florentine, +exactly rendered. Salome is a graceful slender creature; the two women +who regard her offering to Herodias with mingled curiosity and horror, +are well conceived. The background consists of a mountain landscape +in Masaccio's simple manner, a rich Renaissance villa, and an open +loggia. The architecture perspective is scientifically accurate, and +a frieze of boys with garlands on the villa is in the best manner of +Florentine sculpture. On the mountain side, diminished in scale, is +a group of elders, burying the body of S. John. These are massed +together and robed in the style of Masaccio, and have his virile +dignity of form and action. Indeed this interesting wall-painting +furnishes an epitome of Florentine art, in its intentions and +achievements, during the first half of the fifteenth century. The +colour is strong and brilliant, and the execution solid. + +The margin of the Salome panel has been used for scratching the +Chronicle of Castiglione. I read one date, 1568, several of the +next century, the record of a duel between two gentlemen, and many +inscriptions to this effect, 'Erodiana Regina,' 'Omnia praetereunt,' +&c. A dirty one-eyed fellow keeps the place. In my presence he swept +the frescoes over with a scratchy broom, flaying their upper surface +in profound unconsciousness of mischief. The armour of the executioner +has had its steel colours almost rubbed off by this infernal process. +Damp and cobwebs are far kinder. + +THE CERTOSA + +The Certosa of Pavia leaves upon the mind an impression of bewildering +sumptuousness: nowhere else are costly materials so combined with a +lavish expenditure of the rarest art. Those who have only once been +driven round together with the crew of sightseers, can carry little +away but the memory of lapis-lazuli and bronze-work, inlaid agates and +labyrinthine sculpture, cloisters tenantless in silence, fair painted +faces smiling from dark corners on the senseless crowd, trim gardens +with rows of pink primroses in spring, and of begonia in autumn, +blooming beneath colonnades of glowing terra-cotta. The striking +contrast between the Gothic of the interior and the Renaissance +facade, each in its own kind perfect, will also be remembered; and +thoughts of the two great houses, Visconti and Sforza, to whose pride +of power it is a monument, may be blended with the recollection of +art-treasures alien to their spirit. + +Two great artists, Ambrogio Borgognone and Antonio Amadeo, are the +presiding genii of the Certosa. To minute criticism, based upon the +accurate investigation of records and the comparison of styles, +must be left the task of separating their work from that of numerous +collaborators. But it is none the less certain that the keynote of +the whole music is struck by them, Amadeo, the master of the Colleoni +chapel at Bergamo, was both sculptor and architect. If the facade +of the Certosa be not absolutely his creation, he had a hand in the +distribution of its masses and the detail of its ornaments. The only +fault in this otherwise faultless product of the purest quattrocento +inspiration, is that the facade is a frontispiece, with hardly any +structural relation to the church it masks: and this, though serious +from the point of view of architecture, is no abatement of its +sculpturesque and picturesque refinement. At first sight it seems +a wilderness of loveliest reliefs and statues--of angel faces, +fluttering raiment, flowing hair, love-laden youths, and stationary +figures of grave saints, mid wayward tangles of acanthus and wild vine +and cupid-laden foliage; but the subordination of these decorative +details to the main design, clear, rhythmical, and lucid, like a +chaunt of Pergolese or Stradella, will enrapture one who has the +sense for unity evoked from divers elements, for thought subduing all +caprices to the harmony of beauty. It is not possible elsewhere in +Italy to find the instinct of the earlier Renaissance, so amorous in +its expenditure of rare material, so lavish in its bestowal of the +costliest workmanship on ornamental episodes, brought into truer +keeping with a pure and simple structural effect. + +All the great sculptor-architects of Lombardy worked in succession +on this miracle of beauty; and this may account for the sustained +perfection of style, which nowhere suffers from the languor of +exhaustion in the artist or from repetition of motives. It remains the +triumph of North Italian genius, exhibiting qualities of tenderness +and self-abandonment to inspiration, which we lack in the severer +masterpieces of the Tuscan school. + +To Borgognone is assigned the painting of the roof in nave and +choir--exceeding rich, varied, and withal in sympathy with stately +Gothic style. Borgognone again is said to have designed the saints and +martyrs worked in _tarsia_ for the choir-stalls. His frescoes are +in some parts well preserved, as in the lovely little Madonna at the +end of the south chapel, while the great fresco above the window in +the south transept has an historical value that renders it interesting +in spite of partial decay. Borgognone's oil pictures throughout +the church prove, if such proof were needed after inspection of the +altar-piece in our National Gallery, that he was one of the most +powerful and original painters of Italy, blending the repose of the +earlier masters and their consummate workmanship with a profound +sensibility to the finest shades of feeling and the rarest forms of +natural beauty. He selected an exquisite type of face for his young +men and women; on his old men he bestowed singular gravity and +dignity. His saints are a society of strong, pure, restful, earnest +souls, in whom the passion of deepest emotion is transfigured by +habitual calm. The brown and golden harmonies he loved, are gained +without sacrifice of lustre: there is a self-restraint in his +colouring which corresponds to the reserve of his emotion; and though +a regret sometimes rises in our mind that he should have modelled the +light and shade upon his faces with a brusque, unpleasing hardness, +their pallor dwells within our memory as something delicately sought +if not consummately attained. In a word, Borgognone was a true Lombard +of the best time. The very imperfection of his flesh-painting repeats +in colour what the greatest Lombard sculptors sought in stone--a +sharpness of relief that passes over into angularity. This brusqueness +was the counterpoise to tenderness of feeling and intensity of fancy +in these northern artists. Of all Borgognone's pictures in the Certosa +I should select the altar-piece of S. Siro with S. Lawrence and S. +Stephen and two Fathers of the Church, for its fusion of this master's +qualities. + +The Certosa is a wilderness of lovely workmanship. From Borgognone's +majesty we pass into the quiet region of Luini's Christian grace, or +mark the influence of Lionardo on that rare Assumption of Madonna by +his pupil, Andrea Solari. Like everything touched by the Lionardesque +spirit, this great picture was left unfinished: yet Northern Italy +has nothing finer to show than the landscape, outspread in its +immeasurable purity of calm, behind the grouped Apostles and the +ascendant Mother of Heaven. The feeling of that happy region between +the Alps and Lombardy, where there are many waters--_et tacitos sine +labe laous sine murmure rivos_--and where the last spurs of the +mountains sink in undulations to the plain, has passed into this azure +vista, just as all Umbria is suggested in a twilight background of +young Raphael or Perugino. + +The portraits of the Dukes of Milan and their families carry us into +a very different realm of feeling. Medallions above the doors of +sacristy and chancel, stately figures reared aloft beneath gigantic +canopies, men and women slumbering with folded hands upon their marble +biers--we read in all those sculptured forms a strange record of human +restlessness, resolved into the quiet of the tomb. The iniquities of +Gian Galeazzo Visconti, _il gran Biscione_, the blood-thirst +of Gian Maria, the dark designs of Filippo and his secret vices, +Francesco Sforza's treason, Galeazzo Maria's vanities and lusts; +their tyrants' dread of thunder and the knife; their awful deaths by +pestilence and the assassin's poignard; their selfishness, oppression, +cruelty and fraud; the murders of their kinsmen; their labyrinthine +plots and acts of broken faith;--all is tranquil now, and we can +say to each what Bosola found for the Duchess of Malfi ere her +execution:-- + + Much you had of land and rent; + Your length in clay's now competent: + A long war disturbed your mind; + Here your perfect peace is signed! + +Some of these faces are commonplace, with _bourgeois_ cunning +written on the heavy features; one is bluff, another stolid, a third +bloated, a fourth stately. The sculptors have dealt fairly with +all, and not one has the lineaments of utter baseness. To Cristoforo +Solari's statues of Lodovico Sforza and his wife, Beatrice d'Este, the +palm of excellence in art and of historical interest must be awarded. +Sculpture has rarely been more dignified and true to life than here. +The woman with her short clustering curls, the man with his strong +face, are resting after that long fever which brought woe to Italy, to +Europe a new age, and to the boasted minion of Fortune a slow death +in the prison palace of Loches. Attired in ducal robes, they lie in +state; and the sculptor has carved the lashes on their eyelids, heavy +with death's marmoreal sleep. He at least has passed no judgment +on their crimes. Let us too bow and leave their memories to the +historian's pen, their spirits to God's mercy. + +After all wanderings in this Temple of Art, we return to Antonio +Amadeo, to his long-haired seraphs playing on the lutes of Paradise, +to his angels of the Passion with their fluttering robes and arms +outspread in agony, to his saints and satyrs mingled on pilasters of +the marble doorways, his delicate _Lavabo_ decorations, and his +hymns of piety expressed in noble forms of weeping women and dead +Christs. Wherever we may pass, this master-spirit of the Lombard style +enthralls attention. His curious treatment of drapery as though it +|were made of crumpled paper, and his trick of enhancing relief by +sharp angles and attenuated limbs, do not detract from his peculiar +charm. That is his way, very different from Donatello's, of attaining +to the maximum of life and lightness in the stubborn vehicle of +stone. Nor do all the riches of the choir--those multitudes of singing +angels, those Ascensions and Assumptions, and innumerable +basreliefs of gleaming marble moulded into softest wax by mastery of +art--distract our eyes from the single round medallion, not larger +than a common plate, inscribed by him upon the front of the high +altar. Perhaps, if one who loved Amadeo were bidden to point out +his masterpiece, he would lead the way at once to this. The space is +small: yet it includes the whole tragedy of the Passion. Christ is +lying dead among the women on his mother's lap, and there are pitying +angels in the air above. One woman lifts his arm, another makes her +breast a pillow for his head. Their agony is hushed, but felt in +every limb and feature; and the extremity of suffering is seen in each +articulation of the worn and wounded form just taken from the cross. +It would be too painful, were not the harmony of art so rare, the +interlacing of those many figures in a simple round so exquisite. The +noblest tranquillity and the most passionate emotion are here fused in +a manner of adorable naturalness. + +From the church it is delightful to escape into the cloisters, flooded +with sunlight, where the swallows skim, and the brown hawks circle, +and the mason bees are at work upon their cells among the carvings. +The arcades of the two cloisters are the final triumph of Lombard +terra-cotta. The memory fails before such infinite invention, such +facility and felicity of execution. Wreaths of cupids gliding round +the arches among grape-bunches and bird-haunted foliage of vine; rows +of angels, like rising and setting planets, some smiling and +some grave, ascending and descending by the Gothic curves; saints +stationary on their pedestals, and faces leaning from the rounds +above; crowds of cherubs, and courses of stars, and acanthus leaves in +woven lines, and ribands incessantly inscribed with Ave Maria! Then, +over all, the rich red light and purple shadows of the brick, than +which no substance sympathises more completely with the sky of solid +blue above, the broad plain space of waving summer grass beneath our +feet. + +It is now late afternoon, and when evening comes, the train will take +us back to Milan. There is yet a little while to rest tired eyes and +strained spirits among the willows and the poplars by the monastery +wall. Through that grey-green leafage, young with early spring, +the pinnacles of the Certosa leap like flames into the sky. The +rice-fields are under water, far and wide, shining like burnished +gold beneath the level light now near to sun-down. Frogs are croaking; +those persistent frogs, whom the Muses have ordained to sing for aye, +in spite of Bion and all tuneful poets dead. We sit and watch the +water-snakes, the busy rats, the hundred creatures swarming in the fat +well-watered soil. Nightingales here and there, new-comers, tune their +timid April song: but, strangest of all sounds in such a place, my +comrade from the Grisons jodels forth an Alpine cowherd's melody. +_Auf den Alpen droben ist ein herrliches Leben!_ + +Did the echoes of Gian Galeazzo's convent ever wake to such a tune as +this before? + +SAN MAURIZIO + +The student of art in Italy, after mastering the characters of +different styles and epochs, finds a final satisfaction in the +contemplation of buildings designed and decorated by one master, or +by groups of artists interpreting the spirit of a single period. Such +supreme monuments of the national genius are not very common, and they +are therefore the more precious. Giotto's Chapel at Padua; the Villa +Farnesina at Rome, built by Peruzzi and painted in fresco by Raphael +and Sodoma; the Palazzo del Te at Mantua, Giulio Romano's masterpiece; +the Scuola di San Rocco, illustrating the Venetian Renaissance at its +climax, might be cited among the most splendid of these achievements. +In the church of the Monastero Maggiore at Milan, dedicated to S. +Maurizio, Lombard architecture and fresco-painting may be studied +in this rare combination. The monastery itself, one of the oldest in +Milan, formed a retreat for cloistered virgins following the rule of +S. Benedict. It may have been founded as early as the tenth century; +but its church was rebuilt in the first two decades of the sixteenth, +between 1503 and 1519, and was immediately afterwards decorated with +frescoes by Luini and his pupils. Gian Giacomo Dolcebono, architect +and sculptor, called by his fellow-craftsmen _magistro di taliare +pietre_, gave the design, at once simple and harmonious, which was +carried out with hardly any deviation from his plan. The church is a +long parallelogram, divided into two unequal portions, the first and +smaller for the public, the second for the nuns. The walls are pierced +with rounded and pilastered windows, ten on each side, four of which +belong to the outer and six to the inner section. The dividing wall or +septum rises to the point from which the groinings of the roof spring; +and round three sides of the whole building, north, east, and south, +runs a gallery for the use of the convent. The altars of the inner and +outer church are placed against the septum, back to back, with certain +differences of structure that need not be described. Simple and +severe, S. Maurizio owes its architectural beauty wholly and entirely +to purity of line and perfection of proportion. There is a prevailing +spirit of repose, a sense of space, fair, lightsome, and adapted +to serene moods of the meditative fancy in this building, which is +singularly at variance with the religious mysticism and imaginative +grandeur of a Gothic edifice. The principal beauty of the church, +however, is its tone of colour. Every square inch is covered with +fresco or rich woodwork, mellowed by time into that harmony of tints +which blends the work of greater and lesser artists in one golden +hue of brown. Round the arcades of the convent-loggia run delicate +arabesques with faces of fair female saints--Catherine, Agnes, Lucy, +Agatha,--gem-like or star-like, gazing from their gallery upon the +church below. The Luinesque smile is on their lips and in their eyes, +quiet, refined, as though the emblems of their martyrdom brought back +no thought of pain to break the Paradise of rest in which they dwell. +There are twenty-six in all, a sisterhood of stainless souls, the +lilies of Love's garden planted round Christ's throne. Soldier saints +are mingled with them in still smaller rounds above the windows, +chosen to illustrate the virtues of an order which renounced the +world. To decide whose hand produced these masterpieces of Lombard +suavity and grace, or whether more than one, would not be easy. Near +the altar we can perhaps trace the style of Bartolommeo Suardi in an +Annunciation painted on the spandrils--that heroic style, large and +noble, known to us by the chivalrous S. Martin and the glorified +Madonna of the Brera frescoes. It is not impossible that the male +saints of the loggia may be also his, though a tenderer touch, a +something more nearly Lionardesque in its quietude, must be discerned +in Lucy and her sisters. The whole of the altar in this inner church +belongs to Luini. Were it not for darkness and decay, we should +pronounce this series of the Passion in nine great compositions, with +saints and martyrs and torch-bearing genii, to be one of his most +ambitious and successful efforts. As it is, we can but judge in part; +the adolescent beauty of Sebastian, the grave compassion of S. +Rocco, the classical perfection of the cupid with lighted tapers, the +gracious majesty of women smiling on us sideways from their Lombard +eyelids--these remain to haunt our memory, emerging from the shadows +of the vault above. + +The inner church, as is fitting, excludes all worldly elements. We +are in the presence of Christ's agony, relieved and tempered by the +sunlight of those beauteous female faces. All is solemn here, still as +the convent, pure as the meditations of a novice. We pass the septum, +and find ourselves in the outer church appropriated to the laity. +Above the high altar the whole wall is covered with Luini's loveliest +work, in excellent light and far from ill preserved. The space divides +into eight compartments. A Pieta, an Assumption, Saints and Founders +of the church, group themselves under the influence of Luini's +harmonising colour into one symphonious whole. But the places of +distinction are reserved for two great benefactors of the convent, +Alessandro de' Bentivogli and his wife, Ippolita Sforza. When the +Bentivogli were expelled from Bologna by the Papal forces, Alessandro +settled at Milan, where he dwelt, honoured by the Sforzas and allied +to them by marriage, till his death in 1532. He was buried in the +monastery by the side of his sister Alessandra, a nun of the order. +Luini has painted the illustrious exile in his habit as he lived. He +is kneeling, as though in ever-during adoration of the altar mystery, +attired in a long black senatorial robe trimmed with furs. In his left +hand he holds a book; and above his pale, serenely noble face is a +little black berretta. Saints attend him, as though attesting to his +act of faith. Opposite kneels Ippolita, his wife, the brilliant queen +of fashion, the witty leader of society, to whom Bandello dedicated +his Novelle, and whom he praised as both incomparably beautiful and +singularly learned. Her queenly form is clothed from head to foot in +white brocade, slashed and trimmed with gold lace, and on her forehead +is a golden circlet. She has the proud port of a princess, the beauty +of a woman past her prime but stately, the indescribable dignity of +attitude which no one but Luini could have rendered so majestically +sweet. In her hand is a book; and she, like Alessandro, has her +saintly sponsors, Agnes and Catherine and S. Scolastica. + +Few pictures bring the splendid Milanese Court so vividly before us as +these portraits of the Bentivogli: they are, moreover, very precious +for the light they throw on what Luini could achieve in the secular +style so rarely touched by him. Great, however, as are these frescoes, +they are far surpassed both in value and interest by his paintings in +the side chapel of S. Catherine. Here more than anywhere else, more +even than at Saronno or Lugano, do we feel the true distinction +of Luini--his unrivalled excellence as a colourist, his power over +pathos, the refinement of his feeling, and the peculiar beauty of his +favourite types. The chapel was decorated at the expense of a Milanese +advocate, Francesco Besozzi, who died in 1529. It is he who is +kneeling, grey-haired and bareheaded, under the protection of S. +Catherine of Alexandria, intently gazing at Christ unbound from the +scourging pillar. On the other side stand S. Lawrence and S. Stephen, +pointing to the Christ and looking at us, as though their lips were +framed to say: 'Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto +his sorrow.' Even the soldiers who have done their cruel work, seem +softened. They untie the cords tenderly, and support the fainting +form, too weak to stand alone. What sadness in the lovely faces of S. +Catherine and Lawrence! What divine anguish in the loosened limbs +and bending body of Christ; what piety in the adoring old man! All the +moods proper to this supreme tragedy of the faith are touched as in +some tenor song with low accompaniment of viols; for it was Luini's +special province to feel profoundly and to express musically. The very +depth of the Passion is there; and yet there is no discord. + +Just in proportion to this unique faculty for yielding a melodious +representation of the most intense moments of stationary emotion, was +his inability to deal with a dramatic subject. The first episode of S. +Catherine's execution, when the wheel was broken and the executioners +struck by lightning, is painted in this chapel without energy and with +a lack of composition that betrays the master's indifference to his +subject. Far different is the second episode when Catherine is about +to be beheaded. The executioner has raised his sword to strike. She, +robed in brocade of black and gold, so cut as to display the curve of +neck and back, while the bosom is covered, leans her head above +her praying hands, and waits the blow in sweetest resignation. Two +soldiers stand at some distance in a landscape of hill and meadow; and +far up are seen the angels carrying her body to its tomb upon Mount +Sinai. I cannot find words or summon courage to describe the beauty +of this picture; its atmosphere of holy peace, the dignity of its +composition, the golden richness of its colouring. The most tragic +situation has here again been alchemised by Luini's magic into a +pure idyll, without the loss of power, without the sacrifice of +edification. + +S. Catherine in this incomparable fresco is a portrait, the history of +which so strikingly illustrates the relation of the arts to religion +on the one hand, and to life on the other, in the age of the +Renaissance, that it cannot be omitted. At the end of his fourth +Novella, having related the life of the Contessa di Cellant, Bandello +says: 'And so the poor woman was beheaded; such was the end of her +unbridled desires; and he who would fain see her painted to the life, +let him go to the Church of the Monistero Maggiore, and there will he +behold her portrait.' The Contessa di Cellant was the only child of a +rich usurer who lived at Casal Monferrato. Her mother was a Greek; +and she was a girl of such exquisite beauty, that, in spite of her +low origin, she became the wife of the noble Ermes Visconti in her +sixteenth year. He took her to live with him at Milan, where she +frequented the house of the Bentivogli, but none other. Her husband +told Bandello that he knew her temper better than to let her visit +with the freedom of the Milanese ladies. Upon his death, while she +was little more than twenty, she retired to Casale and led a gay +life among many lovers. One of these, the Count of Cellant in the Val +d'Aosta, became her second husband, conquered by her extraordinary +loveliness. They could not, however, agree together. She left him, and +established herself at Pavia. Rich with her father's wealth and still +of most seductive beauty, she now abandoned herself to a life of +profligacy. Three among her lovers must be named: Ardizzino Valperga, +Count of Masino; Roberto Sanseverino, of the princely Naples family; +and Don Pietro di Cardona, a Sicilian. With each of the two first she +quarrelled, and separately besought each to murder the other. They +were friends and frustrated her plans by communicating them to one +another. The third loved her with the insane passion of a very young +man. What she desired, he promised to do blindly; and she bade him +murder his two predecessors in her favour. At this time she was living +at Milan, where the Duke of Bourbon was acting as viceroy for the +Emperor. Don Pietro took twenty-five armed men of his household, and +waylaid the Count of Masino, as he was returning with his brother and +eight or nine servants, late one night from supper. Both the brothers +and the greater part of their suite were killed: but Don Pietro was +caught. He revealed the atrocity of his mistress; and she was sent +to prison. Incapable of proving her innocence, and prevented from +escaping, in spite of 15,000 golden crowns with which she hoped to +bribe her jailors, she was finally beheaded. Thus did a vulgar and +infamous Messalina, distinguished only by rare beauty, furnish Luini +with a S. Catherine for this masterpiece of pious art! The thing seems +scarcely credible. Yet Bandello lived in Milan while the Church of +S. Maurizio was being painted; nor does he show the slightest sign of +disgust at the discord between the Contessa's life and her artistic +presentation in the person of a royal martyr. + +A HUMANIST'S MONUMENT + +In the Sculpture Gallery of the Brera is preserved a fair white marble +tomb, carved by that excellent Lombard sculptor, Agostino Busti. The +epitaph runs as follows:-- + + En Virtutem Mortis nesciam. + Vivet Lancinus Curtius + Saecula per omnia + Quascunque lustrans oras, + Tantum possunt Camoenae. + +'Look here on Virtue that knows nought of Death! Lancinus Curtius +shall live through all the centuries, and visit every shore of earth. +Such power have the Muses.' The timeworn poet reclines, as though +sleeping or resting, ready to be waked; his head is covered with +flowing hair, and crowned with laurel; it leans upon his left hand. On +either side of his couch stand cupids or genii with torches turned to +earth. Above is a group of the three Graces, flanked by winged Pegasi. +Higher up are throned two Victories with palms, and at the top a naked +Fame. We need not ask who was Lancinus Curtius. He is forgotten, and +his virtue has not saved him from oblivion; though he strove in his +lifetime, _pro virili parte_, for the palm that Busti carved upon +his grave. Yet his monument teaches in short compass a deep lesson; +and his epitaph sums up the dream which lured the men of Italy in the +Renaissance to their doom. We see before us sculptured in this marble +the ideal of the humanistic poet-scholar's life: Love, Grace, the +Muse, and Nakedness, and Glory. There is not a single intrusive +thought derived from Christianity. The end for which the man lived +was Pagan. His hope was earthly fame. Yet his name survives, if this +indeed be a survival, not in those winged verses which were to carry +him abroad across the earth, but in the marble of a cunning craftsman, +scanned now and then by a wandering scholar's eye in the half-darkness +of a vault. + +THE MONUMENT OF GASTON DE FOIX IN THE BRERA + +The hero of Ravenna lies stretched upon his back in the hollow of +a bier covered with laced drapery; and his head rests on richly +ornamented cushions. These decorative accessories, together with the +minute work of his scabbard, wrought in the fanciful mannerism of the +_cinquecento_, serve to enhance the statuesque simplicity of the +young soldier's effigy. The contrast between so much of richness in +the merely subordinate details, and this sublime severity of treatment +in the person of the hero, is truly and touchingly dramatic. There is +a smile as of content in death, upon his face; and the features are +exceedingly beautiful--with the beauty of a boy, almost of a woman. +The heavy hair is cut straight above the forehead and straight over +the shoulders, falling in massive clusters. A delicately sculptured +laurel branch is woven into a victor's crown, and laid lightly on the +tresses it scarcely seems to clasp. So fragile is this wreath that +it does not break the pure outline of the boy-conqueror's head. The +armour is quite plain. So is the surcoat. Upon the swelling bust, +that seems fit harbour for a hero's heart, there lies the collar of an +order composed of cockle-shells; and this is all the ornament given +to the figure. The hands are clasped across a sword laid flat upon the +breast, and placed between the legs. Upon the chin is a little tuft of +hair, parted, and curling either way; for the victor of Ravenna, like +the Hermes of Homer, was [Greek: proton hypenetes], 'a youth of +princely blood, whose beard hath just begun to grow, for whom the +season of bloom is in its prime of grace.' The whole statue is the +idealisation of _virtu_--that quality so highly prized by the +Italians and the ancients, so well fitted for commemoration in the +arts. It is the apotheosis of human life resolved into undying memory +because of one great deed. It is the supreme portrait in modern times +of a young hero, chiselled by artists belonging to a race no longer +heroic, but capable of comprehending and expressing the aesthetic charm +of heroism. Standing before it, we may say of Gaston what Arrian wrote +to Hadrian of Achilles:--'That he was a hero, if hero ever lived, +I cannot doubt; for his birth and blood were noble, and he was +beautiful, and his spirit was mighty, and he passed in youth's +prime away from men.' Italian sculpture, under the condition of the +_cinquecento_, had indeed no more congenial theme than this +of bravery and beauty, youth and fame, immortal honour and untimely +death; nor could any sculptor of death have poetised the theme more +thoroughly than Agostino Busti, whose simple instinct, unlike that of +Michelangelo, led him to subordinate his own imagination to the pathos +of reality. + +SARONNO + +The church of Saronno is a pretty building with a Bramantesque cupola, +standing among meadows at some distance from the little town. It +is the object of a special cult, which draws pilgrims from the +neighbouring country-side; but the concourse is not large enough to +load the sanctuary with unnecessary wealth. Everything is very quiet +in the holy place, and the offerings of the pious seem to have been +only just enough to keep the building and its treasures of art in +repair. The church consists of a nave, a central cupola, a vestibule +leading to the choir, the choir itself, and a small tribune behind the +choir. No other single building in North Italy can boast so much that +is first-rate of the work of Luini and Gandenzio Ferrari. + +The cupola is raised on a sort of drum composed of twelve pieces, +perforated with round windows and supported on four massive piers. On +the level of the eye are frescoes by Luini of S. Rocco, S. Sebastian, +S. Christopher, and S. Antony--by no means in his best style, and +inferior to all his other paintings in this church. The Sebastian, +for example, shows an effort to vary the traditional treatment of this +saint. He is tied in a sprawling attitude to a tree; and little of +Luini's special pathos or sense of beauty--the melody of idyllic grace +made spiritual--appears in him. These four saints are on the piers. +Above are frescoes from the early Bible history by Lanini, painted in +continuation of Ferrari's medallions from the story of Adam expelled +from Paradise, which fill the space beneath the cupola, leading the +eye upward to Ferrari's masterpiece. + +The dome itself is crowded with a host of angels singing and playing +upon instruments of music. At each of the twelve angles of the drum +stands a coryphaeus of this celestial choir, full length, with waving +drapery. Higher up, the golden-haired, broad-winged, divine creatures +are massed together, filling every square inch of the vault with +colour. Yet there is no confusion. The simplicity of the selected +motive and the necessities of the place acted like a check on +Ferrari, who, in spite of his dramatic impulse, could not tell a story +coherently or fill a canvas with harmonised variety. There is no trace +of his violence here. Though the motion of music runs through the +whole multitude like a breeze, though the joy expressed is a real +_tripudio celeste_, not one of all these angels flings his arms +abroad or makes a movement that disturbs the rhythm. We feel that they +are keeping time and resting quietly, each in his appointed seat, as +though the sphere was circling with them round the throne of God, who +is their centre and their source of gladness. Unlike Correggio and his +imitators, Ferrari has introduced no clouds, and has in no case made +the legs of his angels prominent. It is a mass of noble faces and +voluminously robed figures, emerging each above the other like flowers +in a vase. Bach too has specific character, while all are robust and +full of life, intent upon the service set them. Their instruments +of music are all the lutes and viols, flutes, cymbals, drums, fifes, +citherns, organs, and harps that Ferrari's day could show. The scale +of colour, as usual with Ferrari, is a little heavy; nor are the tints +satisfactorily harmonised. But the vigour and invention of the whole +work would atone for minor defects of far greater consequence. + +It is natural, beneath this dome, to turn aside and think one +moment of Correggio at Parma. Before the _macchinisti_ of the +seventeenth century had vulgarised the motive, Correggio's bold +attempt to paint heaven in flight from earth--earth left behind in the +persons of the Apostles standing round the empty tomb, heaven soaring +upward with a spiral vortex into the abyss of light above--had an +originality which set at nought all criticism. There is such ecstasy +of jubilation, such rapturous rapidity of flight, that we who strain +our eyes from below, feel we are in the darkness of the grave which +Mary left. A kind of controlling rhythm for the composition is gained +by placing Gabriel, Madonna, and Christ at three points in the swirl +of angels. Nevertheless, composition--the presiding all-controlling +intellect--is just what makes itself felt by absence; and Correggio's +special qualities of light and colour have now so far vanished +from the cupola of the Duomo that the, constructive poverty is +not disguised. Here if anywhere in painting, we may apply Goethe's +words--_Gefuehl ist Alles._ + +If then we return to Ferrari's angels at Saronno, we find that the +painter of Varallo chose a safer though a far more modest theme. Nor +did he expose himself to that most cruel of all degradations which the +ethereal genius of Correggio has suffered from incompetent imitators. +To daub a tawdry and superficial reproduction of those Parmese +frescoes, to fill the cupolas of Italy with veritable _guazzetti +di rane_, was comparatively easy; and between our intelligence +and what remains of that stupendous masterpiece of boldness, crowd a +thousand memories of such ineptitude. On the other hand, nothing but +solid work and conscientious inspiration could enable any workman, +however able, to follow Ferrari in the path struck out by him at +Saronno. His cupola has had no imitator; and its only rival is the +noble pendant painted at Varallo by his own hand, of angels in adoring +anguish round the Cross. + +In the ante-choir of the sanctuary are Luini's priceless frescoes of +the 'Marriage of the Virgin,' and the 'Dispute with the Doctors.'[11] +Their execution is flawless, and they are perfectly preserved. If +criticism before such admirable examples of so excellent a master +be permissible, it may be questioned whether the figures are not too +crowded, whether the groups are sufficiently varied and connected by +rhythmic lines. Yet the concords of yellow and orange with blue in +the 'Sposalizio,' and the blendings of dull violet and red in the +'Disputa,' make up for much of stiffness. Here, as in the Chapel of +S. Catherine at Milan, we feel that Luini was the greatest colourist +among _frescanti._ In the 'Sposalizio' the female heads are singularly +noble and idyllically graceful. Some of the young men too have Luini's +special grace and abundance of golden hair. In the 'Disputa' the +gravity and dignity of old men are above all things striking. + +Passing into the choir, we find on either hand the 'Adoration +of the Magi' and the 'Purification of the Virgin,' two of Luini's +divinest frescoes. Above them in lunettes are four Evangelists and +four Latin Fathers, with four Sibyls. Time and neglect have done no +damage here: and here, again, perforce we notice perfect mastery of +colour in fresco. The blues detach themselves too much, perhaps, from +the rest of the colouring; and that is all a devil's advocate could +say. It is possible that the absence of blue makes the S. Catherine +frescoes in the Monastero Maggiore at Milan surpass all other works of +Luini. But nowhere else has he shown more beauty and variety in detail +than here. The group of women led by Joseph, the shepherd carrying +the lamb upon his shoulder, the girl with a basket of white doves, +the child with an apple on the altar-steps, the lovely youth in the +foreground heedless of the scene; all these are idyllic incidents +treated with the purest, the serenest, the most spontaneous, the +truest, most instinctive sense of beauty. The landscape includes a +view of Saronno, and an episodical picture of the 'Flight into Egypt' +where a white-robed angel leads the way. All these lovely things +are in the 'Purification,' which is dated _Bernardinus Lovinus +pinxit_, MDXXV. + +The fresco of the 'Magi' is less notable in detail, and in general +effect is more spoiled by obtrusive blues. There is, however, one +young man of wholly Lionardesque loveliness, whose divine innocence +of adolescence, unalloyed by serious thought, unstirred by passions, +almost forces a comparison with Sodoma. The only painter who +approaches Luini in what may be called the Lombard, to distinguish it +from the Venetian idyll, is Sodoma; and the work of his which comes +nearest to Luini's masterpieces is the legend of S. Benedict, at +Monte Oliveto, near Siena. Yet Sodoma had not all Luini's innocence or +_naivete._ If he added something slightly humorous which has an +indefinite charm, he lacked that freshness as of 'cool, meek-blooded +flowers' and boyish voices, which fascinates us in Luini. Sodoma +was closer to the earth, and feared not to impregnate what he saw +of beauty with the fiercer passions of his nature. If Luini had felt +passion, who shall say? It appears nowhere in his work, where life is +toned to a religious joyousness. When Shelley compared the poetry of +the Theocritean amourists to the perfume of the tuberose, and that of +the earlier Greek poets to 'a meadow-gale of June, which mingles +the fragrance of all the flowers of the field,' he supplied us +with critical images which may not unfairly be used to point the +distinction between Sodoma at Monte Oliveto and Luini at Saronno. + +THE CASTELLO OF FERRARA + +Is it possible that the patron saints of cities should mould the +temper of the people to their own likeness? S. George, the chivalrous, +is champion of Ferrara. His is the marble group above the Cathedral +porch, so feudal in its medieval pomp. He and S. Michael are painted +in fresco over the south portcullis of the Castle. His lustrous armour +gleams with Giorgionesque brilliancy from Dossi's masterpiece in +the Pinacoteca. That Ferrara, the only place in Italy where chivalry +struck any root, should have had S. George for patron, is at any rate +significant. + +The best preserved relic of princely feudal life in Italy is +this Castello of the Este family, with its sombre moat, chained +drawbridges, doleful dungeons, and unnumbered tragedies, each one of +which may be compared with Parisina's history. I do not want to dwell +on these things now. It is enough to remember the Castello, built of +ruddiest brick, time-mellowed with how many centuries of sun and soft +sea-air, as it appeared upon the close of one tempestuous day. Just +before evening the rain-clouds parted and the sun flamed out across +the misty Lombard plain. The Castello burned like a hero's funeral +pyre, and round its high-built turrets swallows circled in the warm +blue air. On the moat slept shadows, mixed with flowers of sunset, +tossed from pinnacle and gable. Then the sky changed. A roof of +thunder-cloud spread overhead with the rapidity of tempest. The dying +sun gathered his last strength against it, fretting those steel-blue +arches with crimson; and all the fierce light, thrown from vault to +vault of cloud, was reflected back as from a shield, and cast in +blots and patches on the buildings. The Castle towered up rosy-red +and shadowy sombre, enshrined, embosomed in those purple clouds; and +momently ran lightning forks like rapiers through the growing mass. +Everything around, meanwhile, was quiet in the grass-grown streets. +The only sound was a high, clear boy's voice chanting an opera tune. + +PETRARCH'S TOMB AT ARQUA + +The drive from Este along the skirts of the Euganean Hills to Arqua +takes one through a country which is tenderly beautiful, because of +its contrast between little peaked mountains and the plain. It is +not a grand landscape. It lacks all that makes the skirts of Alps +and Apennines sublime. Its charm is a certain mystery and +repose--an undefined sense of the neighbouring Adriatic, a pervading +consciousness of Venice unseen, but felt from far away. From the +terraces of Arqua the eye ranges across olive-trees, laurels, and +pomegranates on the southern slopes, to the misty level land that +melts into the sea, with churches and tall campanili like gigantic +galleys setting sail for fairyland over 'the foam of perilous seas +forlorn.' Let a blue-black shadow from a thunder-cloud be cast +upon this plain, and let one ray of sunlight strike a solitary +bell-tower;--it burns with palest flame of rose against the steely +dark, and in its slender shaft and shell-like tint of pink all Venice +is foreseen. + +The village church of Arqua stands upon one of these terraces, with a +full stream of clearest water flowing by. On the little square before +the church-door, where the peasants congregate at mass-time--open to +the skies with all their stars and storms, girdled by the hills, +and within hearing of the vocal stream--is Petrarch's sepulchre. Fit +resting-place for what remains to earth of such a poet's clay! It is +as though archangels, flying, had carried the marble chest and set it +down here on the hillside, to be a sign and sanctuary for after-men. A +simple rectilinear coffin, of smooth Verona _mandorlato_, raised +on four thick columns, and closed by a heavy cippus-cover. Without +emblems, allegories, or lamenting genii, this tomb of the great poet, +the great awakener of Europe from mental lethargy, encircled by the +hills, beneath the canopy of heaven, is impressive beyond the power of +words. Bending here, we feel that Petrarch's own winged thoughts +and fancies, eternal and aerial, 'forms more real than living man, +nurslings of immortality,' have congregated to be the ever-ministering +and irremovable attendants on the shrine of one who, while he lived, +was purest spirit in a veil of flesh. + +ON A MOUNTAIN + +Milan is shining in sunset on those purple fields; and a score of +cities flash back the last red light, which shows each inequality +and undulation of Lombardy outspread four thousand feet beneath. Both +ranges, Alps and Apennines, are clear to view; and all the silvery +lakes are over-canopied and brought into one picture by flame-litten +mists. Monte Rosa lifts her crown of peaks above a belt of clouds into +light of living fire. The Mischabelhoerner and the Dom rest stationary +angel-wings upon the rampart, which at this moment is the wall of +heaven. The pyramid of distant Monte Viso burns like solid amethyst +far, far away. Mont Cervin beckons to his brother, the gigantic +Finsteraarhorn, across tracts of liquid ether. Bells are rising from +the villages, now wrapped in gloom, between me and the glimmering +lake. A hush of evening silence falls upon the ridges, cliffs, and +forests of this billowy hill, ascending into wave-like crests, and +toppling with awful chasms over the dark waters of Lugano. It is good +to be alone here at this hour. Yet I must rise and go--passing through +meadows, where white lilies sleep in silvery drifts, and asphodel is +pale with spires of faintest rose, and narcissus dreams of his own +beauty, loading the air with fragrance sweet as some love-music of +Mozart. These fields want only the white figure of Persephone to make +them poems: and in this twilight one might fancy that the queen had +left her throne by Pluto's side, to mourn for her dead youth among the +flowers uplifted between earth and heaven. Nay, they are poems now, +these fields; with that unchanging background of history, romance, +and human life--the Lombard plain, against whose violet breadth the +blossoms bend their faint heads to the evening air. Downward we +hurry, on pathways where the beeches meet, by silent farms, by meadows +honey-scented, deep in dew. The columbine stands tall and still on +those green slopes of shadowy grass. The nightingale sings now, and +now is hushed again. Streams murmur through the darkness, where the +growth of trees, heavy with honeysuckle and wild rose, is thickest. +Fireflies begin to flit above the growing corn. At last the plain is +reached, and all the skies are tremulous with starlight. Alas, that +we should vibrate so obscurely to these harmonies of earth and +heaven! The inner finer sense of them seems somehow unattainable--that +spiritual touch of soul evoking soul from nature, which should +transfigure our dull mood of self into impersonal delight. Man needs +to be a mytho-poet at some moments, or, better still, to be a mystic +steeped through half-unconsciousness in the vast wonder of the world. +Gold and untouched to poetry or piety by scenes that ought to blend +the spirit in ourselves with spirit in the world without, we can but +wonder how this phantom show of mystery and beauty will pass away from +us--how soon--and we be where, see what, use all our sensibilities on +aught or nought? + +SIC GENIUS + +In the picture-gallery at Modena there is a masterpiece of Dosso +Dossi. The frame is old and richly carved; and the painting, bordered +by its beautiful dull gold, shines with the lustre of an emerald. In +his happy moods Dosso set colour upon canvas, as no other painter out +of Venice ever did; and here he is at his happiest. The picture is the +portrait of a jester, dressed in courtly clothes and with a feathered +cap upon his head. He holds a lamb in his arms, and carries the +legend, _Sic Genius_. Behind him is a landscape of exquisite +brilliancy and depth. His face is young and handsome. Dosso has made +it one most wonderful laugh. Even so perhaps laughed Yorick. Nowhere +else have I seen a laugh thus painted: not violent, not loud, although +the lips are opened to show teeth of dazzling whiteness;--but fine and +delicate, playing over the whole face like a ripple sent up from the +depths of the soul within. Who was he? What does the lamb mean? How +should the legend be interpreted? We cannot answer these questions. He +may have been the court-fool of Ferrara; and his genius, the spiritual +essence of the man, may have inclined him to laugh at all things. +That at least is the value he now has for us. He is the portrait of +perpetual irony, the spirit of the golden Sixteenth Century which +delicately laughed at the whole world of thoughts and things, the +quintessence of the poetry of Ariosto, the wit of Berni, all condensed +into one incarnation and immortalised by truthfullest art. With the +Gaul, the Spaniard, and the German at her gates, and in her cities, +and encamped upon her fields, Italy still laughed; and when the voice +of conscience sounding through Savonarola asked her why, she only +smiled--_Sic Genius_. + +One evening in May we rowed from Venice to Torcello, and at sunset +broke bread and drank wine together among the rank grasses just +outside that ancient church. It was pleasant to sit in the so-called +chair of Attila and feel the placid stillness of the place. Then there +came lounging by a sturdy young fellow in brown country clothes, with +a marvellous old wide-awake upon his head, and across his shoulders a +bunch of massive church-keys. In strange contrast to his uncouth garb +he flirted a pink Japanese fan, gracefully disposing it to cool his +sunburned olive cheeks. This made us look at him. He was not ugly. +Nay, there was something of attractive in his face--the smooth-curved +chin, the shrewd yet sleepy eyes, and finely cut thin lips--a curious +mixture of audacity and meekness blent upon his features. Yet this +impression was but the prelude to his smile. When that first dawned, +some breath of humour seeming to stir in him unbidden, the true +meaning was given to his face. Each feature helped to make a smile +that was the very soul's life of the man expressed. I broadened, +showing brilliant teeth, and grew into a noiseless laugh; and then I +saw before me Dosso's jester, the type of Shakspere's fools, the life +of that wild irony, now rude, now fine, which once delighted Courts. +The laughter of the whole world and of all the centuries was silent in +his face. What he said need not be repeated. The charm was less in his +words than in his personality; for Momus-philosophy lay deep in every +look and gesture of the man. The place lent itself to irony: parties +of Americans and English parsons, the former agape for any +rubbishy old things, the latter learned in the lore of obsolete +Church-furniture, had thronged Torcello; and now they were all gone, +and the sun had set behind the Alps, while an irreverent stranger +drank his wine in Attila's chair, and nature's jester smiled--_Sic +Genius_. + +When I slept that night I dreamed of an altar-piece in the Temple of +Folly. The goddess sat enthroned beneath a canopy hung with bells +and corals. On her lap was a beautiful winged smiling genius, who +flourished two bright torches. On her left hand stood the man of +Modena with his white lamb, a new S. John. On her right stood the man +of Torcello with his keys, a new S. Peter. Both were laughing after +their all-absorbent, divine, noiseless fashion; and under both was +written, _Sic Genius_. Are not all things, even profanity, +permissible in dreams? + + * * * * * + + + + +COMO AND IL MEDEGHINO + +To which of the Italian lakes should the palm of beauty be accorded? +This question may not unfrequently have moved the idle minds of +travellers, wandering through that loveliest region from Orta to +Garda--from little Orta, with her gemlike island, rosy granite crags, +and chestnut-covered swards above the Colma; to Garda, bluest of all +waters, surveyed in majestic length from Desenzano or poetic Sirmione, +a silvery sleeping haze of hill and cloud and heaven and clear waves +bathed in modulated azure. And between these extreme points what +varied lovelinesses lie in broad Maggiore, winding Como, Varese with +the laughing face upturned to heaven, Lugano overshadowed by the +crested crags of Monte Generoso, and Iseo far withdrawn among the +rocky Alps! He who loves immense space, cloud shadows slowly sailing +over purple slopes, island gardens, distant glimpses of snow-capped +mountains, breadth, air, immensity, and flooding sunlight, will choose +Maggiore. But scarcely has he cast his vote for this, the Juno of the +divine rivals, when he remembers the triple lovelinesses of the +Larian Aphrodite, disclosed in all their placid grace from Villa +Serbelloni;--the green blue of the waters, clear as glass, opaque +through depth; the _millefleurs_ roses clambering into cypresses +by Cadenabbia; the laburnums hanging their yellow clusters from the +clefts of Sasso Eancio; the oleander arcades of Varenna; the wild +white limestone crags of San Martiuo, which he has climbed to feast +his eyes with the perspective, magical, serene, Lionardesquely +perfect, of the distant gates of Adda. Then while this modern Paris +is yet doubting, perhaps a thought may cross his mind of sterner, +solitary Lake Iseo--the Pallas of the three. She offers her own +attractions. The sublimity of Monte Adamello, dominating Lovere and +all the lowland like Hesiod's hill of Virtue reared aloft above the +plain of common life, has charms to tempt heroic lovers. Nor can +Varese be neglected. In some picturesque respects, Varese is the most +perfect of the lakes. Those long lines of swelling hills that lead +into the level, yield an infinite series of placid foregrounds, +pleasant to the eye by contrast with the dominant snow-summits, from +Monte Viso to Monte Leone: the sky is limitless to southward; the low +horizons are broken by bell-towers and farmhouses; while armaments of +clouds are ever rolling in the interval of Alps and plain. + +Of a truth, to decide which is the queen of the Italian lakes, is but +an _infinita quaestio_; and the mere raising of it is folly. Still +each lover of the beautiful may give his vote; and mine, like that of +shepherd Paris, is already given to the Larian goddess. Words fail +in attempting to set forth charms which have to be enjoyed, or can at +best but lightly be touched with most consummate tact, even as great +poets have already touched on Como Lake--from Virgil with his 'Lari +maxume,' to Tennyson and the Italian Manzoni. The threshold of the +shrine is, however, less consecrated ground; and the Cathedral of Como +may form a vestibule to the temple where silence is more golden than +the speech of a describer. + +The Cathedral of Como is perhaps the most perfect building in Italy +for illustrating the fusion of Gothic and Renaissance styles, both of +a good type and exquisite in their sobriety. The Gothic ends with the +nave. The noble transepts and the choir, each terminating in a rounded +tribune of the same dimensions, are carried out in a simple and +decorous Bramantesque manner. The transition from the one style to the +other is managed so felicitously, and the sympathies between them are +so well developed, that there is no discord. What we here call +Gothic, is conceived in a truly southern spirit, without fantastic +efflorescence or imaginative complexity of multiplied parts; while +the Renaissance manner, as applied by Tommaso Rodari, has not yet +stiffened into the lifeless neo-Latinism of the later _cinquecento_: +it is still distinguished by delicate inventiveness, and beautiful +subordination of decorative detail to architectural effect. Under +these happy conditions we feel that the Gothic of the nave, with its +superior severity and sombreness, dilates into the lucid harmonies of +choir and transepts like a flower unfolding. In the one the mind is +tuned to inner meditation and religious awe; in the other the +worshipper passes into a temple of the clear explicit faith--as an +initiated neophyte might be received into the meaning of the +mysteries. + +After the collapse of the Roman Empire the district of Como seems +to have maintained more vividly than the rest of Northern Italy some +memory of classic art. _Magistri Comacini_ is a title frequently +inscribed upon deeds and charters of the earlier middle ages, as +synonymous with sculptors and architects. This fact may help to +account for the purity and beauty of the Duomo. It is the work of a +race in which the tradition of delicate artistic invention had +never been wholly interrupted. To Tommaso Rodari and his brothers, +Bernardino and Jacopo, the world owes this sympathetic fusion of the +Gothic and the Bramantesque styles; and theirs too is the sculpture +with which the Duomo is so richly decorated. They were natives of +Maroggia, a village near Mendrisio, beneath the crests of Monte +Generoso, close to Campione, which sent so many able craftsmen out +into the world between the years 1300 and 1500. Indeed the name of +Campionesi would probably have been given to the Rodari, had they left +their native province for service in Eastern Lombardy. The body of the +Duomo had been finished when Tommaso Rodari was appointed master of +the fabric in 1487. To complete the work by the addition of a tribune +was his duty. He prepared a wooden model and exposed it, after the +fashion of those times, for criticism in his _bottega_; and +the usual difference of opinion arose among the citizens of Como +concerning its merits. Cristoforo Solaro, surnamed Il Gobbo, was +called in to advise. It may be remembered that when Michelangelo first +placed his Pieta in S. Peter's, rumour gave it to this celebrated +Lombard sculptor, and the Florentine was constrained to set his own +signature upon the marble. The same Solaro carved the monument of +Beatrice Sforza in the Certosa of Pavia. He was indeed in all +points competent to criticise or to confirm the design of his +fellow-craftsman. Il Gobbo disapproved of the proportions chosen by +Rodari, and ordered a new model to be made; but after much discussion, +and some concessions on the part of Rodari, who is said to have +increased the number of the windows and lightened the orders of his +model, the work was finally entrusted to the master of Maroggia. + +Not less creditable than the general design of the tribune is +the sculpture executed by the brothers. The north side door is a +master-work of early Renaissance chiselling, combining mixed Christian +and classical motives with a wealth of floral ornament. Inside, over +the same door, is a procession of children seeming to represent the +Triumph of Bacchus, with perhaps some Christian symbolism. Opposite, +above the south door, is a frieze of fighting Tritons--horsed sea +deities pounding one another with bunches of fish and splashing the +water, in Mantegna's spirit. The doorways of the facade are decorated +with the same rare workmanship; and the canopies, supported by naked +fauns and slender twisted figures, under which the two Plinies are +seated, may be reckoned among the supreme achievements of delicate +Renaissance sculpture. The Plinies are not like the work of the same +master. They are older, stiffer, and more Gothic. The chief interest +attaching to them is that they are habited and seated after the +fashion of Humanists. This consecration of the two Pagan saints beside +the portals of the Christian temple is truly characteristic of +the fifteenth century in Italy. Beneath, are little basreliefs +representing scenes from their respective lives, in the style of +carved predellas on the altars of saints. + +The whole church is peopled with detached statues, among which a +Sebastian in the Chapel of the Madonna must be mentioned as singularly +beautiful. It is a finely modelled figure, with the full life and +exuberant adolescence of Venetian inspiration. A peculiar feature of +the external architecture is the series of Atlantes, bearing on their +shoulders urns, heads of lions, and other devices, and standing on +brackets round the upper cornice just below the roof. They are of all +sorts; young and old, male and female; classically nude, and boldly +outlined. These water-conduits, the work of Bernardo Bianco and +Francesco Rusca, illustrate the departure of the earlier Renaissance +from the Gothic style. They are gargoyles; but they have lost the +grotesque element. At the same time the sculptor, while discarding +Gothic tradition, has not betaken himself yet to a servile imitation +of the antique. He has used invention, and substituted for grinning +dragons' heads something wild and bizarre of his own in harmony with +classic taste. + +The pictures in the chapels, chiefly by Luini and Ferrari--an idyllic +Nativity, with faun-like shepherds and choirs of angels--a sumptuous +adoration of the Magi--a jewelled Sposalizio with abundance of golden +hair flowing over draperies of green and crimson--will interest +those who are as yet unfamiliar with Lombard painting. Yet their +architectural setting, perhaps, is superior to their intrinsic merit +as works of art; and their chief value consists in adding rare dim +flakes of colour to the cool light of the lovely church. More curious, +because less easily matched, is the gilded woodwork above the altar of +S. Abondio, attributed to a German carver, but executed for the +most part in the purest Luinesque manner. The pose of the enthroned +Madonna, the type and gesture of S. Catherine, and the treatment of +the Pieta above, are thoroughly Lombard, showing how Luini's ideal of +beauty could be expressed in carving. Some of the choicest figures in +the Monastero Maggiore at Milan seem to have descended from the walls +and stepped into their tabernacles on this altar. Yet the style is not +maintained consistently. In the reliefs illustrating the life of S. +Abondio we miss Luini's childlike grace, and find instead a something +that reminds us of Donatello--a seeking after the classical in dress, +carriage, and grouping of accessory figures. It may have been that the +carver, recognising Luini's defective composition, and finding nothing +in that master's manner adapted to the spirit of relief, had the good +taste to render what was Luinesquely lovely in his female figures, and +to fall back on a severer model for his basreliefs. + +The building-fund for the Duomo was raised in Como and its districts. +Boxes were placed in all the churches to receive the alms of those who +wished to aid the work. The clergy begged in Lent, and preached the +duty of contributing on special days. Presents of lime and bricks +and other materials were thankfully received. Bishops, canons, and +municipal magistrates were expected to make costly gifts on taking +office. Notaries, under penalty of paying 100 soldi if they neglected +their engagement, were obliged to persuade testators, _cum bonis +modis dulciter_, to inscribe the Duomo on their wills. Fines for +various offences were voted to the building by the city. Each new +burgher paid a certain sum; while guilds and farmers of the taxes +bought monopolies and privileges at the price of yearly subsidies. +A lottery was finally established for the benefit of the fabric. +Of course each payment to the good work carried with it spiritual +privileges; and so willingly did the people respond to the call of the +Church, that during the sixteenth century the sums subscribed amounted +to 200,000 golden crowns. Among the most munificent donators are +mentioned the Marchese Giacomo Gallio, who bequeathed 290,000 lire, +and a Benzi, who gave 10,000 ducats. + +While the people of Como were thus straining every nerve to complete +a pious work, which at the same time is one of the most perfect +masterpieces of Italian art, their lovely lake was turned into a +pirate's stronghold, and its green waves stained with slaughter of +conflicting navies. So curious is this episode in the history of the +Larian lake that it is worth while to treat of it at some length. +Moreover, the lives of few captains of adventure offer matter more +rich in picturesque details and more illustrative of their times than +that of Gian Giacomo de' Medici, the Larian corsair, long known and +still remembered as Il Medeghino. He was born in Milan in 1498, at +the beginning of that darkest and most disastrous period of Italian +history, when the old fabric of social and political existence went to +ruin under the impact of conflicting foreign armies. He lived on until +the year 1555, witnessing and taking part in the dismemberment of the +Milanese Duchy, playing a game of hazard at high stakes for his own +profit with the two last Sforzas, the Empire, the French, and the +Swiss. At the beginning of the century, while he was still a youth, +the rich valley of the Valtelline, with Bormio and Chiavenna, had +been assigned to the Grisons. The Swiss Cantons at the same time had +possessed themselves of Lugano and Bellinzona. By these two acts of +robbery the mountaineers tore a portion of its fairest territory from +the Duchy; and whoever ruled in Milan, whether a Sforza, or a Spanish +viceroy, or a French general, was impatient to recover the lost jewel +of the ducal crown. So much has to be premised, because the scene of +our hero's romantic adventures was laid upon the borderland between +the Duchy and the Cantons. Intriguing at one time with the Duke of +Milan, at another with his foes the French or Spaniards, Il Medeghino +found free scope for his peculiar genius in a guerilla warfare, +carried on with the avowed purpose of restoring the Valtelline to +Milan. To steer a plain course through that chaos of politics, in +which the modern student, aided by the calm clear lights of history +and meditation, cannot find a clue, was of course impossible for an +adventurer whose one aim was to gratify his passions and exalt himself +at the expense of others. It is therefore of little use to seek +motives of statecraft or of patriotism in the conduct of Il Medeghino. +He was a man shaped according to Machiavelli's standard of political +morality--self-reliant, using craft and force with cold indifference +to moral ends, bent only upon wringing for himself the largest share +of this world's power for men who, like himself, identified virtue +with unflinching and immitigable egotism. + +Il Medeghino's father was Bernardo de' Medici, a Lombard, who neither +claimed nor could have proved cousinship with the great Medicean +family of Florence. His mother was Cecilia Serbelloni. The boy was +educated in the fashionable humanistic studies, nourishing his young +imagination with the tales of Roman heroes. The first exploit by which +he proved his _virtu_, was the murder of a man he hated, at the +age of sixteen. This 'virile act of vengeance,' as it was called, +brought him into trouble, and forced him to choose the congenial +profession of arms. At a time when violence and vigour passed for +manliness, a spirited assassination formed the best of introductions +to the captains of mixed mercenary troops. Il Medeghino rose in +favour with his generals, helped to reinstate Francesco Sforza in his +capital, and, returning himself to Milan, inflicted severe vengeance +on the enemies who had driven him to exile. It was his ambition, at +this early period of his life, to be made governor of the Castle of +Musso, on the Lake of Como. While fighting in the neighbourhood, he +had observed the unrivalled capacities for defence presented by its +site; and some pre-vision of his future destinies now urged him to +acquire it, as the basis for the free marauding life he planned. The +headland of Musso lies about halfway between Gravedona and Menaggio, +on the right shore of the Lake of Como. Planted on a pedestal of +rock, and surmounted by a sheer cliff, there then stood a very ancient +tower, commanding this promontory on the side of the land. Between it +and the water the Visconti, in more recent days, had built a square +fort; and the headland had been further strengthened by the addition +of connecting walls and bastions pierced for cannon. Combining +precipitous cliffs, strong towers, and easy access from the lake +below, this fortress of Musso was exactly the fit station for a +pirate. So long as he kept the command of the lake, he had little +to fear from land attacks, and had a splendid basis for aggressive +operations. Il Medeghino made his request to the Duke of Milan; but +the foxlike Sforza would not grant him a plain answer. At length he +hinted that if his suitor chose to rid him of a troublesome subject, +the noble and popular Astore Visconti, he should receive Musso +for payment. Crimes of bloodshed and treason sat lightly on the +adventurer's conscience. In a short time he compassed the young +Visconti's death, and claimed his reward. The Duke despatched him +thereupon to Musso, with open letters to the governor, commanding him +to yield the castle to the bearer. Private advice, also entrusted to +Il Medeghino, bade the governor, on the contrary, cut the bearer's +throat. The young man, who had the sense to read the Duke's letter, +destroyed the secret document, and presented the other, or, as one +version of the story goes, forged a ducal order in his own favour.[12] +At any rate, the castle was placed in his hands; and affecting to know +nothing of the Duke's intended treachery, Il Medeghino took possession +of it as a trusted servant of the ducal crown. + +As soon as he was settled in his castle, the freebooter devoted all +his energies to rendering it still more impregnable by strengthening +the walls and breaking the cliffs into more horrid precipices. In this +work he was assisted by his numerous friends and followers; for Musso +rapidly became, like ancient Rome, an asylum for the ruffians and +outlaws of neighbouring provinces. It is even said that his sisters, +Clarina and Margherita, rendered efficient aid with manual labour. The +mention of Clarina's name justifies a parenthetical side-glance at Il +Medeghino's pedigree, which will serve to illustrate the exceptional +conditions of Italian society during this age. She was married to +the Count Giberto Borromeo, and became the mother of the pious Carlo +Borromeo, whose shrine is still adored at Milan in the Duomo. Il +Medeghino's brother, Giovan Angelo, rose to the Papacy, assuming the +title of Pius IV. Thus this murderous marauder was the brother of a +Pope and the uncle of a Saint; and these three persons of one family +embraced the various degrees and typified the several characters which +flourished with peculiar lustre in Renaissance Italy--the captain of +adventure soaked in blood, the churchman unrivalled for intrigue, and +the saint aflame with holiest enthusiasm. Il Medeghino was short of +stature, but well made and powerful; broad-chested; with a penetrating +voice and winning countenance. He dressed simply, like one of his own +soldiers; slept but little; was insensible to carnal pleasure; and +though he knew how to win the affection of his men by jovial speech, +he maintained strict discipline in his little army. In all points he +was an ideal bandit chief, never happy unless fighting or planning +campaigns, inflexible of purpose, bold and cunning in the execution of +his schemes, cruel to his enemies, generous to his followers, +sacrificing all considerations, human and divine, to the one aim of +his life, self-aggrandisement by force and intrigue. He knew well how +to make himself both feared and respected. One instance of his dealing +will suffice. A gentleman of Bellano, Polidoro Boldoni, in return to +his advances, coldly replied that he cared for neither amity nor +relationship with thieves and robbers; whereupon Il Medeghino +extirpated his family, almost to a man. + +Soon after his settlement in Musso, Il Medeghino, wishing to secure +the gratitude of the Duke, his master, began war with the Grisons. +From Coire, from the Engadine, and from Davos, the Alpine pikemen were +now pouring down to swell the troops of Francis I.; and their road lay +through the Lake of Como. Il Medeghino burned all the boats upon the +lake, except those which he took into his own service, and thus made +himself master of the water passage. He then swept the 'length of +lordly Lario' from Colico to Lecco, harrying the villages upon +the shore, and cutting off the bands of journeying Switzers at his +pleasure. Not content with this guerilla, he made a descent upon +the territory of the Trepievi, and pushed far up towards Chiavenna, +forcing the Grisons to recall their troops from the Milanese. These +acts of prowess convinced the Duke that he had found a strong ally +in the pirate chief. When Francis I. continued his attacks upon the +Duchy, and the Grisons still adhered to their French paymaster, the +Sforza formally invested Gian Giacomo de' Medici with the perpetual +governorship of Musso, the Lake of Como, and as much as he could wrest +from the Grisons above the lake. Furnished now with a just title for +his depredations, Il Medeghino undertook the siege of Chiavenna. That +town is the key to the valleys of the Spluegen and Bregaglia. Strongly +fortified and well situated for defence, the burghers of the Grisons +well knew that upon its possession depended their power in the Italian +valleys. To take it by assault was impossible, Il Medeghino used +craft, entered the castle, and soon had the city at his disposition. +Nor did he lose time in sweeping Val Bregaglia. The news of this +conquest recalled the Switzers from the Duchy; and as they hurried +homeward just before the battle of Pavia, it may be affirmed that Gian +Giacomo de' Medici was instrumental in the defeat and capture of the +French King. The mountaineers had no great difficulty in dislodging +their pirate enemy from Chiavenna, the Valtelline, and Val Bregaglia. +But he retained his hold on the Trepievi, occupied the Valsassina, +took Porlezza, and established himself still more strongly in Musso as +the corsair monarch of the lake. + +The tyranny of the Sforzas in Milan was fast going to pieces between +France and Spain; and in 1526 the Marquis of Pescara occupied the +capital in the name of Charles V. The Duke, meanwhile, remained a +prisoner in his Castello. Il Medeghino was now without a master; for +he refused to acknowledge the Spaniards, preferring to watch events +and build his own power on the ruins of the dukedom. At the head of +4,000 men, recruited from the lakes and neighbouring valleys, he +swept the country far and wide, and occupied the rich champaign of the +Brianza. He was now lord of the lakes of Como and Lugano, and absolute +in Lecco and the adjoining valleys. The town of Como itself alone +belonged to the Spaniards; and even Como was blockaded by the navy of +the corsair. Il Medeghino had a force of seven big ships, with three +sails and forty-eight oars, bristling with guns and carrying marines. +His flagship was a large brigantine, manned by picked rowers, from +the mast of which floated the red banner with the golden palle of the +Medicean arms. Besides these larger vessels, he commanded a flotilla +of countless small boats. It is clear that to reckon with him was a +necessity. If he could not be put down with force, he might be bought +over by concessions. The Spaniards adopted the second course, and Il +Medeghino, judging that the cause of the Sforza family was desperate, +determined in 1528 to attach himself to the Empire. Charles V. +invested him with the Castle of Musso and the larger part of Como +Lake, including the town of Lecco. He now assumed the titles of +Marquis of Musso and Count of Lecco: and in order to prove his +sovereignty before the world, he coined money with his own name and +devices. + +It will be observed that Gian Giacomo de' Medici had hitherto acted +with a single-hearted view to his own interests. At the age of thirty +he had raised himself from nothing to a principality, which, though +petty, might compare with many of some name in Italy--with Carpi, for +example, or Mirandola, or Camerino. Nor did he mean to remain quiet +in the prime of life. He regarded Como Lake as the mere basis for more +arduous undertakings. Therefore, when the whirligig of events restored +Francesco Sforza to his duchy in 1529, Il Medeghino refused to obey +his old lord. Pretending to move under the Duke's orders, but really +acting for himself alone, he proceeded to attack his ancient +enemies, the Grisons. By fraud and force he worked his way into +their territory, seized Morbegno, and overran the Valtelline. He +was destined, however, to receive a serious check. Twelve thousand +Switzers rose against him on the one hand, on the other the Duke of +Milan sent a force by land and water to subdue his rebel subject, +while Alessandro Gonzaga marched upon his castles in the Brianza. He +was thus assailed by formidable forces from three quarters, converging +upon the Lake of Como, and driving him to his chosen element, the +water. Hastily quitting the Valtelline, he fell back to the Castle of +Mandello on the lake, collected his navy, and engaged the ducal ships +in a battle off Menaggio. In this battle he was worsted. But he did +not lose his courage. From Bellagio, from Varenna, from Bellano he +drove forth his enemies, rolled the cannon of the Switzers into the +lake, regained Lecco, defeated the troops of Alessandro Gonzaga, and +took the Duke of Mantua prisoner. Had he but held Como, it is probable +that he might have obtained such terms at this time as would have +consolidated his tyranny. The town of Como, however, now belonged +to the Duke of Milan, and formed an excellent basis for operations +against the pirate. Overmatched, with an exhausted treasury and broken +forces, Il Medeghino was at last compelled to give in. Yet he retired +with all the honours of war. In exchange for Musso and the lake, the +Duke agreed to give him 35,000 golden crowns, together with the feud +and marquisate of Marignano. A free pardon was promised not only +to himself and his brothers, but to all his followers; and the Duke +further undertook to transport his artillery and munitions of war at +his own expense to Marignano. Having concluded this treaty under the +auspices of Charles V. and his lieutenant, Il Medeghino, in March +1532, set sail from Musso, and turned his back upon the lake for +ever. The Switzers immediately destroyed the towers, forts, walls, and +bastions of the Musso promontory, leaving in the midst of their ruins +the little chapel of S. Eufemia. + +Gian Giacomo de' Medici, henceforth known to Europe as the Marquis +of Marignano, now took service under Spain; and through the favour +of Anton de Leyva, Viceroy for the Duchy, rose to the rank of +Field Marshal. When the Marquis del Vasto succeeded to the Spanish +governorship of Milan in 1536, he determined to gratify an old grudge +against the ex-pirate, and, having invited him to a banquet, made him +prisoner. II Medeghino was not, however, destined to languish in a +dungeon. Princes and kings interested themselves in his fate. He +was released, and journeyed to the court of Charles V. in Spain. +The Emperor received him kindly, and employed him first in the Low +Countries, where he helped to repress the burghers of Ghent, and at +the siege of Landrecy commanded the Spanish artillery against other +Italian captains of adventure: for, Italy being now dismembered and +enslaved, her sons sought foreign service where they found best pay +and widest scope for martial science. Afterwards the Medici ruled +Bohemia as Spanish Viceroy; and then, as general of the league formed +by the Duke of Florence, the Emperor, and the Pope to repress the +liberties of Tuscany, distinguished himself in that cruel war of +extermination, which turned the fair Contado of Siena into a poisonous +Maremma. To the last Il Medeghino preserved the instincts and the +passions of a brigand chief. It was at this time that, acting for the +Grand Duke of Tuscany, he first claimed open kinship with the Medici +of Florence. Heralds and genealogists produced a pedigree, which +seemed to authorise this pretension; he was recognised, together with +his brother, Pius IV., as an offshoot of the great house which had +already given Dukes to Florence, Kings to France, and two Popes to +the Christian world. In the midst of all this foreign service he never +forgot his old dream of conquering the Valtelline; and in 1547 he +made proposals to the Emperor for a new campaign against the Grisons. +Charles V. did not choose to engage in a war, the profits of which +would have been inconsiderable for the master of half the civilised +world, and which might have proved troublesome by stirring up the +tameless Switzers. Il Medeghino was obliged to abandon a project +cherished from the earliest dawn of his adventurous manhood. + +When Gian Giacomo died in 1555, his brother Battista succeeded to his +claims upon Lecco and the Trepievi. His monument, magnificent with +five bronze figures, the masterpiece of Leone Lioni, from Menaggio, +Michelangelesque in style, and of consummate workmanship, still adorns +the Duomo of Milan. It stands close by the door that leads to the +roof. This mausoleum, erected to the memory of Gian Giacomo and +his brother Gabrio, is said to have cost 7800 golden crowns. On the +occasion of the pirate's funeral the Senate of Milan put on mourning, +and the whole city followed the great robber, the hero of Renaissance +_virtu_, to the grave. + +Between the Cathedral of Como and the corsair Medeghino there is but +a slight link. Yet so extraordinary were the social circumstances of +Renaissance Italy, that almost at every turn, on her seaboard, in her +cities, from her hill-tops, we are compelled to blend our admiration +for the loveliest and purest works of art amid the choicest scenes +of nature with memories of execrable crimes and lawless characters. +Sometimes, as at Perugia, the _nexus_ is but local. At others, +one single figure, like that of Cellini, unites both points of view in +a romance of unparalleled dramatic vividness. Or, again, beneath +the vaults of the Certosa, near Pavia, a masterpiece of the serenest +beauty carries our thoughts perforce back to the hideous cruelties +and snake-like frauds of its despotic founder. This is the excuse +for combining two such diverse subjects in one study. + + * * * * * + + + + +_BERGAMO AND BARTOLOMMEO COLLEONI_ + + +From the new town of commerce to the old town of history upon the +hill, the road is carried along a rampart lined, with horse-chestnut +trees--clumps of massy foliage, and snowy pyramids of bloom, expanded +in the rapture of a southern spring. Each pair of trees between their +stems and arch of intermingling leaves includes a space of plain, +checkered with cloud-shadows, melting blue and green in amethystine +haze. To right and left the last spurs of the Alps descend, jutting +like promontories, heaving like islands from the misty breadth below: +and here and there are towers, half-lost in airy azure; and cities +dwarfed to blots; and silvery lines where rivers flow; and distant, +vapour-drowned, dim crests of Apennines. The city walls above us wave +with snapdragons and iris among fig-trees sprouting from the riven +stones. There are terraces over-rioted with pergolas of vine, and +houses shooting forward into balconies and balustrades, from which a +Romeo might launch himself at daybreak, warned by the lark's song. +A sudden angle in the road is turned, and we pass from airspace and +freedom into the old town, beneath walls of dark brown masonry, where +wild valerians light their torches of red bloom in immemorial shade. +Squalor and splendour live here side by side. Grand Renaissance +portals grinning with Satyr masks are flanked by tawdry frescoes +shamming stonework, or by doorways where the withered bush hangs out +a promise of bad wine. The Cappella Colleoni is our destination, that +masterpiece of the sculptor-architect's craft, with its variegated +marbles,--rosy and white and creamy yellow and jet-black,--in +patterns, basreliefs, pilasters, statuettes, encrusted on the fanciful +domed shrine. Upon the facade are mingled, in the true Renaissance +spirit of genial acceptance, motives Christian and Pagan with supreme +impartiality. Medallions of emperors and gods alternate with virtues, +angels and cupids in a maze of loveliest arabesque; and round the +base of the building are told two stories--the one of Adam from his +creation to his fall, the other of Hercules and his labours. Italian +craftsmen of the _quattrocento_ were not averse to setting +thus together, in one framework, the myths of our first parents and +Alemena's son: partly perhaps because both subjects gave scope to +the free treatment of the nude; but partly also, we may venture to +surmise, because the heroism of Hellas counterbalanced the sin of +Eden. Here then we see how Adam and Eve were made and tempted and +expelled from Paradise and set to labour, how Cain killed Abel, and +Lamech slew a man to his hurt, and Isaac was offered on the mountain. +The tale of human sin and the promise of redemption are epitomised +in twelve of the sixteen basreliefs. The remaining four show Hercules +wrestling with Antaeus, taming the Nemean lion, extirpating the Hydra, +and bending to his will the bull of Crete. Labour, appointed for a +punishment to Adam, becomes a title to immortality for the hero. +The dignity of man is reconquered by prowess for the Greek, as it is +repurchased for the Christian by vicarious suffering. Many may think +this interpretation of Amadeo's basreliefs far-fetched; yet, such as +it is, it agrees with the spirit of Humanism, bent ever on harmonising +the two great traditions of the past. Of the workmanship little need +be said, except that it is wholly Lombard, distinguished from the +similar work of Della Quercia at Bologna and Siena by a more imperfect +feeling for composition, and a lack of monumental gravity, yet +graceful, rich in motives, and instinct with a certain wayward +_improvvisatore_ charm. + +This Chapel was built by the great Condottiere Bartolommeo Colleoni, +to be the monument of his puissance even in the grave. It had been +the Sacristy of S. Maria Maggiore, which, when the Consiglio della +Misericordia refused it to him for his half-proud, half-pious purpose, +he took and held by force. The structure, of costliest materials, +reared by Gian Antonio Amadeo, cost him 50,000 golden florins. An +equestrian statue of gilt wood, voted to him by the town of Bergamo, +surmounts his monument inside the Chapel. This was the work of two +German masters, called 'Sisto figlio di Enrico Syri da Norimberga' +and 'Leonardo Tedesco.' The tomb itself is of marble, executed for the +most part in a Lombard style resembling Amadeo's, but scarcely +worthy of his genius. The whole effect is disappointing. Five figures +representing Mars, Hercules, and three sons-in-law of Colleoni, who +surround the sarcophagus of the buried general, are indeed almost +grotesque. The angularity and crumpled draperies of the Milanese +manner, when so exaggerated, produce an impression of caricature. Yet +many subordinate details--a row of _putti_ in a _cinquecento_ frieze, +for instance--and much of the low relief work--especially the +Crucifixion with its characteristic episodes of the fainting Maries +and the soldiers casting dice--are lovely in their unaffected +Lombardism. + +There is another portrait of Colleoni in a round above the great door, +executed with spirit, though in a _bravura_ style that curiously +anticipates the decline of Italian sculpture. Gaunt, hollow-eyed, +with prominent cheek bones and strong jaws, this animated, half-length +statue of the hero bears the stamp of a good likeness; but when or by +whom it was made, I do not know. + +Far more noteworthy than Colleoni's own monument is that of his +daughter Medea. She died young in 1470, and her father caused her +tomb, carved of Carrara marble, to be placed in the Dominican Church +of Basella, which he had previously founded. It was not until 1842 +that this most precious masterpiece of Antonio Amadeo's skill was +transferred to Bergamo. _Hic jacet Medea virgo._ Her hands are +clasped across her breast. A robe of rich brocade, gathered to the +waist and girdled, lies in simple folds upon the bier. Her throat, +exceedingly long and slender, is circled with a string of pearls. +Her face is not beautiful, for the features, especially the nose, +are large and prominent; but it is pure and expressive of vivid +individuality. The hair curls in crisp short clusters, and the ear, +fine and shaped almost like a Faun's, reveals the scrupulous fidelity +of the sculptor. Italian art has, in truth, nothing more exquisite +than this still sleeping figure of the girl, who, when she lived, must +certainly have been so rare of type and lovable in personality. If +Busti's Lancinus Curtius be the portrait of a humanist, careworn with +study, burdened by the laurel leaves that were so dry and dusty--if +Gaston de Foix in the Brera, smiling at death and beautiful in +the cropped bloom of youth, idealise the hero of romance--if +Michelangelo's Penseroso translate in marble the dark broodings of a +despot's soul--if Della Porta's Julia Farnese be the Roman courtesan +magnificently throned in nonchalance at a Pope's footstool--if +Verocchio's Colleoni on his horse at Venice impersonate the pomp +and circumstance of scientific war--surely this Medea exhales the +flower-like graces, the sweet sanctities of human life, that even in +that turbid age were found among high-bred Italian ladies. Such power +have mighty sculptors, even in our modern world, to make the mute +stone speak in poems and clasp the soul's life of a century in some +five or six transcendent forms. + +The Colleoni, or Coglioni, family were of considerable antiquity and +well-authenticated nobility in the town of Bergamo. Two lions' heads +conjoined formed one of their canting ensigns; another was borrowed +from the vulgar meaning of their name. Many members of the house held +important office during the three centuries preceding the birth of the +famous general, Bartolommeo. He was born in the year 1400 at Solza, in +the Bergamasque Contado. His father Paolo, or Puho as he was commonly +called, was poor and exiled from the city, together with the rest of +the Guelf nobles, by the Visconti. Being a man of daring spirit, and +little inclined to languish in a foreign state as the dependent on +some patron, Puho formed the bold design of seizing the Castle of +Trezzo. This he achieved in 1405 by fraud, and afterwards held it as +his own by force. Partly with the view of establishing himself more +firmly in his acquired lordship, and partly out of family affection, +Puho associated four of his first-cousins in the government of Trezzo. +They repaid his kindness with an act of treason and cruelty, only too +characteristic of those times in Italy. One day while he was playing +at draughts in a room of the Castle, they assaulted him and killed +him, seized his wife and the boy Bartolommeo, and flung them into +prison. The murdered Puho had another son, Antonio, who escaped and +took refuge with Giorgio Benzone, the tyrant of Crema. After a short +time the Colleoni brothers found means to assassinate him also; +therefore Bartolommeo alone, a child of whom no heed was taken, +remained to be his father's avenger. He and his mother lived together +in great indigence at Solza, until the lad felt strong enough to enter +the service of one of the numerous petty Lombard princes, and to +make himself if possible a captain of adventure. His name alone was a +sufficient introduction, and the Duchy of Milan, dismembered upon the +death of Gian Maria Visconti, was in such a state that all the minor +despots were increasing their forces and preparing to defend by arms +the fragments they had seized from the Visconti heritage. Bartolommeo +therefore had no difficulty in recommending himself to Filippo +d'Arcello, sometime general in the pay of the Milanese, but now the +new lord of Piacenza. With this master he remained as page for two or +three years, learning the use of arms, riding, and training himself +in the physical exercises which were indispensable to a young Italian +soldier. Meanwhile Filippo Maria Visconti reacquired his hereditary +dominions; and at the age of twenty, Bartolommeo found it prudent +to seek a patron stronger than d'Arcello. The two great Condottieri, +Sforza Attendolo and Braccio, divided the military glories of Italy at +this period; and any youth who sought to rise in his profession, +had to enrol himself under the banners of the one or the other. +Bartolommeo chose Braccio for his master, and was enrolled among his +men as a simple trooper, or _ragazzo_, with no better prospects +than he could make for himself by the help of his talents and his +borrowed horse and armour. Braccio at this time was in Apulia, +prosecuting the war of the Neapolitan Succession disputed between +Alfonso of Aragon and Louis of Anjou under the weak sovereignty of +Queen Joan. On which side of a quarrel a Condottiere fought mattered +but little: so great was the confusion of Italian politics, and so +complete was the egotism of these fraudful, violent, and treacherous +party leaders. Yet it may be mentioned that Braccio had espoused +Alfonso's cause. Bartolommeo Colleoni early distinguished himself +among the ranks of the Bracceschi. But he soon perceived that he +could better his position by deserting to another camp. Accordingly +he offered his services to Jacopo Caldora, one of Joan's generals, and +received from him a commission of twenty men-at-arms. It may here +be parenthetically said that the rank and pay of an Italian captain +varied with the number of the men he brought into the field. His title +'Condottiere' was derived from the circumstance that he was said to +have received a _Condotta di venti cavalli_, and so forth. +Each _cavallo_ was equal to one mounted man-at-arms and two +attendants, who were also called _ragazzi_. It was his business +to provide the stipulated number of men, to keep them in good +discipline, and to satisfy their just demands. Therefore an Italian +army at this epoch consisted of numerous small armies varying in +size, each held together by personal engagements to a captain, and all +dependent on the will of a general-in-chief, who had made a bargain +with some prince or republic for supplying a fixed contingent of +fighting-men. The _Condottiere_ was in other words a contractor +or _impresario_, undertaking to do a certain piece of work for a +certain price, and to furnish the requisite forces for the business +in good working order. It will be readily seen upon this system how +important were the personal qualities of the captain, and what great +advantages those Condottieri had, who, like the petty princes +of Romagna and the March, the Montefeltri, Ordelaffi, Malatesti, +Manfredi, Orsini, and Vitelli, could rely upon a race of hardy vassals +for their recruits. + +It is not necessary to follow Colleoni's fortunes in the Regno, at +Aquila, Ancona, and Bologna. He continued in the service of Caldora, +who was now General of the Church, and had his _Condotta_ +gradually increased. Meanwhile his cousins, the murderers of his +father, began to dread his rising power, and determined, if possible, +to ruin him. He was not a man to be easily assassinated; so they sent +a hired ruffian to Caldora's camp to say that Bartolommeo had taken +his name by fraud, and that he was himself the real son of Puho +Colleoni. Bartolommeo defied the liar to a duel; and this would have +taken place before the army, had not two witnesses appeared, who knew +the fathers of both Colleoni and the _bravo_, and who gave such +evidence that the captains of the army were enabled to ascertain the +truth. The impostor was stripped and drummed out of the camp. + +At the conclusion of a peace between the Pope and the Bolognese, +Bartolommeo found himself without occupation. He now offered himself +to the Venetians, and began to fight again under the great Carmagnola +against Filippo Visconti. His engagement allowed him forty men, +which, after the judicial murder of Carmagnola at Venice in 1432, were +increased to eighty. Erasmo da Narni, better known as Gattamelata, was +now his general-in-chief--a man who had risen from the lowest fortunes +to one of the most splendid military positions in Italy. Colleoni +spent the next years of his life, until 1443, in Lombardy, manoeuvring +against Il Piccinino, and gradually rising in the Venetian service, +until his Condotta reached the number of 800 men. Upon Gattamelata's +death at Padua in 1440, Colleoni became the most important of the +generals who had fought with Caldora in the March. The lordships of +Romano in the Bergamasque and of Covo and Antegnate in the Cremonese +had been assigned to him; and he was in a position to make independent +engagements with princes. What distinguished him as a general, was a +combination of caution with audacity. He united the brilliant system +of his master Braccio with the more prudent tactics of the Sforzeschi; +and thus, though he often surprised his foes by daring stratagems +and vigorous assaults, he rarely met with any serious check. He was a +captain who could be relied upon for boldly seizing an advantage, +no less than for using a success with discretion. Moreover he had +acquired an almost unique reputation for honesty in dealing with his +masters, and for justice combined with humane indulgence to his men. +His company was popular, and he could always bring capital troops into +the field. + +In the year 1443 Colleoni quitted the Venetian service on account of a +quarrel with Gherardo Dandolo, the Provoditore of the Republic. He +now took a commission from Filippo Maria Visconti, who received him at +Milan with great honour, bestowed on him the Castello Adorno at Pavia, +and sent him into the March of Ancona upon a military expedition. Of +all Italian tyrants this Visconti was the most difficult to serve. +Constitutionally timid, surrounded with a crowd of spies and base +informers, shrinking from the sight of men in the recesses of his +palace, and controlling the complicated affairs of his Duchy by means +of correspondents and intelligencers, this last scion of the Milanese +despots lived like a spider in an inscrutable network of suspicion +and intrigue. His policy was one of endless plot and counterplot. He +trusted no man; his servants were paid to act as spies on one another; +his bodyguard consisted of mutually hostile mercenaries; his captains +in the field were watched and thwarted by commissioners appointed to +check them at the point of successful ambition or magnificent victory. +The historian has a hard task when he tries to fathom the Visconti's +schemes, or to understand his motives. Half the Duke's time seems to +have been spent in unravelling the webs that he had woven, in undoing +his own work, and weakening the hands of his chosen ministers. +Conscious that his power was artificial, that the least breath might +blow him back into the nothingness from which he had arisen on the +wrecks of his father's tyranny, he dreaded the personal eminence of +his generals above all things. His chief object was to establish a +system of checks, by means of which no one whom he employed should +at any moment be great enough to threaten him. The most formidable +of these military adventurers, Francesco Sforza, had been secured by +marriage with Bianca Maria Visconti, his master's only daughter, in +1441; but the Duke did not even trust his son-in-law. The last six +years of his life were spent in scheming to deprive Sforza of his +lordships; and the war in the March, on which he employed Colleoni, +had the object of ruining the principality acquired by this daring +captain from Pope Eugenius IV. in 1443. + +Colleoni was by no means deficient in those foxlike qualities which +were necessary to save the lion from the toils spread for him by +Italian intriguers. He had already shown that he knew how to push his +own interests, by changing sides and taking service with the highest +bidder, as occasion prompted. Nor, though his character for probity +and loyalty stood exceptionally high among the men of his profession, +was he the slave to any questionable claims of honour or of duty. In +that age of confused politics and extinguished patriotism, there +was not indeed much scope for scrupulous honesty. But Filippo Maria +Visconti proved more than a match for him in craft. While Colleoni +was engaged in pacifying the revolted population of Bologna, the Duke +yielded to the suggestion of his parasites at Milan, who whispered +that the general was becoming dangerously powerful. He recalled him, +and threw him without trial into the dungeons of the Forni at Monza. +Here Colleoni remained a prisoner more than a year, until the +Duke's death in 1447, when he made his escape, and profited by the +disturbance of the Duchy to reacquire his lordships in the Bergamasque +territory. The true motive for his imprisonment remains still buried +in obscure conjecture. Probably it was not even known to the Visconti, +who acted on this, as on so many other occasions, by a mere spasm of +suspicious jealousy, for which he could have given no account. + +From the year 1447 to the year 1455, it is difficult to follow +Colleoni's movements, or to trace his policy. First, we find +him employed by the Milanese Republic, during its brief space of +independence; then he is engaged by the Venetians, with a commission +for 1500 horse; next, he is in the service of Francesco Sforza; once +more in that of the Venetians, and yet again in that of the Duke of +Milan. His biographer relates with pride that, during this period, +he was three times successful against French troops in Piedmont and +Lombardy. It appears that he made short engagements, and changed his +paymasters according to convenience. But all this time he rose in +personal importance, acquired fresh lordships in the Bergamasque, and +accumulated wealth. He reached the highest point of his prosperity +in 1455, when the Republic of S. Mark elected him General-in-Chief of +their armies, with the fullest powers, and with a stipend of 100,000 +florins. For nearly twenty-one years, until the day of his death, in +1475, Colleoni held this honourable and lucrative office. In his will +he charged the Signory of Venice that they should never again commit +into the hands of a single captain such unlimited control over their +military resources. It was indeed no slight tribute to Colleoni's +reputation for integrity, that the jealous Republic, which had +signified its sense of Carmagnola's untrustworthiness by capital +punishment, should have left him so long in the undisturbed disposal +of their army. The Standard and the Baton of S. Mark were conveyed to +Colleoni by two ambassadors, and presented to him at Brescia on June +24, 1455. Three years later he made a triumphal entry into Venice, and +received the same ensigns of military authority from the hands of the +new Doge, Pasquale Malipiero. On this occasion his staff consisted of +some two hundred officers, splendidly armed, and followed by a train +of serving-men. Noblemen from Bergamo, Brescia, and other cities of +the Venetian territory, swelled the cortege. When they embarked on the +lagoons, they found the water covered with boats and gondolas, bearing +the population of Venice in gala attire, to greet the illustrious +guest with instruments of music. Three great galleys of the Republic, +called Bucentaurs, issued from the crowd of smaller craft. On the +first was the Doge in his state robes, attended by the government in +office, or the Signoria of S. Mark. On the second were members of the +Senate and minor magistrates. The third carried the ambassadors of +foreign powers. Colleoni was received into the first state-galley, +and placed by the side of the Doge. The oarsmen soon cleared the +space between the land and Venice, passed the small canals, and +swept majestically up the Canalozzo among the plaudits of the crowds +assembled on both sides to cheer their General. Thus they reached the +piazzetta, where Colleoni alighted between the two great pillars, +and, conducted by the Doge in person, walked to the Church of S. +Mark. Here, after Mass had been said, and a sermon had been preached, +kneeling before the high altar he received the truncheon from the +Doge's hands. The words of his commission ran as follows:-- + +'By authority and decree of this most excellent City of Venice, of +us the Prince, and of the Senate, you are to be Commander and Captain +General of all our forces and armaments on terra firma. Take from +our hands this truncheon, with good augury and fortune, as sign and +warrant of your power. Be it your care and effort, with dignity and +splendour to maintain and to defend the Majesty, the Loyalty, and the +Principles of this Empire. Neither provoking, not yet provoked, unless +at our command, shall you break into open warfare with our enemies. +Free jurisdiction and lordship over each one of our soldiers, except +in cases of treason, we hereby commit to you.' + +After the ceremony of his reception, Colleoni was conducted with +no less pomp to his lodgings, and the next ten days were spent in +festivities of all sorts. + +The commandership-in-chief of the Venetian forces was perhaps the +highest military post in Italy. It placed Colleoni on the pinnacle +of his profession, and made his camp the favourite school of young +soldiers. Among his pupils or lieutenants we read of Ercole d'Este, +the future Duke of Ferrara; Alessandro Sforza, lord of Pesaro; +Boniface, Marquis of Montferrat; Cicco and Pino Ordelaffi, princes +of Forli; Astorre Manfredi, the lord of Faenza; three Counts of +Mirandola; two princes of Carpi; Deifobo, the Count of Anguillara; +Giovanni Antonio Caldora, lord of Jesi in the March; and many others +of less name. Honours came thick upon him. When one of the many +ineffectual leagues against the infidel was formed in 1468, during the +pontificate of Paul II., he was named Captain-General for the Crusade. +Pius II. designed him for the leader of the expedition he had planned +against the impious and savage despot, Sigismondo Malatesta. King Rene +of Anjou, by special patent, authorised him to bear his name and +arms, and made him a member of his family. The Duke of Burgundy, by +a similar heraldic fiction, conferred upon him his name and armorial +bearings. This will explain why Colleoni is often styled 'di Andegavia +e Borgogna.' In the case of Rene, the honour was but a barren show. +But the patent of Charles the Bold had more significance. In 1473 he +entertained the project of employing the great Italian General against +his Swiss foes; nor does it seem reasonable to reject a statement made +by Colleoni's biographer, to the effect that a secret compact had been +drawn up between him and the Duke of Burgundy, for the conquest and +partition of the Duchy of Milan. The Venetians, in whose service +Colleoni still remained, when they became aware of this project, met +it with peaceful but irresistible opposition. + +Colleoni had been engaged continually since his earliest boyhood in +the trade of war. It was not therefore possible that he should have +gained a great degree of literary culture. Yet the fashion of the +times made it necessary that a man in his position should seek the +society of scholars. Accordingly his court and camp were crowded with +students, in whose wordy disputations he is said to have delighted. It +will be remembered that his contemporaries, Alfonso the Magnanimous, +Francesco Sforza, Federigo of Urbino, and Sigismondo Pandolfo +Malatesta, piqued themselves at least as much upon their patronage of +letters, as upon their prowess in the field. + +Colleoni's court, like that of Urbino, was a model of good manners. As +became a soldier, he was temperate in food and moderate in slumber. It +was recorded of him that he had never sat more than one hour at meat +in his own house, and that he never overslept the sunrise. After +dinner he would converse with his friends, using commonly his native +dialect of Bergamo, and entertaining the company now with stories of +adventure, and now with pithy sayings. In another essential point he +resembled his illustrious contemporary, the Duke of Urbino; for he was +sincerely pious in an age which, however it preserved the decencies +of ceremonial religion, was profoundly corrupt at heart. His principal +lordships in the Bergamasque territory owed to his munificence their +fairest churches and charitable institutions. At Martinengo, for +example, he rebuilt and re-endowed two monasteries, the one dedicated +to S. Chiara, the other to S. Francis. In Bergamo itself he founded an +establishment named' La Pieta,' for the good purpose of dowering and +marrying poor girls. This house he endowed with a yearly income of +3000 ducats. The Sulphur baths of Trescorio, at some distance from the +city, were improved and opened to poor patients by a hospital which +he provided. At Rumano he raised a church to S. Peter, and erected +buildings of public utility, which on his death he bequeathed to +the society of the Misericordia in that town. All the places of his +jurisdiction owed to him such benefits as good water, new walls, and +irrigation works. In addition to these munificent foundations must +be mentioned the Basella, or Monastery of Dominican friars, which he +established not far from Bergamo, upon the river Serio, in memory of +his beloved daughter Medea. Last, not least, was the Chapel of S. John +the Baptist, attached to the Church of S. Maria Maggiore, which he +endowed with fitting maintenance for two priests and deacons. + +The one defect acknowledged by his biographer was his partiality +for women. Early in life he married Tisbe, of the noble house of the +Brescian Martinenghi, who bore him one daughter, Caterina, wedded to +Gasparre Martinengo. Two illegitimate daughters, Ursina and Isotta, +were recognised and treated by him as legitimate. The first he gave in +marriage to Gherardo Martinengo, and the second to Jacopo of the +same family. Two other natural children, Doratina and Ricardona, were +mentioned in his will: he left them four thousand ducats a piece for +dowry. Medea, the child of his old age (for she was born to him when +he was sixty), died before her father, and was buried, as we have +seen, in the Chapel of Basella. + +Throughout his life he was distinguished for great physical strength +and agility. When he first joined the troop of Braccio, he could race, +with his corselet on, against the swiftest runner of the army; and +when he was stripped, few horses could beat him in speed. Far on into +old age he was in the habit of taking long walks every morning for the +sake of exercise, and delighted in feats of arms and jousting matches. +'He was tall, straight, and full of flesh, well proportioned, and +excellently made in all his limbs. His complexion inclined somewhat to +brown, but was coloured with sanguine and lively carnation. His eyes +were black; in look and sharpness of light, they were vivid, piercing, +and terrible. The outlines of his nose and all his countenance +expressed a certain manly nobleness, combined with goodness and +prudence.' Such is the portrait drawn of Colleoni by his biographer; +and it well accords with the famous bronze statue of the general at +Venice. + +Colleoni lived with a magnificence that suited his rank. His favourite +place of abode was Malpaga, a castle built by him at the distance of +about an hour's drive from Bergamo. The place is worth a visit, though +its courts and gates and galleries have now been turned into a monster +farm, and the southern rooms, where Colleoni entertained his guests, +are given over to the silkworms. Half a dozen families, employed upon +a vast estate of the Martinengo family, occupy the still substantial +house and stables. The moat is planted with mulberry-trees; the upper +rooms are used as granaries for golden maize; cows, pigs, and horses +litter in the spacious yard. Yet the walls of the inner court and of +the ancient state rooms are brilliant with frescoes, executed by some +good Venetian hand, which represent the chief events of Colleoni's +life--his battles, his reception by the Signory of Venice, +his tournaments and hawking parties, and the great series of +entertainments with which he welcomed Christiern of Denmark. This king +had made his pilgrimage to Rome and was returning westward, when the +fame of Colleoni and his princely state at Malpaga induced him to turn +aside and spend some days as the general's guest. In order to do +him honour, Colleoni left his castle at the king's disposal and +established himself with all his staff and servants in a camp at some +distance from Malpaga. The camp was duly furnished with tents and +trenches, stockades, artillery, and all the other furniture of war. On +the king's approach, Colleoni issued with trumpets blowing and banners +flying to greet his guest, gratifying him thus with a spectacle of the +pomp and circumstance of war as carried on in Italy. The visit +was further enlivened by sham fights, feats of arms, and trials of +strength. When it ended, Colleoni presented the king with one of +his own suits of armour, and gave to each of his servants a complete +livery of red and white, his colours. Among the frescoes at Malpaga +none are more interesting, and none, thanks to the silkworms rather +than to any other cause, are fortunately in a better state of +preservation, than those which represent this episode in the history +of the Castle. + +Colleoni died in the year 1475, at the age of seventy-five. Since he +left no male representative, he constituted the Republic of S. Mark +his heir-in-chief, after properly providing for his daughters and his +numerous foundations. The Venetians received under this testament a +sum of 100,000 ducats, together with all arrears of pay due to him, +and 10,000 ducats owed him by the Duke of Ferrara. It set forth the +testator's intention that this money should be employed in defence of +the Christian faith against the Turk. One condition was attached to +the bequest. The legatees were to erect a statue to Colleoni on the +Piazza of S. Mark. This, however, involved some difficulty; for the +proud Republic had never accorded a similar honour, nor did they +choose to encumber their splendid square with a monument. They evaded +the condition by assigning the Campo in front of the Scuola di S. +Marco, where also stands the Church of S. Zanipolo, to the purpose. +Here accordingly the finest bronze equestrian statue in Italy, if we +except the Marcus Aurelius of the Capitol, was reared upon its marble +pedestal by Andrea Verocchio and Alessandro Leopardi. + +Colleoni's liberal expenditure of wealth found its reward in the +immortality conferred by art. While the names of Braccio, his master +in the art of war, and of Piccinino, his great adversary, are familiar +to few but professed students, no one who has visited either Bergamo +or Venice can fail to have learned something about the founder of the +Chapel of S. John and the original of Leopardi's bronze. The annals +of sculpture assign to Verocchio, of Florence, the principal share in +this statue: but Verocchio died before it was cast; and even granting +that he designed the model, its execution must be attributed to his +collaborator, the Venetian Leopardi. For my own part, I am loth to +admit that the chief credit of this masterpiece belongs to a man whose +undisputed work at Florence shows but little of its living spirit and +splendour of suggested motion. That the Tuscan science of Verocchio +secured conscientious modelling for man and horse may be assumed; but +I am fain to believe that the concentrated fire which animates them +both is due in no small measure to the handling of his northern +fellow-craftsman. + +While immersed in the dreary records of crimes, treasons, cruelties, +and base ambitions, which constitute the bulk of fifteenth-century +Italian history, it is refreshing to meet with a character so frank +and manly, so simply pious and comparatively free from stain, as +Colleoni. The only general of his day who can bear comparison with +him for purity of public life and decency in conduct, was Federigo di +Montefeltro. Even here, the comparison redounds to Colleoni's credit; +for he, unlike the Duke of Urbino, rose to eminence by his own +exertion in a profession fraught with peril to men of ambition and +energy. Federigo started with a principality sufficient to satisfy +his just desires for power. Nothing but his own sense of right and +prudence restrained Colleoni upon the path which brought Francesco +Sforza to a duchy by dishonourable dealings, and Carmagnola to the +scaffold by questionable practice against his masters. + + * * * * * + + + + +_CREMA AND THE CRUCIFIX_ + + +Few people visit Crema. It is a little country town of Lombardy, +between Cremona and Treviglio, with no historic memories but very +misty ones belonging to the days of the Visconti dynasty. On every +side around the city walls stretch smiling vineyards and rich meadows, +where the elms are married to the mulberry-trees by long festoons of +foliage hiding purple grapes, where the sunflowers droop their heavy +golden heads among tall stems of millet and gigantic maize, and here +and there a rice-crop ripens in the marshy loam. In vintage time +the carts, drawn by their white oxen, come creaking townward in +the evening, laden with blue bunches. Down the long straight roads, +between rows of poplars, they creep on; and on the shafts beneath +the pyramid of fruit lie contadini stained with lees of wine. Far off +across that 'waveless sea' of Lombardy, which has been the battlefield +of countless generations, rise the dim grey Alps, or else pearled +domes of thunder-clouds in gleaming masses over some tall solitary +tower. Such backgrounds, full of peace, suggestive of almost infinite +distance, and dignified with colours of incomparable depth and +breadth, the Venetian painters loved. No landscape in Europe is more +wonderful than this--thrice wonderful in the vastness of its arching +heavens, in the stillness of its level plain, and in the bulwark of +huge crested mountains, reared afar like bastions against the northern +sky. The little town is all alive in this September weather. At every +corner of the street, under rustling abeles and thick-foliaged planes, +at the doors of palaces and in the yards of inns, men, naked from the +thighs downward, are treading the red must into vats and tuns; while +their mild-eyed oxen lie beneath them in the road, peaceably chewing +the cud between one journey to the vineyard and another. It must not +be imagined that the scene of Alma Tadema's 'Roman Vintage,' or what +we fondly picture to our fancy of the Athenian Lenaea, is repeated in +the streets of Crema. This modern treading of the wine-press is a +very prosaic affair. The town reeks with a sour smell of old casks and +crushed grape-skins, and the men and women at work bear no resemblance +whatever to Bacchus and his crew. Yet even as it is, the Lombard +vintage, beneath floods of sunlight and a pure blue sky, is beautiful; +and he who would fain make acquaintance with Crema, should time his +entry into the old town, if possible, on some still golden afternoon +of autumn. It is then, if ever, that he will learn to love the glowing +brickwork of its churches and the quaint terra-cotta traceries that +form its chief artistic charm. + +How the unique brick architecture of the Lombard cities took its +origin--whether from the precepts of Byzantine aliens in the earliest +middle ages, or from the native instincts of a mixed race composed of +Gallic, Ligurian, Roman, and Teutonic elements, under the leadership +of Longobardic rulers--is a question for antiquarians to decide. +There can, however, be no doubt that the monuments of the Lombard +style, as they now exist, are no less genuinely local, no less +characteristic of the country they adorn, no less indigenous to the +soil they sprang from, than the Attic colonnades of Mnesicles and +Ictinus. What the marble quarries of Pentelicus were to the Athenian +builders, the clay beneath their feet was to those Lombard craftsmen. +From it they fashioned structures as enduring, towers as majestic, and +cathedral aisles as solemn, as were ever wrought from chiselled stone. +There is a true sympathy between those buildings and the Lombard +landscape, which by itself might suffice to prove the originality +of their almost unknown architects. The rich colour of the baked +clay--finely modulated from a purplish red, through russet, crimson, +pink, and orange, to pale yellow and dull grey--harmonises with the +brilliant greenery of Lombard vegetation and with the deep azure +of the distant Alpine range. Reared aloft above the flat expanse of +plain, those square _torroni_, tapering into octagons and +crowned with slender cones, break the long sweeping lines and +infinite horizons with a contrast that affords relief, and yields a +resting-place to tired eyes; while, far away, seen haply from some +bridge above Ticino, or some high-built palace loggia, they gleam like +columns of pale rosy fire against the front of mustering storm-clouds +blue with rain. In that happy orchard of Italy, a pergola of vines +in leaf, a clump of green acacias, and a campanile soaring above its +church roof, brought into chance combination with the reaches of the +plain and the dim mountain range, make up a picture eloquent in its +suggestive beauty. + +Those ancient builders wrought cunningly with their material. The +bricks are fashioned and fixed to last for all time. Exposed to the +icy winds of a Lombard winter, to the fierce fire of a Lombard summer, +and to the moist vapours of a Lombard autumn; neglected by unheeding +generations; with flowers clustering in their crannies, and birds +nesting in their eaves, and mason-bees filling the delicate network of +their traceries--they still present angles as sharp as when they were +but finished, and joints as nice as when the mortar dried in the first +months of their building. This immunity from age and injury they owe +partly to the imperishable nature of baked clay; partly to the care of +the artists who selected and mingled the right sorts of earth, burned +them with scrupulous attention, and fitted them together with a +patience born of loving service. Each member of the edifice was +designed with a view to its ultimate place. The proper curve was +ascertained for cylindrical columns and for rounded arches. Larger +bricks were moulded for the supporting walls, and lesser pieces were +adapted to the airy vaults and lanterns. In the brickfield and the +kiln the whole church was planned and wrought out in its details, +before the hands that made a unity of all these scattered elements +were set to the work of raising it in air. When they came to put the +puzzle together, they laid each brick against its neighbour, filling +up the almost imperceptible interstices with liquid cement composed +of quicklime and fine sand in water. After five centuries the seams +between the layers of bricks that make the bell-tower of S. Gottardo +at Milan, yield no point of vantage to the penknife or the chisel. + +Nor was it in their welding of the bricks alone that these craftsmen +showed their science. They were wont to enrich the surface with +marble, sparingly but effectively employed--as in those slender +detached columns, which add such beauty to the octagon of S. Gottardo, +or in the string-courses of strange beasts and reptiles that adorn the +church fronts of Pavia. They called to their aid the _mandorlato_ +of Verona, supporting their porch pillars on the backs of couchant +lions, inserting polished slabs on their facades, and building huge +sarcophagi into their cloister alleys. Between terra-cotta and this +marble of Verona there exists a deep and delicate affinity. It took +the name of _mandorlato_, I suppose, from a resemblance to almond +blossoms. But it is far from having the simple beauty of a single hue. +Like all noble veined stones, it passes by a series of modulations and +gradations through a gamut of associated rather than contrasted tints. +Not the pink of the almond blossom only, but the creamy whiteness of +the almond kernel, and the dull yellow of the almond nut may be found +in it; and yet these colours are so blent and blurred to all-pervading +mellowness, that nowhere is there any shock of contrast or violence of +a preponderating tone. The veins which run in labyrinths of crossing, +curving, and contorted lines all over its smooth surface add, no +doubt, to this effect of unity. The polish, lastly, which it takes, +makes the _mandorlato_ shine like a smile upon the sober face +of the brickwork: for, serviceable as terra-cotta is for nearly all +artistic purposes, it cannot reflect light or gain the illumination +which comes from surface brightness. + +What the clay can do almost better than any crystalline material, may +be seen in the mouldings so characteristic of Lombard architecture. +Geometrical patterns of the rarest and most fanciful device; scrolls +of acanthus foliage, and traceries of tendrils; Cupids swinging in +festoons of vines; angels joining hands in dance, with fluttering +skirts and windy hair, and mouths that symbol singing; grave faces of +old men and beautiful profiles of maidens leaning from medallions; +wide-winged genii filling the spandrils of cloister arches, and +cherubs clustered in the rondure of rose-windows--ornaments like +these, wrought from the plastic clay, and adapted with true taste to +the requirements of the architecture, are familiar to every one who +has studied the church front of Crema, the cloisters of the Certosa, +the courts of the Ospedale Maggiore at Milan, or the public palace of +Cremona. + +If the _mandorlato_ gives a smile to those majestic Lombard +buildings, the terra-cotta decorations add the element of life +and movement. The thought of the artist in its first freshness +and vivacity is felt in them. They have all the spontaneity of +improvisation, the seductive melody of unpremeditated music. +Moulding the supple earth with 'hand obedient to the brain,' the +_plasticatore_ has impressed his most fugitive dreams of beauty +on it without effort; and what it cost him but a few fatigueless +hours to fashion, the steady heat of the furnace has gifted with +imperishable life. Such work, no doubt, has the defects of its +qualities. As there are few difficulties to overcome, it suffers +from a fatal facility--_nec pluteum coedit nec demorsos sapit +ungues_. It is therefore apt to be unequal, touching at times the +highest point of inspiration, as in the angels of Guccio at Perugia, +and sinking not unfrequently into the commonplace of easygoing +triviality, as in the common floral traceries of Milanese windows. +But it is never laboured, never pedantic, never dulled by the painful +effort to subdue an obstinate material to the artist's will. If marble +is required to develop the strength of the few supreme sculptors, +terra-cotta saves intact the fancies of a crowd of lesser men. + +When we reflect that all the force, solemnity, and beauty of the +Lombard buildings was evoked from clay, we learn from them this +lesson: that the thought of man needs neither precious material nor +yet stubborn substance for the production of enduring masterpieces. +The red earth was enough for God when He made man in His own image; +and mud dried in the sun suffices for the artist, who is next to God +in his creative faculty--since _non merita nome di creatore se +non Iddio ed il poeta_. After all, what is more everlasting than +terra-cotta? The hobnails of the boys who ran across the brickfields +in the Roman town of Silchester, may still be seen, mingled with +the impress of the feet of dogs and hoofs of goats, in the tiles +discovered there. Such traces might serve as a metaphor for the +footfall of artistic genius, when the form-giver has stamped his +thought upon the moist clay, and fire has made that imprint permanent. + +Of all these Lombard edifices, none is more beautiful than the +Cathedral of Crema, with its delicately finished campanile, built +of choicely tinted yellow bricks, and ending in a lantern of the +gracefullest, most airily capricious fancy. This bell-tower does not +display the gigantic force of Cremona's famous torrazzo, shooting +396 feet into blue ether from the city square; nor can it rival the +octagon of S. Gottardo for warmth of hue. Yet it has a character of +elegance, combined with boldness of invention, that justifies the +citizens of Crema in their pride. It is unique; and he who has not +seen it does not know the whole resources of the Lombard style. The +facade of the Cathedral displays that peculiar blending of Byzantine +or Romanesque round arches with Gothic details in the windows, +and with the acute angle of the central pitch, which forms the +characteristic quality of the late _trecento_ Lombard manner. In +its combination of purity and richness it corresponds to the best age +of decorated work in English Gothic. What, however, strikes a Northern +observer is the strange detachment of this elaborate facade from the +main structure of the church. Like a frontispiece cut out of cardboard +and pierced with ornamental openings, it shoots far above the low +roof of the nave; so that at night the moon, rising above the southern +aisle, shines through its topmost window, and casts the shadow of +its tracery upon the pavement of the square. This is a constructive +blemish to which the Italians in no part of the peninsula were +sensitive. They seem to have regarded their church fronts as +independent of the edifice, capable of separate treatment, and worthy +in themselves of being made the subject of decorative skill. + +In the so-called Santuario of Crema--a circular church dedicated to +S. Maria della Croce, outside the walls--the Lombard style has been +adapted to the manner of the Mid-Renaissance. This church was raised +in the last years of the fifteenth century by Gian Battista Battagli, +an architect of Lodi, who followed the pure rules of taste, bequeathed +to North Italian builders by Bramante. The beauty of the edifice +is due entirely to its tranquil dignity and harmony of parts, the +lightness of its circling loggia, and the just proportion maintained +between the central structure and the four projecting porticoes. The +sharp angles of these vestibules afford a contrast to the simplicity +of the main building, while their clustered cupolas assist the general +effect of roundness aimed at by the architect. Such a church as +this proves how much may be achieved by the happy distribution of +architectural masses. It was the triumph of the best Renaissance style +to attain lucidity of treatment, and to produce beauty by geometrical +proportion. When Leo Battista Alberti complained to his friend, Matteo +di Bastia, that a slight alteration of the curves in his design for +S. Francesco at Rimini would 'spoil his music,' _cio che tu muti +discorda tutta quella musica_, this is what he meant. The melody +of lines and the harmony of parts made a symphony to his eyes no less +agreeable than a concert of tuned lutes and voices to his ears; and to +this concord he was so sensitive that any deviation was a discord. + +After visiting the churches of Crema and sauntering about the streets +awhile, there is nothing left to do but to take refuge in the old +Albergo del Pozzo. This is one of those queer Italian inns, which +carry you away at once into a scene of Goldoni. It is part of some +palace, where nobles housed their _bravi_ in the sixteenth +century, and which the lesser people of to-day have turned into a +dozen habitations. Its great stone staircase leads to a saloon upon +which the various bedchambers open; and round its courtyard runs an +open balcony, and from the court grows up a fig-tree poking ripe fruit +against a bedroom window. Oleanders in tubs and red salvias in pots, +and kitchen herbs in boxes, flourish on the pavement, where the ostler +comes to wash his carriages, and where the barber shaves the poodle of +the house. Visitors to the Albergo del Pozzo are invariably asked if +they have seen the Museo; and when they answer in the negative, they +are conducted with some ceremony to a large room on the ground-floor +of the inn, looking out upon the courtyard and the fig-tree. It was +here that I gained the acquaintance of Signor Folcioni, and became +possessor of an object that has made the memory of Crema doubly +interesting to me ever since. + +When we entered the Museo, we found a little old man, gentle, grave, +and unobtrusive, varnishing the ugly portrait of some Signor of the +_cinquecento_. Round the walls hung pictures, of mediocre value, +in dingy frames; but all of them bore sounding titles. Titians, +Lionardos, Guido Renis, and Luinis, looked down and waited for a +purchaser. In truth this museum was a _bric-a-brac_ shop of a +sort that is common enough in Italy, where treasures of old lace, +glass, armour, furniture, and tapestry, may still be met with. Signor +Folcioni began by pointing out the merits of his pictures; and after +making due allowance for his zeal as amateur and dealer, it was +possible to join in some of his eulogiums. A would-be Titian, for +instance, bought in Verona from a noble house in ruins, showed +Venetian wealth of colour in its gemmy greens and lucid crimsons +shining from a background deep and glowing. Then he led us to a +walnut-wood bureau of late Renaissance work, profusely carved with +nymphs and Cupids, and armed men, among festoons of fruits embossed +in high relief. Deeply drilled worm-holes set a seal of antiquity upon +the blooming faces and luxuriant garlandslike the touch of Time who +'delves the parallels in beauty's brow.' On the shelves of an ebony +cabinet close by he showed us a row of cups cut out of rock-crystal +and mounted in gilt silver, with heaps of engraved gems, old +snuff-boxes, coins, medals, sprays of coral, and all the indescribable +lumber that one age flings aside as worthless for the next to pick +up from the dust-heap and regard as precious. Surely the genius of +culture in our century might be compared to a chiffonnier of Paris, +who, when the night has fallen, goes into the streets, bag on back +and lantern in hand, to rake up the waifs and strays a day of whirling +life has left him. + +The next curiosity was an ivory carving of S. Anthony preaching to the +fishes, so fine and small you held it on your palm, and used a lens +to look at it. Yet there stood the Santo gesticulating, and there +were the fishes in rows--the little fishes first, and then the +middle-sized, and last of all the great big fishes almost out at sea, +with their heads above the water and their mouths wide open, just as +the _Fioretti di San Francesco_ describes them. After this +came some original drawings of doubtful interest, and then a case of +fifty-two _nielli_. These were of unquestionable value; for has +not Cicognara engraved them on a page of his classic monograph? +The thin silver plates, over which once passed the burin of Maso +Finiguerra, cutting lines finer than hairs, and setting here a shadow +in dull acid-eaten grey, and there a high light of exquisite polish, +were far more delicate than any proofs impressed from them. These +frail masterpieces of Florentine art--the first beginnings of line +engraving--we held in our hands while Signor Folcioni read out +Cicognara's commentary in a slow impressive voice, breaking off now +and then to point at the originals before us. + +The sun had set, and the room was almost dark, when he laid his book +down, and said: 'I have not much left to show--yet stay! Here are +still some little things of interest.' He then opened the door +into his bedroom, and took down from a nail above his bed a +wooden Crucifix. Few things have fascinated me more than this +Crucifix--produced without parade, half negligently, from the dregs of +his collection by a dealer in old curiosities at Crema. The cross was, +or is--for it is lying on the table now before me--twenty-one inches +in length, made of strong wood, covered with coarse yellow parchment, +and shod at the four ends with brass. The Christ is roughly hewn in +reddish wood, coloured scarlet, where the blood streams from the five +wounds. Over the head an oval medallion, nailed into the cross, serves +as framework to a miniature of the Madonna, softly smiling with a +Correggiesque simper. The whole Crucifix is not a work of art, but +such as may be found in every convent. Its date cannot be earlier than +the beginning of the eighteenth century. As I held it in my hand, I +thought--perhaps this has been carried to the bedside of the sick +and dying; preachers have brandished it from the pulpit over +conscience-stricken congregations; monks have knelt before it on the +brick floor of their cells, and novices have kissed it in the vain +desire to drown their yearnings after the relinquished world; perhaps +it has attended criminals to the scaffold, and heard the secrets +of repentant murderers; but why should it be shown me as a thing of +rarity? These thoughts passed through my mind, while Signor Folcioni +quietly remarked: 'I bought this Cross from the Frati when their +convent was dissolved in Crema.' Then he bade me turn it round, and +showed a little steel knob fixed into the back between the arms. This +was a spring. He pressed it, and the upper and lower parts of the +cross came asunder; and holding the top like a handle, I drew out as +from a scabbard a sharp steel blade, concealed in the thickness of the +wood, behind the very body of the agonising Christ. What had been a +crucifix became a deadly poniard in my grasp, and the rust upon it in +the twilight looked like blood. 'I have often wondered,' said Signor +Folcioni, 'that the Frati cared to sell me this.' + +There is no need to raise the question of the genuineness of this +strange relic, though I confess to having had my doubts about it, +or to wonder for what nefarious purposes the impious weapon was +designed--whether the blade was inserted by some rascal monk who never +told the tale, or whether it was used on secret service by the +friars. On its surface the infernal engine carries a dark certainty of +treason, sacrilege, and violence. Yet it would be wrong to incriminate +the Order of S. Francis by any suspicion, and idle to seek the actual +history of this mysterious weapon. A writer of fiction could indeed +produce some dark tale in the style of De Stendhal's 'Nouvelles,' and +christen it 'The Crucifix of Crema.' And how delighted would Webster +have been if he had chanced to hear of such a sword-sheath! He might +have placed it in the hands of Bosola for the keener torment of his +Duchess. Flamineo might have used it; or the disguised friars, who +made the deathbed of Bracciano hideous, might have plunged it in the +Duke's heart after mocking his eyes with the figure of the suffering +Christ. To imagine such an instrument of moral terror mingled with +material violence, lay within the scope of Webster's sinister and +powerful genius. But unless he had seen it with his eyes, what poet +would have ventured to devise the thing and display it even in the +dumb show of a tragedy? Fact is more wonderful than romance. No +apocalypse of Antichrist matches what is told of Roderigo Borgia; and +the crucifix of Crema exceeds the sombre fantasy of Webster. + +Whatever may be the truth about this cross, it has at any rate the +value of a symbol or a metaphor. The idea which it materialises, the +historical events of which it is a sign, may well arrest attention. A +sword concealed in the crucifix--what emblem brings more forcibly +to mind than this that two-edged glaive of persecution which Dominic +unsheathed to mow down the populations of Provence and to make Spain +destitute of men? Looking upon the crucifix of Crema, we may seem +to see pestilence-stricken multitudes of Moors and Jews dying on the +coasts of Africa and Italy. The Spaniards enter Mexico; and this is +the cross they carry in their hands. They take possession of Peru; and +while the gentle people of the Incas come to kiss the bleeding brows +of Christ, they plunge this dagger in their sides. What, again, was +the temporal power of the Papacy but a sword embedded in a cross? +Each Papa Re, when he ascended the Holy Chair, was forced to take the +crucifix of Crema and to bear it till his death. A long procession of +war-loving Pontiffs, levying armies and paying captains with the pence +of S. Peter, in order to keep by arms the lands they had acquired by +fraud, defiles before our eyes. First goes the terrible Sixtus IV., +who died of grief when news was brought him that the Italian princes +had made peace. He it was who sanctioned the conspiracy to murder +the Medici in church, at the moment of the elevation of the Host. +The brigands hired to do this work refused at the last moment. The +sacrilege appalled them. 'Then,' says the chronicler, 'was found a +priest, who, being used to churches, had no scruple.' The poignard +this priest carried was this crucifix of Crema. After Sixtus came the +blood-stained Borgia; and after him Julius II., whom the Romans +in triumphal songs proclaimed a second Mars, and who turned, as +Michelangelo expressed it, the chalices of Rome into swords and helms. +Leo X., who dismembered Italy for his brother and nephew; and Clement +VII., who broke the neck of Florence and delivered the Eternal City to +the spoiler, follow. Of the antinomy between the Vicariate of Christ +and an earthly kingdom, incarnated by these and other Holy Fathers, +what symbol could be found more fitting than a dagger with a crucifix +for case and covering? + +It is not easy to think or write of these matters without rhetoric. +When I laid my head upon my pillow that night in the Albergo del Pozzo +at Crema, it was full of such thoughts; and when at last sleep came, +it brought with it a dream begotten doubtless by the perturbation of +my fancy. For I thought that a brown Franciscan, with hollow cheeks, +and eyes aflame beneath his heavy cowl, sat by my bedside, and, as he +raised the crucifix in his lean quivering hands, whispered a tale of +deadly passion and of dastardly revenge. His confession carried me +away to a convent garden of Palermo; and there was love in the story, +and hate that is stronger than love, and, for the ending of the whole +matter, remorse which dies not even in the grave. Each new possessor +of the crucifix of Crema, he told me, was forced to hear from him in +dreams his dreadful history. But, since it was a dream and nothing +more, why should I repeat it? I have wandered far enough already +from the vintage and the sunny churches of the little Lombard town. + + * * * * * + + + + +_CHERUBINO AT THE SCALA THEATRE_ + + +I + +It was a gala night. The opera-house of Milan was one blaze of light +and colour. Royalty in field-marshal's uniform and diamonds, attended +by decorated generals and radiant ladies of the court, occupied the +great box opposite the stage. The tiers from pit to gallery were +filled with brilliantly dressed women. From the third row, where we +were fortunately placed, the curves of that most beautiful of theatres +presented to my gaze a series of retreating and approaching lines, +composed of noble faces, waving feathers, sparkling jewels, sculptured +shoulders, uniforms, robes of costly stuffs and every conceivable +bright colour. Light poured from the huge lustre in the centre of the +roof, ran along the crimson velvet cushions of the boxes, and flashed +upon the gilded frame of the proscenium--satyrs and acanthus scrolls +carved in the manner of a century ago. Pit and orchestra scarcely +contained the crowd of men who stood in lively conversation, their +backs turned to the stage, their lorgnettes raised from time to time +to sweep the boxes. This surging sea of faces and sober costumes +enhanced by contrast the glitter, variety, and luminous tranquillity +of the theatre above it. + +No one took much thought of the coming spectacle, till the conductor's +rap was heard upon his desk, and the orchestra broke into the overture +to Mozart's _Nozze_. Before they were half through, it was clear +that we should not enjoy that evening the delight of perfect music +added to the enchantment of so brilliant a scene. The execution of the +overture was not exactly bad. But it lacked absolute precision, the +complete subordination of all details to the whole. In rendering +German music Italians often fail through want of discipline, or +through imperfect sympathy with a style they will not take the pains +to master. Nor, when the curtain lifted and the play began, was the +vocalisation found in all parts satisfactory. The Contessa had a +meagre _mezza voce_. Susanna, though she did not sing false, +hovered on the verge of discords, owing to the weakness of an organ +which had to be strained in order to make any effect on that enormous +stage. On the other hand, the part of Almaviva was played with +dramatic fire, and Figaro showed a truly Southern sense of comic +fun. The scenes were splendidly mounted, and something of a princely +grandeur--the largeness of a noble train of life--was added to the +drama by the vast proportions of the theatre. It was a performance +which, in spite of drawbacks, yielded pleasure. + +And yet it might have left me frigid but for the artist who played +Cherubino. This was no other than Pauline Lucca, in the prime of youth +and petulance. From her first appearance to the last note she sang, +she occupied the stage. The opera seemed to have been written for her. +The mediocrity of the troupe threw her commanding merits--the richness +of her voice, the purity of her intonation, her vivid conception of +character, her indescribable brusquerie of movement and emotion--into +that relief which a sapphire gains from a setting of pearls. I can see +her now, after the lapse of nearly twenty years, as she stood there +singing in blue doublet and white mantle, with the slouched Spanish +hat and plume of ostrich feathers, a tiny rapier at her side, and blue +rosettes upon her white silk shoes! The _Nozze di Figaro_ was +followed by a Ballo. This had for its theme the favourite legend of +a female devil sent from the infernal regions to ruin a young man. +Instead of performing the part assigned her, Satanella falls in love +with the hero, sacrifices herself, and is claimed at last by the +powers of goodness. _Quia multum amavit_, her lost soul is saved. +If the opera left much to be desired, the Ballo was perfection. That +vast stage of the Scala Theatre had almost overwhelmed the actors +of the play. Now, thrown open to its inmost depths, crowded with +glittering moving figures, it became a fairyland of fantastic +loveliness. Italians possess the art of interpreting a serious +dramatic action by pantomime. A Ballo with them is no mere affair of +dancing--fine dresses, evolutions performed by brigades of pink-legged +women with a fixed smile on their faces. It takes the rank of high +expressive art. And the motive of this Ballo was consistently worked +out in an intelligible sequence of well-ordered scenes. To moralise +upon its meaning would be out of place. It had a conflict of passions, +a rhythmical progression of emotions, a tragic climax in the triumph +of good over evil. + +II + +At the end of the performance there were five persons in our box--the +beautiful Miranda, and her husband, a celebrated English man of +letters; a German professor of biology; a young Milanese gentleman, +whom we called Edoardo; and myself. Edoardo and the professor had +joined us just before the ballet. I had occupied a seat behind Miranda +and my friend the critic from the commencement. We had indeed dined +together first at their hotel, the Rebecchino; and they now proposed +that we should all adjourn together there on foot for supper. From the +Scala Theatre to the Rebecchino is a walk of some three minutes. + +When we were seated at the supper-table and had talked some while upon +indifferent topics, the enthusiasm roused in me by Pauline Lucca burst +out. I broke a moment's silence by exclaiming, 'What a wonder-world +music creates! I have lived this evening in a sphere of intellectual +enjoyment raised to rapture. I never lived so fast before!' 'Do +you really think so?' said Miranda. She had just finished a +_beccafico_, and seemed disposed for conversation. 'Do you really +think so? For my part, music is in a wholly different region from +experience, thought, or feeling. What does it communicate to you?' And +she hummed to herself the _motif_ of Cherubino's 'Non so piu +cosa son cosa faccio.'--'What does it teach me?' I broke in upon the +melody. 'Why, to-night, when I heard the music, and saw her there, and +felt the movement of the play, it seemed to me that a new existence +was revealed. For the first time I understood what love might be in +one most richly gifted for emotion.' Miranda bent her eyes on the +table-cloth and played with her wineglass. 'I don't follow you at all. +I enjoyed myself to-night. The opera, indeed, might have been better +rendered. The ballet, I admit, was splendid. But when I remember the +music--even the best of it--even Pauline Lucca's part'--here she +looked up, and shot me a quick glance across the table--'I have mere +music in my ears. Nothing more. Mere music!' The professor of +biology, who was gifted with, a sense of music and had studied it +scientifically, had now crunched his last leaf of salad. Wiping his +lips with his napkin, he joined our _tete-a-tete_. 'Gracious +madam, I agree with you. He who seeks from music more than music +gives, is on the quest--how shall I put it?--of the Holy Grail.' 'And +what,' I struck in, 'is this minimum or maximum that music gives?' +'Dear young friend,' replied the professor, 'music gives melodies, +harmonies, the many beautiful forms to which sound shall be fashioned. +Just as in the case of shells and fossils, lovely in themselves, +interesting for their history and classification, so is it with +music. You must not seek an intellectual meaning. No; there is no +_Inhalt_ in music' And he hummed contentedly the air of 'Voi +che sapete.' While he was humming, Miranda whispered to me across the +table, 'Separate the Lucca from the music.' 'But,' I answered rather +hotly, for I was nettled by Miranda's argument _ad hominem_, 'But +it is not possible in an opera to divide the music from the words, the +scenery, the play, the actor. Mozart, when he wrote the score to Da +Ponte's libretto, was excited to production by the situations. He did +not conceive his melodies out of connection with a certain cast of +characters, a given ethical environment.' 'I do not know, my dear +young friend,' responded the professor, 'whether you have read +Mozart's Life and letters. It is clearly shown in them how he composed +airs at times and seasons when he had no words to deal with. These he +afterwards used as occasion served. Whence I conclude that music was +for him a free and lovely play of tone. The words of our excellent +Da Ponte were a scaffolding to introduce his musical creations to the +public. But without that carpenter's work, the melodies of Cherubino +are _Selbst-staendig_, sufficient in themselves to vindicate their +place in art. Do I interpret your meaning, gracious lady?' This he +said bending to Miranda. 'Yes,' she replied. But she still played with +her wineglass, and did not look as though she were quite satisfied. +I meanwhile continued: 'Of course I have read Mozart's Life, and know +how he went to work. But Mozart was a man of feeling, of experience, +of ardent passions. How can you prove to me that the melodies he gave +to Cherubino had not been evolved from situations similar to those +in which Cherubino finds himself? How can you prove he did not feel +a natural appropriateness in the _motifs_ he selected from his +memory for Cherubino? How can you be certain that the part itself did +not stimulate his musical faculty to fresh and still more appropriate +creativeness? And if we must fall back on documents, do you remember +what he said himself about the love-music in _Die Entfuehrung?_ I +think he tells us that he meant it to express his own feeling for the +woman who had just become his wife.' Miranda looked up as though she +were almost half-persuaded. Yet she hummed again 'Non so piu,' then +said to herself, 'Yes, it is wiser to believe with the professor that +these are sequences of sounds, and nothing more.' Then she sighed. In +the pause which followed, her husband, the famous critic, filled his +glass, stretched his legs out, and began: 'You have embarked, I see, +upon the ocean of aesthetics. For my part, to-night I was thinking +how much better fitted for the stage Beaumarchais' play was than this +musical mongrel--this operatic adaptation. The wit, observe, is lost. +And Cherubino--that sparkling little _enfant terrible_--becomes a +sentimental fellow--a something I don't know what--between a girl and +a boy--a medley of romance and impudence--anyhow a being quite unlike +the sharply outlined playwright's page. I confess I am not a musician; +the drama is my business, and I judge things by their fitness for +the stage. My wife agrees with me to differ. She likes music, I like +plays. To-night she was better pleased than I was; for she got good +music tolerably well rendered, while I got nothing but a mangled +comedy.' + +We bore the critic's monologue with patience. But once again the +spirit, seeking after something which neither Miranda, nor her +husband, nor the professor could be got to recognise, moved within me. +I cried out at a venture, 'People who go to an opera must forget +music pure and simple, must forget the drama pure and simple. You +must welcome a third species of art, in which the play, the music, the +singers with their voices, the orchestra with its instruments--Pauline +Lucca, if you like, with her fascination' (and here I shot a +side-glance at Miranda), 'are so blent as to create a world beyond the +scope of poetry or music or acting taken by themselves. I give Mozart +credit for having had insight into this new world, for having brought +it near to us. And I hold that every fresh representation of his work +is a fresh revelation of its possibilities.' + +To this the critic answered, 'You now seem to me to be confounding the +limits of the several arts.' 'What!' I continued, 'is the drama but +emotion presented in its most external forms as action? And what is +music but emotion, in its most genuine essence, expressed by sound? +Where then can a more complete artistic harmony be found than in the +opera?' + +'The opera,' replied our host, 'is a hybrid. You will probably learn +to dislike artistic hybrids, if you have the taste and sense I give +you credit for. My own opinion has been already expressed. In the +_Nozze_, Beaumarchais' _Mariage de Figaro_ is simply spoiled. My +friend the professor declares Mozart's music to be sufficient by +itself, and the libretto to be a sort of machinery for its display. +Miranda, I think, agrees with him. You plead eloquently for the +hybrid. You have a right to your own view. These things are matters, +in the final resort, of individual taste rather than of demonstrable +principles. But I repeat that you are very young.' The critic drained +his Lambrusco, and smiled at me. + +'Yes, he is young,' added Miranda. 'He must learn to distinguish +between music, his own imagination, and a pretty woman. At present he +mixes them all up together. It is a sort of transcendental omelette. +But I think the pretty woman has more to do with it than metaphysics!' + +All this while Edoardo had bestowed devout attention on his supper. +But it appeared that the drift of our discourse had not been lost by +him. 'Well,' he said, 'you finely fibred people dissect and analyse. +I am content with the _spettacolo_. That pleases. What does a man +want more? The _Nozze_ is a comedy of life and manners. The music +is adorable. To-night the women were not bad to look at--the Lucca +was divine; the scenes--ingenious. I thought but little. I came away +delighted. You could have a better play, Caro Signore!' (with a bow +to our host). 'That is granted. You might have better music, Cara +Signora!' (with a bow to Miranda). 'That too is granted. But when the +play and the music come together--how shall I say?--the music helps +the play, and the play helps the music; and we--well we, I suppose, +must help both!' + +Edoardo's little speech was so ingenuous, and, what is more, so true +to his Italian temperament, that it made us all laugh and leave the +argument just where we found it. The bottles of Lambrusco supplied us +each with one more glass; and while we were drinking them, Miranda, +woman-like, taking the last word, but contradicting herself, softly +hummed 'Non so piu cosa son,' and 'Ah!' she said, 'I shall dream of +love to-night!' + +We rose and said good-night. But when I had reached my bedroom in the +Hotel de la Ville, I sat down, obstinate and unconvinced, and penned +this rhapsody, which I have lately found among papers of nearly twenty +years ago. I give it as it stands. + +III + +Mozart has written the two melodramas of love--the one a melo-tragedy, +the other a melo-comedy. But in really noble art, Comedy and Tragedy +have faces of equal serenity and beauty. In the Vatican there +are marble busts of the two Muses, differing chiefly in their +head-dresses: that of Tragedy is an elaborately built-up structure of +fillets and flowing hair, piled high above the forehead and descending +in long curls upon the shoulders; while Comedy wears a similar +adornment, with the addition of a wreath of vine-leaves and +grape-bunches. The expression of the sister goddesses is no less +finely discriminated. Over the mouth of Comedy plays a subtle smile, +and her eyes are relaxed in a half-merriment. A shadow rests upon +the slightly heavier brows of Tragedy, and her lips, though not +compressed, are graver. So delicately did the Greek artist indicate +the division between two branches of one dramatic art. And since all +great art is classical, Mozart's two melodramas, _Don Giovanni_ +and the _Nozze di Figaro_, though the one is tragic and the other +comic, are twin-sisters, similar in form and feature. + +The central figure of the melo-tragedy is Don Juan, the hero +of unlimited desire, pursuing the unattainable through tortuous +interminable labyrinths, eager in appetite yet never satisfied, 'for +ever following and for ever foiled.' He is the incarnation of lust +that has become a habit of the soul--rebellious, licentious, selfish, +even cruel. His nature, originally noble and brave, has assumed the +qualities peculiar to lust--rebellion, license, cruelty, defiant +egotism. Yet, such as he is, doomed to punishment and execration, +Don Juan remains a fit subject for poetry and music, because he is +complete, because he is impelled by some demonic influence, spurred on +by yearnings after an unsearchable delight. In his death, the spirit +of chivalry survives, metamorphosed, it is true, into the spirit of +revolt, yet still tragic, such as might animate the desperate sinner +of a haughty breed. + +The central figure of the melo-comedy is Cherubino, the genius of +love, no less insatiable, but undetermined to virtue or to vice. This +is the point of Cherubino, that the ethical capacities in him are +still potential. His passion still hovers on the borderland of good +and bad. And this undetermined passion is beautiful because of extreme +freshness; of infinite, immeasurable expansibility. Cherubino is the +epitome of all that belongs to the amorous temperament in a state of +still ascendant adolescence. He is about sixteen years of age--a boy +yesterday, a man to-morrow--to-day both and neither--something +beyond boyhood, but not yet limited by man's responsibility and man's +absorbing passions. He partakes of both ages in the primal awakening +to self-consciousness. Desire, which in Don Juan has become a fiend, +hovers before him like a fairy. His are the sixteen years, not of a +Northern climate, but of Spain or Italy, where manhood appears in a +flash, and overtakes the child with sudden sunrise of new faculties. +_Nondum amabam, sed amare amabam, quaerebam quod amarem, amans +amare_--'I loved not yet, but was in love with loving; I sought +what I should love, being in love with loving.' That sentence, penned +by S. Augustine and consecrated by Shelley, describes the mood of +Cherubino. He loves at every moment of his life, with every pulse of +his being. His object is not a beloved being, but love itself--the +satisfaction of an irresistible desire, the paradise of bliss which +merely loving has become for him. What love means he hardly knows. He +only knows that he must love. And women love him--half as a plaything +to be trifled with, half as a young god to be wounded by. This rising +of the star of love as it ascends into the heaven of youthful fancy, +is revealed in the melodies Mozart has written for him. How shall we +describe their potency? Who shall translate those curiously perfect +words to which tone and rhythm have been indissolubly wedded? _E +pur mi piace languir cosi.... E se non ho chi m' oda, parlo d'amor con +me._ + +But if this be so, it may be asked, Who shall be found worthy to act +Cherubino on the stage? You cannot have seen and heard Pauline Lucca, +or you would not ask this question. + +Cherubino is by no means the most important person in the plot of the +_Nozze_. But he strikes the keynote of the opera. His love is the +standard by which we measure the sad, retrospective, stately love of +the Countess, who tries to win back an alienated husband. By Cherubino +we measure the libertine love of the Count, who is a kind of Don Juan +without cruelty, and the humorous love of Figaro and his sprightly +bride Susanna. Each of these characters typifies one of the many +species of love. But Cherubino anticipates and harmonises all. They +are conscious, experienced, world-worn, disillusioned, trivial. He is +all love, foreseen, foreshadowed in a dream of life to be; all love, +diffused through brain and heart and nerves like electricity; all +love, merging the moods of ecstasy, melancholy, triumph, regret, +jealousy, joy, expectation, in a hazy sheen, as of some Venetian +sunrise. What will Cherubino be after three years? A Romeo, a +Lovelace, a Lothario, a Juan? a disillusioned rake, a sentimentalist, +an effete fop, a romantic lover? He may become any one of these, for +he contains the possibilities of all. As yet, he is the dear glad +angel of the May of love, the nightingale of orient emotion. +This moment in the unfolding of character Mozart has arrested and +eternalised for us in Cherubino's melodies; for it is the privilege of +art to render things most fugitive and evanescent fixed imperishably +in immortal form. + +IV + +This is indeed a rhapsodical production. Miranda was probably right. +Had it not been for Pauline Lucca, I might not have philosophised the +_Nozze_ thus. Yet, in the main, I believe that my instinct was +well grounded. Music, especially when wedded to words, more especially +when those words are dramatic, cannot separate itself from emotion. It +will not do to tell us that a melody is a certain sequence of sounds; +that the composer chose it for its beauty of rhythm, form, and tune, +and only used the words to get it vocalised. We are forced to go +farther back, and ask ourselves, What suggested it in the first place +to the composer? why did he use it precisely in connection with +this dramatic situation? How can we answer these questions except by +supposing that music was for him the utterance through art of some +emotion? The final fact of human nature is emotion, crystallising +itself in thought and language, externalising itself in action and +art. 'What,' said Novalis, 'are thoughts but pale dead feelings?' +Admitting this even in part, we cannot deny to music an emotional +content of some kind. I would go farther, and assert that, while a +merely mechanical musician may set inappropriate melodies to words, +and render music inexpressive of character, what constitutes a musical +dramatist is the conscious intention of fitting to the words of his +libretto such melody as shall interpret character, and the power to do +this with effect. + +That the Cherubino of Mozart's _Nozze_ is quite different from +Beaumarchais' Cherubin does not affect this question. He is a new +creation, just because Mozart could not, or would not, conceive the +character of the page in Beaumarchais' sprightly superficial spirit. +He used the part to utter something unutterable except by music about +the soul of the still adolescent lover. The libretto-part and the +melodies, taken together, constitute a new romantic ideal, consistent +with experience, but realised with the intensity and universality +whereby art is distinguished from life. Don Juan was a myth before +Mozart touched him with the magic wand of music. Cherubino became +a myth by the same Prospero's spell. Both characters have the +universality, the symbolic potency, which belongs to legendary beings. +That there remains a discrepancy between the boy-page and the music +made for him, can be conceded without danger to my theory; for +the music made for Cherubino is meant to interpret his psychical +condition, and is independent of his boyishness of conduct. + +This further explains why there may be so many renderings of +Cherubino's melodies. Mozart idealised an infinite emotion. The +singer is forced to define; the actor also is forced to define. Each +introduces his own limit on the feeling. When the actor and the singer +meet together in one personality, this definition of emotion becomes +of necessity doubly specific. The condition of all music is that it +depends in a great measure on the temperament of the interpreter for +its momentary shade of expression, and this dependence is of course +exaggerated when the music is dramatic. Furthermore, the subjectivity +of the audience enters into the problem as still another element of +definition. It may therefore be fairly said that, in estimating any +impression produced by Cherubino's music, the original character of +the page, transplanted from French comedy to Italian opera, Mozart's +conception of that character, Mozart's specific quality of emotion +and specific style of musical utterance, together with the contralto's +interpretation of the character and rendering of the music, according +to her intellectual capacity, artistic skill, and timbre of voice, +have collaborated with the individuality of the hearer. Some of the +constituents of the ever-varying product--a product which is new each +time the part is played--are fixed. Da Ponte's Cherubino and Mozart's +melodies remain unalterable. All the rest is undecided; the singer and +the listener change on each occasion. + +To assert that the musician Mozart meant nothing by his music, to +assert that he only cared about it _qua_ music, is the same as +to say that the painter Tintoretto, when he put the Crucifixion upon +canvas, the sculptor Michelangelo, when he carved Christ upon the lap +of Mary, meant nothing, and only cared about the beauty of their +forms and colours. Those who take up this position prove, not that the +artist has no meaning to convey, but that for them the artist's nature +is unintelligible, and his meaning is conveyed in an unknown tongue. +It seems superfluous to guard against misinterpretation by saying that +to expect clear definition from music--the definition which belongs +to poetry--would be absurd. The sphere of music is in sensuous +perception; the sphere of poetry is in intelligence. Music, dealing +with pure sound, must always be vaguer in significance than poetry, +dealing with words. Nevertheless, its effect upon the sentient subject +may be more intense and penetrating for this very reason. We cannot +fail to understand what words are intended to convey; we may very +easily interpret in a hundred different ways the message of sound. +But this is not because words are wider in their reach and more alive; +rather because they are more limited, more stereotyped, more dead. +They symbolise something precise and unmistakable; but this precision +is itself attenuation of the something symbolised. The exact value of +the counter is better understood when it is a word than when it is a +chord, because all that a word conveys has already become a thought, +while all that musical sounds convey remains within the region of +emotion which has not been intellectualised. Poetry touches emotion +through the thinking faculty. If music reaches the thinking faculty at +all, it is through fibres of emotion. But emotion, when it has become +thought, has already lost a portion of its force, and has taken to +itself a something alien to its nature. Therefore the message of music +can never rightly be translated into words. It is the very largeness +and vividness of the sphere of simple feeling which makes its +symbolical counterpart in sound so seeming vague. But in spite of this +incontestable defect of seeming vagueness, emotion expressed by music +is nearer to our sentient self, if we have ears to take it in, than +the same emotion limited by language. It is intenser, it is more +immediate, as compensation for being less intelligible, less +unmistakable in meaning. It is an infinite, an indistinct, where each +consciousness defines and sets a limitary form. + +V + +A train of thought which begins with the concrete not unfrequently +finds itself finishing, almost against its will, in abstractions. This +is the point to which the performance of Cherubino's part by Pauline +Lucca at the Scala twenty years ago has led me--that I have to settle +with myself what I mean by art in general, and what I take to be the +proper function of music as one of the fine arts. + +'Art,' said Goethe, 'is but form-giving.' We might vary this +definition, and say, 'Art is a method of expression or presentation.' +Then comes the question: If art gives form, if it is a method of +expression or presentation, to what does it give form, what does it +express or present? The answer certainly must be: Art gives form to +human consciousness; expresses or presents the feeling or the thought +of man. Whatever else art may do by the way, in the communication +of innocent pleasures, in the adornment of life and the softening of +manners, in the creation of beautiful shapes and sounds, this, at all +events, is its prime function. + +While investing thought, the spiritual subject-matter of all art, with +form, or finding for it proper modes of presentation, each of the arts +employs a special medium, obeying the laws of beauty proper to that +medium. The vehicles of the arts, roughly speaking, are material +substances (like stone, wood, metal), pigments, sounds, and words. +The masterly handling of these vehicles and the realisation of +their characteristic types of beauty have come to be regarded as the +craftsman's paramount concern. And in a certain sense this is a right +conclusion; for dexterity in the manipulation of the chosen vehicle +and power to create a beautiful object, distinguish the successful +artist from the man who may have had like thoughts and feelings. This +dexterity, this power, are the properties of the artist _qua_ +artist. Yet we must not forget that the form created by the artist +for the expression of a thought or feeling is not the final end of art +itself. That form, after all, is but the mode of presentation through +which the spiritual content manifests itself. Beauty, in like manner, +is not the final end of art, but is the indispensable condition under +which the artistic manifestation of the spiritual content must he +made. It is the business of art to create an ideal world, in which +perception, emotion, understanding, action, all elements of human life +sublimed by thought, shall reappear in concrete forms as beauty. This +being so, the logical criticism of art demands that we should not +only estimate the technical skill of artists and their faculty for +presenting beauty to the aesthetic sense, but that we should also ask +ourselves what portion of the human spirit he has chosen to invest +with form, and how he has conceived his subject. It is not necessary +that the ideas embodied in a work of art should be the artist's +own. They may be common to the race and age: as, for instance, the +conception of sovereign deity expressed in the Olympian Zeus of +Pheidias, or the conception of divine maternity expressed in Raphael's +'Madonna di San Sisto.' Still the personality of the artist, his +own intellectual and moral nature, his peculiar way of thinking and +feeling, his individual attitude towards the material given to him in +ideas of human consciousness, will modify his choice of subject and +of form, and will determine his specific type of beauty. To take an +example: supposing that an idea, common to his race and age, is given +to the artist for treatment; this will be the final end of the work +of art which he produces. But his personal qualities and technical +performance determine the degree of success or failure to which he +attains in presenting that idea and in expressing it with beauty. +Signorelli fails where Perugino excels, in giving adequate and lovely +form to the religious sentiment. Michelangelo is sure of the sublime, +and Raphael of the beautiful. + +Art is thus the presentation of the human spirit by the artist to his +fellow-men. The subject-matter of the arts is commensurate with what +man thinks and feels and does. It is as deep as religion, as wide as +life. But what distinguishes art from religion or from life is, that +this subject-matter must assume beautiful form, and must be presented +directly or indirectly to the senses. Art is not the school or the +cathedral, but the playground, the paradise of humanity. It does not +teach, it does not preach. Nothing abstract enters into art's domain. +Truth and goodness are transmuted into beauty there, just as in +science beauty and goodness assume the shape of truth, and in +religion truth and beauty become goodness. The rigid definitions, the +unmistakable laws of science, are not to be found in art. Whatever art +has touched acquires a concrete sensuous embodiment, and thus ideas +presented to the mind in art have lost a portion of their pure +thought-essence. It is on this account that the religious conceptions +of the Greeks were so admirably fitted for the art of sculpture, and +certain portions of the mediaeval Christian mythology lent themselves +so well to painting. For the same reason the metaphysics of +ecclesiastical dogma defy the artist's plastic faculty. Art, in a +word, is a middle term between reason and the senses. Its secondary +aim, after the prime end of presenting the human spirit in beautiful +form has been accomplished, is to give tranquil and innocent +enjoyment. + + * * * * * + +From what has gone before it will be seen that no human being can +make or mould a beautiful form without incorporating in that form some +portion of the human mind, however crude, however elementary. In other +words, there is no work of art without a theme, without a motive, +without a subject. The presentation of that theme, that motive, that +subject, is the final end of art. The art is good or bad according as +the subject has been well or ill presented, consistently with the laws +of beauty special to the art itself. Thus we obtain two standards +for aesthetic criticism. We judge a statue, for example, both by +the sculptor's intellectual grasp upon his subject, and also by his +technical skill and sense of beauty. In a picture of the Last Judgment +by Fra Angelico we say that the bliss of the righteous has been more +successfully treated than the torments of the wicked, because the +former has been better understood, although the painter's skill in +each is equal. In the Perseus of Cellini we admire the sculptor's +spirit, finish of execution, and originality of design, while we +deplore that want of sympathy with the heroic character which makes +his type of physical beauty slightly vulgar and his facial expression +vacuous. If the phrase 'Art for art's sake' has any meaning, this +meaning is simply that the artist, having chosen a theme, thinks +exclusively in working at it of technical dexterity or the quality of +beauty. There are many inducements for the artist thus to narrow his +function, and for the critic to assist him by applying the canons of +a soulless connoisseurship to his work; for the conception of the +subject is but the starting-point in art-production, and the artist's +difficulties and triumphs as a craftsman lie in the region of +technicalities. He knows, moreover, that, however deep or noble his +idea may be, his work of art will be worthless if it fail in skill +or be devoid of beauty. What converts a thought into a statue or +a picture, is the form found for it; and so the form itself seems +all-important. The artist, therefore, too easily imagines that he may +neglect his theme; that a fine piece of colouring, a well-balanced +composition, or, as Cellini put it, 'un bel corpo ignudo,' is enough. +And this is especially easy in an age which reflects much upon the +arts, and pursues them with enthusiasm, while its deeper thoughts and +feelings are not of the kind which translate themselves readily +into artistic form. But, after all, a fine piece of colouring, a +well-balanced composition, a sonorous stanza, a learned essay in +counterpoint, are not enough. They are all excellent good things, +yielding delight to the artistic sense and instruction to the student. +Yet when we think of the really great statues, pictures, poems, music +of the world, we find that these are really great because of something +more--and that more is their theme, their presentation of a noble +portion of the human soul. Artists and art-students may be satisfied +with perfect specimens of a craftsman's skill, independent of his +theme; but the mass of men will not be satisfied; and it is as wrong +to suppose that art exists for artists and art-students, as to talk +of art for art's sake. Art exists for humanity. Art transmutes thought +and feeling into terms of beautiful form. Art is great and lasting +in proportion as it appeals to the human consciousness at large, +presenting to it portions of itself in adequate and lovely form. + +VI + +It was necessary in the first place firmly to apprehend the truth that +the final end of all art is the presentation of a spiritual content; +it is necessary in the next place to remove confusions by considering +the special circumstances of the several arts. + +Each art has its own vehicle of presentation. What it can present and +how it must present it, depends upon the nature of this vehicle. Thus, +though architecture, sculpture, painting, music, poetry, meet upon +the common ground of spiritualised experience--though the works of art +produced by the architect, sculptor, painter, musician, poet, emanate +from the spiritual nature of the race, are coloured by the spiritual +nature of the men who make them, and express what is spiritual in +humanity under concrete forms invented for them by the artist--yet it +is certain that all of these arts do not deal exactly with the same +portions of this common material in the same way or with the same +results. Each has its own department. Each exhibits qualities of +strength and weakness special to itself. To define these several +departments, to explain the relation of these several vehicles +of presentation to the common subject-matter, is the next step in +criticism. + + * * * * * + +Of the fine arts, architecture alone subserves utility. We build for +use. But the geometrical proportions which the architect observes, +contain the element of beauty and powerfully influence the soul. Into +the language of arch and aisle and colonnade, of cupola and facade and +pediment, of spire and vault, the architect translates emotion, vague +perhaps but deep, mute but unmistakable. When we say that a building +is sublime or graceful, frivolous or stern, we mean that sublimity +or grace, frivolity or sternness, is inherent in it. The emotions +connected with these qualities are inspired in us when we contemplate +it, and are presented to us by its form. Whether the architect +deliberately aimed at the sublime or graceful--whether the dignified +serenity of the Athenian genius sought to express itself in the +Parthenon, and the mysticism of mediaeval Christianity in the gloom of +Chartres Cathedral--whether it was Renaissance paganism which gave its +mundane pomp and glory to S. Peter's, and the refined selfishness of +royalty its specious splendour to the palace of Versailles--need not +be curiously questioned. The fact that we are impelled to raise these +points, that architecture more almost than any art connects itself +indissolubly with the life, the character, the moral being of a nation +and an epoch, proves that we are justified in bringing it beneath +our general definition of the arts. In a great measure because it +subserves utility, and is therefore dependent upon the necessities of +life, does architecture present to us through form the human spirit. +Comparing the palace built by Giulio Romano for the Dukes of Mantua +with the contemporary castle of a German prince, we cannot fail at +once to comprehend the difference of spiritual conditions, as these +displayed themselves in daily life, which then separated Italy from +the Teutonic nations. But this is not all. Spiritual quality in +the architect himself finds clear expression in his work. Coldness +combined with violence marks Brunelleschi's churches; a certain +suavity and well-bred taste the work of Bramante; while Michelangelo +exhibits wayward energy in his Library of S. Lorenzo, and Amadeo +self-abandonment to fancy in his Lombard chapels. I have chosen +examples from one nation and one epoch in order that the point I seek +to make, the demonstration of a spiritual quality in buildings, may be +fairly stated. + + * * * * * + +Sculpture and painting distinguish themselves from the other fine +arts by the imitation of concrete existences in nature. They copy the +bodies of men and animals, the aspects of the world around us, and the +handiwork of men. Yet, in so far as they are rightly arts, they do +not make imitation an object in itself. The grapes of Zeuxis at which +birds pecked, the painted dog at which a cat's hair bristles--if such +grapes or such a dog were ever put on canvas--are but evidences of the +artist's skill, not of his faculty as artist. These two plastic, or, +as I prefer to call them, figurative arts, use their imitation of +the external world for the expression, the presentation of internal, +spiritual things. The human form is for them the outward symbol of the +inner human spirit, and their power of presenting spirit is limited by +the means at their disposal. + +Sculpture employs stone, wood, clay, the precious metals, to model +forms, detached and independent, or raised upon a flat surface +in relief. Its domain is the whole range of human character and +consciousness, in so far as these can be indicated by fixed facial +expression, by physical type, and by attitude. If we dwell for an +instant on the greatest historical epoch of sculpture, we shall +understand the domain of this art in its range and limitation. At a +certain point of Greek development the Hellenic Pantheon began to be +translated by the sculptors into statues; and when the genius of the +Greeks expired in Rome, the cycle of their psychological conceptions +had been exhaustively presented through this medium. During that long +period of time, the most delicate gradations of human personality, +divinised, idealised, were presented to the contemplation of the +consciousness which gave them being, in appropriate types. Strength +and swiftness, massive force and airy lightness, contemplative repose +and active energy, voluptuous softness and refined grace, intellectual +sublimity and lascivious seductiveness--the whole rhythm of qualities +which can be typified by bodily form--were analysed, selected, +combined in various degrees, to incarnate the religious conceptions of +Zeus, Aphrodite, Herakles, Dionysus, Pallas, Fauns and Satyrs, Nymphs +of woods and waves, Tritons, the genius of Death, heroes and hunters, +lawgivers and poets, presiding deities of minor functions, man's +lustful appetites and sensual needs. All that men think, or do, or +are, or wish for, or imagine in this world, had found exact corporeal +equivalents. Not physiognomy alone, but all the portions of the body +upon which the habits of the animating soul are wont to stamp +themselves, were studied and employed as symbolism. Uranian Aphrodite +was distinguished from her Pandemic sister by chastened lust-repelling +loveliness. The muscles of Herakles were more ponderous than the tense +sinews of Achilles. The Hermes of the palaestra bore a torso of +majestic depth; the Hermes, who carried messages from heaven, had +limbs alert for movement. The brows of Zeus inspired awe; the breasts +of Dionysus breathed delight. + +A race accustomed, as the Greeks were, to read this symbolism, +accustomed, as the Greeks were, to note the individuality of naked +form, had no difficulty in interpreting the language of sculpture. +Nor is there now much difficulty in the task. Our surest guide to +the subject of a basrelief or statue is study of the physical type +considered as symbolical of spiritual quality. From the fragment of +a torso the true critic can say whether it belongs to the athletic or +the erotic species. A limb of Bacchus differs from a limb of Poseidon. +The whole psychological conception of Aphrodite Pandemos enters into +every muscle, every joint, no less than into her physiognomy, her +hair, her attitude. + +There is, however, a limit to the domain of sculpture. This art deals +most successfully with personified generalities. It is also strong in +the presentation of incarnate character. But when it attempts to tell +a story, we often seek in vain its meaning. Battles of Amazons or +Centaurs upon basreliefs, indeed, are unmistakable. The subject is +indicated here by some external sign. The group of Laocoon appeals +at once to a reader of Virgil, and the divine vengeance of Leto's +children upon Niobe is manifest in the Uffizzi marbles. But who are +the several heroes of the AEginetan pediment, and what was the subject +of the Pheidian statues on the Parthenon? Do the three graceful +figures of a basrelief which exists at Naples and in the Villa Albani, +represent Orpheus, Hermes, and Eurydice, or Antiope and her two sons? +Was the winged and sworded genius upon the Ephesus column meant for a +genius of Death or a genius of Love? + +This dimness of significance indicates the limitation of sculpture, +and inclines some of those who feel its charm to assert that the +sculptor seeks to convey no intellectual meaning, that he is satisfied +with the creation of beautiful form. There is sense in this revolt +against the faith which holds that art is nothing but a mode of +spiritual presentation. Truly the artist aims at producing beauty, is +satisfied if he conveys delight. But it is impossible to escape from +the certainty that, while he is creating forms of beauty, he means +something; and that something, that theme for which he finds the form, +is part of the world's spiritual heritage. Only the crudest works of +plastic art, capricci and arabesques, have no intellectual content; +and even these are good in so far as they convey the playfulness of +fancy. + +Painting employs colours upon surfaces--walls, panels, canvas. What +has been said about sculpture will apply in a great measure to this +art. The human form, the world around us, the works of man's hands, +are represented in painting, not for their own sake merely, but with +a view to bringing thought, feeling, action, home to the consciousness +of the spectator from the artist's consciousness on which they have +been impressed. Painting can tell a story better than sculpture, can +represent more complicated feelings, can suggest thoughts of a subtler +intricacy. Through colour, it can play, like music, directly on +powerful but vague emotion. It is deficient in fulness and roundness +of concrete reality. A statue stands before us, the soul incarnate in +ideal form, fixed and frozen for eternity. The picture is a reflection +cast upon a magic glass; not less permanent, but reduced to a shadow +of reality. To follow these distinctions farther would be alien from +the present purpose. It is enough to repeat that, within their several +spheres, according to their several strengths and weaknesses, both +sculpture and painting present the spirit to us only as the spirit +shows itself immersed in things of sense. The light of a lamp enclosed +within an alabaster vase is still lamplight, though shorn of lustre +and toned to coloured softness. Even thus the spirit, immersed in +things of sense presented to us by the figurative arts, is still +spirit, though diminished in its intellectual clearness and invested +with hues not its own. To fashion that alabaster form of art with +utmost skill, to make it beautiful, to render it transparent, is the +artist's function. But he will have failed of the highest if the +light within burns dim, or if he gives the world a lamp in which no +spiritual flame is lighted. + + * * * * * + +Music transports us to a different region. It imitates nothing. It +uses pure sound, and sound of the most wholly artificial kind--so +artificial that the musical sounds of one race are unmusical, and +therefore unintelligible, to another. Like architecture, music relies +upon mathematical proportions. Unlike architecture, music serves no +utility. It is the purest art of pleasure--the truest paradise and +playground of the spirit. It has less power than painting, even less +power than sculpture, to tell a story or to communicate an idea. For +we must remember that when music is married to words, the words, and +not the music, reach our thinking faculty. And yet, in spite of all, +music presents man's spirit to itself through form. The domain of the +spirit over which music reigns, is emotion--not defined emotion, not +feeling even so defined as jealousy or anger--but those broad bases of +man's being out of which emotions spring, defining themselves through +action into this or that set type of feeling. Architecture, we have +noticed, is so connected with specific modes of human existence, that +from its main examples we can reconstruct the life of men who used +it. Sculpture and painting, by limiting their presentation to the +imitation of external things, have all the help which experience +and, association render. The mere artificiality of music's vehicle +separates it from life and makes its message untranslatable. Yet, as I +have already pointed out, this very disability under which it labours +is the secret of its extraordinary potency. Nothing intervenes between +the musical work of art and the fibres of the sentient being it +immediately thrills. We do not seek to say what music means. We feel +the music. And if a man should pretend that the music has not passed +beyond his ears, has communicated nothing but a musical delight, he +simply tells us that he has not felt music. The ancients on this point +were wiser than some moderns when, without pretending to assign an +intellectual significance to music, they held it for an axiom that +one type of music bred one type of character, another type another. +A change in the music of a state, wrote Plato, will be followed by +changes in its constitution. It is of the utmost importance, said +Aristotle, to provide in education for the use of the ennobling and +the fortifying moods. These philosophers knew that music creates a +spiritual world, in which the spirit cannot live and move without +contracting habits of emotion. In this vagueness of significance but +intensity of feeling lies the magic of music. A melody occurs to the +composer, which he certainly connects with no act of the reason, which +he is probably unconscious of connecting with any movement of his +feeling, but which nevertheless is the form in sound of an emotional +mood. When he reflects upon the melody secreted thus impromptu, he +is aware, as we learn from his own lips, that this work has +correspondence with emotion. Beethoven calls one symphony Heroic, +another Pastoral; of the opening of another he says, 'Fate knocks at +the door.' Mozart sets comic words to the mass-music of a friend, in +order to mark his sense of its inaptitude for religious sentiment. All +composers use phrases like Maestoso, Pomposo, Allegro, Lagrimoso, Con +Fuoco, to express the general complexion of the mood their music ought +to represent. + + * * * * * + +Before passing to poetry, it may be well to turn aside and consider +two subordinate arts, which deserve a place in any system of +aesthetics. These are dancing and acting. Dancing uses the living human +form, and presents feeling or action, the passions and the deeds of +men, in artificially educated movements of the body. The element of +beauty it possesses, independently of the beauty of the dancer, is +rhythm. Acting or the art of mimicry presents the same subject-matter, +no longer under the conditions of fixed rhythm but as an ideal +reproduction of reality. The actor is what he represents, and the +element of beauty in his art is perfection of realisation. It is his +duty as an artist to show us Orestes or Othello, not perhaps exactly +as Othello and Orestes were, but as the essence of their tragedies, +ideally incorporate in action, ought to be. The actor can do this +in dumb show. Some of the greatest actors of the ancient world were +mimes. But he usually interprets a poet's thought, and attempts to +present an artistic conception in a secondary form of art, which has +for its advantage his own personality in play. + + * * * * * + +The last of the fine arts is literature; or, in the narrower sphere +of which it will be well to speak here only, is poetry. Poetry employs +words in fixed rhythms, which we call metres. Only a small portion of +its effect is derived from the beauty of its sound. It appeals to the +sense of hearing far less immediately than music does. It makes no +appeal to the eyesight, and takes no help from the beauty of colour. +It produces no tangible object. But language being the storehouse +of all human experience, language being the medium whereby spirit +communicates with spirit in affairs of life, the vehicle which +transmits to us the thoughts and feelings of the past, and on which we +rely for continuing our present to the future, it follows that, of all +the arts, poetry soars highest, flies widest, and is most at home in +the region of the spirit. What poetry lacks of sensuous fulness, it +more than balances by intellectual intensity. Its significance is +unmistakable, because it employs the very material men use in their +exchange of thoughts and correspondence of emotions. To the bounds of +its empire there is no end. It embraces in its own more abstract +being all the arts. By words it does the work in turn of architecture, +sculpture, painting, music. It is the metaphysic of the fine arts. +Philosophy finds place in poetry; and life itself, refined to its last +utterance, hangs trembling on this thread which joins our earth +to heaven, this bridge between experience and the realms where +unattainable and imperceptible will have no meaning. + +If we are right in defining art as the manifestation of the human +spirit to man by man in beautiful form, poetry, more incontestably +than any other art, fulfils this definition and enables us to gauge +its accuracy. For words are the spirit, manifested to itself in +symbols with no sensual alloy. Poetry is therefore the presentation, +through words, of life and all that life implies. Perception, emotion, +thought, action, find in descriptive, lyrical, reflective, dramatic, +and epical poetry their immediate apocalypse. In poetry we are no +longer puzzled with problems as to whether art has or has not of +necessity a spiritual content. There cannot be any poetry whatsoever +without a spiritual meaning of some sort: good or bad, moral, +immoral, or non-moral, obscure or lucid, noble or ignoble, slight or +weighty--such distinctions do not signify. In poetry we are not met by +questions whether the poet intended to convey a meaning when he made +it. Quite meaningless poetry (as some critics would fain find melody +quite meaningless, or a statue meaningless, or a Venetian picture +meaningless) is a contradiction in terms. In poetry, life, or a +portion of life, lives again, resuscitated and presented to our mental +faculty through art. The best poetry is that which reproduces the most +of life, or its intensest moments. Therefore the extensive species of +the drama and the epic, the intensive species of the lyric, have been +ever held in highest esteem. Only a half-crazy critic flaunts the +paradox that poetry is excellent in so far as it assimilates the +vagueness of music, or estimates a poet by his power of translating +sense upon the borderland of nonsense into melodious words. Where +poetry falls short in the comparison with other arts, is in the +quality of form-giving, in the quality of sensuous concreteness. +Poetry can only present forms to the mental eye and to the +intellectual sense, stimulate the physical senses by indirect +suggestion. Therefore dramatic poetry, the most complicated kind of +poetry, relies upon the actor; and lyrical poetry, the intensest kind +of poetry, seeks the aid of music. But these comparative deficiencies +are overbalanced, for all the highest purposes of art, by the +width and depth, the intelligibility and power, the flexibility and +multitudinous associations, of language. The other arts are limited in +what they utter. There is nothing which has entered into the life of +man which poetry cannot express. Poetry says everything in man's own +language to the mind. The other arts appeal imperatively, each in its +own region, to man's senses; and the mind receives art's message +by the help of symbols from the world of sense. Poetry lacks this +immediate appeal to sense. But the elixir which it offers to the mind, +its quintessence extracted from all things of sense, reacts through +intellectual perception upon all the faculties that make men what they +are. + +VII + +I used a metaphor in one of the foregoing paragraphs to indicate the +presence of the vital spirit, the essential element of thought or +feeling, in the work of art. I said it radiated through the form, as +lamplight through an alabaster vase. Now the skill of the artist is +displayed in modelling that vase, in giving it shape, rich and rare, +and fashioning its curves with subtlest workmanship. In so far as he +is a craftsman, the artist's pains must be bestowed upon this precious +vessel of the animating theme. In so far as he has power over beauty, +he must exert it in this plastic act. It is here that he displays +dexterity; here that he creates; here that he separates himself from +other men who think and feel. The poet, more perhaps than any other +artist, needs to keep this steadily in view; for words being our daily +vehicle of utterance, it may well chance that the alabaster vase of +language should be hastily or trivially modelled. This is the true +reason why 'neither gods nor men nor the columns either suffer +mediocrity in singers.' Upon the poet it is specially incumbent to see +that he has something rare to say and some rich mode of saying it. The +figurative arts need hardly be so cautioned. They run their risk in +quite a different direction. For sculptor and for painter, the danger +is lest he should think that alabaster vase his final task. He may too +easily be satisfied with moulding a beautiful but empty form. + + * * * * * + +The last word on the topic of the arts is given in one sentence. Let +us remember that every work of art enshrines a spiritual subject, and +that the artist's power is shown in finding for that subject a form of +ideal loveliness. Many kindred points remain to be discussed; as what +we mean by beauty, which is a condition indispensable to noble art; +and what are the relations of the arts to ethics. These questions +cannot now be raised. It is enough in one essay to have tried to +vindicate the spirituality of art in general. + + * * * * * + + + + +_A VENETIAN MEDLEY_ + + +I.--FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND FAMILIARITY + +It is easy to feel and to say something obvious about Venice. The +influence of this sea-city is unique, immediate, and unmistakable. But +to express the sober truth of those impressions which remain when the +first astonishment of the Venetian revelation has subsided, when the +spirit of the place has been harmonised through familiarity with our +habitual mood, is difficult. + +Venice inspires at first an almost Corybantic rapture. From our +earliest visits, if these have been measured by days rather than +weeks, we carry away with us the memory of sunsets emblazoned in gold +and crimson upon cloud and water; of violet domes and bell-towers +etched against the orange of a western sky; of moonlight silvering +breeze-rippled breadths of liquid blue; of distant islands shimmering +in sun-litten haze; of music and black gliding boats; of labyrinthine +darkness made for mysteries of love and crime; of statue-fretted +palace fronts; of brazen clangour and a moving crowd; of pictures by +earth's proudest painters, cased in gold on walls of council chambers +where Venice sat enthroned a queen, where nobles swept the floors with +robes of Tyrian brocade. These reminiscences will be attended by an +ever-present sense of loneliness and silence in the world around; the +sadness of a limitless horizon, the solemnity of an unbroken arch of +heaven, the calm and greyness of evening on the lagoons, the pathos of +a marble city crumbling to its grave in mud and brine. + +These first impressions of Venice are true. Indeed they are +inevitable. They abide, and form a glowing background for all +subsequent pictures, toned more austerely, and painted in more lasting +hues of truth upon the brain. Those have never felt Venice at all who +have not known this primal rapture, or who perhaps expected more of +colour, more of melodrama, from a scene which nature and the art of +man have made the richest in these qualities. Yet the mood engendered +by this first experience is not destined to be permanent. It contains +an element of unrest and unreality which vanishes upon familiarity. +From the blare of that triumphal bourdon of brass instruments emerge +the delicate voices of violin and clarinette. To the contrasted +passions of our earliest love succeed a multitude of sweet and +fanciful emotions. It is my present purpose to recapture some of the +impressions made by Venice in more tranquil moods. Memory might +be compared to a kaleidoscope. Far away from Venice I raise the +wonder-working tube, allow the glittering fragments to settle as they +please, and with words attempt to render something of the patterns I +behold. + +II.--A LODGING IN SAN VIO + +I have escaped from the hotels with their bustle of tourists and +crowded _tables-d'hote_. My garden stretches down to the Grand +Canal, closed at the end with a pavilion, where I lounge and smoke and +watch the cornice of the Prefettura fretted with gold in sunset light. +My sitting-room and bed-room face the southern sun. There is a canal +below, crowded with gondolas, and across its bridge the good folk +of San Vio come and go the whole day long--men in blue shirts with +enormous hats, and jackets slung on their left shoulder; women in +kerchiefs of orange and crimson. Barelegged boys sit upon the parapet, +dangling their feet above the rising tide. A hawker passes, balancing +a basket full of live and crawling crabs. Barges filled with Brenta +water or Mirano wine take up their station at the neighbouring steps, +and then ensues a mighty splashing and hurrying to and fro of men with +tubs upon their heads. The brawny fellows in the wine-barge are red +from brows to breast with drippings of the vat. And now there is a +bustle in the quarter. A _barca_ has arrived from S. Erasmo, the +island of the market-gardens. It is piled with gourds and pumpkins, +cabbages and tomatoes, pomegranates and pears--a pyramid of gold and +green and scarlet. Brown men lift the fruit aloft, and women bending +from the pathway bargain for it. A clatter of chaffering tongues, a +ring of coppers, a Babel of hoarse sea-voices, proclaim the sharpness +of the struggle. When the quarter has been served, the boat sheers +off diminished in its burden. Boys and girls are left seasoning their +polenta with a slice of _zucca_, while the mothers of a score of +families go pattering up yonder courtyard with the material for their +husbands' supper in their handkerchiefs. Across the canal, or more +correctly the _Rio_, opens a wide grass-grown court. It is +lined on the right hand by a row of poor dwellings, swarming with +gondoliers' children. A garden wall runs along the other side, over +which I can see pomegranate-trees in fruit and pergolas of vines. Far +beyond are more low houses, and then the sky, swept with sea-breezes, +and the masts of an ocean-going ship against the dome and turrets of +Palladio's Redentore. + +This is my home. By day it is as lively as a scene in +_Masaniello_. By night, after nine o'clock, the whole stir of the +quarter has subsided. Far away I hear the bell of some church tell +the hours. But no noise disturbs my rest, unless perhaps a belated +gondolier moors his boat beneath the window. My one maid, Catina, +sings at her work the whole day through. My gondolier, Francesco, +acts as valet. He wakes me in the morning, opens the shutters, brings +sea-water for my bath, and takes his orders for the day. 'Will it do +for Chioggia, Francesco?' 'Sissignore! The Signorino has set off in +his _sandolo_ already with Antonio. The Signora is to go with us +in the gondola.' 'Then get three more men, Francesco, and see that all +of them can sing.' + +III.--TO CHIOGGIA WITH OAR AND SAIL + +The _sandolo_ is a boat shaped like the gondola, but smaller +and lighter, without benches, and without the high steel prow or +_ferro_ which distinguishes the gondola. The gunwale is only just +raised above the water, over which the little craft skims with a rapid +bounding motion, affording an agreeable variation from the stately +swanlike movement of the gondola. In one of these boats--called by +him the _Fisolo_ or Seamew--my friend Eustace had started with +Antonio, intending to row the whole way to Chioggia, or, if the breeze +favoured, to hoist a sail and help himself along. After breakfast, +when the crew for my gondola had been assembled, Francesco and I +followed with the Signora. It was one of those perfect mornings which +occur as a respite from broken weather, when the air is windless and +the light falls soft through haze on the horizon. As we broke into the +lagoon behind the Redentore, the islands in front of us, S. Spirito, +Poveglia, Malamocco, seemed as though they were just lifted from the +sea-line. The Euganeans, far away to westward, were bathed in mist, +and almost blent with the blue sky. Our four rowers put their backs +into their work; and soon we reached the port of Malamocco, where a +breeze from the Adriatic caught us sideways for a while. This is +the largest of the breaches in the Lidi, or raised sand-reefs, which +protect Venice from the sea: it affords an entrance to vessels of +draught like the steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental Company. We +crossed the dancing wavelets of the port; but when we passed under the +lee of Pelestrina, the breeze failed, and the lagoon was once again a +sheet of undulating glass. At S. Pietro on this island a halt was made +to give the oarsmen wine, and here we saw the women at their cottage +doorways making lace. The old lace industry of Venice has recently +been revived. From Burano and Pelestrina cargoes of hand-made +imitations of the ancient fabrics are sent at intervals to Jesurun's +magazine at S. Marco. He is the chief _impresario_ of the trade, +employing hundreds of hands, and speculating for a handsome profit in +the foreign market on the price he gives his workwomen. + +Now we are well lost in the lagoons--Venice no longer visible behind; +the Alps and Euganeans shrouded in a noonday haze; the lowlands at the +mouth of Brenta marked by clumps of trees ephemerally faint in silver +silhouette against the filmy, shimmering horizon. Form and colour +have disappeared in light-irradiated vapour of an opal hue. And yet +instinctively we know that we are not at sea; the different quality +of the water, the piles emerging here and there above the surface, the +suggestion of coast-lines scarcely felt in this infinity of lustre, +all remind us that our voyage is confined to the charmed limits of an +inland lake. At length the jutting headland of Pelestrina was reached. +We broke across the Porto di Chioggia, and saw Chioggia itself +ahead--a huddled mass of houses low upon the water. One by one, as +we rowed steadily, the fishing-boats passed by, emerging from their +harbour for a twelve hours' cruise upon the open sea. In a long +line they came, with variegated sails of orange, red, and saffron, +curiously chequered at the corners, and cantled with devices in +contrasted tints. A little land-breeze carried them forward. The +lagoon reflected their deep colours till they reached the port. Then, +slightly swerving eastward on their course, but still in single file, +they took the sea and scattered, like beautiful bright-plumaged birds, +who from a streamlet float into a lake, and find their way at large +according as each wills. + +The Signorino and Antonio, though want of wind obliged them to row the +whole way from Venice, had reached Chioggia an hour before, and stood +waiting to receive us on the quay. It is a quaint town this Chioggia, +which has always lived a separate life from that of Venice. Language +and race and customs have held the two populations apart from those +distant years when Genoa and the Republic of S. Mark fought their duel +to the death out in the Chioggian harbours, down to these days, when +your Venetian gondolier will tell you that the Chioggoto loves his +pipe more than his _donna_ or his wife. The main canal is lined +with substantial palaces, attesting to old wealth and comfort. But +from Chioggia, even more than from Venice, the tide of modern luxury +and traffic has retreated. The place is left to fishing folk and +builders of the fishing craft, whose wharves still form the liveliest +quarter. Wandering about its wide deserted courts and _calli_, +we feel the spirit of the decadent Venetian nobility. Passages from +Goldoni's and Casanova's Memoirs occur to our memory. It seems easy to +realise what they wrote about the dishevelled gaiety and lawless +license of Chioggia in the days of powder, sword-knot, and _soprani_. +Baffo walks beside us in hypocritical composure of bag-wig and +senatorial dignity, whispering unmentionable sonnets in his dialect of +_Xe_ and _Ga_. Somehow or another that last dotage of S. Mark's +decrepitude is more recoverable by our fancy than the heroism of +Pisani in the fourteenth century. From his prison in blockaded Venice +the great admiral was sent forth on a forlorn hope, and blocked +victorious Doria here with boats on which the nobles of the Golden +Book had spent their fortunes. Pietro Doria boasted that with his own +hands he would bridle the bronze horses of S. Mark. But now he found +himself between the navy of Carlo Zeno in the Adriatic and the +flotilla led by Vittore Pisani across the lagoon. It was in vain that +the Republic of S. George strained every nerve to send him succour +from the Ligurian sea; in vain that the lords of Padua kept opening +communications with him from the mainland. From the 1st of January +1380 till the 21st of June the Venetians pressed the blockade ever +closer, grappling their foemen in a grip that if relaxed one moment +would have hurled him at their throats. The long and breathless +struggle ended in the capitulation at Chioggia of what remained of +Doria's forty-eight galleys and fourteen thousand men. + +These great deeds are far away and hazy. The brief sentences of +mediaeval annalists bring them less near to us than the _chroniques +scandaleuses_ of good-for-nothing scoundrels, whose vulgar adventures +might be revived at the present hour with scarce a change of setting. +Such is the force of _intimite_ in literature. And yet Baffo and +Casanova are as much of the past as Doria and Pisani. It is only +perhaps that the survival of decadence in all we see around us, forms +a fitting framework for our recollections of their vividly described +corruption. + +Not far from the landing-place a balustraded bridge of ample breadth +and large bravura manner spans the main canal. Like everything at +Chioggia, it is dirty and has fallen from its first estate. Yet +neither time nor injury can obliterate style or wholly degrade marble. +Hard by the bridge there are two rival inns. At one of these we +ordered a seadinner--crabs, cuttlefishes, soles, and turbots--which +we ate at a table in the open air. Nothing divided us from the street +except a row of Japanese privet-bushes in hooped tubs. Our banquet +soon assumed a somewhat unpleasant similitude to that of Dives; for +the Chioggoti, in all stages of decrepitude and squalor, crowded round +to beg for scraps--indescribable old women, enveloped in their own +petticoats thrown over their heads; girls hooded with sombre black +mantles; old men wrinkled beyond recognition by their nearest +relatives; jabbering, half-naked boys; slow, slouching fishermen with +clay pipes in their mouths and philosophical acceptance on their sober +foreheads. + +That afternoon the gondola and sandolo were lashed together side +by side. Two sails were raised, and in this lazy fashion we stole +homewards, faster or slower according as the breeze freshened or +slackened, landing now and then on islands, sauntering along the +sea-walls which bulwark Venice from the Adriatic, and singing--those +at least of us who had the power to sing. Four of our Venetians had +trained voices and memories of inexhaustible music. Over the level +water, with the ripple plashing at our keel, their songs went abroad, +and mingled with the failing day. The barcaroles and serenades +peculiar to Venice were, of course, in harmony with the occasion. +But some transcripts from classical operas were even more attractive, +through the dignity with which these men invested them. By the +peculiarity of their treatment the _recitativo_ of the stage +assumed a solemn movement, marked in rhythm, which removed it from +the commonplace into antiquity, and made me understand how cultivated +music may pass back by natural, unconscious transition into the realm +of popular melody. + +The sun sank, not splendidly, but quietly in banks of clouds above +the Alps. Stars came out, uncertainly at first, and then in strength, +reflected on the sea. The men of the Dogana watch-boat challenged us +and let us pass. Madonna's lamp was twinkling from her shrine upon the +harbour-pile. The city grew before us. Stealing into Venice in that +calm--stealing silently and shadowlike, with scarce a ruffle of the +water, the masses of the town emerging out of darkness into twilight, +till San Giorgio's gun boomed with a flash athwart our stern, and the +gas-lamps of the Piazzetta swam into sight; all this was like a long +enchanted chapter of romance. And now the music of our men had sunk to +one faint whistling from Eustace of tunes in harmony with whispers at +the prow. + +Then came the steps of the Palazzo Venier and the deep-scented +darkness of the garden. As we passed through to supper, I plucked a +spray of yellow Banksia rose, and put it in my buttonhole. The dew was +on its burnished leaves, and evening had drawn forth its perfume. + +IV.--MORNING RAMBLES + +A story is told of Poussin, the French painter, that when he was asked +why he would not stay in Venice, he replied, 'If I stay here, I +shall become a colourist!' A somewhat similar tale is reported of a +fashionable English decorator. While on a visit to friends in Venice, +he avoided every building which contains a Tintoretto, averring that +the sight of Tintoretto's pictures would injure his carefully trained +taste. It is probable that neither anecdote is strictly true. Yet +there is a certain epigrammatic point in both; and I have often +speculated whether even Venice could have so warped the genius of +Poussin as to shed one ray of splendour on his canvases, or whether +even Tintoretto could have so sublimed the prophet of Queen Anne as to +make him add dramatic passion to a London drawing-room. Anyhow, it is +exceedingly difficult to escape from colour in the air of Venice, or +from Tintoretto in her buildings. Long, delightful mornings may be +spent in the enjoyment of the one and the pursuit of the other by folk +who have no classical or pseudo-mediaeval theories to oppress them. + +Tintoretto's house, though changed, can still be visited. It formed +part of the Fondamenta dei Mori, so called from having been the +quarter assigned to Moorish traders in Venice. A spirited carving of a +turbaned Moor leading a camel charged with merchandise, remains above +the waterline of a neighbouring building; and all about the crumbling +walls sprout flowering weeds--samphire and snapdragon and the spiked +campanula, which shoots a spire of sea-blue stars from chinks of +Istrian stone. + +The house stands opposite the Church of Santa Maria dell' Orto, where +Tintoretto was buried, and where four of his chief masterpieces are +to be seen. This church, swept and garnished, is a triumph of modern +Italian restoration. They have contrived to make it as commonplace as +human ingenuity could manage. Yet no malice of ignorant industry can +obscure the treasures it contains--the pictures of Cima, Gian Bellini, +Palma, and the four Tintorettos, which form its crowning glory. Here +the master may be studied in four of his chief moods: as the painter +of tragic passion and movement, in the huge 'Last Judgment;' as the +painter of impossibilities, in the 'Vision of Moses upon Sinai;' +as the painter of purity and tranquil pathos, in the 'Miracle of S. +Agnes;' as the painter of Biblical history brought home to daily life, +in the 'Presentation of the Virgin.' Without leaving the Madonna dell' +Orto, a student can explore his genius in all its depth and breadth; +comprehend the enthusiasm he excites in those who seek, as the +essentials of art, imaginative boldness and sincerity; understand what +is meant by adversaries who maintain that, after all, Tintoretto was +but an inspired Gustave Dore. Between that quiet canvas of the +'Presentation,' so modest in its cool greys and subdued gold, and the +tumult of flying, running? doesn't make much sense, but can't figure +out a plausible alternative, ascending figures in the 'Judgment,' what +an interval there is! How strangely the white lamb-like maiden, +kneeling beside her lamb in the picture of S. Agnes, contrasts with +the dusky gorgeousness of the Hebrew women despoiling themselves of +jewels for the golden calf! Comparing these several manifestations of +creative power, we feel ourselves in the grasp of a painter who was +essentially a poet, one for whom his art was the medium for expressing +before all things thought and passion. Each picture is executed in the +manner suited to its tone of feeling, the key of its conception. + +Elsewhere than in the Madonna dell' Orto there are more distinguished +single examples of Tintoretto's realising faculty. The 'Last Supper' +in San Giorgio, for instance, and the 'Adoration of the Shepherds' +in the Scuola di San Rocco illustrate his unique power of presenting +sacred history in a novel, romantic framework of familiar things. +The commonplace circumstances of ordinary life have been employed to +portray in the one case a lyric of mysterious splendour; in the other, +an idyll of infinite sweetness. Divinity shines through the rafters +of that upper chamber, where round a low large table the Apostles +are assembled in a group translated from the social customs of the +painter's days. Divinity is shed upon the straw-spread manger, where +Christ lies sleeping in the loft, with shepherds crowding through the +room beneath. + +A studied contrast between the simplicity and repose of the central +figure and the tumult of passions in the multitude around, may be +observed in the 'Miracle of S. Agnes.' It is this which gives dramatic +vigour to the composition. But the same effect is carried to its +highest fulfilment, with even a loftier beauty, in the episode of +Christ before the judgment-seat of Pilate, at San Rocco. Of all +Tintoretto's religious pictures, that is the most profoundly felt, the +most majestic. No other artist succeeded as he has here succeeded in +presenting to us God incarnate. For this Christ is not merely the +just man, innocent, silent before his accusers. The stationary, +white-draped figure, raised high above the agitated crowd, with +tranquil forehead slightly bent, facing his perplexed and fussy judge, +is more than man. We cannot say perhaps precisely why he is divine. +But Tintoretto has made us feel that he is. In other words, his +treatment of the high theme chosen by him has been adequate. + +We must seek the Scuola di San Rocco for examples of Tintoretto's +liveliest imagination. Without ceasing to be Italian in his attention +to harmony and grace, he far exceeded the masters of his nation in the +power of suggesting what is weird, mysterious, upon the borderland +of the grotesque. And of this quality there are three remarkable +instances in the Scuola. No one but Tintoretto could have evoked +the fiend in his 'Temptation of Christ.' It is an indescribable +hermaphroditic genius, the genius of carnal fascination, with +outspread downy rose-plumed wings, and flaming bracelets on the full +but sinewy arms, who kneels and lifts aloft great stones, smiling +entreatingly to the sad, grey Christ seated beneath a rugged +pent-house of the desert. No one again but Tintoretto could have +dashed the hot lights of that fiery sunset in such quivering flakes +upon the golden flesh of Eve, half hidden among laurels, as she +stretches forth the fruit of the Fall to shrinking Adam. No one but +Tintoretto, till we come to Blake, could have imagined yonder Jonah, +summoned by the beck of God from the whale's belly. The monstrous +fish rolls over in the ocean, blowing portentous vapour from his +trump-shaped nostril. The prophet's beard descends upon his naked +breast in hoary ringlets to the girdle. He has forgotten the past +peril of the deep, although the whale's jaws yawn around him. Between +him and the outstretched finger of Jehovah calling him again to life, +there runs a spark of unseen spiritual electricity. + +To comprehend Tintoretto's touch upon the pastoral idyll we must turn +our steps to San Giorgio again, and pace those meadows by the +running river in company with his Manna-Gatherers. Or we may seek the +Accademia, and notice how he here has varied the 'Temptation of Adam +by Eve,' choosing a less tragic motive of seduction than the one so +powerfully rendered at San Rocco. Or in the Ducal Palace we may +take our station, hour by hour, before the 'Marriage of Bacchus and +Ariadne.' It is well to leave the very highest achievements of art +untouched by criticism, undescribed. And in this picture we have the +most perfect of all modern attempts to realise an antique myth--more +perfect than Raphael's 'Galatea,' or Titian's 'Meeting of Bacchus +with Ariadne,' or Botticelli's 'Birth of Venus from the Sea.' It may +suffice to marvel at the slight effect which melodies so powerful and +so direct as these produce upon the ordinary public. Sitting, as is my +wont, one Sunday morning, opposite the 'Bacchus,' four Germans with a +cicerone sauntered by. The subject was explained to them. They waited +an appreciable space of time. Then the youngest opened his lips and +spake: 'Bacchus war der Wein-Gott.' And they all moved heavily away. +_Bos locutus est_. 'Bacchus was the wine-god!' This, apparently, +is what a picture tells to one man. To another it presents divine +harmonies, perceptible indeed in nature, but here by the painter-poet +for the first time brought together and cadenced in a work of art. For +another it is perhaps the hieroglyph of pent-up passions and desired +impossibilities. For yet another it may only mean the unapproachable +inimitable triumph of consummate craft. + +Tintoretto, to be rightly understood, must be sought all over +Venice--in the church as well as the Scuola di San Rocco; in +the 'Temptation of S. Anthony' at S. Trovaso no less than in the +Temptations of Eve and Christ; in the decorative pomp of the Sala del +Senato, and in the Paradisal vision of the Sala del Gran Consiglio. +Yet, after all, there is one of his most characteristic moods, to +appreciate which fully we return to the Madonna dell' Orto. I have +called him 'the painter of impossibilities.' At rare moments he +rendered them possible by sheer imaginative force. If we wish to +realise this phase of his creative power, and to measure our own +subordination to his genius in its most hazardous enterprise, we +must spend much time in the choir of this church. Lovers of art who +mistrust this play of the audacious fancy--aiming at sublimity in +supersensual regions, sometimes attaining to it by stupendous effort +or authentic revelation, not seldom sinking to the verge of bathos, +and demanding the assistance of interpretative sympathy in the +spectator--such men will not take the point of view required of them +by Tintoretto in his boldest flights, in the 'Worship of the Golden +Calf' and in the 'Destruction of the World by Water.' It is for them +to ponder well the flying archangel with the scales of judgment in his +hand, and the seraph-charioted Jehovah enveloping Moses upon Sinai in +lightnings. + +The gondola has had a long rest. Were Francesco but a little more +impatient, he might be wondering what had become of the padrone. I bid +him turn, and we are soon gliding into the Sacca della Misericordia. +This is a protected float, where the wood which comes from Cadore +and the hills of the Ampezzo is stored in spring. Yonder square white +house, standing out to sea, fronting Murano and the Alps, they call +the Oasa degli Spiriti. No one cares to inhabit it; for here, in old +days, it was the wont of the Venetians to lay their dead for a night's +rest before their final journey to the graveyard of S. Michele. So +many generations of dead folk had made that house their inn, that it +is now no fitting home for living men. San Michele is the island close +before Murano, where the Lombardi built one of their most romantically +graceful churches of pale Istrian stone, and where the Campo Santo has +for centuries received the dead into its oozy clay. The cemetery is at +present undergoing restoration. Its state of squalor and abandonment +to cynical disorder makes one feel how fitting for Italians would be +the custom of cremation. An island in the lagoons devoted to funeral +pyres is a solemn and ennobling conception. This graveyard, with +its ruinous walls, its mangy riot of unwholesome weeds, its corpses +festering in slime beneath neglected slabs in hollow chambers, and the +mephitic wash of poisoned waters that surround it, inspires the horror +of disgust. + +The morning has not lost its freshness. Antelao and Tofana, guarding +the vale above Cortina, show faint streaks of snow upon their +amethyst. Little clouds hang in the still autumn sky. There are men +dredging for shrimps and crabs through shoals uncovered by the ebb. +Nothing can be lovelier, more resting to eyes tired with pictures than +this tranquil, sunny expanse of the lagoon. As we round the point of +the Bersaglio, new landscapes of island and Alp and low-lying mainland +move into sight at every slow stroke of the oar. A luggage-train +comes lumbering along the railway bridge, puffing white smoke into +the placid blue. Then we strike down Cannaregio, and I muse upon +processions of kings and generals and noble strangers, entering Venice +by this water-path from Mestre, before the Austrians built their +causeway for the trains. Some of the rare scraps of fresco upon house +fronts, still to be seen in Venice, are left in Cannaregio. They +are chiaroscuro allegories in a bold bravura manner of the sixteenth +century. From these and from a few rosy fragments on the Fondaco +dei Tedeschi, the Fabbriche Nuove, and precious fading figures in a +certain courtyard near San Stefano, we form some notion how Venice +looked when all her palaces were painted. Pictures by Gentile Bellini, +Mansueti, and Carpaccio help the fancy in this work of restoration. +And here and there, in back canals, we come across coloured sections +of old buildings, capped by true Venetian chimneys, which for a moment +seem to realise our dream. + +A morning with Tintoretto might well be followed by a morning with +Carpaccio or Bellini. But space is wanting in these pages. Nor would +it suit the manner of this medley to hunt the Lombardi through palaces +and churches, pointing out their singularities of violet and yellow +panellings in marble, the dignity of their wide-opened arches, or the +delicacy of their shallow chiselled traceries in cream-white +Istrian stone. It is enough to indicate the goal of many a pleasant +pilgrimage: warrior angels of Vivarini and Basaiti hidden in a dark +chapel of the Frari; Fra Francesco's fantastic orchard of fruits and +flowers in distant S. Francesco della Vigna; the golden Gian Bellini +in S. Zaccaria; Palma's majestic S. Barbara in S. Maria Formosa; San +Giobbe's wealth of sculptured frieze and floral scroll; the Ponte +di Paradiso, with its Gothic arch; the painted plates in the Museo +Civico; and palace after palace, loved for some quaint piece of +tracery, some moulding full of mediaeval symbolism, some fierce +impossible Renaissance freak of fancy. + +Bather than prolong this list, I will tell a story which drew me one +day past the Public Gardens to the metropolitan Church of Venice, San +Pietro di Castello. The novella is related by Bandello. It has, as +will be noticed, points of similarity to that of 'Romeo and Juliet.' + +V.--A VENETIAN NOVELLA + +At the time when Carpaccio and Gentile Bellini were painting those +handsome youths in tight jackets, parti-coloured hose, and little +round caps placed awry upon their shocks of well-combed hair, there +lived in Venice two noblemen, Messer Pietro and Messer Paolo, whose +palaces fronted each other on the Grand Canal. Messer Paolo was a +widower, with one married daughter, and an only son of twenty years or +thereabouts, named Gerardo. Messer Pietro's wife was still living; and +this couple had but one child, a daughter, called Elena, of exceeding +beauty, aged fourteen. Gerardo, as is the wont of gallants, was paying +his addresses to a certain lady; and nearly every day he had to cross +the Grand Canal in his gondola, and to pass beneath the house of Elena +on his way to visit his Dulcinea; for this lady lived some distance +up a little canal on which the western side of Messer Pietro's palace +looked. + +Now it so happened that at the very time when the story opens, Messer +Pietro's wife fell ill and died, and Elena was left alone at home with +her father and her old nurse. Across the little canal of which I spoke +there dwelt another nobleman, with four daughters, between the years +of seventeen and twenty-one. Messer Pietro, desiring to provide +amusement for poor little Elena, besought this gentleman that his +daughters might come on feast-days to play with her. For you must know +that, except on festivals of the Church, the custom of Venice required +that gentlewomen should remain closely shut within the private +apartments of their dwellings. His request was readily granted; and on +the next feast-day the five girls began to play at ball together for +forfeits in the great saloon, which opened with its row of Gothic +arches and balustraded balcony upon the Grand Canal. The four sisters, +meanwhile, had other thoughts than for the game. One or other of them, +and sometimes three together, would let the ball drop, and run to the +balcony to gaze upon their gallants, passing up and down in gondolas +below; and then they would drop flowers or ribands for tokens. Which +negligence of theirs annoyed Elena much; for she thought only of the +game. Wherefore she scolded them in childish wise, and one of them +made answer, 'Elena, if you only knew how pleasant it is to play as we +are playing on this balcony, you would not care so much for ball and +forfeits!' + +On one of those feast-days the four sisters were prevented from +keeping their little friend company. Elena, with nothing to do, and +feeling melancholy, leaned upon the window-sill which overlooked the +narrow canal. And it chanced that just then Gerardo, on his way to +Dulcinea, went by; and Elena looked down at him, as she had seen those +sisters look at passers-by. Gerardo caught her eye, and glances passed +between them, and Gerardo's gondolier, bending from the poop, said +to his master, 'O master! methinks that gentle maiden is better worth +your wooing than Dulcinea.' Gerardo pretended to pay no heed to these +words; but after rowing a little way, he bade the man turn, and they +went slowly back beneath the window. This time Elena, thinking to play +the game which her four friends had played, took from her hair a clove +carnation and let it fall close to Gerardo on the cushion of the +gondola. He raised the flower and put it to his lips, acknowledging +the courtesy with a grave bow. But the perfume of the clove and the +beauty of Elena in that moment took possession of his heart together, +and straightway he forgot Dulcinea. + +As yet he knew not who Elena was. Nor is this wonderful; for the +daughters of Venetian nobles were but rarely seen or spoken of. +But the thought of her haunted him awake and sleeping; and every +feast-day, when there was the chance of seeing her, he rowed his +gondola beneath her windows. And there she appeared to him in company +with her four friends; the five girls clustering together like sister +roses beneath the pointed windows of the Gothic balcony. Elena, on her +side, had no thought of love; for of love she had heard no one speak. +But she took pleasure in the game those friends had taught her, of +leaning from the balcony to watch Gerardo. He meanwhile grew love-sick +and impatient, wondering how he might declare his passion. Until one +day it happened that, talking through a lane or _calle_ which +skirted Messer Pietro'a palace, he caught sight of Elena's nurse, who +was knocking at the door, returning from some shopping she had +made. This nurse had been his own nurse in childhood; therefore he +remembered her, and cried aloud, 'Nurse, Nurse!' But the old woman did +not hear him, and passed into the house and shut the door behind her. +Whereupon Gerardo, greatly moved, still called to her, and when he +reached the door, began to knock upon it violently. And whether it +was the agitation of finding himself at last so near the wish of his +heart, or whether the pains of waiting for his love had weakened him, +I know not; but, while he knocked, his senses left him, and he fell +fainting in the doorway. Then the nurse recognised the youth to whom +she had given suck, and brought him into the courtyard by the help of +handmaidens, and Elena came down and gazed upon him. The house was now +full of bustle, and Messer Pietro heard the noise, and seeing the son +of his neighbour in so piteous a plight, he caused Gerardo to be laid +upon a bed. But for all they could do with him, he recovered not from +his swoon. And after a while force was that they should place him in +a gondola and ferry him across to his father's house. The nurse went +with him, and informed Messer Paolo of what had happened. Doctors were +sent for, and the whole family gathered round Gerardo's bed. After +a while he revived a little; and thinking himself still upon the +doorstep of Pietro's palace, called again, 'Nurse, Nurse!' She was +near at hand, and would have spoken to him. But while he summoned his +senses to his aid, he became gradually aware of his own kinsfolk +and dissembled the secret of his grief. They beholding him in better +cheer, departed on their several ways, and the nurse still sat alone +beside him. Then he explained to her what he had at heart, and how he +was in love with a maiden whom he had seen on feast-days in the +house of Messer Pietro. But still he knew not Elena's name; and she, +thinking it impossible that such a child had inspired this passion, +began to marvel which of the four sisters it was Gerardo loved. Then +they appointed the next Sunday, when all the five girls should be +together, for Gerardo by some sign, as he passed beneath the window, +to make known to the old nurse his lady. + +Elena, meanwhile, who had watched Gerardo lying still and pale in +swoon beneath her on the pavement of the palace, felt the stirring +of a new unknown emotion in her soul. When Sunday came, she devised +excuses for keeping her four friends away, bethinking her that she +might see him once again alone, and not betray the agitation which she +dreaded. This ill suited the schemes of the nurse, who nevertheless +was forced to be content. But after dinner, seeing how restless was +the girl, and how she came and went, and ran a thousand times to the +balcony, the nurse began to wonder whether Elena herself were not in +love with some one. So she feigned to sleep, but placed herself within +sight of the window. And soon Gerardo came by in his gondola; and +Elena, who was prepared, threw to him her nosegay. The watchful nurse +had risen, and peeping behind the girl's shoulder, saw at a glance how +matters stood. Thereupon she began to scold her charge, and say, 'Is +this a fair and comely thing, to stand all day at balconies and throw +flowers at passers-by? Woe to you if your father should come to know +of this! He would make you wish yourself among the dead!' Elena, sore +troubled at her nurse's rebuke, turned and threw her arms about her +neck, and called her 'Nanna!' as the wont is of Venetian children. +Then she told the old woman how she had learned that game from the +four sisters, and how she thought it was not different, but far +more pleasant, than the game of forfeits; whereupon her nurse spoke +gravely, explaining what love is, and how that love should lead to +marriage, and bidding her search her own heart if haply she could +choose Gerardo for her husband. There was no reason, as she knew, why +Messer Paolo's son should not mate with Messer Pietro's daughter. But +being a romantic creature, as many women are, she resolved to bring +the match about in secret. + +Elena took little time to reflect, but told her nurse that she was +willing, if Gerardo willed it too, to have him for her husband. Then +went the nurse and made the young man know how matters stood, and +arranged with him a day, when Messer Pietro should be in the Council +of the Pregadi, and the servants of the palace otherwise employed, +for him to come and meet his Elena. A glad man was Gerardo, nor did +he wait to think how better it would be to ask the hand of Elena in +marriage from her father. But when the day arrived, he sought the +nurse, and she took him to a chamber in the palace, where there stood +an image of the Blessed Virgin. Elena was there, pale and timid; and +when the lovers clasped hands, neither found many words to say. But +the nurse bade them take heart, and leading them before Our Lady, +joined their hands, and made Gerardo place his ring on his bride's +finger. After this fashion were Gerardo and Elena wedded. And for some +while, by the assistance of the nurse, they dwelt together in much +love and solace, meeting often as occasion offered. + +Messer Paolo, who knew nothing of these things, took thought meanwhile +for his son's career. It was the season when the Signiory of Venice +sends a fleet of galleys to Beirut with merchandise; and the noblemen +may bid for the hiring of a ship, and charge it with wares, and +send whomsoever they list as factor in their interest. One of these +galleys, then, Messer Paolo engaged, and told his son that he had +appointed him to journey with it and increase their wealth. 'On thy +return, my son,' he said, 'we will bethink us of a wife for thee.' +Gerardo, when he heard these words, was sore troubled, and first he +told his father roundly that he would not go, and flew off in the +twilight to pour out his perplexities to Elena. But she, who was +prudent and of gentle soul, besought him to obey his father in this +thing, to the end, moreover, that, having done his will and increased +his wealth, he might afterwards unfold the story of their secret +marriage. To these good counsels, though loth, Gerardo consented. +His father was overjoyed at his son's repentance. The galley was +straightway laden with merchandise, and Gerardo set forth on his +voyage. + +The trip to Beirut and back lasted usually six months or at the most +seven. Now when Gerardo had been some six months away, Messer Pietro, +noticing how fair his daughter was, and how she had grown into +womanhood, looked about him for a husband for her. When he had found a +youth suitable in birth and wealth and years, he called for Elena, and +told her that the day had been appointed for her marriage. She, alas! +knew not what to answer. She feared to tell her father that she was +already married, for she knew not whether this would please Gerardo. +For the same reason she dreaded to throw herself upon the kindness of +Messer Paolo. Nor was her nurse of any help in counsel; for the old +woman repented her of what she had done, and had good cause to believe +that, even if the marriage with Gerardo were accepted by the two +fathers, they would punish her for her own part in the affair. +Therefore she bade Elena wait on fortune, and hinted to her that, if +the worst came to the worst, no one need know she had been wedded with +the ring to Gerardo. Such weddings, you must know, were binding; but +till they had been blessed by the Church, they had not taken the force +of a religious sacrament. And this is still the case in Italy among +the common folk, who will say of a man, 'Si, e ammogliato; ma il +matrimonio non e stato benedetto.' 'Yes, he has taken a wife, but the +marriage has not yet been blessed.' + +So the days flew by in doubt and sore distress for Elena. Then on the +night before her wedding, she felt that she could bear this life no +longer. But having no poison, and being afraid to pierce her bosom +with a knife, she lay down on her bed alone, and tried to die by +holding in her breath. A mortal swoon came over her; her senses fled; +the life in her remained suspended. And when her nurse came next +morning to call her, she found poor Elena cold as a corpse. Messer +Pietro and all the household rushed, at the nurse's cries, into the +room, and they all saw Elena stretched dead upon her bed undressed. +Physicians were called, who made theories to explain the cause of +death. But all believed that she was really dead, beyond all help +of art or medicine. Nothing remained but to carry her to church for +burial instead of marriage. Therefore, that very evening, a funeral +procession was formed, which moved by torchlight up the Grand Canal, +along the Riva, past the blank walls of the Arsenal, to the Campo +before San Pietro in Castello. Elena lay beneath the black felze +in one gondola, with a priest beside her praying, and other boats +followed bearing mourners. Then they laid her in a marble chest +outside the church, and all departed, still with torches burning, to +their homes. + +Now it so fell out that upon that very evening Gerardo's galley had +returned from Syria, and was anchoring within the port of Lido, which +looks across to the island of Castello. It was the gentle custom of +Venice at that time that, when a ship arrived from sea, the friends of +those on board at once came out to welcome them, and take and give the +news. Therefore many noble youths and other citizens were on the deck +of Gerardo's galley, making merry with him over the safe conduct +of his voyage. Of one of these he asked, 'Whose is yonder funeral +procession returning from San Pietro?' The young man made answer, +'Alas, for poor Elena, Messer Pietro's daughter! She should have been +married this day. But death took her, and to-night they buried her +in the marble monument outside the church.' A woeful man was Gerardo, +hearing suddenly this news, and knowing what his dear wife must +have suffered ere she died. Yet he restrained himself, daring not to +disclose his anguish, and waited till his friends had left the galley. +Then he called to him the captain of the oarsmen, who was his friend, +and unfolded to him all the story of his love and sorrow, and said +that he must go that night and see his wife once more, if even he +should have to break her tomb. The captain tried to dissuade him, but +in vain. Seeing him so obstinate, he resolved not to desert Gerardo. +The two men took one of the galley's boats, and rowed together toward +San Pietro. It was past midnight when they reached the Campo and broke +the marble sepulchre asunder. Pushing back its lid, Gerardo descended +into the grave and abandoned himself upon the body of his Elena. One +who had seen them at that moment could not well have said which of the +two was dead and which was living--Elena or her husband. Meantime the +captain of the oarsmen, fearing lest the watch (set by the Masters of +the Night to keep the peace of Venice) might arrive, was calling on +Gerardo to come back. Gerardo heeded him no whit. But at the last, +compelled by his entreaties, and as it were astonied, he arose, +bearing his wife's corpse in his arms, and carried her clasped against +his bosom to the boat, and laid her therein, and sat down by her +side and kissed her frequently, and suffered not his friend's +remonstrances. Force was for the captain, having brought himself into +this scrape, that he should now seek refuge by the nearest way from +justice. Therefore he hoved gently from the bank, and plied his oar, +and brought the gondola apace into the open waters. Gerardo still +clasped Elena, dying husband by dead wife. But the sea-breeze +freshened towards daybreak; and the captain, looking down upon that +pair, and bringing to their faces the light of his boat's lantern, +judged their case not desperate at all. On Elena's cheek there was a +flush of life less deadly even than the pallor of Gerardo's forehead. +Thereupon the good man called aloud, and Gerardo started from his +grief; and both together they chafed the hands and feet of Elena; and, +the sea-breeze aiding with its saltness, they awoke in her the spark +of life. + +Dimly burned the spark. But Gerardo, being aware of it, became a man +again. Then, having taken counsel with the captain, both resolved +to bear her to that brave man's mother's house. A bed was soon made +ready, and food was brought; and after due time, she lifted up her +face and knew Gerardo. The peril of the grave was past, but thought +had now to be taken for the future. Therefore Gerardo, leaving his +wife to the captain's mother, rowed back to the galley and prepared to +meet his father. With good store of merchandise and with great gains +from his traffic, he arrived in that old palace on the Grand Canal. +Then having opened to Messer Paolo the matters of his journey, and +shown him how he had fared, and set before him tables of disbursements +and receipts, he seized the moment of his father's gladness. 'Father,' +he said, and as he spoke he knelt upon his knees, 'Father, I bring you +not good store of merchandise and bags of gold alone; I bring you also +a wedded wife, whom I have saved this night from death.' And when +the old man's surprise was quieted, he told him the whole story. Now +Messer Paolo, desiring no better than that his son should wed the +heiress of his neighbour, and knowing well that Messer Pietro would +make great joy receiving back his daughter from the grave, bade +Gerardo in haste take rich apparel and clothe Elena therewith, and +fetch her home. These things were swiftly done; and after evenfall +Messer Pietro was bidden to grave business in his neighbour's palace. +With heavy heart he came, from a house of mourning to a house of +gladness. But there, at the banquet-table's head he saw his dead child +Elena alive, and at her side a husband. And when the whole truth had +been declared, he not only kissed and embraced the pair who knelt +before him, but of his goodness forgave the nurse, who in her +turn came trembling to his feet. Then fell there joy and bliss in +overmeasure that night upon both palaces of the Canal Grande. And with +the morrow the Church blessed the spousals which long since had been +on both sides vowed and consummated. + +VI.--ON THE LAGOONS + +The mornings are spent in study, sometimes among pictures, sometimes +in the Marcian Library, or again in those vast convent chambers of +the Frari, where the archives of Venice load innumerable shelves. The +afternoons invite us to a further flight upon the water. Both sandolo +and gondola await our choice, and we may sail or row, according as the +wind and inclination tempt us. + +Yonder lies San Lazzaro, with the neat red buildings of the Armenian +convent. The last oleander blossoms shine rosy pink above its walls +against the pure blue sky as we glide into the little harbour. Boats +piled with coal-black grapes block the landing-place, for the Padri +are gathering their vintage from the Lido, and their presses run +with new wine. Eustace and I have not come to revive memories of +Byron--that curious patron saint of the Armenian colony--or to +inspect the printing-press, which issues books of little value for +our studies. It is enough to pace the terrace, and linger half an +hour beneath the low broad arches of the alleys pleached with vines, +through which the domes and towers of Venice rise more beautiful by +distance. + +Malamocco lies considerably farther, and needs a full hour of stout +rowing to reach it. Alighting there, we cross the narrow strip of +land, and find ourselves upon the huge sea-wall--block piled +on block--of Istrian stone in tiers and ranks, with cunning +breathing-places for the waves to wreak their fury on and foam their +force away in fretful waste. The very existence of Venice may be said +to depend sometimes on these _murazzi_, which were finished at +an immense cost by the Republic in the days of its decadence. The +enormous monoliths which compose them had to be brought across the +Adriatic in sailing vessels. Of all the Lidi, that of Malamocco is the +weakest; and here, if anywhere, the sea might effect an entrance into +the lagoon. Our gondoliers told us of some places where the _murazzi_ +were broken in a gale, or _sciroccale_, not very long ago. Lying awake +in Venice, when the wind blows hard, one hears the sea thundering upon +its sandy barrier, and blesses God for the _murazzi_. On such a night +it happened once to me to dream a dream of Venice overwhelmed by +water. I saw the billows roll across the smooth lagoon like a gigantic +Eager. The Ducal Palace crumbled, and San Marco's domes went down. The +Campanile rocked and shivered like a reed. And all along the Grand +Canal the palaces swayed helpless, tottering to their fall, while +boats piled high with men and women strove to stem the tide, and save +themselves from those impending ruins. It was a mad dream, born of the +sea's roar and Tintoretto's painting. But this afternoon no such +visions are suggested. The sea sleeps, and in the moist autumn air we +break tall branches of the seeded yellowing samphire from hollows of +the rocks, and bear them homeward in a wayward bouquet mixed with cobs +of Indian-corn. + +Fusina is another point for these excursions. It lies at the mouth +of the Canal di Brenta, where the mainland ends in marsh and +meadows, intersected by broad renes. In spring the ditches bloom with +fleurs-de-lys; in autumn they take sober colouring from lilac daisies +and the delicate sea-lavender. Scores of tiny plants are turning +scarlet on the brown moist earth; and when the sun goes down behind +the Euganean hills, his crimson canopy of cloud, reflected on these +shallows, muddy shoals, and wilderness of matted weeds, converts the +common earth into a fairyland of fabulous dyes. Purple, violet, and +rose are spread around us. In front stretches the lagoon, tinted +with a pale light from the east, and beyond this pallid mirror shines +Venice--a long low broken line, touched with the softest roseate +flush. Ere we reach the Giudecca on our homeward way, sunset has +faded. The western skies have clad themselves in green, barred with +dark fire-rimmed clouds. The Euganean hills stand like stupendous +pyramids, Egyptian, solemn, against a lemon space on the horizon. The +far reaches of the lagoons, the Alps, and islands assume those tones +of glowing lilac which are the supreme beauty of Venetian evening. +Then, at last, we see the first lamps glitter on the Zattere. The +quiet of the night has come. + +Words cannot be formed to express the endless varieties of Venetian +sunset. The most magnificent follow after wet stormy days, when the +west breaks suddenly into a labyrinth of fire, when chasms of clear +turquoise heavens emerge, and horns of flame are flashed to the +zenith, and unexpected splendours scale the fretted clouds, step over +step, stealing along the purple caverns till the whole dome throbs. +Or, again, after a fair day, a change of weather approaches, and +high, infinitely high, the skies are woven over with a web of +half-transparent cirrus-clouds. These in the afterglow blush crimson, +and through their rifts the depth of heaven is of a hard and gemlike +blue, and all the water turns to rose beneath them. I remember one +such evening on the way back from Torcello. We were well out at sea +between Mazzorbo and Murano. The ruddy arches overhead were reflected +without interruption in the waveless ruddy lake below. Our black boat +was the only dark spot in this sphere of splendour. We seemed to hang +suspended; and such as this, I fancied, must be the feeling of an +insect caught in the heart of a fiery-petalled rose. Yet not these +melodramatic sunsets alone are beautiful. Even more exquisite, +perhaps, are the lagoons, painted in monochrome of greys, with just +one touch of pink upon a western cloud, scattered in ripples here and +there on the waves below, reminding us that day has passed and evening +come. And beautiful again are the calm settings of fair weather, when +sea and sky alike are cheerful, and the topmost blades of the lagoon +grass, peeping from the shallows, glance like emeralds upon the +surface. There is no deep stirring of the spirit in a symphony of +light and colour; but purity, peace, and freshness make their way into +our hearts. + +VII.--AT THE LIDO + +Of all these afternoon excursions, that to the Lido is most frequent. +It has two points for approach. The more distant is the little station +of San Nicoletto, at the mouth of the Porto. With an ebb-tide, the +water of the lagoon runs past the mulberry gardens of this hamlet like +a river. There is here a grove of acacia-trees, shadowy and dreamy, +above deep grass, which even an Italian summer does not wither. The +Riva is fairly broad, forming a promenade, where one may conjure +up the personages of a century ago. For San Nicoletto used to be a +fashionable resort before the other points of Lido had been occupied +by pleasure-seekers. An artist even now will select its old-world +quiet, leafy shade, and prospect through the islands of Vignole and +Sant' Erasmo to snow-touched peaks of Antelao and Tofana, rather than +the glare and bustle and extended view of Venice which its rival Sant' +Elisabetta offers. + +But when we want a plunge into the Adriatic, or a stroll along smooth +sands, or a breath of genuine sea-breeze, or a handful of horned +poppies from the dunes, or a lazy half-hour's contemplation of a +limitless horizon flecked with russet sails, then we seek Sant' +Elisabetta. Our boat is left at the landing-place. We saunter across +the island and back again. Antonio and Francesco wait and order wine, +which we drink with them in the shade of the little _osteria's_ +wall. + +A certain afternoon in May I well remember, for this visit to the Lido +was marked by one of those apparitions which are as rare as they are +welcome to the artist's soul. I have always held that in our modern +life the only real equivalent for the antique mythopoeic sense--that +sense which enabled the Hellenic race to figure for themselves the +powers of earth and air, streams and forests, and the presiding genii +of places, under the forms of living human beings, is supplied by +the appearance at some felicitous moment of a man or woman who +impersonates for our imagination the essence of the beauty that +environs us. It seems, at such a fortunate moment, as though we had +been waiting for this revelation, although perchance the want of it +had not been previously felt. Our sensations and perceptions test +themselves at the touchstone of this living individuality. The keynote +of the whole music dimly sounding in our ears is struck. A melody +emerges, clear in form and excellent in rhythm. The landscapes we have +painted on our brain, no longer lack their central figure. The life +proper to the complex conditions we have studied is discovered, and +every detail, judged by this standard of vitality, falls into its +right relations. + +I had been musing long that day and earnestly upon the mystery of the +lagoons, their opaline transparencies of air and water, their fretful +risings and sudden subsidence into calm, the treacherousness of their +shoals, the sparkle and the splendour of their sunlight. I had asked +myself how would a Greek sculptor have personified the elemental deity +of these salt-water lakes, so different in quality from the AEgean +or Ionian sea? What would he find distinctive of their spirit? The +Tritons of these shallows must be of other form and lineage than the +fierce-eyed youth who blows his conch upon the curled crest of a wave, +crying aloud to his comrades, as he bears the nymph away to caverns +where the billows plunge in tideless instability. + +We had picked up shells and looked for sea-horses on the Adriatic +shore. Then we returned to give our boatmen wine beneath the vine-clad +_pergola_. Four other men were there, drinking, and eating from a +dish of fried fish set upon the coarse white linen cloth. Two of +them soon rose and went away. Of the two who stayed, one was a large, +middle-aged man; the other was still young. He was tall and sinewy, +but slender, for these Venetians are rarely massive in their strength. +Each limb is equally developed by the exercise of rowing upright, +bending all the muscles to their stroke. Their bodies are elastically +supple, with free sway from the hips and a mercurial poise upon the +ankle. Stefano showed these qualities almost in exaggeration. The type +in him was refined to its artistic perfection. Moreover, he was +rarely in repose, but moved with a singular brusque grace. A black +broad-brimmed hat was thrown back upon his matted _zazzera_ of +dark hair tipped with dusky brown. This shock of hair, cut in flakes, +and falling wilfully, reminded me of the lagoon grass when it darkens +in autumn upon uncovered shoals, and sunset gilds its sombre edges. +Fiery grey eyes beneath it gazed intensely, with compulsive effluence +of electricity. It was the wild glance of a Triton. Short blonde +moustache, dazzling teeth, skin bronzed, but showing white and +healthful through open front and sleeves of lilac shirt. The dashing +sparkle of this animate splendour, who looked to me as though the +sea-waves and the sun had made him in some hour of secret and unquiet +rapture, was somehow emphasised by a curious dint dividing his square +chin--a cleft that harmonised with smile on lip and steady flame in +eyes. I hardly know what effect it would have upon a reader to compare +eyes to opals. Yet Stefano's eyes, as they met mine, had the vitreous +intensity of opals, as though the colour of Venetian waters were +vitalised in them. This noticeable being had a rough, hoarse voice, +which, to develop the parallel with a sea-god, might have screamed in +storm or whispered raucous messages from crests of tossing billows. + +I felt, as I looked, that here, for me at least, the mythopoem of the +lagoons was humanised; the spirit of the saltwater lakes had appeared +to me; the final touch of life emergent from nature had been given. I +was satisfied; for I had seen a poem. + +Then we rose, and wandered through the Jews' cemetery. It is a quiet +place, where the flat grave-stones, inscribed in Hebrew and Italian, +lie deep in Lido sand, waved over with wild grass and poppies. I would +fain believe that no neglect, but rather the fashion of this folk, had +left the monuments of generations to be thus resumed by nature. Yet, +knowing nothing of the history of this burial-ground, I dare not +affirm so much. There is one outlying piece of the cemetery which +seems to contradict my charitable interpretation. It is not far from +San Nicoletto. No enclosure marks it from the unconsecrated dunes. +Acacia-trees sprout amid the monuments, and break the tablets with +their thorny shoots upthrusting from the soil. Where patriarchs and +rabbis sleep for centuries, the fishers of the sea now wander, and +defile these habitations of the dead: + + Corruption most abhorred + Mingling itself with their renowned ashes. + +Some of the grave-stones have been used to fence the towing-path; and +one I saw, well carved with letters legible of Hebrew on fair Istrian +marble, which roofed an open drain leading from the stable of a +Christian dog. + +VIII.--A VENETIAN RESTAURANT + +At the end of a long glorious day, unhappy is that mortal whom the +Hermes of a cosmopolitan hotel, white-chokered and white-waistcoated, +marshals to the Hades of the _table-d'hote_. The world has often +been compared to an inn; but on my way down to this common meal I +have, not unfrequently, felt fain to reverse the simile. From their +separate stations, at the appointed hour, the guests like ghosts flit +to a gloomy gas-lit chamber. They are of various speech and race, +preoccupied with divers interests and cares. Necessity and the +waiter drive them all to a sepulchral syssition, whereof the cook too +frequently deserves that old Greek comic epithet--[Greek: hadou +mageiros]--cook of the Inferno. And just as we are told that in +Charon's boat we shall not be allowed to pick our society, so here +we must accept what fellowship the fates provide. An English spinster +retailing paradoxes culled to-day from Ruskin's handbooks; an American +citizen describing his jaunt in a gondola from the railway station; +a German shopkeeper descanting in one breath on Baur's Bock and the +beauties of the Marcusplatz; an intelligent aesthete bent on working +into clearness his own views of Carpaccio's genius: all these in turn, +or all together, must be suffered gladly through well-nigh two long +hours. Uncomforted in soul we rise from the expensive banquet; and how +often rise from it unfed! + +Far other be the doom of my own friends--of pious bards and genial +companions, lovers of natural and lovely things! Nor for these do +I desire a seat at Florian's marble tables, or a perch in Quadri's +window, though the former supply dainty food, and the latter command +a bird's-eye view of the Piazza. Rather would I lead them to a certain +humble tavern on the Zattere. It is a quaint, low-built, unpretending +little place, near a bridge, with a garden hard by which sends a +cataract of honeysuckles sunward over a too-jealous wall. In front +lies a Mediterranean steamer, which all day long has been discharging +cargo. Gazing westward up Giudecca, masts and funnels bar the +sunset and the Paduan hills; and from a little front room of the +_trattoria_ the view is so marine that one keeps fancying oneself +in some ship's cabin. Sea-captains sit and smoke beside their glass +of grog in the pavilion and the _caffe_. But we do not seek their +company at dinner-time. Our way lies under yonder arch, and up the +narrow alley into a paved court. Here are oleanders in pots, and +plants of Japanese spindle-wood in tubs; and from the walls beneath +the window hang cages of all sorts of birds--a talking parrot, a +whistling blackbird, goldfinches, canaries, linnets. Athos, the fat +dog, who goes to market daily in a _barchetta_ with his master, +snuffs around. 'Where are Porthos and Aramis, my friend?' Athos does +not take the joke; he only wags his stump of tail and pokes his nose +into my hand. What a Tartufe's nose it is! Its bridge displays the +full parade of leather-bound brass-nailed muzzle. But beneath, this +muzzle is a patent sham. The frame does not even pretend to close +on Athos' jaw, and the wise dog wears it like a decoration. A little +farther we meet that ancient grey cat, who has no discoverable name, +but is famous for the sprightliness and grace with which she bears her +eighteen years. Not far from the cat one is sure to find Carlo--the +bird-like, bright-faced, close-cropped Venetian urchin, whose duty +it is to trot backwards and forwards between the cellar and the +dining-tables. At the end of the court we walk into the kitchen, where +the black-capped little _padrone_ and the gigantic white-capped +chef are in close consultation. Here we have the privilege of +inspecting the larder--fish of various sorts, meat, vegetables, +several kinds of birds, pigeons, tordi, beccafichi, geese, wild +ducks, chickens, woodcock, &c., according to the season. We select +our dinner, and retire to eat it either in the court among the birds +beneath the vines, or in the low dark room which occupies one side of +it. Artists of many nationalities and divers ages frequent this house; +and the talk arising from the several little tables, turns upon points +of interest and beauty in the life and landscape of Venice. There +can be no difference of opinion about the excellence of +the _cuisine_, or about the reasonable charges of this +_trattoria_. A soup of lentils, followed by boiled turbot or +fried soles, beefsteak or mutton cutlets, tordi or beccafichi, with +a salad, the whole enlivened with good red wine or Florio's Sicilian +Marsala from the cask, costs about four francs. Gas is unknown in the +establishment. There is no noise, no bustle, no brutality of waiters, +no _ahurissement_ of tourists. And when dinner is done, we can +sit awhile over our cigarette and coffee, talking until the night +invites us to a stroll along the Zattere or a _giro_ in the +gondola. + +IX.--NIGHT IN VENICE + +Night in Venice! Night is nowhere else so wonderful, unless it be in +winter among the high Alps. But the nights of Venice and the nights of +the mountains are too different in kind to be compared. + +There is the ever-recurring miracle of the full moon rising, before +day is dead, behind San Giorgio, spreading a path of gold on the +lagoon which black boats traverse with the glow-worm lamp upon their +prow; ascending the cloudless sky and silvering the domes of the +Salute; pouring vitreous sheen upon the red lights of the Piazzetta; +flooding the Grand Canal, and lifting the Rialto higher in ethereal +whiteness; piercing but penetrating not the murky labyrinth of +_rio_ linked with _rio_, through which we wind in light and +shadow, to reach once more the level glories and the luminous expanse +of heaven beyond the Misericordia. + +This is the melodrama of Venetian moonlight; and if a single +impression of the night has to be retained from one visit to Venice, +those are fortunate who chance upon a full moon of fair weather. Yet +I know not whether some quieter and soberer effects are not more +thrilling. To-night, for example, the waning moon will rise late +through veils of _scirocco_. Over the bridges of San Cristoforo +and San Gregorio, through the deserted Calle di Mezzo, my friend and +I walk in darkness, pass the marble basements of the Salute, and push +our way along its Riva to the point of the Dogana. We are out at sea +alone, between the Canalozzo and the Giudecca. A moist wind ruffles +the water and cools our forehead. It is so dark that we can only see +San Giorgio by the light reflected on it from the Piazzetta. The same +light climbs the Campanile of S. Mark, and shows the golden angel in +a mystery of gloom. The only noise that reaches us is a confused hum +from the Piazza. Sitting and musing there, the blackness of the water +whispers in our ears a tale of death. And now we hear a plash of oars, +and gliding through the darkness comes a single boat. One man leaps +upon the landing-place without a word and disappears. There is another +wrapped in a military cloak asleep. I see his face beneath me, pale +and quiet. The _barcaruolo_ turns the point in silence. From the +darkness they came; into the darkness they have gone. It is only an +ordinary incident of coastguard service. But the spirit of the night +has made a poem of it. + +Even tempestuous and rainy weather, though melancholy enough, is never +sordid here. There is no noise from carriage traffic in Venice, and +the sea-wind preserves the purity and transparency of the atmosphere. +It had been raining all day, but at evening came a partial clearing. +I went down to the Molo, where the large reach of the lagoon was all +moon-silvered, and San Giorgio Maggiore dark against the bluish sky, +and Santa Maria della Salute domed with moon-irradiated pearl, and the +wet slabs of the Riva shimmering in moonlight, the whole misty sky, +with its clouds and stellar spaces, drenched in moonlight, nothing but +moonlight sensible except the tawny flare of gas-lamps and the orange +lights of gondolas afloat upon the waters. On such a night the very +spirit of Venice is abroad. We feel why she is called Bride of the +Sea. + +Take yet another night. There had been a representation of Verdi's +'Forza del Destino' at the Teatro Malibran. After midnight we walked +homeward through the Merceria, crossed the Piazza, and dived into the +narrow _calle_ which leads to the _traghetto_ of the Salute. +It was a warm moist starless night, and there seemed no air to breathe +in those narrow alleys. The gondolier was half asleep. Eustace called +him as we jumped into his boat, and rang our _soldi_ on the +gunwale. Then he arose and turned the _ferro_ round, and stood +across towards the Salute. Silently, insensibly, from the oppression +of confinement in the airless streets to the liberty and immensity +of the water and the night we passed. It was but two minutes ere we +touched the shore and said good-night, and went our way and left +the ferryman. But in that brief passage he had opened our souls to +everlasting things--the freshness, and the darkness, and the kindness +of the brooding, all-enfolding night above the sea. + + * * * * * + + + + +_THE GONDOLIER'S WEDDING_ + +The night before the wedding we had a supper-party in my rooms. We +were twelve in all. My friend Eustace brought his gondolier Antonio +with fair-haired, dark-eyed wife, and little Attilio, their eldest +child. My own gondolier, Francesco, came with his wife and two +children. Then there was the handsome, languid Luigi, who, in his best +clothes, or out of them, is fit for any drawing-room. Two gondoliers, +in dark blue shirts, completed the list of guests, if we exclude the +maid Catina, who came and went about the table, laughing and joining +in the songs, and sitting down at intervals to take her share of wine. +The big room looking across the garden to the Grand Canal had been +prepared for supper; and the company were to be received in the +smaller, which has a fine open space in front of it to southwards. But +as the guests arrived, they seemed to find the kitchen and the cooking +that was going on quite irresistible. Catina, it seems, had lost her +head with so many cuttlefishes, _orai_, cakes, and fowls, and +cutlets to reduce to order. There was, therefore, a great bustle below +stairs; and I could hear plainly that all my guests were lending their +making, or their marring, hands to the preparation of the supper. That +the company should cook their own food on the way to the dining-room, +seemed a quite novel arrangement, but one that promised well for their +contentment with the banquet. Nobody could be dissatisfied with what +was everybody's affair. + +When seven o'clock struck, Eustace and I, who had been entertaining +the children in their mothers' absence, heard the sound of steps upon +the stairs. The guests arrived, bringing their own _risotto_ with +them. Welcome was short, if hearty. We sat down in carefully appointed +order, and fell into such conversation as the quarter of San Vio and +our several interests supplied. From time to time one of the matrons +left the table and descended to the kitchen, when a finishing stroke +was needed for roast pullet or stewed veal. The excuses they made +their host for supposed failure in the dishes, lent a certain grace +and comic charm to the commonplace of festivity. The entertainment +was theirs as much as mine; and they all seemed to enjoy what took the +form by degrees of curiously complicated hospitality. I do not think +a well-ordered supper at any _trattoria_, such as at first +suggested itself to my imagination, would have given any of us an +equal pleasure or an equal sense of freedom. The three children had +become the guests of the whole party. Little Attilio, propped upon an +air-cushion, which puzzled him exceedingly, ate through his supper and +drank his wine with solid satisfaction, opening the large brown eyes +beneath those tufts of clustering fair hair which promise much beauty +for him in his manhood. Francesco's boy, who is older and begins to +know the world, sat with a semi-suppressed grin upon his face, as +though the humour of the situation was not wholly hidden from him. +Little Teresa, too, was happy, except when her mother, a severe +Pomona, with enormous earrings and splendid _fazzoletto_ of +crimson and orange dyes, pounced down upon her for some supposed +infraction of good manners--_creanza_, as they vividly express it +here. Only Luigi looked a trifle bored. But Luigi has been a soldier, +and has now attained the supercilious superiority of young-manhood, +which smokes its cigar of an evening in the piazza and knows the +merits of the different cafes. The great business of the evening began +when the eating was over, and the decanters filled with new wine of +Mirano circulated freely. The four best singers of the party drew +together; and the rest prepared themselves to make suggestions, hum +tunes, and join with fitful effect in choruses. Antonio, who is a +powerful young fellow, with bronzed cheeks and a perfect tempest of +coal-black hair in flakes upon his forehead, has a most extraordinary +soprano--sound as a bell, strong as a trumpet, well trained, and +true to the least shade in intonation. Piero, whose rugged Neptunian +features, sea-wrinkled, tell of a rough water-life, boasts a bass of +resonant, almost pathetic quality. Francesco has a _mezzo voce_, +which might, by a stretch of politeness, be called baritone. Piero's +comrade, whose name concerns us not, has another of these nondescript +voices. They sat together with their glasses and cigars before them, +sketching part-songs in outline, striking the keynote--now higher and +now lower--till they saw their subject well in view. Then they burst +into full singing, Antonio leading with a metal note that thrilled +one's ears, but still was musical. Complicated contrapuntal pieces, +such as we should call madrigals, with ever-recurring refrains of +'Venezia, gemma Triatica, sposa del mar,' descending probably from +ancient days, followed each other in quick succession. Barcaroles, +serenades, love-songs, and invitations to the water were interwoven +for relief. One of these romantic pieces had a beautiful burden, +'Dormi, o bella, o fingi di dormir,' of which the melody was fully +worthy. But the most successful of all the tunes were two with a sad +motive. The one repeated incessantly 'Ohime! mia madre mori;' the +other was a girl's love lament: 'Perche tradirmi, perche lasciarmi! +prima d'amarmi non eri cosi!' Even the children joined in these; and +Catina, who took the solo part in the second, was inspired to a great +dramatic effort. All these were purely popular songs. The people of +Venice, however, are passionate for operas. Therefore we had duets +and solos from 'Ernani,' the 'Ballo in Maschera,' and the 'Forza del +Destino,' and one comic chorus from 'Boccaccio,' which seemed to make +them wild with pleasure. To my mind, the best of these more formal +pieces was a duet between Attila and Italia from some opera unknown to +me, which Antonio and Piero performed with incomparable spirit. It +was noticeable how, descending to the people, sung by them for love +at sea, or on excursions to the villages round Mestre, these operatic +reminiscences had lost something of their theatrical formality, and +assumed instead the serious gravity, the quaint movement, and marked +emphasis which belong to popular music in Northern and Central Italy. +An antique character was communicated even to the recitative of Verdi +by slight, almost indefinable, changes of rhythm and accent. There was +no end to the singing. 'Siamo appassionati per il canto,' frequently +repeated, was proved true by the profusion and variety of songs +produced from inexhaustible memories, lightly tried over, brilliantly +performed, rapidly succeeding each other. Nor were gestures +wanting--lifted arms, hands stretched to hands, flashing eyes, hair +tossed from the forehead--unconscious and appropriate action--which +showed how the spirit of the music and words alike possessed the men. +One by one the children fell asleep. Little Attilio and Teresa were +tucked up beneath my Scotch shawl at two ends of a great sofa; and not +even his father's clarion voice, in the character of Italia defying +Attila to harm 'le mie superbe citta,' could wake the little boy up. +The night wore on. It was past one. Eustace and I had promised to be +in the church of the Gesuati at six next morning. We therefore gave +the guests a gentle hint, which they as gently took. With exquisite, +because perfectly unaffected, breeding they sank for a few moments +into common conversation, then wrapped the children up, and took +their leave. It was an uncomfortable, warm, wet night of sullen +_scirocco_. + +The next day, which was Sunday, Francesco called me at five. There +was no visible sunrise that cheerless damp October morning. Grey dawn +stole somehow imperceptibly between the veil of clouds and leaden +waters, as my friend and I, well sheltered by our _felze_, passed +into the Giudecca, and took our station before the church of the +Gesuati. A few women from the neighbouring streets and courts crossed +the bridges in draggled petticoats on their way to first mass. A few +men, shouldering their jackets, lounged along the Zattere, opened the +great green doors, and entered. Then suddenly Antonio cried out that +the bridal party was on its way, not as we had expected, in boats, but +on foot. We left our gondola, and fell into the ranks, after shaking +hands with Francesco, who is the elder brother of the bride. There was +nothing very noticeable in her appearance, except her large dark eyes. +Otherwise both face and figure were of a common type; and her bridal +dress of sprigged grey silk, large veil and orange blossoms, reduced +her to the level of a _bourgeoise_. It was much the same with +the bridegroom. His features, indeed, proved him a true Venetian +gondolier; for the skin was strained over the cheekbones, and the +muscles of the throat beneath the jaws stood out like cords, and the +bright blue eyes were deep-set beneath a spare brown forehead. But +he had provided a complete suit of black for the occasion, and wore +a shirt of worked cambric, which disguised what is really splendid in +the physique of these oarsmen, at once slender and sinewy. Both bride +and bridegroom looked uncomfortable in their clothes. The light that +fell upon them in the church was dull and leaden. The ceremony, which +was very hurriedly performed by an unctuous priest, did not appear to +impress either of them. Nobody in the bridal party, crowding together +on both sides of the altar, looked as though the service was of the +slightest interest and moment. Indeed, this was hardly to be wondered +at; for the priest, so far as I could understand his gabble, took +the larger portion for read, after muttering the first words of the +rubric. A little carven image of an acolyte--a weird boy who seemed to +move by springs, whose hair had all the semblance of painted wood, +and whose complexion was white and red like a clown's--did not make +matters more intelligible by spasmodically clattering responses. + +After the ceremony we heard mass and contributed to three distinct +offertories. Considering how much account even two _soldi_ are to +these poor people, I was really angry when I heard the copper shower. +Every member of the party had his or her pennies ready, and dropped +them into the boxes. Whether it was the effect of the bad morning, or +the ugliness of a very ill-designed _barocco_ building, or the +fault of the fat oily priest, I know not. But the _sposalizio_ +struck me as tame and cheerless, the mass as irreverent and vulgarly +conducted. At the same time there is something too impressive in +the mass for any perfunctory performance to divest its symbolism of +sublimity. A Protestant Communion Service lends itself more easily to +degradation by unworthiness in the minister. + +We walked down the church in double file, led by the bride and +bridegroom, who had knelt during the ceremony with the best +man--_compare_, as he is called--at a narrow _prie-dieu_ before the +altar. The _compare_ is a person of distinction at these weddings. He +has to present the bride with a great pyramid of artificial flowers, +which is placed before her at the marriage-feast, a packet of candles, +and a box of bonbons. The comfits, when the box is opened, are found +to include two magnificent sugar babies lying in their cradles. I was +told that a _compare_, who does the thing handsomely, must be prepared +to spend about a hundred francs upon these presents, in addition to +the wine and cigars with which he treats his friends. On this occasion +the women were agreed that he had done his duty well. He was a fat, +wealthy little man, who lived by letting market-boats for hire on the +Rialto. + +From the church to the bride's house was a walk of some three minutes. +On the way we were introduced to the father of the bride--a very +magnificent personage, with points of strong resemblance to Vittorio +Emmanuele. He wore an enormous broad-brimmed hat and emerald-green +earrings, and looked considerably younger than his eldest son, +Francesco. Throughout the _nozze_ he took the lead in a grand +imperious fashion of his own. Wherever he went, he seemed to fill the +place, and was fully aware of his own importance. In Florence I think +he would have got the nickname of _Tacchin_, or turkey-cock. +Here at Venice the sons and daughters call their parent briefly +_Vecchio_. I heard him so addressed with a certain amount of awe, +expecting an explosion of bubbly-jock displeasure. But he took it, as +though it was natural, without disturbance. The other _Vecchio_, +father of the bridegroom, struck me as more sympathetic. He was a +gentle old man, proud of his many prosperous, laborious sons. +They, like the rest of the gentlemen, were gondoliers. Both the +_Vecchi_, indeed, continue to ply their trade, day and night, at +the _traghetto_. + +_Traghetti_ are stations for gondolas at different points of the +canals. As their name implies, it is the first duty of the gondoliers +upon them to ferry people across. This they do for the fixed fee of +five centimes. The _traghetti_ are in fact Venetian cab-stands. +And, of course, like London cabs, the gondolas may be taken off them +for trips. The municipality, however, makes it a condition, under +penalty of fine to the _traghetto_, that each station should +always be provided with two boats for the service of the ferry. When +vacancies occur on the _traghetti_, a gondolier who owns or hires +a boat makes application to the municipality, receives a number, and +is inscribed as plying at a certain station. He has now entered a sort +of guild, which is presided over by a _Capo-traghetto_, elected +by the rest for the protection of their interests, the settlement of +disputes, and the management of their common funds. In the old acts +of Venice this functionary is styled _Gastaldo di traghetto_. The +members have to contribute something yearly to the guild. This payment +varies upon different stations, according to the greater or less +amount of the tax levied by the municipality on the _traghetto_. +The highest subscription I have heard of is twenty-five francs; the +lowest, seven. There is one _traghetto_, known by the name +of Madonna del Giglio or Zobenigo, which possesses near its +_pergola_ of vines a nice old brown Venetian picture. Some +stranger offered a considerable sum for this. But the guild refused to +part with it. + +As may be imagined, the _traghetti_ vary greatly in the amount +and quality of their custom. By far the best are those in the +neighbourhood of the hotels upon the Grand Canal. At any one of these +a gondolier during the season is sure of picking up some foreigner or +other who will pay him handsomely for comparatively light service. +A _traghetto_ on the Giudecca, on the contrary, depends upon +Venetian traffic. The work is more monotonous, and the pay is reduced +to its tariffed minimum. So far as I can gather, an industrious +gondolier, with a good boat, belonging to a good _traghetto_, may +make as much as ten or fifteen francs in a single day. But this cannot +be relied on. They therefore prefer a fixed appointment with a private +family, for which they receive by tariff five francs a day, or by +arrangement for long periods perhaps four francs a day, with certain +perquisites and small advantages. It is great luck to get such an +engagement for the winter. The heaviest anxieties which beset a +gondolier are then disposed of. Having entered private service, they +are not allowed to ply their trade on the _traghetto_, except +by stipulation with their masters. Then they may take their place one +night out of every six in the rank and file. The gondoliers have +two proverbs, which show how desirable it is, while taking a fixed +engagement, to keep their hold on the _traghetto_. One is to this +effect: _il traghetto e un buon padrone_. The other satirises +the meanness of the poverty-stricken Venetian nobility: _pompa di +servitu, misera insegna_. When they combine the _traghetto_ +with private service, the municipality insists on their retaining +the number painted on their gondola; and against this their employers +frequently object. It is therefore a great point for a gondolier to +make such an arrangement with his master as will leave him free to +show his number. The reason for this regulation is obvious. Gondoliers +are known more by their numbers and their _traghetti_ than +their names. They tell me that though there are upwards of a +thousand registered in Venice, each man of the trade knows the +whole confraternity by face and number. Taking all things into +consideration, I think four francs a day the whole year round are +very good earnings for a gondolier. On this he will marry and rear a +family, and put a little money by. A young unmarried man, working at +two and a half or three francs a day, is proportionately well-to-do. +If he is economical, he ought upon these wages to save enough in +two or three years to buy himself a gondola. A boy from fifteen to +nineteen is called a _mezz' uomo_, and gets about one franc a day. A +new gondola with all its fittings is worth about a thousand francs. It +does not last in good condition more than six or seven years. At the +end of that time the hull will fetch eighty francs. A new hull can be +had for three hundred francs. The old fittings--brass sea-horses or +_cavalli_, steel prow or _ferro_, covered cabin or _felze_, cushions +and leather-covered back-board or _stramazetto_, maybe transferred to +it. When a man wants to start a gondola, he will begin by buying one +already half past service--a _gondola da traghetto_ or _di mezza eta_. +This should cost him something over two hundred francs. Little by +little, he accumulates the needful fittings; and when his first +purchase is worn out, he hopes to set up with a well-appointed +equipage. He thus gradually works his way from the rough trade which +involves hard work and poor earnings to that more profitable industry +which cannot be carried on without a smart boat. The gondola is a +source of continual expense for repairs. Its oars have to be replaced. +It has to be washed with sponges, blacked, and varnished. Its bottom +needs frequent cleaning. Weeds adhere to it in the warm brackish +water, growing rapidly through the summer months, and demanding to be +scrubbed off once in every four weeks. The gondolier has no place +where he can do this for himself. He therefore takes his boat to a +wharf, or _squero_, as the place is called. At these _squeri_ gondolas +are built as well as cleaned. The fee for a thorough setting to rights +of the boat is five francs. It must be done upon a fine day. Thus in +addition to the cost, the owner loses a good day's work. + +These details will serve to give some notion of the sort of people +with whom Eustace and I spent our day. The bride's house is in an +excellent position on an open canal leading from the Canalozzo to the +Giudecca. She had arrived before us, and received her friends in the +middle of the room. Each of us in turn kissed her cheek and murmured +our congratulations. We found the large living-room of the house +arranged with chairs all round the walls, and the company were +marshalled in some order of precedence, my friend and I taking place +near the bride. On either hand airy bedrooms opened out, and two +large doors, wide open, gave a view from where we sat of a good-sized +kitchen. This arrangement of the house was not only comfortable, but +pretty; for the bright copper pans and pipkins ranged on shelves +along the kitchen walls had a very cheerful effect. The walls were +whitewashed, but literally covered with all sorts of pictures. A great +plaster cast from some antique, an Atys, Adonis, or Paris, looked down +from a bracket placed between the windows. There was enough furniture, +solid and well kept, in all the rooms. Among the pictures were +full-length portraits in oils of two celebrated gondoliers--one in +antique costume, the other painted a few years since. The original of +the latter soon came and stood before it. He had won regatta prizes; +and the flags of four discordant colours were painted round him by the +artist, who had evidently cared more to commemorate the triumphs of +his sitter and to strike a likeness than to secure the tone of his own +picture. This champion turned out a fine fellow--Corradini--with one +of the brightest little gondoliers of thirteen for his son. + +After the company were seated, lemonade and cakes were handed round +amid a hubbub of chattering women. Then followed cups of black coffee +and more cakes. Then a glass of Cyprus and more cakes. Then a glass +of curacoa and more cakes. Finally, a glass of noyau and still more +cakes. It was only a little after seven in the morning. Yet politeness +compelled us to consume these delicacies. I tried to shirk my duty; +but this discretion was taken by my hosts for well-bred modesty; and +instead of being let off, I had the richest piece of pastry and the +largest maccaroon available pressed so kindly on me, that, had they +been poisoned, I would not have refused to eat them. The conversation +grew more, and more animated, the women gathering together in their +dresses of bright blue and scarlet, the men lighting cigars and +puffing out a few quiet words. It struck me as a drawback that these +picturesque people had put on Sunday-clothes to look as much like +shopkeepers as possible. But they did not all of them succeed. Two +handsome women, who handed the cups round--one a brunette, the other +a blonde--wore skirts of brilliant blue, with a sort of white jacket, +and white kerchief folded heavily about their shoulders. The brunette +had a great string of coral, the blonde of amber, round her throat. +Gold earrings and the long gold chains Venetian women wear, of all +patterns and degrees of value, abounded. Nobody appeared without +them; but I could not see any of an antique make. The men seemed to be +contented with rings--huge, heavy rings of solid gold, worked with +a rough flower pattern. One young fellow had three upon his fingers. +This circumstance led me to speculate whether a certain portion at +least of this display of jewellery around me had not been borrowed for +the occasion. + +Eustace and I were treated quite like friends. They called us _I +Signori_. But this was only, I think, because our English names +are quite unmanageable. The women fluttered about us and kept +asking whether we really liked it all? whether we should come to the +_pranzo_? whether it was true we danced? It seemed to give them +unaffected pleasure to be kind to us; and when we rose to go away, the +whole company crowded round, shaking hands and saying: 'Si divertira +bene stasera!' Nobody resented our presence; what was better, no one +put himself out for us. 'Vogliono veder il nostro costume,' I heard +one woman say. + +We got home soon after eight, and, as our ancestors would have said, +settled our stomachs with a dish of tea. It makes me shudder now to +think of the mixed liquids and miscellaneous cakes we had consumed at +that unwonted hour. + +At half-past three, Eustace and I again prepared ourselves for action. +His gondola was in attendance, covered with the _felze_, to take us to +the house of the _sposa_. We found the canal crowded with poor people +of the quarter--men, women, and children lining the walls along its +side, and clustering like bees upon the bridges. The water itself was +almost choked with gondolas. Evidently the folk of San Vio thought our +wedding procession would be a most exciting pageant. We entered the +house, and were again greeted by the bride and bridegroom, who +consigned each of us to the control of a fair tyrant. This is the most +fitting way of describing our introduction to our partners of the +evening; for we were no sooner presented, than the ladies swooped upon +us like their prey, placing their shawls upon our left arms, while +they seized and clung to what was left available of us for locomotion. +There was considerable giggling and tittering throughout the company +when Signora Fenzo, the young and comely wife of a gondolier, thus +took possession of Eustace, and Signora dell' Acqua, the widow of +another gondolier, appropriated me. The affair had been arranged +beforehand, and their friends had probably chaffed them with the +difficulty of managing two mad Englishmen. However, they proved equal +to the occasion, and the difficulties were entirely on our side. +Signora Fenzo was a handsome brunette, quiet in her manners, who meant +business. I envied Eustace his subjection to such a reasonable being. +Signora dell' Acqua, though a widow, was by no means disconsolate; and +I soon perceived that it would require all the address and diplomacy I +possessed, to make anything out of her society. She laughed +incessantly; darted in the most diverse directions, dragging me along +with her; exhibited me in triumph to her cronies; made eyes at me over +a fan, repeated my clumsiest remarks, as though they gave her +indescribable amusement; and all the while jabbered Venetian at +express rate, without the slightest regard for my incapacity to follow +her vagaries. The _Vecchio_ marshalled us in order. First went the +_sposa_ and _comare_ with the mothers of bride and bridegroom. Then +followed the _sposo_ and the bridesmaid. After them I was made to lead +my fair tormentor. As we descended the staircase there arose a hubbub +of excitement from the crowd on the canals. The gondolas moved +turbidly upon the face of the waters. The bridegroom kept muttering to +himself, 'How we shall be criticised! They will tell each other who +was decently dressed, and who stepped awkwardly into the boats, and +what the price of my boots was!' Such exclamations, murmured at +intervals, and followed by chest-drawn sighs, expressed a deep +preoccupation. With regard to his boots, he need have had no anxiety. +They were of the shiniest patent leather, much too tight, and without +a speck of dust upon them. But his nervousness infected me with a +cruel dread. All those eyes were going to watch how we comported +ourselves in jumping from the landing-steps into the boat! If this +operation, upon a ceremonious occasion, has terrors even for a +gondolier, how formidable it ought to be to me! And here is the +Signora dell' Acqua's white cachemire shawl dangling on one arm, and +the Signora herself languishingly clinging to the other; and the +gondolas are fretting in a fury of excitement, like corks, upon the +churned green water! The moment was terrible. The _sposa_ and her +three companions had been safely stowed away beneath their _felze_. +The _sposo_ had successfully handed the bridesmaid into the second +gondola. I had to perform the same office for my partner. Off she +went, like a bird, from the bank. I seized a happy moment, followed, +bowed, and found myself to my contentment gracefully ensconced in a +corner opposite the widow. Seven more gondolas were packed. The +procession moved. We glided down the little channel, broke away into +the Grand Canal, crossed it, and dived into a labyrinth from which we +finally emerged before our destination, the Trattoria di San Gallo. +The perils of the landing were soon over; and, with the rest of the +guests, my mercurial companion and I slowly ascended a long flight of +stairs leading to a vast upper chamber. Here we were to dine. + +It had been the gallery of some palazzo in old days, was above one +hundred feet in length, fairly broad, with a roof of wooden rafters +and large windows opening on a courtyard garden. I could see the tops +of three cypress-trees cutting the grey sky upon a level with us. +A long table occupied the centre of this room. It had been laid for +upwards of forty persons, and we filled it. There was plenty of +light from great glass lustres blazing with gas. When the ladies had +arranged their dresses, and the gentlemen had exchanged a few polite +remarks, we all sat down to dinner--I next my inexorable widow, +Eustace beside his calm and comely partner. The first impression +was one of disappointment. It looked so like a public dinner of +middle-class people. There was no local character in costume or +customs. Men and women sat politely bored, expectant, trifling with +their napkins, yawning, muttering nothings about the weather or their +neighbours. The frozen commonplaceness of the scene was made for +me still more oppressive by Signora dell' Acqua. She was evidently +satirical, and could not be happy unless continually laughing at or +with somebody. 'What a stick the woman will think me!' I kept saying +to myself. 'How shall I ever invent jokes in this strange land? I +cannot even flirt with her in Venetian! And here I have condemned +myself--and her too, poor thing--to sit through at least three hours +of mortal dulness!' Yet the widow was by no means unattractive. +Dressed in black, she had contrived by an artful arrangement of lace +and jewellery to give an air of lightness to her costume. She had +a pretty little pale face, a _minois chiffonne_, with slightly +turned-up nose, large laughing brown eyes, a dazzling set of teeth, +and a tempestuously frizzled mop of powdered hair. When I managed to +get a side-look at her quietly, without being giggled at or driven +half mad by unintelligible incitements to a jocularity I could +not feel, it struck me that, if we once found a common term of +communication we should become good friends. But for the moment that +_modus vivendi_ seemed unattainable. She had not recovered from +the first excitement of her capture of me. She was still showing +me off and trying to stir me up. The arrival of the soup gave me +a momentary relief; and soon the serious business of the afternoon +began. I may add that before dinner was over, the Signora dell' Acqua +and I were fast friends. I had discovered the way of making jokes, and +she had become intelligible. I found her a very nice, though flighty, +little woman; and I believe she thought me gifted with the faculty of +uttering eccentric epigrams in a grotesque tongue. Some of my remarks +were flung about the table, and had the same success as uncouth +Lombard carvings have with connoisseurs in _naivetes_ of art. By that +time we had come to be _compare_ and _comare_ to each other--the +sequel of some clumsy piece of jocularity. + +It was a heavy entertainment, copious in quantity, excellent in +quality, plainly but well cooked. I remarked there was no fish. The +widow replied that everybody present ate fish to satiety at home. They +did not join a marriage feast at the San Gallo, and pay their nine +francs, for that! It should be observed that each guest paid for his +own entertainment. This appears to be the custom. Therefore attendance +is complimentary, and the married couple are not at ruinous charges +for the banquet. A curious feature in the whole proceeding had its +origin in this custom. I noticed that before each cover lay an empty +plate, and that my partner began with the first course to heap upon +it what she had not eaten. She also took large helpings, and kept +advising me to do the same. I said: 'No; I only take what I want to +eat; if I fill that plate in front of me as you are doing, it will be +great waste.' This remark elicited shrieks of laughter from all who +heard it; and when the hubbub had subsided, I perceived an apparently +official personage bearing down upon Eustace, who was in the same +perplexity. It was then circumstantially explained to us that the +empty plates were put there in order that we might lay aside what we +could not conveniently eat, and take it home with us. At the end +of the dinner the widow (whom I must now call my _comare_) had +accumulated two whole chickens, half a turkey, and a large assortment +of mixed eatables. I performed my duty and won her regard by placing +delicacies at her disposition. + +Crudely stated, this proceeding moves disgust. But that is only +because one has not thought the matter out. In the performance there +was nothing coarse or nasty. These good folk had made a contract at +so much a head--so many fowls, so many pounds of beef, &c, to be +supplied; and what they had fairly bought, they clearly had a right +to. No one, so far as I could notice, tried to take more than his +proper share; except, indeed, Eustace and myself. In our first +eagerness to conform to custom, we both overshot the mark, and grabbed +at disproportionate helpings. The waiters politely observed that we +were taking what was meant for two; and as the courses followed in +interminable sequence, we soon acquired the tact of what was due to +us. + +Meanwhile the room grew warm. The gentlemen threw off their coats--a +pleasant liberty of which I availed myself, and was immediately more +at ease. The ladies divested themselves of their shoes (strange +to relate!) and sat in comfort with their stockinged feet upon the +_scagliola_ pavement. I observed that some cavaliers by special +permission were allowed to remove their partners' slippers. This was +not my lucky fate. My _comare_ had not advanced to that point of +intimacy. Healths began to be drunk. The conversation took a lively +turn; and women went fluttering round the table, visiting their +friends, to sip out of their glass, and ask each other how they +were getting on. It was not long before the stiff veneer of +_bourgeoisie_ which bored me had worn off. The people emerged in +their true selves: natural, gentle, sparkling with enjoyment, playful. +Playful is, I think, the best word to describe them. They played with +infinite grace and innocence, like kittens, from the old men of sixty +to the little boys of thirteen. Very little wine was drunk. Each guest +had a litre placed before him. Many did not finish theirs; and for +very few was it replenished. When at last the dessert arrived, and the +bride's comfits had been handed round, they began to sing. It was very +pretty to see a party of three or four friends gathering round some +popular beauty, and paying her compliments in verse--they grouped +behind her chair, she sitting back in it and laughing up to them, +and joining in the chorus. The words, 'Brunetta mia simpatica, ti amo +sempre piu,' sung after this fashion to Eustace's handsome partner, +who puffed delicate whiffs from a Russian cigarette, and smiled her +thanks, had a peculiar appropriateness. All the ladies, it may be +observed in passing, had by this time lit their cigarettes. The men +were smoking Toscani, Sellas, or Cavours, and the little boys were +dancing round the table breathing smoke from their pert nostrils. + +The dinner, in fact, was over. Other relatives of the guests arrived, +and then we saw how some of the reserved dishes were to be bestowed. A +side-table was spread at the end of the gallery, and these late-comers +were regaled with plenty by their friends. Meanwhile, the big table +at which we had dined was taken to pieces and removed. The +_scagliola_ floor was swept by the waiters. Musicians came +streaming in and took their places. The ladies resumed their shoes. +Every one prepared to dance. + +My friend and I were now at liberty to chat with the men. He knew +some of them by sight, and claimed acquaintance with others. There +was plenty of talk about different boats, gondolas, and sandolos and +topos, remarks upon the past season, and inquiries as to chances of +engagements in the future. One young fellow told us how he had been +drawn for the army, and should be obliged to give up his trade just +when he had begun to make it answer. He had got a new gondola, and +this would have to be hung up during the years of his service. The +warehousing of a boat in these circumstances costs nearly one hundred +francs a year, which is a serious tax upon the pockets of a private in +the line. Many questions were put in turn to us, but all of the same +tenor. 'Had we really enjoyed the _pranzo_? Now, really, were we +amusing ourselves? And did we think the custom of the wedding _un +bel costume_?' We could give an unequivocally hearty response to +all these interrogations. The men seemed pleased. Their interest in +our enjoyment was unaffected. It is noticeable how often the word +_divertimento_ is heard upon the lips of the Italians. They have +a notion that it is the function in life of the _Signori_ to +amuse themselves. + +The ball opened, and now we were much besought by the ladies. I had to +deny myself with a whole series of comical excuses. Eustace performed +his duty after a stiff English fashion--once with his pretty partner +of the _pranzo_, and once again with a fat gondolier. The band +played waltzes and polkas, chiefly upon patriotic airs--the Marcia +Reale, Garibaldi's Hymn, &c. Men danced with men, women with women, +little boys and girls together. The gallery whirled with a laughing +crowd. There was plenty of excitement and enjoyment--not an unseemly +or extravagant word or gesture. My _comare_ careered about with a +light maenadic impetuosity, which made me regret my inability to accept +her pressing invitations. She pursued me into every corner of the +room, but when at last I dropped excuses and told her that my real +reason for not dancing was that it would hurt my health, she waived +her claims at once with an _Ah, poverino!_ + +Some time after midnight we felt that we had had enough of +_divertimento_. Francesco helped us to slip out unobserved. With +many silent good wishes we left the innocent playful people who had +been so kind to us. The stars were shining from a watery sky as we +passed into the piazza beneath the Campanile and the pinnacles of +S. Mark. The Riva was almost empty, and the little waves fretted the +boats moored to the piazzetta, as a warm moist breeze went fluttering +by. We smoked a last cigar, crossed our _traghetto_, and were +soon sound asleep at the end of a long pleasant day. The ball, we +heard next morning, finished about four. + +Since that evening I have had plenty of opportunities for seeing my +friends the gondoliers, both in their own homes and in my apartment. +Several have entertained me at their mid-day meal of fried fish +and amber-coloured polenta. These repasts were always cooked with +scrupulous cleanliness, and served upon a table covered with coarse +linen. The polenta is turned out upon a wooden platter, and cut with +a string called _lassa_. You take a large slice of it on the +palm of the left hand, and break it with the fingers of the right. +Wholesome red wine of the Paduan district and good white bread were +never wanting. The rooms in which we met to eat looked out on narrow +lanes or over pergolas of yellowing vines. Their whitewashed walls +were hung with photographs of friends and foreigners, many of them +souvenirs from English or American employers. The men, in broad +black hats and lilac shirts, sat round the table, girt with the red +waist-wrapper, or _fascia_, which marks the ancient faction of +the Castellani. The other faction, called Nicolotti, are distinguished +by a black _assisa_. The quarters of the town are divided +unequally and irregularly into these two parties. What was once a +formidable rivalry between two sections of the Venetian populace, +still survives in challenges to trials of strength and skill upon the +water. The women, in their many-coloured kerchiefs, stirred polenta at +the smoke-blackened chimney, whose huge pent-house roof projects two +feet or more across the hearth. When they had served the table they +took their seat on low stools, knitted stockings, or drank out of +glasses handed across the shoulder to them by their lords. Some of +these women were clearly notable housewives, and I have no reason to +suppose that they do not take their full share of the housework. Boys +and girls came in and out, and got a portion of the dinner to consume +where they thought best. Children went tottering about upon the +red-brick floor, the playthings of those hulking fellows, who handled +them very gently and spoke kindly in a sort of confidential whisper +to their ears. These little ears were mostly pierced for earrings, and +the light blue eyes of the urchins peeped maliciously beneath shocks +of yellow hair. A dog was often of the party. He ate fish like his +masters, and was made to beg for it by sitting up and rowing with +his paws. _Voga, Azzo, voga!_ The Anzolo who talked thus to +his little brown Spitz-dog has the hoarse voice of a Triton and the +movement of an animated sea-wave. Azzo performed his trick, swallowed +his fish-bones, and the fiery Anzolo looked round approvingly. + +On all these occasions I have found these gondoliers the same +sympathetic, industrious, cheery affectionate folk. They live in many +respects a hard and precarious life. The winter in particular is a +time of anxiety, and sometimes of privation, even to the well-to-do +among them. Work then is scarce, and what there is, is rendered +disagreeable to them by the cold. Yet they take their chance with +facile temper, and are not soured by hardships. The amenities of the +Venetian sea and air, the healthiness of the lagoons, the cheerful +bustle of the poorer quarters, the brilliancy of this Southern +sunlight, and the beauty which is everywhere apparent, must be +reckoned as important factors in the formation of their character. And +of that character, as I have said, the final note is playfulness. +In spite of difficulties, their life has never been stern enough to +sadden them. Bare necessities are marvellously cheap, and the pinch +of real bad weather--such frost as locked the lagoons in ice two years +ago, or such south-western gales as flooded the basement floors of +all the houses on the Zattere--is rare and does not last long. On the +other hand, their life has never been so lazy as to reduce them to +the savagery of the traditional Neapolitan lazzaroni. They have had +to work daily for small earnings, but under favourable conditions, +and their labour has been lightened by much good-fellowship among +themselves, by the amusements of their _feste_ and their singing +clubs. + +Of course it is not easy for a stranger in a very different social +position to feel that he has been admitted to their confidence. +Italians have an ineradicable habit of making themselves externally +agreeable, of bending in all indifferent matters to the whims and +wishes of superiors, and of saying what they think _Signori_ +like. This habit, while it smoothes the surface of existence, raises +up a barrier of compliment and partial insincerity, against which the +more downright natures of us Northern folk break in vain efforts. Our +advances are met with an imperceptible but impermeable resistance by +the very people who are bent on making the world pleasant to us. It +is the very reverse of that dour opposition which a Lowland Scot or +a North English peasant offers to familiarity; but it is hardly less +insurmountable. The treatment, again, which Venetians of the lower +class have received through centuries from their own nobility, makes +attempts at fraternisation on the part of gentlemen unintelligible to +them. The best way, here and elsewhere, of overcoming these obstacles +is to have some bond of work or interest in common--of service on the +one side rendered, and goodwill on the other honestly displayed. The +men of whom I have been speaking will, I am convinced, not shirk their +share of duty or make unreasonable claims upon the generosity of their +employers. + + * * * * * + + + + +_A CINQUE CENTO BRUTUS_ + + +I.--THE SESTIERE DI SAN POLO + +There is a quarter of Venice not much visited by tourists, lying as +it does outside their beat, away from the Rialto, at a considerable +distance from the Frari and San Rocco, in what might almost pass for a +city separated by a hundred miles from the Piazza. This is the quarter +of San Polo, one corner of which, somewhere between the back of +the Palazzo Foscari and the Campo di San Polo, was the scene of +a memorable act of vengeance in the year 1546. Here Lorenzino de' +Medici, the murderer of his cousin Alessandro, was at last tracked +down and put to death by paid cut-throats. How they succeeded in their +purpose, we know in every detail from the narrative dictated by the +chief assassin. His story so curiously illustrates the conditions of +life in Italy three centuries ago, that I have thought it worthy of +abridgment. But, in order to make it intelligible, and to paint the +manners of the times more fully, I must first relate the series of +events which led to Lorenzino's murder of his cousin Alessandro, and +from that to his own subsequent assassination. Lorenzino de' Medici, +the Florentine Brutus of the sixteenth century, is the hero of the +tragedy. Some of his relatives, however, must first appear upon the +scene before he enters with a patriot's knife concealed beneath a +court-fool's bauble. + +II.--THE MURDER OF IPPOLITO DE' MEDICI + +After the final extinction of the Florentine Republic, the hopes of +the Medici, who now aspired to the dukedom of Tuscany, rested on three +bastards--Alessandro, the reputed child of Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino; +Ippolito, the natural son of Giuliano, Duke of Nemours; and Giulio, +the offspring of an elder Giuliano, who was at this time Pope, with +the title of Clement VII. Clement had seen Rome sacked in 1527 by a +horde of freebooters fighting under the Imperial standard, and had +used the remnant of these troops, commanded by the Prince of Orange, +to crush his native city in the memorable siege of 1529-30. He now +determined to rule Florence from the Papal chair by the help of the +two bastard cousins I have named. Alessandro was created Duke of +Civita di Penna, and sent to take the first place in the city. +Ippolito was made a cardinal; since the Medici had learned that Rome +was the real basis of their power, and it was undoubtedly in Clement's +policy to advance this scion of his house to the Papacy. The sole +surviving representative of the great Lorenzo de' Medici's legitimate +blood was Catherine, daughter of the Duke of Urbino by Madeleine de la +Tour d'Auvergne. She was pledged in marriage to the Duke of Orleans, +who was afterwards Henry II. of France. A natural daughter of +the Emperor Charles V. was provided for her putative half-brother +Alessandro. By means of these alliances the succession of Ippolito +to the Papal chair would have been secured, and the strength of the +Medici would have been confirmed in Tuscany, but for the disasters +which have now to be related. + +Between the cousins Alessandro and Ippolito there was no love lost. As +boys, they had both played the part of princes in Florence under the +guardianship of the Cardinal Passerini da Cortona. The higher rank +had then been given to Ippolito, who bore the title of Magnifico, and +seemed thus designated for the lordship of the city. Ippolito, though +only half a Medici, was of more authentic lineage than Alessandro; for +no proof positive could be adduced that the latter was even a spurious +child of the Duke of Urbino. He bore obvious witness to his mother's +blood upon his mulatto's face; but this mother was the wife of a +groom, and it was certain that in the court of Urbino she had not been +chary of her favours. The old magnificence of taste, the patronage +of art and letters, and the preference for liberal studies which +distinguished Casa Medici, survived in Ippolito; whereas Alessandro +manifested only the brutal lusts of a debauched tyrant. It was +therefore with great reluctance that, moved by reasons of state and +domestic policy, Ippolito saw himself compelled to accept the scarlet +hat. Alessandro having been recognised as a son of the Duke of Urbino, +had become half-brother to the future Queen of France. To treat him as +the head of the family was a necessity thrust, in the extremity of +the Medicean fortunes, upon Clement. Ippolito, who more entirely +represented the spirit of the house, was driven to assume the position +of a cadet, with all the uncertainties of an ecclesiastical career. + +In these circumstances Ippolito had not strength of character to +sacrifice himself for the consolidation of the Medicean power, which +could only have been effected by maintaining a close bond of union +between its members. The death of Clement in 1534 obscured his +prospects in the Church. He was still too young to intrigue for the +tiara. The new Pope, Alessandro Farnese, soon after his election, +displayed a vigour which was unexpected from his age, together with +a nepotism which his previous character had scarcely warranted. The +Cardinal de' Medici felt himself excluded and oppressed. He joined the +party of those numerous Florentine exiles, headed by Filippo Strozzi, +and the Cardinals Salviati and Ridolfi, all of whom were connected +by marriage with the legitimate Medici, and who unanimously hated and +were jealous of the Duke of Civita di Penna. On the score of policy it +is difficult to condemn this step. Alessandro's hold upon Florence was +still precarious, nor had he yet married Margaret of Austria. Perhaps +Ippolito was right in thinking he had less to gain from his cousin +than from the anti-Medicean faction and the princes of the Church who +favoured it. But he did not play his cards well. He quarrelled with +the new Pope, Paul III., and by his vacillations led the Florentine +exiles to suspect he might betray them. + +In the summer of 1535 Ippolito was at Itri, a little town not far +from Gaeta and Terracina, within easy reach of Fondi, where dwelt the +beautiful Giulia Gonzaga. To this lady the Cardinal paid assiduous +court, passing his time with her in the romantic scenery of that +world-famous Capuan coast. On the 5th of August his seneschal, +Giovann' Andrea, of Borgo San Sepolcro, brought him a bowl of +chicken-broth, after drinking which he exclaimed to one of his +attendants, 'I have been poisoned, and the man who did it is Giovann' +Andrea.' The seneschal was taken and tortured, and confessed that he +had mixed a poison with the broth. Four days afterwards the Cardinal +died, and a post-mortem examination showed that the omentum had been +eaten by some corrosive substance. Giovann' Andrea was sent in chains +to Rome; but in spite of his confession, more than once repeated, the +court released him. He immediately took refuge with Alessandro de' +Medici in Florence, whence he repaired to Borgo San Sepolcro, and +was, at the close of a few months, there murdered by the people of the +place. From these circumstances it was conjectured, not without good +reason, that Alessandro had procured his cousin's death; and a certain +Captain Pignatta, of low birth in Florence, a bravo and a coward, +was believed to have brought the poison to Itri from the Duke. The +Medicean courtiers at Florence did not disguise their satisfaction; +and one of them exclaimed, with reference to the event, 'We know how +to brush flies from our noses!' + +III.--THE MURDER OF ALESSANDRO DE' MEDICI + +Having removed his cousin and rival from the scene, Alessandro de' +Medici plunged with even greater effrontery into the cruelties and +debaucheries which made him odious in Florence. It seemed as though +fortune meant to smile on him; for in this same year (1535) Charles +V. decided at Naples in his favour against the Florentine exiles, +who were pleading their own cause and that of the city injured by his +tyrannies; and in February of the following year he married Margaret +of Austria, the Emperor's natural daughter. Francesco Guicciardini, +the first statesman and historian of his age, had undertaken his +defence, and was ready to support him by advice and countenance in +the conduct of his government. Within the lute of this prosperity, +however, there was one little rift. For some months past he had +closely attached to his person a certain kinsman, Lorenzo de' Medici, +who was descended in the fourth generation from Lorenzo, the brother +of Cosimo Pater Patriae. This Lorenzo, or Lorenzino, or Lorenzaccio, +as his most intimate acquaintances called him, was destined to murder +Alessandro; and it is worthy of notice that the Duke had received +frequent warnings of his fate. A Perugian page, for instance, who +suffered from some infirmity, saw in a dream that Lorenzino would kill +his master. Astrologers predicted that the Duke must die by having his +throat cut. One of them is said to have named Lorenzo de' Medici as +the assassin; and another described him so accurately that there was +no mistaking the man. Moreover, Madonna Lucrezia Salviati wrote to the +Duke from Rome that he should beware of a certain person, indicating +Lorenzino; and her daughter, Madonna Maria, told him to his face +she hated the young man, 'because I know he means to murder you, +and murder you he will.' Nor was this all. The Duke's favourite +body-servants mistrusted Lorenzino. On one occasion, when Alessandro +and Lorenzino, attended by a certain Giomo, were escalading a wall at +night, as was their wont upon illicit love-adventures, Giomo whispered +to his master: 'Ah, my lord, do let me cut the rope, and rid ourselves +of him!' To which the Duke replied: 'No, I do not want this; but if he +could, I know he'd twist it round my neck.' + +In spite, then, of these warnings and the want of confidence he felt, +the Duke continually lived with Lorenzino, employing him as pander in +his intrigues, and preferring his society to that of simpler men. When +he rode abroad, he took this evil friend upon his crupper; although +he knew for certain that Lorenzino had stolen a tight-fitting vest of +mail he used to wear, and, while his arms were round his waist, was +always meditating how to stick a poignard in his body. He trusted, +so it seems, to his own great strength and to the other's physical +weakness. + +At this point, since Lorenzino is the principal actor in the two-act +drama which follows, it will be well to introduce him to the reader in +the words of Varchi, who was personally acquainted with him. Born at +Florence in 1514, he was left early by his father's death to the +sole care of his mother, Maria Soderini, 'a lady of rare prudence +and goodness, who attended with the utmost pains and diligence to his +education. No sooner, however, had he acquired the rudiments of humane +learning, which, being of very quick parts, he imbibed with incredible +facility, than he began to display a restless mind, insatiable and +appetitive of vice. Soon afterwards, under the rule and discipline of +Filippo Strozzi, he made open sport of all things human and divine; +and preferring the society of low persons, who not only flattered him +but were congenial to his tastes, he gave free rein to his desires, +especially in affairs of love, without regard for sex or age or +quality, and in his secret soul, while he lavished feigned caresses +upon every one he saw, felt no esteem for any living being. He +thirsted strangely for glory, and omitted no point of deed or word +that might, he thought, procure him the reputation of a man of spirit +or of wit. He was lean of person, somewhat slightly built, and on +this account people called him Lorenzino. He never laughed, but had a +sneering smile; and although he was rather distinguished by grace than +beauty, his countenance being dark and melancholy, still in the flower +of his age he was beloved beyond all measure by Pope Clement; in spite +of which he had it in his mind (according to what he said himself +after killing the Duke Alessandro) to have murdered him. He brought +Francesco di Raffaello de' Medici, the Pope's rival, who was a young +man of excellent attainments and the highest hope, to such extremity +that he lost his wits, and became the sport of the whole court at +Rome, and was sent back, as a lesser evil, as a confirmed madman to +Florence.' Varchi proceeds to relate how Lorenzino fell +into disfavour with the Pope and the Romans by chopping the heads off +statues from the arch of Constantine and other monuments; for which +act of vandalism Molsa impeached him in the Roman Academy, and a price +was set upon his head. Having returned to Florence, he proceeded +to court Duke Alessandro, into whose confidence he wormed himself, +pretending to play the spy upon the exiles, and affecting a personal +timidity which put the Prince off his guard. Alessandro called him +'the philosopher,' because he conversed in solitude with his own +thoughts and seemed indifferent to wealth and office. But all this +while Lorenzino was plotting how to murder him. + +Giovio's account of this strange intimacy may be added, since it +completes the picture I have drawn from Varchi:--'Lorenzo made himself +the accomplice and instrument of those amorous amusements for which +the Duke had an insatiable appetite, with the object of deceiving him. +He was singularly well furnished with all the scoundrelly arts and +trained devices of the pander's trade; composed fine verses to incite +to lust; wrote and represented comedies in Italian; and pretended +to take pleasure only in such tricks and studies. Therefore he never +carried arms like other courtiers, and feigned to be afraid of blood, +a man who sought tranquillity at any price. Besides, he bore a pallid +countenance and melancholy brow, walking alone, talking very little +and with few persons. He haunted solitary places apart from the city, +and showed such plain signs of hypochondria that some began covertly +to pass jokes on him. Certain others, who were more acute, suspected +that he was harbouring and devising in his mind some terrible +enterprise.' The Prologue to Lorenzino's own comedy of 'Aridosiso' +brings the sardonic, sneering, ironical man vividly before us. +He calls himself 'un certo omiciatto, che non e nessun di voi che +veggendolo non l'avesse a noia, pensando che egli abbia fatto una +commedia;' and begs the audience to damn his play to save him the +tedium of writing another. Criticised by the light of his subsequent +actions, this prologue may even be understood to contain a covert +promise of the murder he was meditating. + +'In this way,' writes Varchi, 'the Duke had taken such familiarity +with Lorenzo, that, not content with making use of him as a ruffian +in his dealings with women, whether religious or secular, maidens +or wives or widows, noble or plebeian, young or elderly, as it might +happen, he applied to him to procure for his pleasure a half-sister of +Lorenzo's own mother, a young lady of marvellous beauty, but not less +chaste than beautiful, who was the wife of Lionardo Ginori, and lived +not far from the back entrance to the palace of the Medici.' Lorenzino +undertook this odious commission, seeing an opportunity to work his +designs against the Duke. But first he had to form an accomplice, +since he could not hope to carry out the murder without help. A bravo, +called Michele del Tavolaccino, but better known by the nickname of +Scoronconcolo, struck him as a fitting instrument. He had procured +this man's pardon for a homicide, and it appears that the fellow +retained a certain sense of gratitude. Lorenzino began by telling the +man there was a courtier who put insults upon him, and Scoronconcolo +professed his readiness to kill the knave. 'Sia chi si voglia; io +l'ammazzero, se fosse Cristo.' Up to the last minute the name of +Alessandro was not mentioned. Having thus secured his assistant, +Lorenzino chose a night when he knew that Alessandro Vitelli, captain +of the Duke's guard, would be from home. Then, after supper, he +whispered in Alessandro's ear that at last he had seduced his aunt +with an offer of money, and that she would come to his, Lorenzo's +chamber at the service of the Duke that night. Only the Duke must +appear at the rendezvous alone, and when he had arrived, the lady +should be fetched. 'Certain it is,' says Varchi, 'that the Duke, +having donned a cloak of satin in the Neapolitan style, lined with +sable, when he went to take his gloves, and there were some of mail +and some of perfumed leather, hesitated awhile and said: "Which shall +I choose, those of war, or those of love-making?"' He took the latter +and went out with only four attendants, three of whom he dismissed +upon the Piazza di San Marco, while one was stationed just opposite +Lorenzo's house, with strict orders not to stir if he should see folk +enter or issue thence. But this fellow, called the Hungarian, after +waiting a great while, returned to the Duke's chamber, and there went +to sleep. + +Meanwhile Lorenzino received Alessandro in his bedroom, where there +was a good fire. The Duke unbuckled his sword, which Lorenzino took, +and having entangled the belt with the hilt, so that it should not +readily be drawn, laid it on the pillow. The Duke had flung himself +already on the bed, and hid himself among the curtains--doing this, it +is supposed, to save himself from the trouble of paying compliments to +the lady when she should arrive. For Caterina Ginori had the fame of +a fair speaker, and Alessandro was aware of his own incapacity to play +the part of a respectful lover. Nothing could more strongly point the +man's brutality than this act, which contributed in no small measure +to his ruin. + +Lorenzino left the Duke upon the bed, and went at once for +Scoronconcolo. He told him that the enemy was caught, and bade him +only mind the work he had to do. 'That will I do,' the bravo answered, +'even though it were the Duke himself.' 'You've hit the mark,' said +Lorenzino with a face of joy; 'he cannot slip through our fingers. +Come!' So they mounted to the bedroom, and Lorenzino, knowing where +the Duke was laid, cried: 'Sir, are you asleep?' and therewith ran +him through the back. Alessandro was sleeping, or pretending to +sleep, face downwards, and the sword passed through his kidneys and +diaphragm. But it did not kill him. He slipped from the bed, and +seized a stool to parry the next blow. Scoronconcolo now stabbed him +in the face, while Lorenzino forced him back upon the bed; and then +began a hideous struggle. In order to prevent his cries, Lorenzino +doubled his fist into the Duke's mouth. Alessandro seized the thumb +between his teeth, and held it in a vice until he died. This disabled +Lorenzino, who still lay upon his victim's body, and Scoronconcolo +could not strike for fear of wounding his master. Between the writhing +couple he made, however, several passes with his sword, which only +pierced the mattress. Then he drew a knife and drove it into the +Duke's throat, and bored about till he had severed veins and windpipe. + + +IV.--THE FLIGHT OF LORENZINO DE' MEDICI + +Alessandro was dead. His body fell to earth. The two murderers, +drenched with blood, lifted it up, and placed it on the bed, wrapped +in the curtains, as they had found him first. Then Lorenzino went to +the window, which looked out upon the Via Larga, and opened it to rest +and breathe a little air. After this he called for Scoronconcolo's +boy, Il Freccia, and bade him look upon the dead man. Il Freccia +recognised the Duke. But why Lorenzino did this, no one knew. It +seemed, as Varchi says, that, having planned the murder with great +ability, and executed it with daring, his good sense and good luck +forsook him. He made no use of the crime he had committed; and from +that day forward till his own assassination, nothing prospered with +him. Indeed, the murder of Alessandro appears to have been almost +motiveless, considered from the point of view of practical politics. +Varchi assumes that Lorenzino's burning desire of glory prompted the +deed; and when he had acquired the notoriety he sought, there was an +end to his ambition. This view is confirmed by the Apology he wrote +and published for his act. It remains one of the most pregnant, +bold, and brilliant pieces of writing which we possess in favour of +tyrannicide from that epoch of insolent crime and audacious rhetoric. +So energetic is the style, and so biting the invective of this +masterpiece, in which the author stabs a second time his victim, that +both Giordani and Leopardi affirmed it to be the only true monument of +eloquence in the Italian language. If thirst for glory was Lorenzino's +principal incentive, immediate glory was his guerdon. He escaped that +same night with Scoronconcolo and Freccia to Bologna, where he stayed +to dress his thumb, and then passed forward to Venice. Filippo Strozzi +there welcomed him as the new Brutus, gave him money, and promised to +marry his two sons to the two sisters of the tyrant-killer. Poems were +written and published by the most famous men of letters, including +Benedetto Varchi and Francesco Maria Molsa, in praise of the Tuscan +Brutus, the liberator of his country from a tyrant. A bronze medal +was struck bearing his name, with a profile copied from Michelangelo's +bust of Brutus. On the obverse are two daggers and a cup, and the date +viii. id. Jan. + +The immediate consequence of Alessandro's murder was the elevation +of Cosimo, son of Giovanni delle Bande Nere, and second cousin of +Lorenzino, to the duchy. At the ceremony of his investiture with +the ducal honours, Cosimo solemnly undertook to revenge Alessandro's +murder. In the following March he buried his predecessor with pomp +in San Lorenzo. The body was placed beside the bones of the Duke of +Urbino in the marble chest of Michelangelo, and here not many years +ago it was discovered. Soon afterwards Lorenzino was declared a rebel. +His portrait was painted according to old Tuscan precedent, head +downwards, and suspended by one foot, upon the wall of the fort built +by Alessandro. His house was cut in twain from roof to pavement, and +a narrow lane was driven through it, which received the title of +Traitor's Alley, _Chiasso del Traditore_. The price of four +thousand golden florins was put upon his head, together with the +further sum of one hundred florins per annum in perpetuity to be paid +to the murderer and his direct heirs in succession, by the Otto di +Balia. Moreover, the man who killed Lorenzino was to enjoy all civic +privileges; exemption from all taxes, ordinary and extraordinary; the +right of carrying arms, together with two attendants, in the city and +the whole domain of Florence; and the further prerogative of restoring +ten outlaws at his choice. If Lorenzino could be captured and brought +alive to Florence, the whole of this reward would be doubled. + +This decree was promulgated in April 1537, and thenceforward Lorenzino +de' Medici lived a doomed man. The assassin, who had been proclaimed a +Brutus by Tuscan exiles and humanistic enthusiasts, was regarded as a +Judas by the common people. Ballads were written on him with the title +of the 'Piteous and sore lament made unto himself by Lorenzino de' +Medici, who murdered the most illustrious Duke Alessandro.' He had +become a wild beast, whom it was honourable to hunt down, a pest which +it was righteous to extirpate. Yet fate delayed nine years to overtake +him. What remains to be told about his story must be extracted +from the narrative of the bravo who succeeded, with the aid of an +accomplice, in despatching him at Venice.[13] So far as possible, +I shall use the man's own words, translating them literally, and +omitting only unimportant details. The narrative throws brilliant +light upon the manners and movements of professional cut-throats at +that period in Italy. It seems to have been taken down from the hero +Francesco, or Cecco, Bibboni's lips; and there is no doubt that we +possess in it a valuable historical document for the illustration of +contemporary customs. It offers in all points a curious parallel +to Cellini's account of his own homicides and hair-breadth escapes. +Moreover, it is confirmed in its minutest circumstances by the records +of the criminal courts of Venice in the sixteenth century. This I can +attest from recent examination of MSS. relating to the _Signori +di Notte_ and the _Esecutori contro la Bestemmia_, which are +preserved among the Archives at the Frari. + +V.--THE MURDER OF LORENZINO DE' MEDICI + +'When I returned from Germany,' begins Bibboni, 'where I had been in +the pay of the Emperor, I found at Vicenza Bebo da Volterra, who was +staying in the house of M. Antonio da Roma, a nobleman of that city. +This gentleman employed him because of a great feud he had; and he was +mighty pleased, moreover, at my coming, and desired that I too should +take up my quarters in his palace.' + +This paragraph strikes the keynote of the whole narrative, and +introduces us to the company we are about to keep. The noblemen of +that epoch, if they had private enemies, took into their service +soldiers of adventure, partly to protect their persons, but also to +make war, when occasion offered, on their foes. The _bravi_, as +they were styled, had quarters assigned them in the basement of +the palace, where they might be seen swaggering about the door or +flaunting their gay clothes behind the massive iron bars of the +windows which opened on the streets. When their master went abroad +at night they followed him, and were always at hand to perform secret +services in love affairs, assassination, and espial. For the rest, +they haunted taverns, and kept up correspondence with prostitutes. An +Italian city had a whole population of such fellows, the offscourings +of armies, drawn from all nations, divided by their allegiance of the +time being into hostile camps, but united by community of interest and +occupation, and ready to combine against the upper class, upon whose +vices, enmities, and cowardice they throve. + +Bibboni proceeds to say how another gentleman of Vicenza, M. Francesco +Manente, had at this time a feud with certain of the Guazzi and the +Laschi, which had lasted several years, and cost the lives of many +members of both parties and their following. M. Francesco being a +friend of M. Antonio, besought that gentleman to lend him Bibboni and +Bebo for a season; and the two _bravi_ went together with their +new master to Celsano, a village in the neighbourhood. 'There both +parties had estates, and all of them kept armed men in their houses, +so that not a day passed without feats of arms, and always there was +some one killed or wounded. One day, soon afterwards, the leaders of +our party resolved to attack the foe in their house, where we killed +two, and the rest, numbering five men, entrenched themselves in +a ground-floor apartment; whereupon we took possession of their +harquebuses and other arms, which forced them to abandon the villa and +retire to Vicenza; and within a short space of time this great feud +was terminated by an ample peace.' After this Bebo took service with +the Rector of the University in Padua, and was transferred by his new +patron to Milan. Bibboni remained at Vicenza with M. Galeazzo della +Seta, who stood in great fear of his life, notwithstanding the peace +which had been concluded between the two factions. At the end of ten +months he returned to M. Antonio da Roma and his six brothers, 'all of +whom being very much attached to me, they proposed that I should +live my life with them, for good or ill, and be treated as one of the +family; upon the understanding that if war broke out and I wanted to +take part in it, I should always have twenty-five crowns and arms and +horse, with welcome home, so long as I lived; and in case I did not +care to join the troops, the same provision for my maintenance.' + +From these details we comprehend the sort of calling which a bravo +of Bibboni's species followed. Meanwhile Bebo was at Milan. 'There it +happened that M. Francesco Vinta, of Volterra, was on embassy from +the Duke of Florence. He saw Bebo, and asked him what he was doing in +Milan, and Bebo answered that he was a knight errant.' This phrase, +derived no doubt from the romantic epics then in vogue, was a pretty +euphemism for a rogue of Bebo's quality. The ambassador now began +cautiously to sound his man, who seems to have been outlawed from the +Tuscan duchy, telling him he knew a way by which he might return with +favour to his home, and at last disclosing the affair of Lorenzo. Bebo +was puzzled at first, but when he understood the matter, he professed +his willingness, took letters from the envoy to the Duke of Florence, +and, in a private audience with Cosimo, informed him that he was ready +to attempt Lorenzino's assassination. He added that 'he had a comrade +fit for such a job, whose fellow for the business could not easily be +found.' + +Bebo now travelled to Vicenza, and opened the whole matter to Bibboni, +who weighed it well, and at last, being convinced that the Duke's +commission to his comrade was _bona fide_, determined to take his +share in the undertaking. The two agreed to have no accomplices. +They went to Venice, and 'I,' says Bibboni, 'being most intimately +acquainted with all that city, and provided there with many friends, +soon quietly contrived to know where Lorenzino lodged, and took a room +in the neighbourhood, and spent some days in seeing how we best might +rule our conduct.' Bibboni soon discovered that Lorenzino never left +his palace; and he therefore remained in much perplexity, until, by +good luck, Ruberto Strozzi arrived from France in Venice, bringing in +his train a Navarrese servant, who had the nickname of Spagnoletto. +This fellow was a great friend of the bravo. They met, and Bibboni +told him that he should like to go and kiss the hands of Messer +Ruberto, whom he had known in Rome. Strozzi inhabited the same palace +as Lorenzino. 'When we arrived there, both Messer Ruberto and Lorenzo +were leaving the house, and there were around them so many gentlemen +and other persons, that I could not present myself, and both +straightway stepped into the gondola. Then I, not having seen Lorenzo +for a long while past, and because he was very quietly attired, could +not recognise the man exactly, but only as it were between certainty +and doubt. Wherefore I said to Spagnoletto, "I think I know that +gentleman, but don't remember where I saw him." And Messer Ruberto was +giving him his right hand. Then Spagnoletto answered, "You know him +well enough; he is Messer Lorenzo. But see you tell this to nobody. He +goes by the name of Messer Dario, because he lives in great fear +for his safety, and people don't know that he is now in Venice." I +answered that I marvelled much, and if I could have helped him, would +have done so willingly. Then I asked where they were going, and he +said, to dine with Messer Giovanni della Casa, who was the Pope's +Legate. I did not leave the man till I had drawn from him all I +required.' + +Thus spoke the Italian Judas. The appearance of La Casa on the +scene is interesting. He was the celebrated author of the scandalous +'Capitolo del Forno,' the author of many sublime and melancholy +sonnets, who was now at Venice, prosecuting a charge of heresy against +Pier Paolo Vergerio, and paying his addresses to a noble lady of the +Quirini family. It seems that on the territory of San Marco he made +common cause with the exiles from Florence, for he was himself by +birth a Florentine, and he had no objection to take Brutus-Lorenzino +by the hand. + +After the noblemen had rowed off in their gondola to dine with the +Legate, Bibboni and his friend entered their palace, where he found +another old acquaintance, the house-steward, or _spenditore_ of +Lorenzo. From him he gathered much useful information. Pietro Strozzi, +it seems, had allowed the tyrannicide one thousand five hundred crowns +a year, with the keep of three brave and daring companions (_tre +compagni bravi e facinorosi_), and a palace worth fifty crowns on +lease. But Lorenzo had just taken another on the Campo di San Polo at +three hundred crowns a year, for which swagger (_altura_) Pietro +Strozzi had struck a thousand crowns off his allowance. Bibboni also +learned that he was keeping house with his uncle, Alessandro Soderini, +another Florentine outlaw, and that he was ardently in love with a +certain beautiful Barozza. This woman was apparently one of the grand +courtesans of Venice. He further ascertained the date when he was +going to move into the palace at San Polo, and, 'to put it briefly, +knew everything he did, and, as it were, how many times a day he +spit.' Such were the intelligences of the servants' hall, and of such +value were they to men of Bibboni's calling. + +In the Carnival of 1546 Lorenzo meant to go masqued in the habit of +a gipsy woman to the square of San Spirito, where there was to be a +joust. Great crowds of people would assemble, and Bibboni hoped to +do his business there. The assassination, however, failed on this +occasion, and Lorenzo took up his abode in the palace he had hired +upon the Campo di San Polo. This Campo is one of the largest open +places in Venice, shaped irregularly, with a finely curving line upon +the western side, where two of the noblest private houses in the city +are still standing. Nearly opposite these, in the south-western angle, +stands, detached, the little old church of San Polo. One of its side +entrances opens upon the square; the other on a lane, which leads +eventually to the Frari. There is nothing in Bibboni's narrative to +make it clear where Lorenzo hired his dwelling. But it would seem +from certain things which he says later on, that in order to enter the +church his victim had to cross the square. Meanwhile Bibboni took the +precaution of making friends with a shoemaker, whose shop commanded +the whole Campo, including Lorenzo's palace. In this shop he began to +spend much of his time; 'and oftentimes I feigned to be asleep; +but God knows whether I was sleeping, for my mind, at any rate, was +wide-awake.' + +A second convenient occasion for murdering Lorenzo soon seemed to +offer. He was bidden to dine with Monsignor della Casa; and Bibboni, +putting a bold face on, entered the Legate's palace, having left +Bebo below in the loggia, fully resolved to do the business. 'But we +found,' he says, 'that, they had gone to dine at Murano, so that we +remained with our tabors in their bag.' The island of Murano at that +period was a favourite resort of the Venetian nobles, especially of +the more literary and artistic, who kept country-houses there, where +they enjoyed the fresh air of the lagoons and the quiet of their +gardens. + +The third occasion, after all these weeks of watching, brought success +to Bibboni's schemes. He had observed how Lorenzo occasionally so far +broke his rules of caution as to go on foot, past the church of San +Polo, to visit the beautiful Barozza; and he resolved, if possible, +to catch him on one of these journeys. 'It so chanced on the 28th of +February, which was the second Sunday of Lent, that having gone, as +was my wont, to pry out whether Lorenzo would give orders for going +abroad that day, I entered the shoemaker's shop, and stayed awhile, +until Lorenzo came to the window with a napkin round his neck for he +was combing his hair--and at the same moment I saw a certain Giovan +Battista Martelli, who kept his sword for the defence of Lorenzo's +person, enter and come forth again. Concluding that they would +probably go abroad, I went home to get ready and procure the necessary +weapons, and there I found Bebo asleep in bed, and made him get up at +once, and we came to our accustomed post of observation, by the church +of San Polo, where our men would have to pass.' Bibboni now retired to +his friend the shoemaker's, and Bebo took up his station at one of +the side-doors of San Polo; 'and, as good luck would have it, Giovan +Battista Martelli came forth, and walked a piece in front, and then +Lorenzo came, and then Alessandro Soderini, going the one behind the +other, like storks, and Lorenzo, on entering the church, and lifting +up the curtain of the door, was seen from the opposite door by Bebo, +who at the same time noticed how I had left the shop, and so we met +upon the street as we had agreed, and he told me that Lorenzo was +inside the church.' + +To any one who knows the Campo di San Polo, it will be apparent that +Lorenzo had crossed from the western side of the piazza and entered +the church by what is technically called its northern door. Bebo, +stationed at the southern door, could see him when he pushed the heavy +_stoia_ or leather curtain aside, and at the same time could +observe Bibboni's movements in the cobbler's shop. Meanwhile Lorenzo +walked across the church and came to the same door where Bebo had been +standing. 'I saw him issue from the church and take the main street; +then came Alessandro Soderini, and I walked last of all; and when +we reached the point we had determined on, I jumped in front +of Alessandro with the poignard in my hand, crying, "Hold hard, +Alessandro, and get along with you in God's name, for we are not here +for you!" He then threw himself around my waist, and grasped my arms, +and kept on calling out. Seeing how wrong I had been to try to spare +his life, I wrenched myself as well as I could from his grip, and with +my lifted poignard struck him, as God willed, above the eyebrow, and a +little blood trickled from the wound. He, in high fury, gave me such a +thrust that I fell backward, and the ground besides was slippery +from having rained a little. Then Alessandro drew his sword, which he +carried in its scabbard, and thrust at me in front, and struck me on +the corslet, which for my good fortune was of double mail. Before I +could get ready I received three passes, which, had I worn a doublet +instead of that mailed corslet, would certainly have run me through. +At the fourth pass I had regained my strength and spirit, and closed +with him, and stabbed him four times in the head, and being so close +he could not use his sword, but tried to parry with his hand and hilt, +and I, as God willed, struck him at the wrist below the sleeve of +mail, and cut his hand off clean, and gave him then one last stroke on +his head. Thereupon he begged for God's sake spare his life, and I, in +trouble about Bebo, left him in the arms of a Venetian nobleman, who +held him back from jumping into the canal.' + +Who this Venetian nobleman, found unexpectedly upon the scene, was, +does not appear. Nor, what is still more curious, do we hear anything +of that Martelli, the bravo, 'who kept his sword for the defence of +Lorenzo's person.' The one had arrived accidentally, it seems. The +other must have been a coward and escaped from the scuffle. + +'When I turned,' proceeds Bibboni, 'I found Lorenzo on his knees. He +raised himself, and I, in anger, gave him a great cut across the head, +which split it in two pieces, and laid him at my feet, and he never +rose again.' + +VI.--THE ESCAPE OF THE BRAVI + +Bebo, meanwhile, had made off from the scene of action. And Bibboni, +taking to his heels, came up with him in the little square of San +Marcello. They now ran for their lives till they reached the traghetto +di San Spirito, where they threw their poignards into the water, +remembering that no man might carry these in Venice under penalty +of the galleys. Bibboni's white hose were drenched with blood. He +therefore agreed to separate from Bebo, having named a rendezvous. +Left alone, his ill luck brought him face to face with twenty +constables (_sbirri_). 'In a moment I conceived that they knew +everything, and were come to capture me, and of a truth I saw that it +was over with me. As swiftly as I could I quickened pace and got into +a church, near to which was the house of a Compagnia, and the one +opened into the other, and knelt down and prayed, commending myself +with fervour to God for my deliverance and safety. Yet while I prayed, +I kept my eyes well open and saw the whole band pass the church, +except one man who entered, and I strained my sight so that I seemed +to see behind as well as in front, and then it was I longed for my +poignard, for I should not have heeded being in a church.' But the +constable, it soon appeared, was not looking for Bibboni. So he +gathered up his courage, and ran for the Church of San Spirito, where +the Padre Andrea Volterrano was preaching to a great congregation. +He hoped to go in by one door and out by the other, but the crowd +prevented him, and he had to turn back and face the _sbirri_. One +of them followed him, having probably caught sight of the blood upon +his hose. Then Bibboni resolved to have done with the fellow, and +rushed at him, and flung him down with his head upon the pavement, +and ran like mad and came at last, all out of breath, to San Marco. It +seems clear that before Bibboni separated from Bebo they had crossed +the water, for the Sestiere di San Polo is separated from the Sestiere +di San Marco by the Grand Canal. And this they must have done at the +traghetto di San Spirito. Neither the church nor the traghetto are +now in existence, and this part of the story is therefore obscure.[14] +Having reached San Marco, he took a gondola at the Ponte della Paglia, +where tourists are now wont to stand and contemplate the Ducal Palace +and the Bridge of Sighs. First, he sought the house of a woman of the +town who was his friend; then changed purpose, and rowed to the palace +of the Count Salici da Collalto. 'He was a great friend and intimate +of ours, because Bebo and I had done him many and great services in +times passed. There I knocked; and Bebo opened the door, and when he +saw me dabbled with blood, he marvelled that I had not come to grief +and fallen into the hands of justice, and, indeed, had feared as much +because I had remained so long away.' It appears, therefore, that the +Palazzo Collalto was their rendezvous. 'The Count was from home; but +being known to all his people, I played the master and went into the +kitchen to the fire, and with soap and water turned my hose, which had +been white, to a grey colour.' This is a very delicate way of saying +that he washed out the blood of Alessandro and Lorenzo! + +Soon after the Count returned, and 'lavished caresses' upon Bebo and +his precious comrade. They did not tell him what they had achieved +that morning, but put him off with a story of having settled a +_sbirro_ in a quarrel about a girl. Then the Count invited them to +dinner; and being himself bound to entertain the first physician of +Venice, requested them to take it in an upper chamber. He and his +secretary served them with their own hands at table. When the +physician arrived, the Count went downstairs; and at this moment a +messenger came from Lorenzo's mother, begging the doctor to go at once +to San Polo, for that her son had been murdered and Soderini wounded +to the death. It was now no longer possible to conceal their doings +from the Count, who told them to pluck up courage and abide in +patience. He had himself to dine and take his siesta, and then to +attend a meeting of the Council. + +About the hour of vespers, Bibboni determined to seek better refuge. +Followed at a discreet distance by Bebo, he first called at their +lodgings and ordered supper. Two priests came in and fell into +conversation with them. But something in the behaviour of one of +these good men roused his suspicions. So they left the house, took a +gondola, and told the man to row hard to S. Maria Zobenigo. On the way +he bade him put them on shore, paid him well, and ordered him to wait +for them. They landed near the palace of the Spanish embassy; and here +Bibboni meant to seek sanctuary. For it must be remembered that the +houses of ambassadors, no less than of princes of the Church, were +inviolable. They offered the most convenient harbouring-places to +rascals. Charles V., moreover, was deeply interested in the vengeance +taken on Alessandro de' Medici's murderer, for his own natural +daughter was Alessandro's widow and Duchess of Florence. In the palace +they were met with much courtesy by about forty Spaniards, who showed +considerable curiosity, and told them that Lorenzo and Alessandro +Soderini had been murdered that morning by two men whose description +answered to their appearance. Bibboni put their questions by and asked +to see the ambassador. He was not at home. In that case, said Bibboni, +take us to the secretary. Attended by some thirty Spaniards, 'with +great joy and gladness,' they were shown into the secretary's chamber. +He sent the rest of the folk away, 'and locked the door well, and then +embraced and kissed us before we had said a word, and afterwards bade +us talk freely without any fear.' When Bibboni had told the whole +story, he was again embraced and kissed by the secretary, who +thereupon left them and went to the private apartment of the +ambassador. Shortly after he returned and led them by a winding +staircase into the presence of his master. The ambassador greeted +them with great honour, told them he would strain all the power of +the empire to hand them in safety over to Duke Cosimo, and that he had +already sent a courier to the Emperor with the good news. + +So they remained in hiding in the Spanish embassy; and in ten days' +time commands were received from Charles himself that everything +should be done to convey them safely to Florence. The difficulty was +how to smuggle them out of Venice, where the police of the Republic +were on watch, and Florentine outlaws were mounting guard on sea and +shore to catch them. The ambassador began by spreading reports on the +Rialto every morning of their having been seen at Padua, at Verona, in +Friuli. He then hired a palace at Malghera, near Mestre, and went out +daily with fifty Spaniards, and took carriage or amused himself with +horse exercise and shooting. The Florentines, who were on watch, could +only discover from his people that he did this for amusement. When +he thought that he had put them sufficiently off their guard, the +ambassador one day took Bibboni and Bebo out by Canaregio and Mestre +to Malghera, concealed in his own gondola, with the whole train of +Spaniards in attendance. And though, on landing, the Florentines +challenged them, they durst not interfere with an ambassador or come +to battle with his men. So Bebo and Bibboni were hustled into a coach, +and afterwards provided with two comrades and four horses. They rode +for ninety miles without stopping to sleep, and on the day following +this long journey reached Trento, having probably threaded the +mountain valleys above Bassano, for Bibboni speaks of a certain +village where the people talked half German. The Imperial Ambassador +at Trento forwarded them next day to Mantua; from Mantua they came to +Piacenza; thence, passing through the valley of the Taro, crossing +the Apennines at Cisa, descending on Pontremoli, and reaching Pisa at +night, the fourteenth day after their escape from Venice. + +When they arrived at Pisa, Duke Cosimo was supping. So they went to +an inn, and next morning presented themselves to his Grace. Cosimo +received them kindly, assured them of his gratitude, confirmed them +in the enjoyment of their rewards and privileges, and swore that they +might rest secure of his protection in all parts of his dominion. We +may imagine how the men caroused together after this reception. As +Bibboni adds, 'We were now able for the whole time of life left us +to live splendidly, without a thought or care.' The last words of his +narrative are these: 'Bebo from Pisa, at what date I know not, went +home to Volterra, his native town, and there finished his days; while +I abode in Florence, where I have had no further wish to hear of wars, +but to live my life in holy peace.' + +So ends the story of the two _bravi_. We have reason to believe, +from some contemporary documents which Cantu has brought to light, +that Bibboni exaggerated his own part in the affair. Luca Martelli, +writing to Varchi, says that it was Bebo who clove Lorenzo's skull +with a cutlass. He adds this curious detail, that the weapons of +both men were poisoned, and that the wound inflicted by Bibboni on +Soderini's hand was a slight one. Yet, the poignard being poisoned, +Soderini died of it. In other respects Martelli's brief account agrees +with that given by Bibboni, who probably did no more, his comrade +being dead, than claim for himself, at some expense of truth, the +lion's share of their heroic action. + +VII.--LORENZINO BRUTUS + +It remains to ask ourselves, What opinion can be justly formed of +Lorenzino's character and motives? When he murdered his cousin, was +he really actuated by the patriotic desire to rid his country of a +monster? Did he imitate the Roman Brutus in the noble spirit of +his predecessors, Olgiati and Boscoli, martyrs to the creed of +tyrannicide? Or must this crowning action of a fretful life be +explained, like his previous mutilation of the statues on the Arch +of Constantine, by a wild thirst for notoriety? Did he hope that the +exiles would return to Florence, and that he would enjoy an honourable +life, an immortality of glorious renown? Did envy for his cousin's +greatness and resentment of his undisguised contempt--the passions of +one who had been used for vile ends--conscious of self-degradation and +the loss of honour, yet mindful of his intellectual superiority--did +these emotions take fire in him and mingle with a scholar's +reminiscences of antique heroism, prompting him to plan a deed +which should at least assume the show of patriotic zeal, and prove +indubitable courage in its perpetrator? Did he, again, perhaps +imagine, being next in blood to Alessandro and direct heir to the +ducal crown by the Imperial Settlement of 1530, that the city would +elect her liberator for her ruler? Alfieri and Niccolini, having +taken, as it were, a brief in favour of tyrannicide, praised Lorenzino +as a hero. De Musset, who wrote a considerable drama on his story, +painted him as a _roue_ corrupted by society, enfeebled by +circumstance, soured by commerce with an uncongenial world, who hides +at the bottom of his mixed nature enough of real nobility to make him +the leader of a forlorn hope for the liberties of Florence. This is +the most favourable construction we can put upon Lorenzo's conduct. +Yet some facts of the case warn us to suspend our judgment. He seems +to have formed no plan for the liberation of his fellow-citizens. He +gave no pledge of self-devotion by avowing his deed and abiding by its +issues. He showed none of the qualities of a leader, whether in the +cause of freedom or of his own dynastic interests, after the murder. +He escaped as soon as he was able, as secretly as he could manage, +leaving the city in confusion, and exposing himself to the obvious +charge of abominable treason. So far as the Florentines knew, his +assassination of their Duke was but a piece of private spite, executed +with infernal craft. It is true that when he seized the pen in exile, +he did his best to claim the guerdon of a patriot, and to throw the +blame of failure on the Florentines. In his Apology, and in a letter +written to Francesco de' Medici, he taunts them with lacking the +spirit to extinguish tyranny when he had slain the tyrant. He summons +plausible excuses to his aid--the impossibility of taking persons of +importance into his confidence, the loss of blood he suffered from +his wound, the uselessness of rousing citizens whom events proved +over-indolent for action. He declares that he has nothing to regret. +Having proved by deeds his will to serve his country, he has saved +his life in order to spend it for her when occasion offered. But these +arguments, invented after the catastrophe, these words, so bravely +penned when action ought to have confirmed his resolution, do not +meet the case. It was no deed of a true hero to assassinate a despot, +knowing or half knowing that the despot's subjects would immediately +elect another. Their languor could not, except rhetorically, be +advanced in defence of his own flight. + +The historian is driven to seek both the explanation and palliation of +Lorenzo's failure in the temper of his times. There was enough +daring left in Florence to carry through a plan of brilliant treason, +modelled on an antique Roman tragedy. But there was not moral force +in the protagonist to render that act salutary, not public energy +sufficient in his fellow-citizens to accomplish his drama of +deliverance. Lorenzo was corrupt. Florence was flaccid. Evil manners +had emasculated the hero. In the state the last spark of independence +had expired with Ferrucci. + +Still I have not without forethought dubbed this man a Cinque Cento +Brutus. Like much of the art and literature of his century, his action +may be regarded as a _bizarre_ imitation of the antique manner. +Without the force and purpose of a Roman, Lorenzo set himself to copy +Plutarch's men--just as sculptors carved Neptunes and Apollos without +the dignity and serenity of the classic style. The antique faith +was wanting to both murderer and craftsman in those days. Even as +Renaissance work in art is too often aimless, decorative, vacant of +intention, so Lorenzino's Brutus tragedy seems but the snapping of +a pistol in void air. He had the audacity but not the ethical +consistency of his crime. He played the part of Brutus like a Roscius, +perfect in its histrionic details. And it doubtless gave to this +skilful actor a supreme satisfaction--salving over many wounds of +vanity, quenching the poignant thirst for things impossible and +draughts of fame--that he could play it on no mimic stage, but on +the theatre of Europe. The weakness of his conduct was the central +weakness of his age and country. Italy herself lacked moral purpose, +sense of righteous necessity, that consecration of self to a noble +cause, which could alone have justified Lorenzo's perfidy. Confused +memories of Judith, Jael, Brutus, and other classical tyrannicides, +exalted his imagination. Longing for violent emotions, jaded with +pleasure which had palled, discontented with his wasted life, jealous +of his brutal cousin, appetitive to the last of glory, he conceived +his scheme. Having conceived, he executed it with that which never +failed in Cinque Cento Italy--the artistic spirit of perfection. When +it was over, he shrugged his shoulders, wrote his magnificent Apology +with a style of adamant upon a plate of steel, and left it for the +outlaws of Filippo Strozzi's faction to deal with the crisis he +had brought about. For some years he dragged out an ignoble life +in obscurity, and died at last, as Varchi puts it, more by his own +carelessness than by the watchful animosity of others. Over the wild, +turbid, clever, incomprehensible, inconstant hero-artist's grave we +write our _Requiescat_. Clio, as she takes the pen in hand to +record this prayer, smiles disdainfully and turns to graver business. + + * * * * * + + + + +_TWO DRAMATISTS OF THE LAST CENTURY_ + + +There are few contrasts more striking than that which is presented +by the memoirs of Goldoni and Alfieri. Both of these men bore names +highly distinguished in the history of Italian literature. Both of +them were framed by nature with strongly marked characters, and fitted +to perform a special work in the world. Both have left behind them +records of their lives and literary labours, singularly illustrative +of their peculiar differences. There is no instance in which we see +more clearly the philosophical value of autobiographies, than in these +vivid pictures which the great Italian tragedian and comic author have +delineated. Some of the most interesting works of Lionardo da Vinci, +Giorgione, Albert Duerer, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Andrea del Sarto, are +their portraits painted by themselves. These pictures exhibit not only +the lineaments of the masters, but also their art. The hand which drew +them was the hand which drew the 'Last Supper,' or the 'Madonna of +the Tribune:' colour, method, chiaroscuro, all that makes up manner in +painting, may be studied on the same canvas as that which faithfully +represents the features of the man whose genius gave his style its +special character. We seem to understand the clear calm majesty of +Lionardo's manner, the silver-grey harmonies and smooth facility of +Andrea's Madonnas, the better for looking at their faces drawn by +their own hands at Florence. And if this be the case with a dumb +picture, how far higher must be the interest and importance of the +written life of a known author! Not only do we recognise in its +composition the style and temper and habits of thought which are +familiar to us in his other writings; but we also hear from his +own lips how these were formed, how his tastes took their peculiar +direction, what circumstances acted on his character, what hopes he +had, and where he failed. Even should his autobiography not bear +the marks of uniform candour, it probably reveals more of the actual +truth, more of the man's real nature in its height and depth, than +any memoir written by friend or foe. Its unconscious admissions, its +general spirit, and the inferences which we draw from its perusal, +are far more valuable than any mere statement of facts or external +analysis, however scientific. When we become acquainted with +the series of events which led to the conception or attended the +production of some masterpiece of literature, a new light is thrown +upon its beauties, fresh life bursts forth from every chapter, and we +seem to have a nearer and more personal interest in its success. What +a powerful sensation, for instance, is that which we experience when, +after studying the 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,' Gibbon +tells us how the thought of writing it came to him upon the Capitol, +among the ruins of dead Rome, and within hearing of the mutter of the +monks of Ara Coeli, and how he finished it one night by Lake Geneva, +and laid his pen down and walked forth and saw the stars above his +terrace at Lausanne! + +The memoirs of Alfieri and Goldoni are not deficient in any of the +characteristics of good autobiography. They seem to bear upon their +face the stamp of truthfulness, they illustrate their authors' lives +with marvellous lucidity, and they are full of interest as stories. +But it is to the contrast which they present that our attention should +be chiefly drawn. Other biographies may be as interesting and amusing. +None show in a more marked manner two distinct natures endowed with +genius for one art, and yet designed in every possible particular for +different branches of that art. Alfieri embodies Tragedy; Goldoni +is the spirit of Comedy. They are both Italians: their tragedies and +comedies are by no means cosmopolitan; but this national identity of +character only renders more remarkable the individual divergences by +which they were impelled into their different paths. Thalia seems to +have made the one, body, soul, and spirit; and Melpomene the other; +each goddess launched her favourite into circumstances suited to the +evolution of his genius, and presided over his development, so that at +his death she might exclaim,--Behold the living model of my Art! + +Goldoni was born at Venice in the year 1707; he had already reached +celebrity when Alfieri saw the light for the first time, in 1749, at +Asti. Goldoni's grandfather was a native of Modena, who had settled +in Venice, and there lived with the prodigality of a rich and +ostentatious 'bourgeois.' 'Amid riot and luxury did I enter the +world,' says the poet, after enumerating the banquets and theatrical +displays with which the old Goldoni entertained his guests in his +Venetian palace and country-house. Venice at that date was certainly +the proper birthplace for a comic poet. The splendour of the +Renaissance had thoroughly habituated her nobles to pleasures of the +sense, and had enervated their proud, maritime character, while the +great name of the republic robbed them of the caution for which they +used to be conspicuous. Yet the real strength of Venice was almost +spent, and nothing remained but outward insolence and prestige. +Everything was gay about Goldoni in his earliest childhood. +Puppet-shows were built to amuse him by his grandfather. 'My +mother,' he says, 'took charge of my education, and my father of my +amusements.' Let us turn to the opening scene in Alfieri's life, +and mark the difference. A father above sixty, 'noble, wealthy, and +respectable,' who died before his son had reached the age of one year +old. A mother devoted to religion, the widow of one marquis, and after +the death of a second husband, Alfieri's father, married for the third +time to a nobleman of ancient birth. These were Alfieri's parents. He +was born in a solemn palazzo in the country town of Asti, and at the +age of five already longed for death as an escape from disease and +other earthly troubles. So noble and so wealthy was the youthful poet +that an abbe was engaged to carry out his education, but not to teach +him more than a count should know. Except this worthy man he had no +companions whatever. Strange ideas possessed the boy. He ruminated on +his melancholy, and when eight years old attempted suicide. At this +age he was sent to the academy at Turin, attended, as befitted a lad +of his rank, by a man-servant, who was to remain and wait on him at +school. Alfieri stayed here several years without revisiting his home, +tyrannised over by the valet who added to his grandeur, constantly +subject to sickness, and kept in almost total ignorance by his +incompetent preceptors. The gloom and pride and stoicism of his +temperament were augmented by this unnatural discipline. His spirit +did not break, but took a haughtier and more disdainful tone. He +became familiar with misfortunes. He learned to brood over and +intensify his passions. Every circumstance of his life seemed strung +up to a tragic pitch. This at least is the impression which remains +upon our mind after reading in his memoirs the narrative of what must +in many of its details have been a common schoolboy's life at that +time. + +Meanwhile, what had become of young Goldoni? His boyhood was as +thoroughly plebeian, various, and comic as Alfieri's had been +patrician, monotonous, and tragical. Instead of one place of +residence, we read of twenty. Scrape succeeds to scrape, adventure to +adventure. Knowledge of the world, and some book learning also, flow +in upon the boy, and are eagerly caught up by him and heterogeneously +amalgamated in his mind. Alfieri learned nothing, wrote nothing, in +his youth, and heard his parents say--'A nobleman need never strive to +be a doctor of the faculties.' Goldoni had a little medicine and much +law thrust upon him. At eight he wrote a comedy, and ere long began +to read the plays of Plautus, Terence, Aristophanes, and Machiavelli. +Between the nature of the two poets there was a marked and +characteristic difference as to their mode of labour and of acquiring +knowledge. Both of them loved fame, and wrought for it; but Alfieri +did so from a sense of pride and a determination to excel; +while Goldoni loved the approbation of his fellows, sought their +compliments, and basked in the sunshine of smiles. Alfieri wrote with +labour. Each tragedy he composed went through a triple process of +composition, and received frequent polishing when finished. Goldoni +dashed off his pieces with the greatest ease on every possible +subject. He once produced sixteen comedies in one theatrical season. +Alfieri's were like lion's whelps--brought forth with difficulty, +and at long intervals; Goldoni's, like the brood of a hare--many, +frequent, and as agile as their parent. Alfieri amassed knowledge +scrupulously, but with infinite toil. He mastered Greek and Hebrew +when he was past forty. Goldoni never gave himself the least trouble +to learn anything, but trusted to the ready wit, good memory, and +natural powers, which helped him in a hundred strange emergencies. +Power of will and pride sustained the one; facility and a +good-humoured vanity the other. This contrast was apparent at a very +early age. We have seen how Alfieri passed his time at Turin, in +a kind of aristocratic prison of educational ignorance. Goldoni's +grandfather died when he was five years old, and left his family in +great embarrassment. The poet's father went off to practise medicine +at Perugia. His son followed him, acquired the rudiments of knowledge +in that town, and then proceeded to study philosophy alone at Rimini. +There was no man-servant or academy in his case. He was far too +plebeian and too free. The boy lodged with a merchant, and got some +smattering of Thomas Aquinas and the Peripatetics into his small +brain, while he contrived to form a friendship with an acting company. +They were on the wing for Venice in a coasting boat, which would touch +at Chiozza, where Goldoni's mother then resided. The boy pleased them. +Would he like the voyage? This offer seemed too tempting, and away +he rushed, concealed himself on board, and made one of a merry motley +shipload. 'Twelve persons, actors as well as actresses, a prompter, +a machinist, a storekeeper, eight domestics, four chambermaids, two +nurses, children of every age, cats, dogs, monkeys, parrots, birds, +pigeons, and a lamb; it was another Noah's ark.' The young poet felt +at home; how could a comic poet feel otherwise? They laughed, they +sang, they danced; they ate and drank, and played at cards. 'Macaroni! +Every one fell on it, and three dishes were devoured. We had also +alamode beef, cold fowl, a loin of veal, a dessert, and excellent +wine. What a charming dinner! No cheer like a good appetite.' Their +harmony, however, was disturbed. The 'premiere amoureuse,' who, in +spite of her rank and title, was ugly and cross, and required to be +coaxed with cups of chocolate, lost her cat. She tried to kill the +whole boat-load of beasts--cats, dogs, monkeys, parrots, pigeons, even +the lamb stood in danger of her wrath. A regular quarrel ensued, was +somehow set at peace, and all began to laugh again. This is a sample +of Goldoni's youth. Comic pleasures, comic dangers; nothing deep or +lasting, but light and shadow cheerfully distributed, clouds lowering +with storm, a distant growl of thunder, then a gleam of light and +sunshine breaking overhead. He gets articled to an attorney at Venice, +then goes to study law at Pavia; studies society instead, and flirts, +and finally is expelled for writing satires. Then he takes a turn at +medicine with his father in Friuli, and acts as clerk to the criminal +chancellor at Chiozza. + +Every employment seems easy to him, but he really cares for none but +literature. He spends all his spare time in reading and in amusements, +and begins to write a tragic opera. This proves, however, eminently +unsuccessful, and he burns it in a comic fit of anger. One laughable +love-affair in which he engaged at Udine exhibits his adventures +in their truly comic aspect. It reminds us of the scene in 'Don +Giovanni,' where Leporello personates the Don and deceives Donna +Elvira. Goldoni had often noticed a beautiful young lady at church +and on the public drives: she was attended by a waiting-maid, who soon +perceived that her mistress had excited the young man's admiration, +and who promised to befriend him in his suit. Goldoni was told to +repair at night to the palace of his mistress, and to pour his passion +forth beneath her window. Impatiently he waited for the trysting +hour, conned his love-sentences, and gloried in the romance of the +adventure. When night came, he found the window, and a veiled figure +of a lady in the moonlight, whom he supposed at once to be his +mistress. Her he eloquently addressed in the true style of Romeo's +rapture, and she answered him. Night after night this happened, +but sometimes he was a little troubled by a sound of ill-suppressed +laughter interrupting the _tete-a-tete_. Meanwhile Teresa, +the waiting-maid, received from his hands costly presents for her +mistress, and made him promises on her part in exchange. As she proved +unable to fulfil them, Goldoni grew suspicious, and at last discovered +that the veiled figure to whom he had poured out his tale of love was +none other than Teresa, and that the laughter had proceeded from +her mistress, whom the faithless waiting-maid regaled at her lover's +expense. Thus ended this ridiculous matter. Goldoni was not, however, +cured by his experience. One other love-affair rendered Udine too hot +to hold him, and in consequence of a third he had to fly from Venice +just when he was beginning to flourish there. At length he married +comfortably and suitably, settling down into a quiet life with a woman +whom, if he did not love her with passion, he at least respected and +admired. Goldoni, in fact, had no real passion in his nature. + +Alfieri, on the other hand, was given over to volcanic ebullitions of +the most ungovernable hate and affection, joy and sorrow. The chains +of love which Goldoni courted so willingly, Alfieri regarded with +the greatest shyness. But while Goldoni healed his heart of all its +bruises in a week or so, the tragic poet bore about him wounds that +would not close. He enumerates three serious passions which possessed +his whole nature, and at times deprived him almost of his reason. A +Dutch lady first won his heart, and when he had to leave her, Alfieri +suffered so intensely that he never opened his lips during the course +of a long journey through Germany, Switzerland, and Piedmont. Fevers, +and suicides attempted but interrupted, marked the termination of this +tragic amour. His second passion had for its object an English lady, +with whose injured husband he fought a duel, although his collarbone +was broken at the time. The lady proved unworthy of Alfieri as well +as of her husband, and the poet left her in a most deplorable state +of hopelessness and intellectual prostration. At last he formed +a permanent affection for the wife of Prince Charles Edward, the +Countess of Albany, in close friendship with whom he lived after her +husband's death. The society of this lady gave him perfect happiness; +but it was founded on her lofty beauty, the pathos of her situation, +and her intellectual qualities. Melpomene presided at this union, +while Thalia blessed the nuptials of Goldoni. How characteristic +also were the adventures which these two pairs of lovers encountered! +Goldoni once carried his wife upon his back across two rivers in their +flight from the Spanish to the Austrian camp at Rimini, laughing and +groaning, and perceiving the humour of his situation all the time. +Alfieri, on an occasion of even greater difficulty, was stopped with +his illustrious friend at the gates of Paris in 1792. They were flying +in post-chaises, with their servants and their baggage, from the +devoted city, when a troop of _sansculottes_ rushed on them, +surged around the carriage, called them aristocrats, and tried to drag +them off to prison. Alfieri, with his tall gaunt figure, pallid face, +and red voluminous hair, stormed, raged, and raised his deep bass +voice above the tumult. For half an hour he fought with them, then +made his coachmen gallop through the gates, and scarcely halted till +they got to Gravelines. By this prompt movement they escaped arrest +and death at Paris. These two scenes would make agreeable companion +pictures: Goldoni staggering beneath his wife across the muddy bed +of an Italian stream--the smiling writer of agreeable plays, with his +half-tearful helpmate ludicrous in her disasters; Alfieri mad with +rage among Parisian Maenads, his princess quaking in her carriage, the +air hoarse with cries, and death and safety trembling in the balance. +It is no wonder that the one man wrote 'La Donna di Garbo' and the +'Cortese Veneziano,' while the other was inditing essays on Tyranny +and dramas of 'Antigone,' 'Timoleon,' and 'Brutus.' + +The difference between the men is seen no less remarkably in regard +to courage. Alfieri was a reckless rider, and astonished even English +huntsmen by his desperate leaps. In one of them he fell and broke +his collar-bone, but not the less he held his tryst with a fair lady, +climbed her park gates, and fought a duel with her husband. Goldoni +was a pantaloon for cowardice. In the room of an inn at Desenzano +which he occupied together with a female fellow-traveller, an attempt +was made to rob them by a thief at night. All Goldoni was able to do +consisted in crying out for help, and the lady called him 'M. l'Abbe' +ever after for his want of pluck. Goldoni must have been by far the +more agreeable of the two. In all his changes from town to town of +Italy he found amusement and brought gaiety. The sights, the theatres, +the society aroused his curiosity. He trembled with excitement at the +performance of his pieces, made friends with the actors, taught them, +and wrote parts to suit their qualities. At Pisa he attended as +a stranger the meeting of the Arcadian Academy, and at its close +attracted all attention to himself by his clever improvisation. He was +in truth a ready-witted man, pliable, full of resource, bred half a +valet, half a Roman _graeculus_. Alfieri saw more of Europe than +Goldoni. France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, England, Spain, all +parts of Italy he visited with restless haste. From land to land he +flew, seeking no society, enjoying nothing, dashing from one inn door +to another with his servants and his carriages, and thinking chiefly +of the splendid stud of horses which he took about with him upon his +travels. He was a lonely, stiff, self-engrossed, indomitable man. He +could not rest at home: he could not bear to be the vassal of a king +and breathe the air of courts. So he lived always on the wing, and +ended by exiling himself from Sardinia in order to escape the trammels +of paternal government. As for his tragedies, he wrote them to win +laurels from posterity. He never cared to see them acted; he bullied +even his printers and correctors; he cast a glove down in defiance +of his critics. Goldoni sought the smallest meed of approbation. It +pleased him hugely in his old age to be Italian master to a French +princess. Alfieri openly despised the public. Goldoni wrote because he +liked to write; Alfieri, for the sake of proving his superior powers. +Against Alfieri's hatred of Turin and its trivial solemnities, we +have to set Goldoni's love of Venice and its petty pleasures. He would +willingly have drunk chocolate and played at dominoes or picquet all +his life on the Piazza di San Marco, when Alfieri was crossing the +sierras on his Andalusian horse, and devouring a frugal meal of rice +in solitude. Goldoni glided through life an easy man, with genial, +venial thoughts; with a clear, gay, gentle temper; a true sense of +what is good and just; and a heart that loved diffusively, if not too +warmly. Many were the checks and obstacles thrown on his path; but +round them or above them he passed nimbly, without scar or scathe. +Poverty went close behind him, but he kept her off, and never felt +the pinch of need. Alfieri strained and strove against the barriers +of fate; a sombre, rugged man, proud, candid, and self-confident, who +broke or bent all opposition; now moving solemnly with tragic pomp, +now dashing passionately forward by the might of will. Goldoni drew +his inspirations from the moment and surrounding circumstances. +Alfieri pursued an ideal, slowly formed, but strongly fashioned and +resolutely followed. Of wealth he had plenty and to spare, but +he disregarded it, and was a Stoic in his mode of life. He was an +unworldly man, and hated worldliness. Goldoni, but for his authorship, +would certainly have grown a prosperous advocate, and died of gout +in Venice. Goldoni liked smart clothes; Alfieri went always in +black. Goldoni's fits of spleen--for he _was_ melancholy now and +then--lasted a day or two, and disappeared before a change of place. +Alfieri dragged his discontent about with him all over Europe, and let +it interrupt his work and mar his intellect for many months together. +Alfieri was a patriot, and hated France. Goldoni never speaks +of politics, and praises Paris as a heaven on earth. The genial +moralising of the latter appears childish by the side of Alfieri's +terse philosophy and pregnant remarks on the development of character. +What suits the page of Plautus would look poor in 'Oedipus' or +'Agamemnon.' Goldoni's memoirs are diffuse and flippant in their light +French dress. They seem written to please. Alfieri's Italian style +marches with dignity and Latin terseness. He rarely condescends to +smile. He writes to instruct the world and to satisfy himself. Grim +humour sometimes flashes out, as when he tells the story of the Order +of Homer, which he founded. How different from Goldoni's naive account +of his little ovation in the theatre at Paris! + +But it would be idle to carry on this comparison, already tedious. The +life of Goldoni was one long scene of shifts and jests, of frequent +triumphs and some failures, of lessons hard at times, but kindly. +Passions and _ennui_, flashes of heroic patriotism, constant +suffering and stoical endurance, art and love idealised, fill up the +life of Alfieri. Goldoni clung much to his fellow-men, and shared +their pains and pleasures. Alfieri spent many of his years in almost +absolute solitude. On the whole character and deeds of the one man was +stamped Comedy: the other was own son of Tragedy. + +If, after reading the autobiographies of Alfieri and Goldoni, we turn +to the perusal of their plays, we shall perceive that there is no +better commentary on the works of an artist than his life, and no +better life than one written by himself. The old style of criticism, +which strove to separate an author's productions from his life, and +even from the age in which he lived, to set up an arbitrary canon +of taste, and to select one or two great painters or poets as ideals +because they seemed to illustrate that canon, has passed away. We are +beginning to feel that art is a part of history and of physiology. +That is to say, the artist's work can only be rightly understood by +studying his age and temperament. Goldoni's versatility and want of +depth induced him to write sparkling comedies. The merry life men +passed at Venice in its years of decadence proved favourable to his +genius. Alfieri's melancholy and passionate qualities, fostered in +solitude, and aggravated by a tyranny he could not bear, led him +irresistibly to tragic composition. Though a noble, his nobility only +added to his pride, and insensibly his intellect had been imbued with +the democratic sentiments which were destined to shake Europe in his +lifetime. This, in itself, was a tragic circumstance, bringing him +into close sympathy with the Brutus, the Prometheus, the Timoleon of +ancient history. Goldoni's _bourgeoisie_, in the atmosphere of +which he was born and bred, was essentially comic. The true comedy +of manners, which is quite distinct from Shakspere's fancy or from +Aristophanic satire, is always laid in middle life. Though Goldoni +tried to write tragedies, they were unimpassioned, dull, and tame. He +lacked altogether the fire, high-wrought nobility of sentiment, and +sense of form essential for tragic art. On the other hand, Alfieri +composed some comedies before his death which were devoid of humour, +grace, and lightness. A strange elephantine eccentricity is their +utmost claim to comic character. Indeed, the temper of Alfieri, ever +in extremes, led him even to exaggerate the qualities of tragedy. +He carried its severity to a pitch of dulness and monotony. His +chiaroscuro was too strong; virtue and villany appearing in pure +black and white upon his pages. His hatred of tyrants induced him to +transgress the rules of probability, so that it has been well said +that if his wicked kings had really had such words of scorn and hatred +thrown at them by their victims, they were greatly to be pitied. On +the other hand, his pithy laconisms have often a splendidly tragical +effect. There is nothing in the modern drama more rhetorically +impressive, though spasmodic, than the well-known dialogue between +Antigone and Creon:-- + +'_Cr_. Scegliesti? + +'_Ant_. Ho scelto. + +'_Cr_. Emon? + +'_Ant_. Morte. + +'_Cr_. L'avrai!' + +Goldoni's comedies, again, have not enough of serious thought or of +true creative imagination to be works of high art. They lean too much +to the side of farce; they have none of the tragic salt which gives +a dignity to Tartuffe. They are, in a word, almost too enethistically +comic. + +The contrast between these authors might lead us to raise the question +long ago discussed by Socrates at Agathon's banquet--Can the same man +write both comedies and tragedies? We in England are accustomed to +read the serious and comic plays of Shakspere, Fletcher, Jonson, and +to think that one poet could excel in either branch. The custom of +the Elizabethan theatre obliged this double authorship; yet it must be +confessed that Shakspere's comedies are not such comedies as Greek +or Romnan or French critics would admit. They are works of the purest +imagination, wholly free from the laws of this world; while the +tragedies of Fletcher have a melodramatic air equally at variance with +the classical Melpomene. It may very seriously be doubted whether the +same mind could produce, with equal power, a comedy like the 'Cortese +Veneziano' and a tragedy like Alfieri's 'Brutus.' At any rate, +returning to our old position, we find in these two men the very +opposite conditions of dramatic genius. They are, as it were, +specimens prepared by Nature for the instruction of those who analyse +genius in its relations to temperament, to life, and to external +circumstances. + + * * * * * + + + + FOOTNOTES: + + [Footnote 1: This Essay was written in 1866, and published + in 1867. Reprinting it in 1879, after eighteen months spent + continuously in one high valley of the Grisons, I feel how + slight it is. For some amends, I take this opportunity of + printing at the end of it a description of Davos in winter.] + + [Footnote 2: See, however, what is said about Leo Battista + Alberti in the sketch of Rimini in the second series.] + + [Footnote 3: The Grisons surname Campell may derive from the + Romansch Campo Bello. The founder of the house was one + Kaspar Campell, who in the first half of the sixteenth + century preached the Reformed religion in the Engadine.] + + [Footnote 4: I have translated and printed at the end of the + second volume some sonnets of Petrarch as a kind of palinode + for this impertinence.] + + [Footnote 5: This begs the question whether [Greek: + leukoion] does not properly mean snowflake, or some such + flower. Violets in Greece, however, were often used for + crowns: [Greek: iostephanos] is the epithet of Homer for + Aphrodite, and of Aristophanes for Athens.] + + [Footnote 6: Olive-trees must be studied at Mentone or San + Remo, in Corfu, at Tivoli, on the coast between Syracuse and + Catania, or on the lowlands of Apulia. The stunted but + productive trees of the Rhone valley, for example, are no + real measure of the beauty they can exhibit.] + + [Footnote 7: Dante, Par. xi. 106.] + + [Footnote 8: It is but just to Doctor Pasta to remark that + the above sentence was written more than ten years ago. + Since then he has enlarged and improved his house in many + ways, furnished it more luxuriously, made paths through the + beechwoods round it, and brought excellent water at a great + cost from a spring near the summit of the mountain. A more + charming residence from early spring to late autumn can + scarcely be discovered.] + + [Footnote 9: 'The down upon their cheeks and chin was + yellower than helichrysus, and their breasts gleamed whiter + far than thou, O Moon.'] + + [Footnote 10: 'Thy tresses have I oftentimes compared to + Ceres' yellow autumn sheaves, wreathed in curled bands + around thy head.'] + + [Footnote 11: Both these and the large frescoes in the choir + have been chromolithographed by the Arundel Society.] + + [Footnote 12: I cannot see clearly through these + transactions, the muddy waters of decadent Italian plot and + counterplot being inscrutable to senses assisted by nothing + more luminous than mere tradition.] + + [Footnote 13: Those who are interested in such matters may + profitably compare this description of a planned murder in + the sixteenth century with the account written by Ambrogio + Tremazzi of the way in which he tracked and slew Troilo + Orsini in Paris in the year 1577. It is given by Gnoli in + his _Vittoria Accoramboni_, pp. 404-414.] + + [Footnote 14: So far as I can discover, the only church of + San Spirito in Venice was a building on the island of San + Spirito, erected by Sansavino, which belonged to the + Sestiere di S. Croce, and which was suppressed in 1656. Its + plate and the fine pictures which Titian painted there were + transferred at that date to S.M. della Salute. I cannot help + inferring that either Bibboni's memory failed him, or that + his words were wrongly understood by printer or amanuensis. + If for S. Spirito we substitute S. Stefano, the account + would be intelligible.] + + * * * * * + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches and Studies in Italy and +Greece, by John Addington Symonds + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES IN ITALY *** + +***** This file should be named 14972.txt or 14972.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/9/7/14972/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Leonard Johnson and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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