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diff --git a/old/picit10h.htm b/old/picit10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b772861 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/picit10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7231 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> +<title>Pictures from Italy</title> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">Pictures from Italy, by Charles Dickens</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pictures from Italy, by Charles Dickens +(#7 in our series by Charles Dickens) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Pictures from Italy + +Author: Charles Dickens + +Release Date: September, 1996 [EBook #650] +[This file was first posted on September 17, 1996] +[Most recently updated: September 2, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII +</pre> +<p> +<a name="startoftext"></a> +Transcribed from the 1913 Chapman & Hall, Ltd. edition by David +Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +PICTURES FROM ITALY<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +THE READER’S PASSPORT<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +If the readers of this volume will be so kind as to take their credentials +for the different places which are the subject of its author’s +reminiscences, from the Author himself, perhaps they may visit them, +in fancy, the more agreeably, and with a better understanding of what +they are to expect.<br> +<br> +Many books have been written upon Italy, affording many means of studying +the history of that interesting country, and the innumerable associations +entwined about it. I make but little reference to that stock of +information; not at all regarding it as a necessary consequence of my +having had recourse to the storehouse for my own benefit, that I should +reproduce its easily accessible contents before the eyes of my readers.<br> +<br> +Neither will there be found, in these pages, any grave examination into +the government or misgovernment of any portion of the country. +No visitor of that beautiful land can fail to have a strong conviction +on the subject; but as I chose when residing there, a Foreigner, to +abstain from the discussion of any such questions with any order of +Italians, so I would rather not enter on the inquiry now. During +my twelve months’ occupation of a house at Genoa, I never found +that authorities constitutionally jealous were distrustful of me; and +I should be sorry to give them occasion to regret their free courtesy, +either to myself or any of my countrymen.<br> +<br> +There is, probably, not a famous Picture or Statue in all Italy, but +could be easily buried under a mountain of printed paper devoted to +dissertations on it. I do not, therefore, though an earnest admirer +of Painting and Sculpture, expatiate at any length on famous Pictures +and Statues.<br> +<br> +This Book is a series of faint reflections - mere shadows in the water +- of places to which the imaginations of most people are attracted in +a greater or less degree, on which mine had dwelt for years, and which +have some interest for all. The greater part of the descriptions +were written on the spot, and sent home, from time to time, in private +letters. I do not mention the circumstance as an excuse for any +defects they may present, for it would be none; but as a guarantee to +the Reader that they were at least penned in the fulness of the subject, +and with the liveliest impressions of novelty and freshness.<br> +<br> +If they have ever a fanciful and idle air, perhaps the reader will suppose +them written in the shade of a Sunny Day, in the midst of the objects +of which they treat, and will like them none the worse for having such +influences of the country upon them.<br> +<br> +I hope I am not likely to be misunderstood by Professors of the Roman +Catholic faith, on account of anything contained in these pages. +I have done my best, in one of my former productions, to do justice +to them; and I trust, in this, they will do justice to me. When +I mention any exhibition that impressed me as absurd or disagreeable, +I do not seek to connect it, or recognise it as necessarily connected +with, any essentials of their creed. When I treat of the ceremonies +of the Holy Week, I merely treat of their effect, and do not challenge +the good and learned Dr. Wiseman’s interpretation of their meaning. +When I hint a dislike of nunneries for young girls who abjure the world +before they have ever proved or known it; or doubt the <i>ex officio</i> +sanctity of all Priests and Friars; I do no more than many conscientious +Catholics both abroad and at home.<br> +<br> +I have likened these Pictures to shadows in the water, and would fain +hope that I have, nowhere, stirred the water so roughly, as to mar the +shadows. I could never desire to be on better terms with all my +friends than now, when distant mountains rise, once more, in my path. +For I need not hesitate to avow, that, bent on correcting a brief mistake +I made, not long ago, in disturbing the old relations between myself +and my readers, and departing for a moment from my old pursuits, I am +about to resume them, joyfully, in Switzerland; where during another +year of absence, I can at once work out the themes I have now in my +mind, without interruption: and while I keep my English audience within +speaking distance, extend my knowledge of a noble country, inexpressibly +attractive to me. <a name="citation1"></a><a href="#footnote1">{1}</a><br> +<br> +This book is made as accessible as possible, because it would be a great +pleasure to me if I could hope, through its means, to compare impressions +with some among the multitudes who will hereafter visit the scenes described +with interest and delight.<br> +<br> +And I have only now, in passport wise, to sketch my reader’s portrait, +which I hope may be thus supposititiously traced for either sex:<br> +<br> +<font face="Courier New,Courier,Mono">Complexion Fair.<br> +Eyes Very cheerful.<br> +Nose Not supercilious.<br> +Mouth Smiling.<br> +Visage Beaming.<br> +General Expression Extremely agreeable.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +</font>CHAPTER I - GOING THROUGH FRANCE<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +On a fine Sunday morning in the Midsummer time and weather of eighteen +hundred and forty-four, it was, my good friend, when - don’t be +alarmed; not when two travellers might have been observed slowly making +their way over that picturesque and broken ground by which the first +chapter of a Middle Aged novel is usually attained - but when an English +travelling-carriage of considerable proportions, fresh from the shady +halls of the Pantechnicon near Belgrave Square, London, was observed +(by a very small French soldier; for I saw him look at it) to issue +from the gate of the Hôtel Meurice in the Rue Rivoli at Paris.<br> +<br> +I am no more bound to explain why the English family travelling by this +carriage, inside and out, should be starting for Italy on a Sunday morning, +of all good days in the week, than I am to assign a reason for all the +little men in France being soldiers, and all the big men postilions; +which is the invariable rule. But, they had some sort of reason +for what they did, I have no doubt; and their reason for being there +at all, was, as you know, that they were going to live in fair Genoa +for a year; and that the head of the family purposed, in that space +of time, to stroll about, wherever his restless humour carried him.<br> +<br> +And it would have been small comfort to me to have explained to the +population of Paris generally, that I was that Head and Chief; and not +the radiant embodiment of good humour who sat beside me in the person +of a French Courier - best of servants and most beaming of men! +Truth to say, he looked a great deal more patriarchal than I, who, in +the shadow of his portly presence, dwindled down to no account at all.<br> +<br> +There was, of course, very little in the aspect of Paris - as we rattled +near the dismal Morgue and over the Pont Neuf - to reproach us for our +Sunday travelling. The wine-shops (every second house) were driving +a roaring trade; awnings were spreading, and chairs and tables arranging, +outside the cafés, preparatory to the eating of ices, and drinking +of cool liquids, later in the day; shoe-blacks were busy on the bridges; +shops were open; carts and waggons clattered to and fro; the narrow, +up-hill, funnel-like streets across the River, were so many dense perspectives +of crowd and bustle, parti-coloured nightcaps, tobacco-pipes, blouses, +large boots, and shaggy heads of hair; nothing at that hour denoted +a day of rest, unless it were the appearance, here and there, of a family +pleasure-party, crammed into a bulky old lumbering cab; or of some contemplative +holiday-maker in the freest and easiest dishabille, leaning out of a +low garret window, watching the drying of his newly polished shoes on +the little parapet outside (if a gentleman), or the airing of her stockings +in the sun (if a lady), with calm anticipation.<br> +<br> +Once clear of the never-to-be-forgotten-or-forgiven pavement which surrounds +Paris, the first three days of travelling towards Marseilles are quiet +and monotonous enough. To Sens. To Avallon. To Chalons. +A sketch of one day’s proceedings is a sketch of all three; and +here it is.<br> +<br> +We have four horses, and one postilion, who has a very long whip, and +drives his team, something like the Courier of Saint Petersburgh in +the circle at Astley’s or Franconi’s: only he sits his own +horse instead of standing on him. The immense jack-boots worn +by these postilions, are sometimes a century or two old; and are so +ludicrously disproportionate to the wearer’s foot, that the spur, +which is put where his own heel comes, is generally halfway up the leg +of the boots. The man often comes out of the stable-yard, with +his whip in his hand and his shoes on, and brings out, in both hands, +one boot at a time, which he plants on the ground by the side of his +horse, with great gravity, until everything is ready. When it +is - and oh Heaven! the noise they make about it! - he gets into the +boots, shoes and all, or is hoisted into them by a couple of friends; +adjusts the rope harness, embossed by the labours of innumerable pigeons +in the stables; makes all the horses kick and plunge; cracks his whip +like a madman; shouts ‘En route - Hi!’ and away we go. +He is sure to have a contest with his horse before we have gone very +far; and then he calls him a Thief, and a Brigand, and a Pig, and what +not; and beats him about the head as if he were made of wood.<br> +<br> +There is little more than one variety in the appearance of the country, +for the first two days. From a dreary plain, to an interminable +avenue, and from an interminable avenue to a dreary plain again. +Plenty of vines there are in the open fields, but of a short low kind, +and not trained in festoons, but about straight sticks. Beggars +innumerable there are, everywhere; but an extraordinarily scanty population, +and fewer children than I ever encountered. I don’t believe +we saw a hundred children between Paris and Chalons. Queer old +towns, draw-bridged and walled: with odd little towers at the angles, +like grotesque faces, as if the wall had put a mask on, and were staring +down into the moat; other strange little towers, in gardens and fields, +and down lanes, and in farm-yards: all alone, and always round, with +a peaked roof, and never used for any purpose at all; ruinous buildings +of all sorts; sometimes an hôtel de ville, sometimes a guard-house, +sometimes a dwelling-house, sometimes a château with a rank garden, +prolific in dandelion, and watched over by extinguisher-topped turrets, +and blink-eyed little casements; are the standard objects, repeated +over and over again. Sometimes we pass a village inn, with a crumbling +wall belonging to it, and a perfect town of out-houses; and painted +over the gateway, ‘Stabling for Sixty Horses;’ as indeed +there might be stabling for sixty score, were there any horses to be +stabled there, or anybody resting there, or anything stirring about +the place but a dangling bush, indicative of the wine inside: which +flutters idly in the wind, in lazy keeping with everything else, and +certainly is never in a green old age, though always so old as to be +dropping to pieces. And all day long, strange little narrow waggons, +in strings of six or eight, bringing cheese from Switzerland, and frequently +in charge, the whole line, of one man, or even boy - and he very often +asleep in the foremost cart - come jingling past: the horses drowsily +ringing the bells upon their harness, and looking as if they thought +(no doubt they do) their great blue woolly furniture, of immense weight +and thickness, with a pair of grotesque horns growing out of the collar, +very much too warm for the Midsummer weather.<br> +<br> +Then, there is the Diligence, twice or thrice a-day; with the dusty +outsides in blue frocks, like butchers; and the insides in white nightcaps; +and its cabriolet head on the roof, nodding and shaking, like an idiot’s +head; and its Young-France passengers staring out of window, with beards +down to their waists, and blue spectacles awfully shading their warlike +eyes, and very big sticks clenched in their National grasp. Also +the Malle Poste, with only a couple of passengers, tearing along at +a real good dare-devil pace, and out of sight in no time. Steady +old Curés come jolting past, now and then, in such ramshackle, +rusty, musty, clattering coaches as no Englishman would believe in; +and bony women dawdle about in solitary places, holding cows by ropes +while they feed, or digging and hoeing or doing field-work of a more +laborious kind, or representing real shepherdesses with their flocks +- to obtain an adequate idea of which pursuit and its followers, in +any country, it is only necessary to take any pastoral poem, or picture, +and imagine to yourself whatever is most exquisitely and widely unlike +the descriptions therein contained.<br> +<br> +You have been travelling along, stupidly enough, as you generally do +in the last stage of the day; and the ninety-six bells upon the horses +- twenty-four apiece - have been ringing sleepily in your ears for half +an hour or so; and it has become a very jog-trot, monotonous, tiresome +sort of business; and you have been thinking deeply about the dinner +you will have at the next stage; when, down at the end of the long avenue +of trees through which you are travelling, the first indication of a +town appears, in the shape of some straggling cottages: and the carriage +begins to rattle and roll over a horribly uneven pavement. As +if the equipage were a great firework, and the mere sight of a smoking +cottage chimney had lighted it, instantly it begins to crack and splutter, +as if the very devil were in it. Crack, crack, crack, crack. +Crack-crack-crack. Crick-crack. Crick-crack. Helo! +Hola! Vite! Voleur! Brigand! Hi hi hi! +En r-r-r-r-r-route! Whip, wheels, driver, stones, beggars, children, +crack, crack, crack; helo! hola! charité pour l’amour de +Dieu! crick-crack-crick-crack; crick, crick, crick; bump, jolt, crack, +bump, crick-crack; round the corner, up the narrow street, down the +paved hill on the other side; in the gutter; bump, bump; jolt, jog, +crick, crick, crick; crack, crack, crack; into the shop-windows on the +left-hand side of the street, preliminary to a sweeping turn into the +wooden archway on the right; rumble, rumble, rumble; clatter, clatter, +clatter; crick, crick, crick; and here we are in the yard of the Hôtel +de l’Ecu d’Or; used up, gone out, smoking, spent, exhausted; +but sometimes making a false start unexpectedly, with nothing coming +of it - like a firework to the last!<br> +<br> +The landlady of the Hôtel de l’Ecu d’Or is here; and +the landlord of the Hôtel de l’Ecu d’Or is here; and +the femme de chambre of the Hôtel de l’Ecu d’Or is +here; and a gentleman in a glazed cap, with a red beard like a bosom +friend, who is staying at the Hôtel de l’Ecu d’Or, +is here; and Monsieur le Curé is walking up and down in a corner +of the yard by himself, with a shovel hat upon his head, and a black +gown on his back, and a book in one hand, and an umbrella in the other; +and everybody, except Monsieur le Curé, is open-mouthed and open-eyed, +for the opening of the carriage-door. The landlord of the Hôtel +de l’Ecu d’Or, dotes to that extent upon the Courier, that +he can hardly wait for his coming down from the box, but embraces his +very legs and boot-heels as he descends. ‘My Courier! +My brave Courier! My friend! My brother!’ The +landlady loves him, the femme de chambre blesses him, the garçon +worships him. The Courier asks if his letter has been received? +It has, it has. Are the rooms prepared? They are, they are. +The best rooms for my noble Courier. The rooms of state for my +gallant Courier; the whole house is at the service of my best of friends! +He keeps his hand upon the carriage-door, and asks some other question +to enhance the expectation. He carries a green leathern purse +outside his coat, suspended by a belt. The idlers look at it; +one touches it. It is full of five-franc pieces. Murmurs +of admiration are heard among the boys. The landlord falls upon +the Courier’s neck, and folds him to his breast. He is so +much fatter than he was, he says! He looks so rosy and so well!<br> +<br> +The door is opened. Breathless expectation. The lady of +the family gets out. Ah sweet lady! Beautiful lady! +The sister of the lady of the family gets out. Great Heaven, Ma’amselle +is charming! First little boy gets out. Ah, what a beautiful +little boy! First little girl gets out. Oh, but this is +an enchanting child! Second little girl gets out. The landlady, +yielding to the finest impulse of our common nature, catches her up +in her arms! Second little boy gets out. Oh, the sweet boy! +Oh, the tender little family! The baby is handed out. Angelic +baby! The baby has topped everything. All the rapture is +expended on the baby! Then the two nurses tumble out; and the +enthusiasm swelling into madness, the whole family are swept up-stairs +as on a cloud; while the idlers press about the carriage, and look into +it, and walk round it, and touch it. For it is something to touch +a carriage that has held so many people. It is a legacy to leave +one’s children.<br> +<br> +The rooms are on the first floor, except the nursery for the night, +which is a great rambling chamber, with four or five beds in it: through +a dark passage, up two steps, down four, past a pump, across a balcony, +and next door to the stable. The other sleeping apartments are +large and lofty; each with two small bedsteads, tastefully hung, like +the windows, with red and white drapery. The sitting-room is famous. +Dinner is already laid in it for three; and the napkins are folded in +cocked-hat fashion. The floors are of red tile. There are +no carpets, and not much furniture to speak of; but there is abundance +of looking-glass, and there are large vases under glass shades, filled +with artificial flowers; and there are plenty of clocks. The whole +party are in motion. The brave Courier, in particular, is everywhere: +looking after the beds, having wine poured down his throat by his dear +brother the landlord, and picking up green cucumbers - always cucumbers; +Heaven knows where he gets them - with which he walks about, one in +each hand, like truncheons.<br> +<br> +Dinner is announced. There is very thin soup; there are very large +loaves - one apiece; a fish; four dishes afterwards; some poultry afterwards; +a dessert afterwards; and no lack of wine. There is not much in +the dishes; but they are very good, and always ready instantly. +When it is nearly dark, the brave Courier, having eaten the two cucumbers, +sliced up in the contents of a pretty large decanter of oil, and another +of vinegar, emerges from his retreat below, and proposes a visit to +the Cathedral, whose massive tower frowns down upon the court-yard of +the inn. Off we go; and very solemn and grand it is, in the dim +light: so dim at last, that the polite, old, lanthorn-jawed Sacristan +has a feeble little bit of candle in his hand, to grope among the tombs +with - and looks among the grim columns, very like a lost ghost who +is searching for his own.<br> +<br> +Underneath the balcony, when we return, the inferior servants of the +inn are supping in the open air, at a great table; the dish, a stew +of meat and vegetables, smoking hot, and served in the iron cauldron +it was boiled in. They have a pitcher of thin wine, and are very +merry; merrier than the gentleman with the red beard, who is playing +billiards in the light room on the left of the yard, where shadows, +with cues in their hands, and cigars in their mouths, cross and recross +the window, constantly. Still the thin Curé walks up and +down alone, with his book and umbrella. And there he walks, and +there the billiard-balls rattle, long after we are fast asleep.<br> +<br> +We are astir at six next morning. It is a delightful day, shaming +yesterday’s mud upon the carriage, if anything could shame a carriage, +in a land where carriages are never cleaned. Everybody is brisk; +and as we finish breakfast, the horses come jingling into the yard from +the Post-house. Everything taken out of the carriage is put back +again. The brave Courier announces that all is ready, after walking +into every room, and looking all round it, to be certain that nothing +is left behind. Everybody gets in. Everybody connected with +the Hôtel de l’Ecu d’Or is again enchanted. +The brave Courier runs into the house for a parcel containing cold fowl, +sliced ham, bread, and biscuits, for lunch; hands it into the coach; +and runs back again.<br> +<br> +What has he got in his hand now? More cucumbers? No. +A long strip of paper. It’s the bill.<br> +<br> +The brave Courier has two belts on, this morning: one supporting the +purse: another, a mighty good sort of leathern bottle, filled to the +throat with the best light Bordeaux wine in the house. He never +pays the bill till this bottle is full. Then he disputes it.<br> +<br> +He disputes it now, violently. He is still the landlord’s +brother, but by another father or mother. He is not so nearly +related to him as he was last night. The landlord scratches his +head. The brave Courier points to certain figures in the bill, +and intimates that if they remain there, the Hôtel de l’Ecu +d’Or is thenceforth and for ever an hôtel de l’Ecu +de cuivre. The landlord goes into a little counting-house. +The brave Courier follows, forces the bill and a pen into his hand, +and talks more rapidly than ever. The landlord takes the pen. +The Courier smiles. The landlord makes an alteration. The +Courier cuts a joke. The landlord is affectionate, but not weakly +so. He bears it like a man. He shakes hands with his brave +brother, but he don’t hug him. Still, he loves his brother; +for he knows that he will be returning that way, one of these fine days, +with another family, and he foresees that his heart will yearn towards +him again. The brave Courier traverses all round the carriage +once, looks at the drag, inspects the wheels, jumps up, gives the word, +and away we go!<br> +<br> +It is market morning. The market is held in the little square +outside in front of the cathedral. It is crowded with men and +women, in blue, in red, in green, in white; with canvassed stalls; and +fluttering merchandise. The country people are grouped about, +with their clean baskets before them. Here, the lace-sellers; +there, the butter and egg-sellers; there, the fruit-sellers; there, +the shoe-makers. The whole place looks as if it were the stage +of some great theatre, and the curtain had just run up, for a picturesque +ballet. And there is the cathedral to boot: scene-like: all grim, +and swarthy, and mouldering, and cold: just splashing the pavement in +one place with faint purple drops, as the morning sun, entering by a +little window on the eastern side, struggles through some stained glass +panes, on the western.<br> +<br> +In five minutes we have passed the iron cross, with a little ragged +kneeling-place of turf before it, in the outskirts of the town; and +are again upon the road.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER II - LYONS, THE RHONE, AND THE GOBLIN OF AVIGNON<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +Chalons is a fair resting-place, in right of its good inn on the bank +of the river, and the little steamboats, gay with green and red paint, +that come and go upon it: which make up a pleasant and refreshing scene, +after the dusty roads. But, unless you would like to dwell on +an enormous plain, with jagged rows of irregular poplars on it, that +look in the distance like so many combs with broken teeth: and unless +you would like to pass your life without the possibility of going up-hill, +or going up anything but stairs: you would hardly approve of Chalons +as a place of residence.<br> +<br> +You would probably like it better, however, than Lyons: which you may +reach, if you will, in one of the before-mentioned steamboats, in eight +hours.<br> +<br> +What a city Lyons is! Talk about people feeling, at certain unlucky +times, as if they had tumbled from the clouds! Here is a whole +town that is tumbled, anyhow, out of the sky; having been first caught +up, like other stones that tumble down from that region, out of fens +and barren places, dismal to behold! The two great streets through +which the two great rivers dash, and all the little streets whose name +is Legion, were scorching, blistering, and sweltering. The houses, +high and vast, dirty to excess, rotten as old cheeses, and as thickly +peopled. All up the hills that hem the city in, these houses swarm; +and the mites inside were lolling out of the windows, and drying their +ragged clothes on poles, and crawling in and out at the doors, and coming +out to pant and gasp upon the pavement, and creeping in and out among +huge piles and bales of fusty, musty, stifling goods; and living, or +rather not dying till their time should come, in an exhausted receiver. +Every manufacturing town, melted into one, would hardly convey an impression +of Lyons as it presented itself to me: for all the undrained, unscavengered +qualities of a foreign town, seemed grafted, there, upon the native +miseries of a manufacturing one; and it bears such fruit as I would +go some miles out of my way to avoid encountering again.<br> +<br> +In the cool of the evening: or rather in the faded heat of the day: +we went to see the Cathedral, where divers old women, and a few dogs, +were engaged in contemplation. There was no difference, in point +of cleanliness, between its stone pavement and that of the streets; +and there was a wax saint, in a little box like a berth aboard ship, +with a glass front to it, whom Madame Tussaud would have nothing to +say to, on any terms, and which even Westminster Abbey might be ashamed +of. If you would know all about the architecture of this church, +or any other, its dates, dimensions, endowments, and history, is it +not written in Mr. Murray’s Guide-Book, and may you not read it +there, with thanks to him, as I did!<br> +<br> +For this reason, I should abstain from mentioning the curious clock +in Lyons Cathedral, if it were not for a small mistake I made, in connection +with that piece of mechanism. The keeper of the church was very +anxious it should be shown; partly for the honour of the establishment +and the town; and partly, perhaps, because of his deriving a percentage +from the additional consideration. However that may be, it was +set in motion, and thereupon a host of little doors flew open, and innumerable +little figures staggered out of them, and jerked themselves back again, +with that special unsteadiness of purpose, and hitching in the gait, +which usually attaches to figures that are moved by clock-work. +Meanwhile, the Sacristan stood explaining these wonders, and pointing +them out, severally, with a wand. There was a centre puppet of +the Virgin Mary; and close to her, a small pigeon-hole, out of which +another and a very ill-looking puppet made one of the most sudden plunges +I ever saw accomplished: instantly flopping back again at sight of her, +and banging his little door violently after him. Taking this to +be emblematic of the victory over Sin and Death, and not at all unwilling +to show that I perfectly understood the subject, in anticipation of +the showman, I rashly said, ‘Aha! The Evil Spirit. +To be sure. He is very soon disposed of.’ ‘Pardon, +Monsieur,’ said the Sacristan, with a polite motion of his hand +towards the little door, as if introducing somebody - ‘The Angel +Gabriel!’<br> +<br> +Soon after daybreak next morning, we were steaming down the Arrowy Rhone, +at the rate of twenty miles an hour, in a very dirty vessel full of +merchandise, and with only three or four other passengers for our companions: +among whom, the most remarkable was a silly, old, meek-faced, garlic-eating, +immeasurably polite Chevalier, with a dirty scrap of red ribbon hanging +at his button-hole, as if he had tied it there to remind himself of +something; as Tom Noddy, in the farce, ties knots in his pocket-handkerchief.<br> +<br> +For the last two days, we had seen great sullen hills, the first indications +of the Alps, lowering in the distance. Now, we were rushing on +beside them: sometimes close beside them: sometimes with an intervening +slope, covered with vineyards. Villages and small towns hanging +in mid-air, with great woods of olives seen through the light open towers +of their churches, and clouds moving slowly on, upon the steep acclivity +behind them; ruined castles perched on every eminence; and scattered +houses in the clefts and gullies of the hills; made it very beautiful. +The great height of these, too, making the buildings look so tiny, that +they had all the charm of elegant models; their excessive whiteness, +as contrasted with the brown rocks, or the sombre, deep, dull, heavy +green of the olive-tree; and the puny size, and little slow walk of +the Lilliputian men and women on the bank; made a charming picture. +There were ferries out of number, too; bridges; the famous Pont d’Esprit, +with I don’t know how many arches; towns where memorable wines +are made; Vallence, where Napoleon studied; and the noble river, bringing +at every winding turn, new beauties into view.<br> +<br> +There lay before us, that same afternoon, the broken bridge of Avignon, +and all the city baking in the sun; yet with an under-done-pie-crust, +battlemented wall, that never will be brown, though it bake for centuries.<br> +<br> +The grapes were hanging in clusters in the streets, and the brilliant +Oleander was in full bloom everywhere. The streets are old and +very narrow, but tolerably clean, and shaded by awnings stretched from +house to house. Bright stuffs and handkerchiefs, curiosities, +ancient frames of carved wood, old chairs, ghostly tables, saints, virgins, +angels, and staring daubs of portraits, being exposed for sale beneath, +it was very quaint and lively. All this was much set off, too, +by the glimpses one caught, through a rusty gate standing ajar, of quiet +sleepy court-yards, having stately old houses within, as silent as tombs. +It was all very like one of the descriptions in the Arabian Nights. +The three one-eyed Calenders might have knocked at any one of those +doors till the street rang again, and the porter who persisted in asking +questions - the man who had the delicious purchases put into his basket +in the morning - might have opened it quite naturally.<br> +<br> +After breakfast next morning, we sallied forth to see the lions. +Such a delicious breeze was blowing in, from the north, as made the +walk delightful: though the pavement-stones, and stones of the walls +and houses, were far too hot to have a hand laid on them comfortably.<br> +<br> +We went, first of all, up a rocky height, to the cathedral: where Mass +was performing to an auditory very like that of Lyons, namely, several +old women, a baby, and a very self-possessed dog, who had marked out +for himself a little course or platform for exercise, beginning at the +altar-rails and ending at the door, up and down which constitutional +walk he trotted, during the service, as methodically and calmly, as +any old gentleman out of doors.<br> +<br> +It is a bare old church, and the paintings in the roof are sadly defaced +by time and damp weather; but the sun was shining in, splendidly, through +the red curtains of the windows, and glittering on the altar furniture; +and it looked as bright and cheerful as need be.<br> +<br> +Going apart, in this church, to see some painting which was being executed +in fresco by a French artist and his pupil, I was led to observe more +closely than I might otherwise have done, a great number of votive offerings +with which the walls of the different chapels were profusely hung. +I will not say decorated, for they were very roughly and comically got +up; most likely by poor sign-painters, who eke out their living in that +way. They were all little pictures: each representing some sickness +or calamity from which the person placing it there, had escaped, through +the interposition of his or her patron saint, or of the Madonna; and +I may refer to them as good specimens of the class generally. +They are abundant in Italy.<br> +<br> +In a grotesque squareness of outline, and impossibility of perspective, +they are not unlike the woodcuts in old books; but they were oil-paintings, +and the artist, like the painter of the Primrose family, had not been +sparing of his colours. In one, a lady was having a toe amputated +- an operation which a saintly personage had sailed into the room, upon +a couch, to superintend. In another, a lady was lying in bed, +tucked up very tight and prim, and staring with much composure at a +tripod, with a slop-basin on it; the usual form of washing-stand, and +the only piece of furniture, besides the bedstead, in her chamber. +One would never have supposed her to be labouring under any complaint, +beyond the inconvenience of being miraculously wide awake, if the painter +had not hit upon the idea of putting all her family on their knees in +one corner, with their legs sticking out behind them on the floor, like +boot-trees. Above whom, the Virgin, on a kind of blue divan, promised +to restore the patient. In another case, a lady was in the very +act of being run over, immediately outside the city walls, by a sort +of piano-forte van. But the Madonna was there again. Whether +the supernatural appearance had startled the horse (a bay griffin), +or whether it was invisible to him, I don’t know; but he was galloping +away, ding dong, without the smallest reverence or compunction. +On every picture ‘Ex voto’ was painted in yellow capitals +in the sky.<br> +<br> +Though votive offerings were not unknown in Pagan Temples, and are evidently +among the many compromises made between the false religion and the true, +when the true was in its infancy, I could wish that all the other compromises +were as harmless. Gratitude and Devotion are Christian qualities; +and a grateful, humble, Christian spirit may dictate the observance.<br> +<br> +Hard by the cathedral stands the ancient Palace of the Popes, of which +one portion is now a common jail, and another a noisy barrack: while +gloomy suites of state apartments, shut up and deserted, mock their +own old state and glory, like the embalmed bodies of kings. But +we neither went there, to see state rooms, nor soldiers’ quarters, +nor a common jail, though we dropped some money into a prisoners’ +box outside, whilst the prisoners, themselves, looked through the iron +bars, high up, and watched us eagerly. We went to see the ruins +of the dreadful rooms in which the Inquisition used to sit.<br> +<br> +A little, old, swarthy woman, with a pair of flashing black eyes, - +proof that the world hadn’t conjured down the devil within her, +though it had had between sixty and seventy years to do it in, - came +out of the Barrack Cabaret, of which she was the keeper, with some large +keys in her hands, and marshalled us the way that we should go. +How she told us, on the way, that she was a Government Officer (<i>concierge +du palais a</i> <i>apostolique</i>), and had been, for I don’t +know how many years; and how she had shown these dungeons to princes; +and how she was the best of dungeon demonstrators; and how she had resided +in the palace from an infant, - had been born there, if I recollect +right, - I needn’t relate. But such a fierce, little, rapid, +sparkling, energetic she-devil I never beheld. She was alight +and flaming, all the time. Her action was violent in the extreme. +She never spoke, without stopping expressly for the purpose. She +stamped her feet, clutched us by the arms, flung herself into attitudes, +hammered against walls with her keys, for mere emphasis: now whispered +as if the Inquisition were there still: now shrieked as if she were +on the rack herself; and had a mysterious, hag-like way with her forefinger, +when approaching the remains of some new horror - looking back and walking +stealthily, and making horrible grimaces - that might alone have qualified +her to walk up and down a sick man’s counterpane, to the exclusion +of all other figures, through a whole fever.<br> +<br> +Passing through the court-yard, among groups of idle soldiers, we turned +off by a gate, which this She-Goblin unlocked for our admission, and +locked again behind us: and entered a narrow court, rendered narrower +by fallen stones and heaps of rubbish; part of it choking up the mouth +of a ruined subterranean passage, that once communicated (or is said +to have done so) with another castle on the opposite bank of the river. +Close to this court-yard is a dungeon - we stood within it, in another +minute - in the dismal tower <i>des oubliettes</i>, where Rienzi was +imprisoned, fastened by an iron chain to the very wall that stands there +now, but shut out from the sky which now looks down into it. A +few steps brought us to the Cachots, in which the prisoners of the Inquisition +were confined for forty-eight hours after their capture, without food +or drink, that their constancy might be shaken, even before they were +confronted with their gloomy judges. The day has not got in there +yet. They are still small cells, shut in by four unyielding, close, +hard walls; still profoundly dark; still massively doored and fastened, +as of old.<br> +<br> +Goblin, looking back as I have described, went softly on, into a vaulted +chamber, now used as a store-room: once the chapel of the Holy Office. +The place where the tribunal sat, was plain. The platform might +have been removed but yesterday. Conceive the parable of the Good +Samaritan having been painted on the wall of one of these Inquisition +chambers! But it was, and may be traced there yet.<br> +<br> +High up in the jealous wall, are niches where the faltering replies +of the accused were heard and noted down. Many of them had been +brought out of the very cell we had just looked into, so awfully; along +the same stone passage. We had trodden in their very footsteps.<br> +<br> +I am gazing round me, with the horror that the place inspires, when +Goblin clutches me by the wrist, and lays, not her skinny finger, but +the handle of a key, upon her lip. She invites me, with a jerk, +to follow her. I do so. She leads me out into a room adjoining +- a rugged room, with a funnel-shaped, contracting roof, open at the +top, to the bright day. I ask her what it is. She folds +her arms, leers hideously, and stares. I ask again. She +glances round, to see that all the little company are there; sits down +upon a mound of stones; throws up her arms, and yells out, like a fiend, +‘La Salle de la Question!’<br> +<br> +The Chamber of Torture! And the roof was made of that shape to +stifle the victim’s cries! Oh Goblin, Goblin, let us think +of this awhile, in silence. Peace, Goblin! Sit with your +short arms crossed on your short legs, upon that heap of stones, for +only five minutes, and then flame out again.<br> +<br> +Minutes! Seconds are not marked upon the Palace clock, when, with +her eyes flashing fire, Goblin is up, in the middle of the chamber, +describing, with her sunburnt arms, a wheel of heavy blows. Thus +it ran round! cries Goblin. Mash, mash, mash! An endless +routine of heavy hammers. Mash, mash, mash! upon the sufferer’s +limbs. See the stone trough! says Goblin. For the water +torture! Gurgle, swill, bloat, burst, for the Redeemer’s +honour! Suck the bloody rag, deep down into your unbelieving body, +Heretic, at every breath you draw! And when the executioner plucks +it out, reeking with the smaller mysteries of God’s own Image, +know us for His chosen servants, true believers in the Sermon on the +Mount, elect disciples of Him who never did a miracle but to heal: who +never struck a man with palsy, blindness, deafness, dumbness, madness, +any one affliction of mankind; and never stretched His blessed hand +out, but to give relief and ease!<br> +<br> +See! cries Goblin. There the furnace was. There they made +the irons red-hot. Those holes supported the sharp stake, on which +the tortured persons hung poised: dangling with their whole weight from +the roof. ‘But;’ and Goblin whispers this; ‘Monsieur +has heard of this tower? Yes? Let Monsieur look down, then!’<br> +<br> +A cold air, laden with an earthy smell, falls upon the face of Monsieur; +for she has opened, while speaking, a trap-door in the wall. Monsieur +looks in. Downward to the bottom, upward to the top, of a steep, +dark, lofty tower: very dismal, very dark, very cold. The Executioner +of the Inquisition, says Goblin, edging in her head to look down also, +flung those who were past all further torturing, down here. ‘But +look! does Monsieur see the black stains on the wall?’ A +glance, over his shoulder, at Goblin’s keen eye, shows Monsieur +- and would without the aid of the directing key - where they are. +‘What are they?’ ‘Blood!’<br> +<br> +In October, 1791, when the Revolution was at its height here, sixty +persons: men and women (‘and priests,’ says Goblin, ‘priests’): +were murdered, and hurled, the dying and the dead, into this dreadful +pit, where a quantity of quick-lime was tumbled down upon their bodies. +Those ghastly tokens of the massacre were soon no more; but while one +stone of the strong building in which the deed was done, remains upon +another, there they will lie in the memories of men, as plain to see +as the splashing of their blood upon the wall is now.<br> +<br> +Was it a portion of the great scheme of Retribution, that the cruel +deed should be committed in this place! That a part of the atrocities +and monstrous institutions, which had been, for scores of years, at +work, to change men’s nature, should in its last service, tempt +them with the ready means of gratifying their furious and beastly rage! +Should enable them to show themselves, in the height of their frenzy, +no worse than a great, solemn, legal establishment, in the height of +its power! No worse! Much better. They used the Tower +of the Forgotten, in the name of Liberty - their liberty; an earth-born +creature, nursed in the black mud of the Bastile moats and dungeons, +and necessarily betraying many evidences of its unwholesome bringing-up +- but the Inquisition used it in the name of Heaven.<br> +<br> +Goblin’s finger is lifted; and she steals out again, into the +Chapel of the Holy Office. She stops at a certain part of the +flooring. Her great effect is at hand. She waits for the +rest. She darts at the brave Courier, who is explaining something; +hits him a sounding rap on the hat with the largest key; and bids him +be silent. She assembles us all, round a little trap-door in the +floor, as round a grave.<br> +<br> +‘Voilà!’ she darts down at the ring, and flings the +door open with a crash, in her goblin energy, though it is no light +weight. ‘Voilà les oubliettes! Voilà +les oubliettes! Subterranean! Frightful! Black! Terrible! +Deadly! Les oubliettes de l’Inquisition!’<br> +<br> +My blood ran cold, as I looked from Goblin, down into the vaults, where +these forgotten creatures, with recollections of the world outside: +of wives, friends, children, brothers: starved to death, and made the +stones ring with their unavailing groans. But, the thrill I felt +on seeing the accursed wall below, decayed and broken through, and the +sun shining in through its gaping wounds, was like a sense of victory +and triumph. I felt exalted with the proud delight of living in +these degenerate times, to see it. As if I were the hero of some +high achievement! The light in the doleful vaults was typical +of the light that has streamed in, on all persecution in God’s +name, but which is not yet at its noon! It cannot look more lovely +to a blind man newly restored to sight, than to a traveller who sees +it, calmly and majestically, treading down the darkness of that Infernal +Well.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER III - AVIGNON TO GENOA<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +Goblin, having shown <i>les oubliettes</i>, felt that her great <i>coup</i> +was struck. She let the door fall with a crash, and stood upon +it with her arms a-kimbo, sniffing prodigiously.<br> +<br> +When we left the place, I accompanied her into her house, under the +outer gateway of the fortress, to buy a little history of the building. +Her cabaret, a dark, low room, lighted by small windows, sunk in the +thick wall - in the softened light, and with its forge-like chimney; +its little counter by the door, with bottles, jars, and glasses on it; +its household implements and scraps of dress against the wall; and a +sober-looking woman (she must have a congenial life of it, with Goblin,) +knitting at the door - looked exactly like a picture by OSTADE.<br> +<br> +I walked round the building on the outside, in a sort of dream, and +yet with the delightful sense of having awakened from it, of which the +light, down in the vaults, had given me the assurance. The immense +thickness and giddy height of the walls, the enormous strength of the +massive towers, the great extent of the building, its gigantic proportions, +frowning aspect, and barbarous irregularity, awaken awe and wonder. +The recollection of its opposite old uses: an impregnable fortress, +a luxurious palace, a horrible prison, a place of torture, the court +of the Inquisition: at one and the same time, a house of feasting, fighting, +religion, and blood: gives to every stone in its huge form a fearful +interest, and imparts new meaning to its incongruities. I could +think of little, however, then, or long afterwards, but the sun in the +dungeons. The palace coming down to be the lounging-place of noisy +soldiers, and being forced to echo their rough talk, and common oaths, +and to have their garments fluttering from its dirty windows, was some +reduction of its state, and something to rejoice at; but the day in +its cells, and the sky for the roof of its chambers of cruelty - that +was its desolation and defeat! If I had seen it in a blaze from +ditch to rampart, I should have felt that not that light, nor all the +light in all the fire that burns, could waste it, like the sunbeams +in its secret council-chamber, and its prisons.<br> +<br> +Before I quit this Palace of the Popes, let me translate from the little +history I mentioned just now, a short anecdote, quite appropriate to +itself, connected with its adventures.<br> +<br> +‘An ancient tradition relates, that in 1441, a nephew of Pierre +de Lude, the Pope’s legate, seriously insulted some distinguished +ladies of Avignon, whose relations, in revenge, seized the young man, +and horribly mutilated him. For several years the legate kept +<i>his</i> revenge within his own breast, but he was not the less resolved +upon its gratification at last. He even made, in the fulness of +time, advances towards a complete reconciliation; and when their apparent +sincerity had prevailed, he invited to a splendid banquet, in this palace, +certain families, whole families, whom he sought to exterminate. +The utmost gaiety animated the repast; but the measures of the legate +were well taken. When the dessert was on the board, a Swiss presented +himself, with the announcement that a strange ambassador solicited an +extraordinary audience. The legate, excusing himself, for the +moment, to his guests, retired, followed by his officers. Within +a few minutes afterwards, five hundred persons were reduced to ashes: +the whole of that wing of the building having been blown into the air +with a terrible explosion!’<br> +<br> +After seeing the churches (I will not trouble you with churches just +now), we left Avignon that afternoon. The heat being very great, +the roads outside the walls were strewn with people fast asleep in every +little slip of shade, and with lazy groups, half asleep and half awake, +who were waiting until the sun should be low enough to admit of their +playing bowls among the burnt-up trees, and on the dusty road. +The harvest here was already gathered in, and mules and horses were +treading out the corn in the fields. We came, at dusk, upon a +wild and hilly country, once famous for brigands; and travelled slowly +up a steep ascent. So we went on, until eleven at night, when +we halted at the town of Aix (within two stages of Marseilles) to sleep.<br> +<br> +The hotel, with all the blinds and shutters closed to keep the light +and heat out, was comfortable and airy next morning, and the town was +very clean; but so hot, and so intensely light, that when I walked out +at noon it was like coming suddenly from the darkened room into crisp +blue fire. The air was so very clear, that distant hills and rocky +points appeared within an hour’s walk; while the town immediately +at hand - with a kind of blue wind between me and it - seemed to be +white hot, and to be throwing off a fiery air from the surface.<br> +<br> +We left this town towards evening, and took the road to Marseilles. +A dusty road it was; the houses shut up close; and the vines powdered +white. At nearly all the cottage doors, women were peeling and +slicing onions into earthen bowls for supper. So they had been +doing last night all the way from Avignon. We passed one or two +shady dark châteaux, surrounded by trees, and embellished with +cool basins of water: which were the more refreshing to behold, from +the great scarcity of such residences on the road we had travelled. +As we approached Marseilles, the road began to be covered with holiday +people. Outside the public-houses were parties smoking, drinking, +playing draughts and cards, and (once) dancing. But dust, dust, +dust, everywhere. We went on, through a long, straggling, dirty +suburb, thronged with people; having on our left a dreary slope of land, +on which the country-houses of the Marseilles merchants, always staring +white, are jumbled and heaped without the slightest order: backs, fronts, +sides, and gables towards all points of the compass; until, at last, +we entered the town.<br> +<br> +I was there, twice or thrice afterwards, in fair weather and foul; and +I am afraid there is no doubt that it is a dirty and disagreeable place. +But the prospect, from the fortified heights, of the beautiful Mediterranean, +with its lovely rocks and islands, is most delightful. These heights +are a desirable retreat, for less picturesque reasons - as an escape +from a compound of vile smells perpetually arising from a great harbour +full of stagnant water, and befouled by the refuse of innumerable ships +with all sorts of cargoes: which, in hot weather, is dreadful in the +last degree.<br> +<br> +There were foreign sailors, of all nations, in the streets; with red +shirts, blue shirts, buff shirts, tawny shirts, and shirts of orange +colour; with red caps, blue caps, green caps, great beards, and no beards; +in Turkish turbans, glazed English hats, and Neapolitan head-dresses. +There were the townspeople sitting in clusters on the pavement, or airing +themselves on the tops of their houses, or walking up and down the closest +and least airy of Boulevards; and there were crowds of fierce-looking +people of the lower sort, blocking up the way, constantly. In +the very heart of all this stir and uproar, was the common madhouse; +a low, contracted, miserable building, looking straight upon the street, +without the smallest screen or court-yard; where chattering mad-men +and mad-women were peeping out, through rusty bars, at the staring faces +below, while the sun, darting fiercely aslant into their little cells, +seemed to dry up their brains, and worry them, as if they were baited +by a pack of dogs.<br> +<br> +We were pretty well accommodated at the Hôtel du Paradis, situated +in a narrow street of very high houses, with a hairdresser’s shop +opposite, exhibiting in one of its windows two full-length waxen ladies, +twirling round and round: which so enchanted the hairdresser himself, +that he and his family sat in arm-chairs, and in cool undresses, on +the pavement outside, enjoying the gratification of the passers-by, +with lazy dignity. The family had retired to rest when we went +to bed, at midnight; but the hairdresser (a corpulent man, in drab slippers) +was still sitting there, with his legs stretched out before him, and +evidently couldn’t bear to have the shutters put up.<br> +<br> +Next day we went down to the harbour, where the sailors of all nations +were discharging and taking in cargoes of all kinds: fruits, wines, +oils, silks, stuffs, velvets, and every manner of merchandise. +Taking one of a great number of lively little boats with gay-striped +awnings, we rowed away, under the sterns of great ships, under tow-ropes +and cables, against and among other boats, and very much too near the +sides of vessels that were faint with oranges, to the <i>Marie Antoinette</i>, +a handsome steamer bound for Genoa, lying near the mouth of the harbour. +By-and-by, the carriage, that unwieldy ‘trifle from the Pantechnicon,’ +on a flat barge, bumping against everything, and giving occasion for +a prodigious quantity of oaths and grimaces, came stupidly alongside; +and by five o’clock we were steaming out in the open sea. +The vessel was beautifully clean; the meals were served under an awning +on deck; the night was calm and clear; the quiet beauty of the sea and +sky unspeakable.<br> +<br> +We were off Nice, early next morning, and coasted along, within a few +miles of the Cornice road (of which more in its place) nearly all day. +We could see Genoa before three; and watching it as it gradually developed +its splendid amphitheatre, terrace rising above terrace, garden above +garden, palace above palace, height upon height, was ample occupation +for us, till we ran into the stately harbour. Having been duly +astonished, here, by the sight of a few Cappucini monks, who were watching +the fair-weighing of some wood upon the wharf, we drove off to Albaro, +two miles distant, where we had engaged a house.<br> +<br> +The way lay through the main streets, but not through the Strada Nuova, +or the Strada Balbi, which are the famous streets of palaces. +I never in my life was so dismayed! The wonderful novelty of everything, +the unusual smells, the unaccountable filth (though it is reckoned the +cleanest of Italian towns), the disorderly jumbling of dirty houses, +one upon the roof of another; the passages more squalid and more close +than any in St. Giles’s or old Paris; in and out of which, not +vagabonds, but well-dressed women, with white veils and great fans, +were passing and repassing; the perfect absence of resemblance in any +dwelling-house, or shop, or wall, or post, or pillar, to anything one +had ever seen before; and the disheartening dirt, discomfort, and decay; +perfectly confounded me. I fell into a dismal reverie. I +am conscious of a feverish and bewildered vision of saints and virgins’ +shrines at the street corners - of great numbers of friars, monks, and +soldiers - of vast red curtains, waving in the doorways of the churches +- of always going up hill, and yet seeing every other street and passage +going higher up - of fruit-stalls, with fresh lemons and oranges hanging +in garlands made of vine-leaves - of a guard-house, and a drawbridge +- and some gateways - and vendors of iced water, sitting with little +trays upon the margin of the kennel - and this is all the consciousness +I had, until I was set down in a rank, dull, weedy court-yard, attached +to a kind of pink jail; and was told I lived there.<br> +<br> +I little thought, that day, that I should ever come to have an attachment +for the very stones in the streets of Genoa, and to look back upon the +city with affection as connected with many hours of happiness and quiet! +But these are my first impressions honestly set down; and how they changed, +I will set down too. At present, let us breathe after this long-winded +journey.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER IV - GENOA AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +The first impressions of such a place as ALBARO, the suburb of Genoa, +where I am now, as my American friends would say, ‘located,’ +can hardly fail, I should imagine, to be mournful and disappointing. +It requires a little time and use to overcome the feeling of depression +consequent, at first, on so much ruin and neglect. Novelty, pleasant +to most people, is particularly delightful, I think, to me. I +am not easily dispirited when I have the means of pursuing my own fancies +and occupations; and I believe I have some natural aptitude for accommodating +myself to circumstances. But, as yet, I stroll about here, in +all the holes and corners of the neighbourhood, in a perpetual state +of forlorn surprise; and returning to my villa: the Villa Bagnerello +(it sounds romantic, but Signor Bagnerello is a butcher hard by): have +sufficient occupation in pondering over my new experiences, and comparing +them, very much to my own amusement, with my expectations, until I wander +out again.<br> +<br> +The Villa Bagnerello: or the Pink Jail, a far more expressive name for +the mansion: is in one of the most splendid situations imaginable. +The noble bay of Genoa, with the deep blue Mediterranean, lies stretched +out near at hand; monstrous old desolate houses and palaces are dotted +all about; lofty hills, with their tops often hidden in the clouds, +and with strong forts perched high up on their craggy sides, are close +upon the left; and in front, stretching from the walls of the house, +down to a ruined chapel which stands upon the bold and picturesque rocks +on the sea-shore, are green vineyards, where you may wander all day +long in partial shade, through interminable vistas of grapes, trained +on a rough trellis-work across the narrow paths.<br> +<br> +This sequestered spot is approached by lanes so very narrow, that when +we arrived at the Custom-house, we found the people here had <i>taken +the measure</i> of the narrowest among them, and were waiting to apply +it to the carriage; which ceremony was gravely performed in the street, +while we all stood by in breathless suspense. It was found to +be a very tight fit, but just a possibility, and no more - as I am reminded +every day, by the sight of various large holes which it punched in the +walls on either side as it came along. We are more fortunate, +I am told, than an old lady, who took a house in these parts not long +ago, and who stuck fast in <i>her</i> carriage in a lane; and as it +was impossible to open one of the doors, she was obliged to submit to +the indignity of being hauled through one of the little front windows, +like a harlequin.<br> +<br> +When you have got through these narrow lanes, you come to an archway, +imperfectly stopped up by a rusty old gate - my gate. The rusty +old gate has a bell to correspond, which you ring as long as you like, +and which nobody answers, as it has no connection whatever with the +house. But there is a rusty old knocker, too - very loose, so +that it slides round when you touch it - and if you learn the trick +of it, and knock long enough, somebody comes. The brave Courier +comes, and gives you admittance. You walk into a seedy little +garden, all wild and weedy, from which the vineyard opens; cross it, +enter a square hall like a cellar, walk up a cracked marble staircase, +and pass into a most enormous room with a vaulted roof and whitewashed +walls: not unlike a great Methodist chapel. This is the <i>sala</i>. +It has five windows and five doors, and is decorated with pictures which +would gladden the heart of one of those picture-cleaners in London who +hang up, as a sign, a picture divided, like death and the lady, at the +top of the old ballad: which always leaves you in a state of uncertainty +whether the ingenious professor has cleaned one half, or dirtied the +other. The furniture of this <i>sala</i> is a sort of red brocade. +All the chairs are immovable, and the sofa weighs several tons.<br> +<br> +On the same floor, and opening out of this same chamber, are dining-room, +drawing-room, and divers bedrooms: each with a multiplicity of doors +and windows. Up-stairs are divers other gaunt chambers, and a +kitchen; and down-stairs is another kitchen, which, with all sorts of +strange contrivances for burning charcoal, looks like an alchemical +laboratory. There are also some half-dozen small sitting-rooms, +where the servants in this hot July, may escape from the heat of the +fire, and where the brave Courier plays all sorts of musical instruments +of his own manufacture, all the evening long. A mighty old, wandering, +ghostly, echoing, grim, bare house it is, as ever I beheld or thought +of.<br> +<br> +There is a little vine-covered terrace, opening from the drawing-room; +and under this terrace, and forming one side of the little garden, is +what used to be the stable. It is now a cow-house, and has three +cows in it, so that we get new milk by the bucketful. There is +no pasturage near, and they never go out, but are constantly lying down, +and surfeiting themselves with vine-leaves - perfect Italian cows enjoying +the <i>dolce far’ niente</i> all day long. They are presided +over, and slept with, by an old man named Antonio, and his son; two +burnt-sienna natives with naked legs and feet, who wear, each, a shirt, +a pair of trousers, and a red sash, with a relic, or some sacred charm +like the bonbon off a twelfth-cake, hanging round the neck. The +old man is very anxious to convert me to the Catholic faith, and exhorts +me frequently. We sit upon a stone by the door, sometimes in the +evening, like Robinson Crusoe and Friday reversed; and he generally +relates, towards my conversion, an abridgment of the History of Saint +Peter - chiefly, I believe, from the unspeakable delight he has in his +imitation of the cock.<br> +<br> +The view, as I have said, is charming; but in the day you must keep +the lattice-blinds close shut, or the sun would drive you mad; and when +the sun goes down you must shut up all the windows, or the mosquitoes +would tempt you to commit suicide. So at this time of the year, +you don’t see much of the prospect within doors. As for +the flies, you don’t mind them. Nor the fleas, whose size +is prodigious, and whose name is Legion, and who populate the coach-house +to that extent that I daily expect to see the carriage going off bodily, +drawn by myriads of industrious fleas in harness. The rats are +kept away, quite comfortably, by scores of lean cats, who roam about +the garden for that purpose. The lizards, of course, nobody cares +for; they play in the sun, and don’t bite. The little scorpions +are merely curious. The beetles are rather late, and have not +appeared yet. The frogs are company. There is a preserve +of them in the grounds of the next villa; and after nightfall, one would +think that scores upon scores of women in pattens were going up and +down a wet stone pavement without a moment’s cessation. +That is exactly the noise they make.<br> +<br> +The ruined chapel, on the picturesque and beautiful sea-shore, was dedicated, +once upon a time, to Saint John the Baptist. I believe there is +a legend that Saint John’s bones were received there, with various +solemnities, when they were first brought to Genoa; for Genoa possesses +them to this day. When there is any uncommon tempest at sea, they +are brought out and exhibited to the raging weather, which they never +fail to calm. In consequence of this connection of Saint John +with the city, great numbers of the common people are christened Giovanni +Baptista, which latter name is pronounced in the Genoese patois ‘Batcheetcha,’ +like a sneeze. To hear everybody calling everybody else Batcheetcha, +on a Sunday, or festa-day, when there are crowds in the streets, is +not a little singular and amusing to a stranger.<br> +<br> +The narrow lanes have great villas opening into them, whose walls (outside +walls, I mean) are profusely painted with all sorts of subjects, grim +and holy. But time and the sea-air have nearly obliterated them; +and they look like the entrance to Vauxhall Gardens on a sunny day. +The court-yards of these houses are overgrown with grass and weeds; +all sorts of hideous patches cover the bases of the statues, as if they +were afflicted with a cutaneous disorder; the outer gates are rusty; +and the iron bars outside the lower windows are all tumbling down. +Firewood is kept in halls where costly treasures might be heaped up, +mountains high; waterfalls are dry and choked; fountains, too dull to +play, and too lazy to work, have just enough recollection of their identity, +in their sleep, to make the neighbourhood damp; and the sirocco wind +is often blowing over all these things for days together, like a gigantic +oven out for a holiday.<br> +<br> +Not long ago, there was a festa-day, in honour of the <i>Virgin’s +mother</i>, when the young men of the neighbourhood, having worn green +wreaths of the vine in some procession or other, bathed in them, by +scores. It looked very odd and pretty. Though I am bound +to confess (not knowing of the festa at that time), that I thought, +and was quite satisfied, they wore them as horses do - to keep the flies +off.<br> +<br> +Soon afterwards, there was another festa-day, in honour of St. Nazaro. +One of the Albaro young men brought two large bouquets soon after breakfast, +and coming up-stairs into the great <i>sala</i>, presented them himself. +This was a polite way of begging for a contribution towards the expenses +of some music in the Saint’s honour, so we gave him whatever it +may have been, and his messenger departed: well satisfied. At +six o’clock in the evening we went to the church - close at hand +- a very gaudy place, hung all over with festoons and bright draperies, +and filled, from the altar to the main door, with women, all seated. +They wear no bonnets here, simply a long white veil - the ‘mezzero;’ +and it was the most gauzy, ethereal-looking audience I ever saw. +The young women are not generally pretty, but they walk remarkably well, +and in their personal carriage and the management of their veils, display +much innate grace and elegance. There were some men present: not +very many: and a few of these were kneeling about the aisles, while +everybody else tumbled over them. Innumerable tapers were burning +in the church; the bits of silver and tin about the saints (especially +in the Virgin’s necklace) sparkled brilliantly; the priests were +seated about the chief altar; the organ played away, lustily, and a +full band did the like; while a conductor, in a little gallery opposite +to the band, hammered away on the desk before him, with a scroll; and +a tenor, without any voice, sang. The band played one way, the +organ played another, the singer went a third, and the unfortunate conductor +banged and banged, and flourished his scroll on some principle of his +own: apparently well satisfied with the whole performance. I never +did hear such a discordant din. The heat was intense all the time.<br> +<br> +The men, in red caps, and with loose coats hanging on their shoulders +(they never put them on), were playing bowls, and buying sweetmeats, +immediately outside the church. When half-a-dozen of them finished +a game, they came into the aisle, crossed themselves with the holy water, +knelt on one knee for an instant, and walked off again to play another +game at bowls. They are remarkably expert at this diversion, and +will play in the stony lanes and streets, and on the most uneven and +disastrous ground for such a purpose, with as much nicety as on a billiard-table. +But the most favourite game is the national one of Mora, which they +pursue with surprising ardour, and at which they will stake everything +they possess. It is a destructive kind of gambling, requiring +no accessories but the ten fingers, which are always - I intend no pun +- at hand. Two men play together. One calls a number - say +the extreme one, ten. He marks what portion of it he pleases by +throwing out three, or four, or five fingers; and his adversary has, +in the same instant, at hazard, and without seeing his hand, to throw +out as many fingers, as will make the exact balance. Their eyes +and hands become so used to this, and act with such astonishing rapidity, +that an uninitiated bystander would find it very difficult, if not impossible, +to follow the progress of the game. The initiated, however, of +whom there is always an eager group looking on, devour it with the most +intense avidity; and as they are always ready to champion one side or +the other in case of a dispute, and are frequently divided in their +partisanship, it is often a very noisy proceeding. It is never +the quietest game in the world; for the numbers are always called in +a loud sharp voice, and follow as close upon each other as they can +be counted. On a holiday evening, standing at a window, or walking +in a garden, or passing through the streets, or sauntering in any quiet +place about the town, you will hear this game in progress in a score +of wine-shops at once; and looking over any vineyard walk, or turning +almost any corner, will come upon a knot of players in full cry. +It is observable that most men have a propensity to throw out some particular +number oftener than another; and the vigilance with which two sharp-eyed +players will mutually endeavour to detect this weakness, and adapt their +game to it, is very curious and entertaining. The effect is greatly +heightened by the universal suddenness and vehemence of gesture; two +men playing for half a farthing with an intensity as all-absorbing as +if the stake were life.<br> +<br> +Hard by here is a large Palazzo, formerly belonging to some member of +the Brignole family, but just now hired by a school of Jesuits for their +summer quarters. I walked into its dismantled precincts the other +evening about sunset, and couldn’t help pacing up and down for +a little time, drowsily taking in the aspect of the place: which is +repeated hereabouts in all directions.<br> +<br> +I loitered to and fro, under a colonnade, forming two sides of a weedy, +grass-grown court-yard, whereof the house formed a third side, and a +low terrace-walk, overlooking the garden and the neighbouring hills, +the fourth. I don’t believe there was an uncracked stone +in the whole pavement. In the centre was a melancholy statue, +so piebald in its decay, that it looked exactly as if it had been covered +with sticking-plaster, and afterwards powdered. The stables, coach-houses, +offices, were all empty, all ruinous, all utterly deserted.<br> +<br> +Doors had lost their hinges, and were holding on by their latches; windows +were broken, painted plaster had peeled off, and was lying about in +clods; fowls and cats had so taken possession of the out-buildings, +that I couldn’t help thinking of the fairy tales, and eyeing them +with suspicion, as transformed retainers, waiting to be changed back +again. One old Tom in particular: a scraggy brute, with a hungry +green eye (a poor relation, in reality, I am inclined to think): came +prowling round and round me, as if he half believed, for the moment, +that I might be the hero come to marry the lady, and set all to-rights; +but discovering his mistake, he suddenly gave a grim snarl, and walked +away with such a tremendous tail, that he couldn’t get into the +little hole where he lived, but was obliged to wait outside, until his +indignation and his tail had gone down together.<br> +<br> +In a sort of summer-house, or whatever it may be, in this colonnade, +some Englishmen had been living, like grubs in a nut; but the Jesuits +had given them notice to go, and they had gone, and <i>that</i> was +shut up too. The house: a wandering, echoing, thundering barrack +of a place, with the lower windows barred up, as usual, was wide open +at the door: and I have no doubt I might have gone in, and gone to bed, +and gone dead, and nobody a bit the wiser. Only one suite of rooms +on an upper floor was tenanted; and from one of these, the voice of +a young-lady vocalist, practising bravura lustily, came flaunting out +upon the silent evening.<br> +<br> +I went down into the garden, intended to be prim and quaint, with avenues, +and terraces, and orange-trees, and statues, and water in stone basins; +and everything was green, gaunt, weedy, straggling, under grown or over +grown, mildewy, damp, redolent of all sorts of slabby, clammy, creeping, +and uncomfortable life. There was nothing bright in the whole +scene but a firefly - one solitary firefly - showing against the dark +bushes like the last little speck of the departed Glory of the house; +and even it went flitting up and down at sudden angles, and leaving +a place with a jerk, and describing an irregular circle, and returning +to the same place with a twitch that startled one: as if it were looking +for the rest of the Glory, and wondering (Heaven knows it might!) what +had become of it.<br> +<br> +<br> +In the course of two months, the flitting shapes and shadows of my dismal +entering reverie gradually resolved themselves into familiar forms and +substances; and I already began to think that when the time should come, +a year hence, for closing the long holiday and turning back to England, +I might part from Genoa with anything but a glad heart.<br> +<br> +It is a place that ‘grows upon you’ every day. There +seems to be always something to find out in it. There are the +most extraordinary alleys and by-ways to walk about in. You can +lose your way (what a comfort that is, when you are idle!) twenty times +a day, if you like; and turn up again, under the most unexpected and +surprising difficulties. It abounds in the strangest contrasts; +things that are picturesque, ugly, mean, magnificent, delightful, and +offensive, break upon the view at every turn.<br> +<br> +They who would know how beautiful the country immediately surrounding +Genoa is, should climb (in clear weather) to the top of Monte Faccio, +or, at least, ride round the city walls: a feat more easily performed. +No prospect can be more diversified and lovely than the changing views +of the harbour, and the valleys of the two rivers, the Polcevera and +the Bizagno, from the heights along which the strongly fortified walls +are carried, like the great wall of China in little. In not the +least picturesque part of this ride, there is a fair specimen of a real +Genoese tavern, where the visitor may derive good entertainment from +real Genoese dishes, such as Tagliarini; Ravioli; German sausages, strong +of garlic, sliced and eaten with fresh green figs; cocks’ combs +and sheep-kidneys, chopped up with mutton chops and liver; small pieces +of some unknown part of a calf, twisted into small shreds, fried, and +served up in a great dish like white-bait; and other curiosities of +that kind. They often get wine at these suburban Trattorie, from +France and Spain and Portugal, which is brought over by small captains +in little trading-vessels. They buy it at so much a bottle, without +asking what it is, or caring to remember if anybody tells them, and +usually divide it into two heaps; of which they label one Champagne, +and the other Madeira. The various opposite flavours, qualities, +countries, ages, and vintages that are comprised under these two general +heads is quite extraordinary. The most limited range is probably +from cool Gruel up to old Marsala, and down again to apple Tea.<br> +<br> +The great majority of the streets are as narrow as any thoroughfare +can well be, where people (even Italian people) are supposed to live +and walk about; being mere lanes, with here and there a kind of well, +or breathing-place. The houses are immensely high, painted in +all sorts of colours, and are in every stage and state of damage, dirt, +and lack of repair. They are commonly let off in floors, or flats, +like the houses in the old town of Edinburgh, or many houses in Paris. +There are few street doors; the entrance halls are, for the most part, +looked upon as public property; and any moderately enterprising scavenger +might make a fine fortune by now and then clearing them out. As +it is impossible for coaches to penetrate into these streets, there +are sedan chairs, gilded and otherwise, for hire in divers places. +A great many private chairs are also kept among the nobility and gentry; +and at night these are trotted to and fro in all directions, preceded +by bearers of great lanthorns, made of linen stretched upon a frame. +The sedans and lanthorns are the legitimate successors of the long strings +of patient and much-abused mules, that go jingling their little bells +through these confined streets all day long. They follow them, +as regularly as the stars the sun.<br> +<br> +When shall I forget the Streets of Palaces: the Strada Nuova and the +Strada Balbi! or how the former looked one summer day, when I first +saw it underneath the brightest and most intensely blue of summer skies: +which its narrow perspective of immense mansions, reduced to a tapering +and most precious strip of brightness, looking down upon the heavy shade +below! A brightness not too common, even in July and August, to +be well esteemed: for, if the Truth must out, there were not eight blue +skies in as many midsummer weeks, saving, sometimes, early in the morning; +when, looking out to sea, the water and the firmament were one world +of deep and brilliant blue. At other times, there were clouds +and haze enough to make an Englishman grumble in his own climate.<br> +<br> +The endless details of these rich Palaces: the walls of some of them, +within, alive with masterpieces by Vandyke! The great, heavy, +stone balconies, one above another, and tier over tier: with here and +there, one larger than the rest, towering high up - a huge marble platform; +the doorless vestibules, massively barred lower windows, immense public +staircases, thick marble pillars, strong dungeon-like arches, and dreary, +dreaming, echoing vaulted chambers: among which the eye wanders again, +and again, and again, as every palace is succeeded by another - the +terrace gardens between house and house, with green arches of the vine, +and groves of orange-trees, and blushing oleander in full bloom, twenty, +thirty, forty feet above the street - the painted halls, mouldering, +and blotting, and rotting in the damp corners, and still shining out +in beautiful colours and voluptuous designs, where the walls are dry +- the faded figures on the outsides of the houses, holding wreaths, +and crowns, and flying upward, and downward, and standing in niches, +and here and there looking fainter and more feeble than elsewhere, by +contrast with some fresh little Cupids, who on a more recently decorated +portion of the front, are stretching out what seems to be the semblance +of a blanket, but is, indeed, a sun-dial - the steep, steep, up-hill +streets of small palaces (but very large palaces for all that), with +marble terraces looking down into close by-ways - the magnificent and +innumerable Churches; and the rapid passage from a street of stately +edifices, into a maze of the vilest squalor, steaming with unwholesome +stenches, and swarming with half-naked children and whole worlds of +dirty people - make up, altogether, such a scene of wonder: so lively, +and yet so dead: so noisy, and yet so quiet: so obtrusive, and yet so +shy and lowering: so wide awake, and yet so fast asleep: that it is +a sort of intoxication to a stranger to walk on, and on, and on, and +look about him. A bewildering phantasmagoria, with all the inconsistency +of a dream, and all the pain and all the pleasure of an extravagant +reality!<br> +<br> +The different uses to which some of these Palaces are applied, all at +once, is characteristic. For instance, the English Banker (my +excellent and hospitable friend) has his office in a good-sized Palazzo +in the Strada Nuova. In the hall (every inch of which is elaborately +painted, but which is as dirty as a police-station in London), a hook-nosed +Saracen’s Head with an immense quantity of black hair (there is +a man attached to it) sells walking-sticks. On the other side +of the doorway, a lady with a showy handkerchief for head-dress (wife +to the Saracen’s Head, I believe) sells articles of her own knitting; +and sometimes flowers. A little further in, two or three blind +men occasionally beg. Sometimes, they are visited by a man without +legs, on a little go-cart, but who has such a fresh-coloured, lively +face, and such a respectable, well-conditioned body, that he looks as +if he had sunk into the ground up to his middle, or had come, but partially, +up a flight of cellar-steps to speak to somebody. A little further +in, a few men, perhaps, lie asleep in the middle of the day; or they +may be chairmen waiting for their absent freight. If so, they +have brought their chairs in with them, and there <i>they</i> stand +also. On the left of the hall is a little room: a hatter’s +shop. On the first floor, is the English bank. On the first +floor also, is a whole house, and a good large residence too. +Heaven knows what there may be above that; but when you are there, you +have only just begun to go up-stairs. And yet, coming down-stairs +again, thinking of this; and passing out at a great crazy door in the +back of the hall, instead of turning the other way, to get into the +street again; it bangs behind you, making the dismallest and most lonesome +echoes, and you stand in a yard (the yard of the same house) which seems +to have been unvisited by human foot, for a hundred years. Not +a sound disturbs its repose. Not a head, thrust out of any of +the grim, dark, jealous windows, within sight, makes the weeds in the +cracked pavement faint of heart, by suggesting the possibility of there +being hands to grub them up. Opposite to you, is a giant figure +carved in stone, reclining, with an urn, upon a lofty piece of artificial +rockwork; and out of the urn, dangles the fag end of a leaden pipe, +which, once upon a time, poured a small torrent down the rocks. +But the eye-sockets of the giant are not drier than this channel is +now. He seems to have given his urn, which is nearly upside down, +a final tilt; and after crying, like a sepulchral child, ‘All +gone!’ to have lapsed into a stony silence.<br> +<br> +In the streets of shops, the houses are much smaller, but of great size +notwithstanding, and extremely high. They are very dirty: quite +undrained, if my nose be at all reliable: and emit a peculiar fragrance, +like the smell of very bad cheese, kept in very hot blankets. +Notwithstanding the height of the houses, there would seem to have been +a lack of room in the City, for new houses are thrust in everywhere. +Wherever it has been possible to cram a tumble-down tenement into a +crack or corner, in it has gone. If there be a nook or angle in +the wall of a church, or a crevice in any other dead wall, of any sort, +there you are sure to find some kind of habitation: looking as if it +had grown there, like a fungus. Against the Government House, +against the old Senate House, round about any large building, little +shops stick so close, like parasite vermin to the great carcase. +And for all this, look where you may: up steps, down steps, anywhere, +everywhere: there are irregular houses, receding, starting forward, +tumbling down, leaning against their neighbours, crippling themselves +or their friends by some means or other, until one, more irregular than +the rest, chokes up the way, and you can’t see any further.<br> +<br> +One of the rottenest-looking parts of the town, I think, is down by +the landing-wharf: though it may be, that its being associated with +a great deal of rottenness on the evening of our arrival, has stamped +it deeper in my mind. Here, again, the houses are very high, and +are of an infinite variety of deformed shapes, and have (as most of +the houses have) something hanging out of a great many windows, and +wafting its frowsy fragrance on the breeze. Sometimes, it is a +curtain; sometimes, it is a carpet; sometimes, it is a bed; sometimes, +a whole line-full of clothes; but there is almost always something. +Before the basement of these houses, is an arcade over the pavement: +very massive, dark, and low, like an old crypt. The stone, or +plaster, of which it is made, has turned quite black; and against every +one of these black piles, all sorts of filth and garbage seem to accumulate +spontaneously. Beneath some of the arches, the sellers of macaroni +and polenta establish their stalls, which are by no means inviting. +The offal of a fish-market, near at hand - that is to say, of a back +lane, where people sit upon the ground and on various old bulk-heads +and sheds, and sell fish when they have any to dispose of - and of a +vegetable market, constructed on the same principle - are contributed +to the decoration of this quarter; and as all the mercantile business +is transacted here, and it is crowded all day, it has a very decided +flavour about it. The Porto Franco, or Free Port (where goods +brought in from foreign countries pay no duty until they are sold and +taken out, as in a bonded warehouse in England), is down here also; +and two portentous officials, in cocked hats, stand at the gate to search +you if they choose, and to keep out Monks and Ladies. For, Sanctity +as well as Beauty has been known to yield to the temptation of smuggling, +and in the same way: that is to say, by concealing the smuggled property +beneath the loose folds of its dress. So Sanctity and Beauty may, +by no means, enter.<br> +<br> +The streets of Genoa would be all the better for the importation of +a few Priests of prepossessing appearance. Every fourth or fifth +man in the streets is a Priest or a Monk; and there is pretty sure to +be at least one itinerant ecclesiastic inside or outside every hackney +carriage on the neighbouring roads. I have no knowledge, elsewhere, +of more repulsive countenances than are to be found among these gentry. +If Nature’s handwriting be at all legible, greater varieties of +sloth, deceit, and intellectual torpor, could hardly be observed among +any class of men in the world.<br> +<br> +MR. PEPYS once heard a clergyman assert in his sermon, in illustration +of his respect for the Priestly office, that if he could meet a Priest +and angel together, he would salute the Priest first. I am rather +of the opinion of PETRARCH, who, when his pupil BOCCACCIO wrote to him +in great tribulation, that he had been visited and admonished for his +writings by a Carthusian Friar who claimed to be a messenger immediately +commissioned by Heaven for that purpose, replied, that for his own part, +he would take the liberty of testing the reality of the commission by +personal observation of the Messenger’s face, eyes, forehead, +behaviour, and discourse. I cannot but believe myself, from similar +observation, that many unaccredited celestial messengers may be seen +skulking through the streets of Genoa, or droning away their lives in +other Italian towns.<br> +<br> +Perhaps the Cappuccíni, though not a learned body, are, as an +order, the best friends of the people. They seem to mingle with +them more immediately, as their counsellors and comforters; and to go +among them more, when they are sick; and to pry less than some other +orders, into the secrets of families, for the purpose of establishing +a baleful ascendency over their weaker members; and to be influenced +by a less fierce desire to make converts, and once made, to let them +go to ruin, soul and body. They may be seen, in their coarse dress, +in all parts of the town at all times, and begging in the markets early +in the morning. The Jesuits too, muster strong in the streets, +and go slinking noiselessly about, in pairs, like black cats.<br> +<br> +In some of the narrow passages, distinct trades congregate. There +is a street of jewellers, and there is a row of booksellers; but even +down in places where nobody ever can, or ever could, penetrate in a +carriage, there are mighty old palaces shut in among the gloomiest and +closest walls, and almost shut out from the sun. Very few of the +tradesmen have any idea of setting forth their goods, or disposing them +for show. If you, a stranger, want to buy anything, you usually +look round the shop till you see it; then clutch it, if it be within +reach, and inquire how much. Everything is sold at the most unlikely +place. If you want coffee, you go to a sweetmeat shop; and if +you want meat, you will probably find it behind an old checked curtain, +down half-a-dozen steps, in some sequestered nook as hard to find as +if the commodity were poison, and Genoa’s law were death to any +that uttered it.<br> +<br> +Most of the apothecaries’ shops are great lounging-places. +Here, grave men with sticks, sit down in the shade for hours together, +passing a meagre Genoa paper from hand to hand, and talking, drowsily +and sparingly, about the News. Two or three of these are poor +physicians, ready to proclaim themselves on an emergency, and tear off +with any messenger who may arrive. You may know them by the way +in which they stretch their necks to listen, when you enter; and by +the sigh with which they fall back again into their dull corners, on +finding that you only want medicine. Few people lounge in the +barbers’ shops; though they are very numerous, as hardly any man +shaves himself. But the apothecary’s has its group of loungers, +who sit back among the bottles, with their hands folded over the tops +of their sticks. So still and quiet, that either you don’t +see them in the darkened shop, or mistake them - as I did one ghostly +man in bottle-green, one day, with a hat like a stopper - for Horse +Medicine.<br> +<br> +On a summer evening the Genoese are as fond of putting themselves, as +their ancestors were of putting houses, in every available inch of space +in and about the town. In all the lanes and alleys, and up every +little ascent, and on every dwarf wall, and on every flight of steps, +they cluster like bees. Meanwhile (and especially on festa-days) +the bells of the churches ring incessantly; not in peals, or any known +form of sound, but in a horrible, irregular, jerking, dingle, dingle, +dingle: with a sudden stop at every fifteenth dingle or so, which is +maddening. This performance is usually achieved by a boy up in +the steeple, who takes hold of the clapper, or a little rope attached +to it, and tries to dingle louder than every other boy similarly employed. +The noise is supposed to be particularly obnoxious to Evil Spirits; +but looking up into the steeples, and seeing (and hearing) these young +Christians thus engaged, one might very naturally mistake them for the +Enemy.<br> +<br> +Festa-days, early in the autumn, are very numerous. All the shops +were shut up, twice within a week, for these holidays; and one night, +all the houses in the neighbourhood of a particular church were illuminated, +while the church itself was lighted, outside, with torches; and a grove +of blazing links was erected, in an open space outside one of the city +gates. This part of the ceremony is prettier and more singular +a little way in the country, where you can trace the illuminated cottages +all the way up a steep hill-side; and where you pass festoons of tapers, +wasting away in the starlight night, before some lonely little house +upon the road.<br> +<br> +On these days, they always dress the church of the saint in whose honour +the festa is holden, very gaily. Gold-embroidered festoons of +different colours, hang from the arches; the altar furniture is set +forth; and sometimes, even the lofty pillars are swathed from top to +bottom in tight-fitting draperies. The cathedral is dedicated +to St. Lorenzo. On St. Lorenzo’s day, we went into it, just +as the sun was setting. Although these decorations are usually +in very indifferent taste, the effect, just then, was very superb indeed. +For the whole building was dressed in red; and the sinking sun, streaming +in, through a great red curtain in the chief doorway, made all the gorgeousness +its own. When the sun went down, and it gradually grew quite dark +inside, except for a few twinkling tapers on the principal altar, and +some small dangling silver lamps, it was very mysterious and effective. +But, sitting in any of the churches towards evening, is like a mild +dose of opium.<br> +<br> +With the money collected at a festa, they usually pay for the dressing +of the church, and for the hiring of the band, and for the tapers. +If there be any left (which seldom happens, I believe), the souls in +Purgatory get the benefit of it. They are also supposed to have +the benefit of the exertions of certain small boys, who shake money-boxes +before some mysterious little buildings like rural turnpikes, which +(usually shut up close) fly open on Red-letter days, and disclose an +image and some flowers inside.<br> +<br> +Just without the city gate, on the Albara road, is a small house, with +an altar in it, and a stationary money-box: also for the benefit of +the souls in Purgatory. Still further to stimulate the charitable, +there is a monstrous painting on the plaster, on either side of the +grated door, representing a select party of souls, frying. One +of them has a grey moustache, and an elaborate head of grey hair: as +if he had been taken out of a hairdresser’s window and cast into +the furnace. There he is: a most grotesque and hideously comic +old soul: for ever blistering in the real sun, and melting in the mimic +fire, for the gratification and improvement (and the contributions) +of the poor Genoese.<br> +<br> +They are not a very joyous people, and are seldom seen to dance on their +holidays: the staple places of entertainment among the women, being +the churches and the public walks. They are very good-tempered, +obliging, and industrious. Industry has not made them clean, for +their habitations are extremely filthy, and their usual occupation on +a fine Sunday morning, is to sit at their doors, hunting in each other’s +heads. But their dwellings are so close and confined that if those +parts of the city had been beaten down by Massena in the time of the +terrible Blockade, it would have at least occasioned one public benefit +among many misfortunes.<br> +<br> +The Peasant Women, with naked feet and legs, are so constantly washing +clothes, in the public tanks, and in every stream and ditch, that one +cannot help wondering, in the midst of all this dirt, who wears them +when they are clean. The custom is to lay the wet linen which +is being operated upon, on a smooth stone, and hammer away at it, with +a flat wooden mallet. This they do, as furiously as if they were +revenging themselves on dress in general for being connected with the +Fall of Mankind.<br> +<br> +It is not unusual to see, lying on the edge of the tank at these times, +or on another flat stone, an unfortunate baby, tightly swathed up, arms +and legs and all, in an enormous quantity of wrapper, so that it is +unable to move a toe or finger. This custom (which we often see +represented in old pictures) is universal among the common people. +A child is left anywhere without the possibility of crawling away, or +is accidentally knocked off a shelf, or tumbled out of bed, or is hung +up to a hook now and then, and left dangling like a doll at an English +rag-shop, without the least inconvenience to anybody.<br> +<br> +I was sitting, one Sunday, soon after my arrival, in the little country +church of San Martino, a couple of miles from the city, while a baptism +took place. I saw the priest, and an attendant with a large taper, +and a man, and a woman, and some others; but I had no more idea, until +the ceremony was all over, that it was a baptism, or that the curious +little stiff instrument, that was passed from one to another, in the +course of the ceremony, by the handle - like a short poker - was a child, +than I had that it was my own christening. I borrowed the child +afterwards, for a minute or two (it was lying across the font then), +and found it very red in the face but perfectly quiet, and not to be +bent on any terms. The number of cripples in the streets, soon +ceased to surprise me.<br> +<br> +There are plenty of Saints’ and Virgin’s Shrines, of course; +generally at the corners of streets. The favourite memento to +the Faithful, about Genoa, is a painting, representing a peasant on +his knees, with a spade and some other agricultural implements beside +him; and the Madonna, with the Infant Saviour in her arms, appearing +to him in a cloud. This is the legend of the Madonna della Guardia: +a chapel on a mountain within a few miles, which is in high repute. +It seems that this peasant lived all alone by himself, tilling some +land atop of the mountain, where, being a devout man, he daily said +his prayers to the Virgin in the open air; for his hut was a very poor +one. Upon a certain day, the Virgin appeared to him, as in the +picture, and said, ‘Why do you pray in the open air, and without +a priest?’ The peasant explained because there was neither +priest nor church at hand - a very uncommon complaint indeed in Italy. +‘I should wish, then,’ said the Celestial Visitor, ‘to +have a chapel built here, in which the prayers of the Faithful may be +offered up.’ ‘But, Santissima Madonna,’ said +the peasant, ‘I am a poor man; and chapels cannot be built without +money. They must be supported, too, Santissima; for to have a +chapel and not support it liberally, is a wickedness - a deadly sin.’ +This sentiment gave great satisfaction to the visitor. ‘Go!’ +said she. ‘There is such a village in the valley on the +left, and such another village in the valley on the right, and such +another village elsewhere, that will gladly contribute to the building +of a chapel. Go to them! Relate what you have seen; and +do not doubt that sufficient money will be forthcoming to erect my chapel, +or that it will, afterwards, be handsomely maintained.’ +All of which (miraculously) turned out to be quite true. And in +proof of this prediction and revelation, there is the chapel of the +Madonna della Guardia, rich and flourishing at this day.<br> +<br> +The splendour and variety of the Genoese churches, can hardly be exaggerated. +The church of the Annunciata especially: built, like many of the others, +at the cost of one noble family, and now in slow progress of repair: +from the outer door to the utmost height of the high cupola, is so elaborately +painted and set in gold, that it looks (as SIMOND describes it, in his +charming book on Italy) like a great enamelled snuff-box. Most +of the richer churches contain some beautiful pictures, or other embellishments +of great price, almost universally set, side by side, with sprawling +effigies of maudlin monks, and the veriest trash and tinsel ever seen.<br> +<br> +It may be a consequence of the frequent direction of the popular mind, +and pocket, to the souls in Purgatory, but there is very little tenderness +for the <i>bodies</i> of the dead here. For the very poor, there +are, immediately outside one angle of the walls, and behind a jutting +point of the fortification, near the sea, certain common pits - one +for every day in the year - which all remain closed up, until the turn +of each comes for its daily reception of dead bodies. Among the +troops in the town, there are usually some Swiss: more or less. +When any of these die, they are buried out of a fund maintained by such +of their countrymen as are resident in Genoa. Their providing +coffins for these men is matter of great astonishment to the authorities.<br> +<br> +Certainly, the effect of this promiscuous and indecent splashing down +of dead people in so many wells, is bad. It surrounds Death with +revolting associations, that insensibly become connected with those +whom Death is approaching. Indifference and avoidance are the +natural result; and all the softening influences of the great sorrow +are harshly disturbed.<br> +<br> +There is a ceremony when an old Cavaliére or the like, expires, +of erecting a pile of benches in the cathedral, to represent his bier; +covering them over with a pall of black velvet; putting his hat and +sword on the top; making a little square of seats about the whole; and +sending out formal invitations to his friends and acquaintances to come +and sit there, and hear Mass: which is performed at the principal Altar, +decorated with an infinity of candles for that purpose.<br> +<br> +When the better kind of people die, or are at the point of death, their +nearest relations generally walk off: retiring into the country for +a little change, and leaving the body to be disposed of, without any +superintendence from them. The procession is usually formed, and +the coffin borne, and the funeral conducted, by a body of persons called +a Confratérnita, who, as a kind of voluntary penance, undertake +to perform these offices, in regular rotation, for the dead; but who, +mingling something of pride with their humility, are dressed in a loose +garment covering their whole person, and wear a hood concealing the +face; with breathing-holes and apertures for the eyes. The effect +of this costume is very ghastly: especially in the case of a certain +Blue Confratérnita belonging to Genoa, who, to say the least +of them, are very ugly customers, and who look - suddenly encountered +in their pious ministration in the streets - as if they were Ghoules +or Demons, bearing off the body for themselves.<br> +<br> +Although such a custom may be liable to the abuse attendant on many +Italian customs, of being recognised as a means of establishing a current +account with Heaven, on which to draw, too easily, for future bad actions, +or as an expiation for past misdeeds, it must be admitted to be a good +one, and a practical one, and one involving unquestionably good works. +A voluntary service like this, is surely better than the imposed penance +(not at all an infrequent one) of giving so many licks to such and such +a stone in the pavement of the cathedral; or than a vow to the Madonna +to wear nothing but blue for a year or two. This is supposed to +give great delight above; blue being (as is well known) the Madonna’s +favourite colour. Women who have devoted themselves to this act +of Faith, are very commonly seen walking in the streets.<br> +<br> +There are three theatres in the city, besides an old one now rarely +opened. The most important - the Carlo Felice: the opera-house +of Genoa - is a very splendid, commodious, and beautiful theatre. +A company of comedians were acting there, when we arrived: and soon +after their departure, a second-rate opera company came. The great +season is not until the carnival time - in the spring. Nothing +impressed me, so much, in my visits here (which were pretty numerous) +as the uncommonly hard and cruel character of the audience, who resent +the slightest defect, take nothing good-humouredly, seem to be always +lying in wait for an opportunity to hiss, and spare the actresses as +little as the actors.<br> +<br> +But, as there is nothing else of a public nature at which they are allowed +to express the least disapprobation, perhaps they are resolved to make +the most of this opportunity.<br> +<br> +There are a great number of Piedmontese officers too, who are allowed +the privilege of kicking their heels in the pit, for next to nothing: +gratuitous, or cheap accommodation for these gentlemen being insisted +on, by the Governor, in all public or semi-public entertainments. +They are lofty critics in consequence, and infinitely more exacting +than if they made the unhappy manager’s fortune.<br> +<br> +The TEATRO DIURNO, or Day Theatre, is a covered stage in the open air, +where the performances take place by daylight, in the cool of the afternoon; +commencing at four or five o’clock, and lasting, some three hours. +It is curious, sitting among the audience, to have a fine view of the +neighbouring hills and houses, and to see the neighbours at their windows +looking on, and to hear the bells of the churches and convents ringing +at most complete cross-purposes with the scene. Beyond this, and +the novelty of seeing a play in the fresh pleasant air, with the darkening +evening closing in, there is nothing very exciting or characteristic +in the performances. The actors are indifferent; and though they +sometimes represent one of Goldoni’s comedies, the staple of the +Drama is French. Anything like nationality is dangerous to despotic +governments, and Jesuit-beleaguered kings.<br> +<br> +The Theatre of Puppets, or Marionetti - a famous company from Milan +- is, without any exception, the drollest exhibition I ever beheld in +my life. I never saw anything so exquisitely ridiculous. +They <i>look</i> between four and five feet high, but are really much +smaller; for when a musician in the orchestra happens to put his hat +on the stage, it becomes alarmingly gigantic, and almost blots out an +actor. They usually play a comedy, and a ballet. The comic +man in the comedy I saw one summer night, is a waiter in an hotel. +There never was such a locomotive actor, since the world began. +Great pains are taken with him. He has extra joints in his legs: +and a practical eye, with which he winks at the pit, in a manner that +is absolutely insupportable to a stranger, but which the initiated audience, +mainly composed of the common people, receive (so they do everything +else) quite as a matter of course, and as if he were a man. His +spirits are prodigious. He continually shakes his legs, and winks +his eye. And there is a heavy father with grey hair, who sits +down on the regular conventional stage-bank, and blesses his daughter +in the regular conventional way, who is tremendous. No one would +suppose it possible that anything short of a real man could be so tedious. +It is the triumph of art.<br> +<br> +In the ballet, an Enchanter runs away with the Bride, in the very hour +of her nuptials, He brings her to his cave, and tries to soothe her. +They sit down on a sofa (the regular sofa! in the regular place, O. +P. Second Entrance!) and a procession of musicians enters; one creature +playing a drum, and knocking himself off his legs at every blow. +These failing to delight her, dancers appear. Four first; then +two; <i>the</i> two; the flesh-coloured two. The way in which +they dance; the height to which they spring; the impossible and inhuman +extent to which they pirouette; the revelation of their preposterous +legs; the coming down with a pause, on the very tips of their toes, +when the music requires it; the gentleman’s retiring up, when +it is the lady’s turn; and the lady’s retiring up, when +it is the gentleman’s turn; the final passion of a pas-de-deux; +and the going off with a bound! - I shall never see a real ballet, with +a composed countenance again.<br> +<br> +I went, another night, to see these Puppets act a play called ‘St. +Helena, or the Death of Napoleon.’ It began by the disclosure +of Napoleon, with an immense head, seated on a sofa in his chamber at +St. Helena; to whom his valet entered with this obscure announcement:<br> +<br> +‘Sir Yew ud se on Low?’ (the <i>ow</i>, as in cow).<br> +<br> +Sir Hudson (that you could have seen his regimentals!) was a perfect +mammoth of a man, to Napoleon; hideously ugly, with a monstrously disproportionate +face, and a great clump for the lower-jaw, to express his tyrannical +and obdurate nature. He began his system of persecution, by calling +his prisoner ‘General Buonaparte;’ to which the latter replied, +with the deepest tragedy, ‘Sir Yew ud se on Low, call me not thus. +Repeat that phrase and leave me! I am Napoleon, Emperor of France!’ +Sir Yew ud se on, nothing daunted, proceeded to entertain him with an +ordinance of the British Government, regulating the state he should +preserve, and the furniture of his rooms: and limiting his attendants +to four or five persons. ‘Four or five for <i>me</i>!’ +said Napoleon. ‘Me! One hundred thousand men were +lately at my sole command; and this English officer talks of four or +five for <i>me</i>!’ Throughout the piece, Napoleon (who +talked very like the real Napoleon, and was, for ever, having small +soliloquies by himself) was very bitter on ‘these English officers,’ +and ‘these English soldiers;’ to the great satisfaction +of the audience, who were perfectly delighted to have Low bullied; and +who, whenever Low said ‘General Buonaparte’ (which he always +did: always receiving the same correction), quite execrated him. +It would be hard to say why; for Italians have little cause to sympathise +with Napoleon, Heaven knows.<br> +<br> +There was no plot at all, except that a French officer, disguised as +an Englishman, came to propound a plan of escape; and being discovered, +but not before Napoleon had magnanimously refused to steal his freedom, +was immediately ordered off by Low to be hanged. In two very long +speeches, which Low made memorable, by winding up with ‘Yas!’ +- to show that he was English - which brought down thunders of applause. +Napoleon was so affected by this catastrophe, that he fainted away on +the spot, and was carried out by two other puppets. Judging from +what followed, it would appear that he never recovered the shock; for +the next act showed him, in a clean shirt, in his bed (curtains crimson +and white), where a lady, prematurely dressed in mourning, brought two +little children, who kneeled down by the bedside, while he made a decent +end; the last word on his lips being ‘Vatterlo.’<br> +<br> +It was unspeakably ludicrous. Buonaparte’s boots were so +wonderfully beyond control, and did such marvellous things of their +own accord: doubling themselves up, and getting under tables, and dangling +in the air, and sometimes skating away with him, out of all human knowledge, +when he was in full speech - mischances which were not rendered the +less absurd, by a settled melancholy depicted in his face. To +put an end to one conference with Low, he had to go to a table, and +read a book: when it was the finest spectacle I ever beheld, to see +his body bending over the volume, like a boot-jack, and his sentimental +eyes glaring obstinately into the pit. He was prodigiously good, +in bed, with an immense collar to his shirt, and his little hands outside +the coverlet. So was Dr. Antommarchi, represented by a puppet +with long lank hair, like Mawworm’s, who, in consequence of some +derangement of his wires, hovered about the couch like a vulture, and +gave medical opinions in the air. He was almost as good as Low, +though the latter was great at all times - a decided brute and villain, +beyond all possibility of mistake. Low was especially fine at +the last, when, hearing the doctor and the valet say, ‘The Emperor +is dead!’ he pulled out his watch, and wound up the piece (not +the watch) by exclaiming, with characteristic brutality, ‘Ha! +ha! Eleven minutes to six! The General dead! and the spy +hanged!’ This brought the curtain down, triumphantly.<br> +<br> +<br> +There is not in Italy, they say (and I believe them), a lovelier residence +than the Palazzo Peschiere, or Palace of the Fishponds, whither we removed +as soon as our three months’ tenancy of the Pink Jail at Albaro +had ceased and determined.<br> +<br> +It stands on a height within the walls of Genoa, but aloof from the +town: surrounded by beautiful gardens of its own, adorned with statues, +vases, fountains, marble basins, terraces, walks of orange-trees and +lemon-trees, groves of roses and camellias. All its apartments +are beautiful in their proportions and decorations; but the great hall, +some fifty feet in height, with three large windows at the end, overlooking +the whole town of Genoa, the harbour, and the neighbouring sea, affords +one of the most fascinating and delightful prospects in the world. +Any house more cheerful and habitable than the great rooms are, within, +it would be difficult to conceive; and certainly nothing more delicious +than the scene without, in sunshine or in moonlight, could be imagined. +It is more like an enchanted place in an Eastern story than a grave +and sober lodging.<br> +<br> +How you may wander on, from room to room, and never tire of the wild +fancies on the walls and ceilings, as bright in their fresh colouring +as if they had been painted yesterday; or how one floor, or even the +great hall which opens on eight other rooms, is a spacious promenade; +or how there are corridors and bed-chambers above, which we never use +and rarely visit, and scarcely know the way through; or how there is +a view of a perfectly different character on each of the four sides +of the building; matters little. But that prospect from the hall +is like a vision to me. I go back to it, in fancy, as I have done +in calm reality a hundred times a day; and stand there, looking out, +with the sweet scents from the garden rising up about me, in a perfect +dream of happiness.<br> +<br> +There lies all Genoa, in beautiful confusion, with its many churches, +monasteries, and convents, pointing up into the sunny sky; and down +below me, just where the roofs begin, a solitary convent parapet, fashioned +like a gallery, with an iron across at the end, where sometimes early +in the morning, I have seen a little group of dark-veiled nuns gliding +sorrowfully to and fro, and stopping now and then to peep down upon +the waking world in which they have no part. Old Monte Faccio, +brightest of hills in good weather, but sulkiest when storms are coming +on, is here, upon the left. The Fort within the walls (the good +King built it to command the town, and beat the houses of the Genoese +about their ears, in case they should be discontented) commands that +height upon the right. The broad sea lies beyond, in front there; +and that line of coast, beginning by the light-house, and tapering away, +a mere speck in the rosy distance, is the beautiful coast road that +leads to Nice. The garden near at hand, among the roofs and houses: +all red with roses and fresh with little fountains: is the Acqua Sola +- a public promenade, where the military band plays gaily, and the white +veils cluster thick, and the Genoese nobility ride round, and round, +and round, in state-clothes and coaches at least, if not in absolute +wisdom. Within a stone’s-throw, as it seems, the audience +of the Day Theatre sit: their faces turned this way. But as the +stage is hidden, it is very odd, without a knowledge of the cause, to +see their faces changed so suddenly from earnestness to laughter; and +odder still, to hear the rounds upon rounds of applause, rattling in +the evening air, to which the curtain falls. But, being Sunday +night, they act their best and most attractive play. And now, +the sun is going down, in such magnificent array of red, and green, +and golden light, as neither pen nor pencil could depict; and to the +ringing of the vesper bells, darkness sets in at once, without a twilight. +Then, lights begin to shine in Genoa, and on the country road; and the +revolving lanthorn out at sea there, flashing, for an instant, on this +palace front and portico, illuminates it as if there were a bright moon +bursting from behind a cloud; then, merges it in deep obscurity. +And this, so far as I know, is the only reason why the Genoese avoid +it after dark, and think it haunted.<br> +<br> +My memory will haunt it, many nights, in time to come; but nothing worse, +I will engage. The same Ghost will occasionally sail away, as +I did one pleasant autumn evening, into the bright prospect, and sniff +the morning air at Marseilles.<br> +<br> +The corpulent hairdresser was still sitting in his slippers outside +his shop-door there, but the twirling ladies in the window, with the +natural inconstancy of their sex, had ceased to twirl, and were languishing, +stock still, with their beautiful faces addressed to blind corners of +the establishment, where it was impossible for admirers to penetrate.<br> +<br> +The steamer had come from Genoa in a delicious run of eighteen hours, +and we were going to run back again by the Cornice road from Nice: not +being satisfied to have seen only the outsides of the beautiful towns +that rise in picturesque white clusters from among the olive woods, +and rocks, and hills, upon the margin of the Sea.<br> +<br> +The Boat which started for Nice that night, at eight o’clock, +was very small, and so crowded with goods that there was scarcely room +to move; neither was there anything to cat on board, except bread; nor +to drink, except coffee. But being due at Nice at about eight +or so in the morning, this was of no consequence; so when we began to +wink at the bright stars, in involuntary acknowledgment of their winking +at us, we turned into our berths, in a crowded, but cool little cabin, +and slept soundly till morning.<br> +<br> +The Boat, being as dull and dogged a little boat as ever was built, +it was within an hour of noon when we turned into Nice Harbour, where +we very little expected anything but breakfast. But we were laden +with wool. Wool must not remain in the Custom-house at Marseilles +more than twelve months at a stretch, without paying duty. It +is the custom to make fictitious removals of unsold wool to evade this +law; to take it somewhere when the twelve months are nearly out; bring +it straight back again; and warehouse it, as a new cargo, for nearly +twelve months longer. This wool of ours, had come originally from +some place in the East. It was recognised as Eastern produce, +the moment we entered the harbour. Accordingly, the gay little +Sunday boats, full of holiday people, which had come off to greet us, +were warned away by the authorities; we were declared in quarantine; +and a great flag was solemnly run up to the mast-head on the wharf, +to make it known to all the town.<br> +<br> +It was a very hot day indeed. We were unshaved, unwashed, undressed, +unfed, and could hardly enjoy the absurdity of lying blistering in a +lazy harbour, with the town looking on from a respectful distance, all +manner of whiskered men in cocked hats discussing our fate at a remote +guard-house, with gestures (we looked very hard at them through telescopes) +expressive of a week’s detention at least: and nothing whatever +the matter all the time. But even in this crisis the brave Courier +achieved a triumph. He telegraphed somebody (<i>I</i> saw nobody) +either naturally connected with the hotel, or put <i>en rapport</i> +with the establishment for that occasion only. The telegraph was +answered, and in half an hour or less, there came a loud shout from +the guard-house. The captain was wanted. Everybody helped +the captain into his boat. Everybody got his luggage, and said +we were going. The captain rowed away, and disappeared behind +a little jutting corner of the Galley-slaves’ Prison: and presently +came back with something, very sulkily. The brave Courier met +him at the side, and received the something as its rightful owner. +It was a wicker basket, folded in a linen cloth; and in it were two +great bottles of wine, a roast fowl, some salt fish chopped with garlic, +a great loaf of bread, a dozen or so of peaches, and a few other trifles. +When we had selected our own breakfast, the brave Courier invited a +chosen party to partake of these refreshments, and assured them that +they need not be deterred by motives of delicacy, as he would order +a second basket to be furnished at their expense. Which he did +- no one knew how - and by-and-by, the captain being again summoned, +again sulkily returned with another something; over which my popular +attendant presided as before: carving with a clasp-knife, his own personal +property, something smaller than a Roman sword.<br> +<br> +The whole party on board were made merry by these unexpected supplies; +but none more so than a loquacious little Frenchman, who got drunk in +five minutes, and a sturdy Cappuccíno Friar, who had taken everybody’s +fancy mightily, and was one of the best friars in the world, I verily +believe.<br> +<br> +He had a free, open countenance; and a rich brown, flowing beard; and +was a remarkably handsome man, of about fifty. He had come up +to us, early in the morning, and inquired whether we were sure to be +at Nice by eleven; saying that he particularly wanted to know, because +if we reached it by that time he would have to perform Mass, and must +deal with the consecrated wafer, fasting; whereas, if there were no +chance of his being in time, he would immediately breakfast. He +made this communication, under the idea that the brave Courier was the +captain; and indeed he looked much more like it than anybody else on +board. Being assured that we should arrive in good time, he fasted, +and talked, fasting, to everybody, with the most charming good humour; +answering jokes at the expense of friars, with other jokes at the expense +of laymen, and saying that, friar as he was, he would engage to take +up the two strongest men on board, one after the other, with his teeth, +and carry them along the deck. Nobody gave him the opportunity, +but I dare say he could have done it; for he was a gallant, noble figure +of a man, even in the Cappuccíno dress, which is the ugliest +and most ungainly that can well be.<br> +<br> +All this had given great delight to the loquacious Frenchman, who gradually +patronised the Friar very much, and seemed to commiserate him as one +who might have been born a Frenchman himself, but for an unfortunate +destiny. Although his patronage was such as a mouse might bestow +upon a lion, he had a vast opinion of its condescension; and in the +warmth of that sentiment, occasionally rose on tiptoe, to slap the Friar +on the back.<br> +<br> +When the baskets arrived: it being then too late for Mass: the Friar +went to work bravely: eating prodigiously of the cold meat and bread, +drinking deep draughts of the wine, smoking cigars, taking snuff, sustaining +an uninterrupted conversation with all hands, and occasionally running +to the boat’s side and hailing somebody on shore with the intelligence +that we <i>must</i> be got out of this quarantine somehow or other, +as he had to take part in a great religious procession in the afternoon. +After this, he would come back, laughing lustily from pure good humour: +while the Frenchman wrinkled his small face into ten thousand creases, +and said how droll it was, and what a brave boy was that Friar! +At length the heat of the sun without, and the wine within, made the +Frenchman sleepy. So, in the noontide of his patronage of his +gigantic protégé, he lay down among the wool, and began +to snore.<br> +<br> +It was four o’clock before we were released; and the Frenchman, +dirty and woolly, and snuffy, was still sleeping when the Friar went +ashore. As soon as we were free, we all hurried away, to wash +and dress, that we might make a decent appearance at the procession; +and I saw no more of the Frenchman until we took up our station in the +main street to see it pass, when he squeezed himself into a front place, +elaborately renovated; threw back his little coat, to show a broad-barred +velvet waistcoat, sprinkled all over with stars; then adjusted himself +and his cane so as utterly to bewilder and transfix the Friar, when +he should appear.<br> +<br> +The procession was a very long one, and included an immense number of +people divided into small parties; each party chanting nasally, on its +own account, without reference to any other, and producing a most dismal +result. There were angels, crosses, Virgins carried on flat boards +surrounded by Cupids, crowns, saints, missals, infantry, tapers, monks, +nuns, relics, dignitaries of the church in green hats, walking under +crimson parasols: and, here and there, a species of sacred street-lamp +hoisted on a pole. We looked out anxiously for the Cappuccíni, +and presently their brown robes and corded girdles were seen coming +on, in a body.<br> +<br> +I observed the little Frenchman chuckle over the idea that when the +Friar saw him in the broad-barred waistcoat, he would mentally exclaim, +‘Is that my Patron! <i>That</i> distinguished man!’ +and would be covered with confusion. Ah! never was the Frenchman +so deceived. As our friend the Cappuccíno advanced, with +folded arms, he looked straight into the visage of the little Frenchman, +with a bland, serene, composed abstraction, not to be described. +There was not the faintest trace of recognition or amusement on his +features; not the smallest consciousness of bread and meat, wine, snuff, +or cigars. ‘C’est lui-même,’ I heard the +little Frenchman say, in some doubt. Oh yes, it was himself. +It was not his brother or his nephew, very like him. It was he. +He walked in great state: being one of the Superiors of the Order: and +looked his part to admiration. There never was anything so perfect +of its kind as the contemplative way in which he allowed his placid +gaze to rest on us, his late companions, as if he had never seen us +in his life and didn’t see us then. The Frenchman, quite +humbled, took off his hat at last, but the Friar still passed on, with +the same imperturbable serenity; and the broad-barred waistcoat, fading +into the crowd, was seen no more.<br> +<br> +The procession wound up with a discharge of musketry that shook all +the windows in the town. Next afternoon we started for Genoa, +by the famed Cornice road.<br> +<br> +The half-French, half-Italian Vetturíno, who undertook, with +his little rattling carriage and pair, to convey us thither in three +days, was a careless, good-looking fellow, whose light-heartedness and +singing propensities knew no bounds as long as we went on smoothly. +So long, he had a word and a smile, and a flick of his whip, for all +the peasant girls, and odds and ends of the Sonnambula for all the echoes. +So long, he went jingling through every little village, with bells on +his horses and rings in his ears: a very meteor of gallantry and cheerfulness. +But, it was highly characteristic to see him under a slight reverse +of circumstances, when, in one part of the journey, we came to a narrow +place where a waggon had broken down and stopped up the road. +His hands were twined in his hair immediately, as if a combination of +all the direst accidents in life had suddenly fallen on his devoted +head. He swore in French, prayed in Italian, and went up and down, +beating his feet on the ground in a very ecstasy of despair. There +were various carters and mule-drivers assembled round the broken waggon, +and at last some man of an original turn of mind, proposed that a general +and joint effort should be made to get things to-rights again, and clear +the way - an idea which I verily believe would never have presented +itself to our friend, though we had remained there until now. +It was done at no great cost of labour; but at every pause in the doing, +his hands were wound in his hair again, as if there were no ray of hope +to lighten his misery. The moment he was on his box once more, +and clattering briskly down hill, he returned to the Sonnambula and +the peasant girls, as if it were not in the power of misfortune to depress +him.<br> +<br> +Much of the romance of the beautiful towns and villages on this beautiful +road, disappears when they are entered, for many of them are very miserable. +The streets are narrow, dark, and dirty; the inhabitants lean and squalid; +and the withered old women, with their wiry grey hair twisted up into +a knot on the top of the head, like a pad to carry loads on, are so +intensely ugly, both along the Riviera, and in Genoa, too, that, seen +straggling about in dim doorways with their spindles, or crooning together +in by-corners, they are like a population of Witches - except that they +certainly are not to be suspected of brooms or any other instrument +of cleanliness. Neither are the pig-skins, in common use to hold +wine, and hung out in the sun in all directions, by any means ornamental, +as they always preserve the form of very bloated pigs, with their heads +and legs cut off, dangling upside-down by their own tails.<br> +<br> +These towns, as they are seen in the approach, however: nestling, with +their clustering roofs and towers, among trees on steep hill-sides, +or built upon the brink of noble bays: are charming. The vegetation +is, everywhere, luxuriant and beautiful, and the Palm-tree makes a novel +feature in the novel scenery. In one town, San Remo - a most extraordinary +place, built on gloomy open arches, so that one might ramble underneath +the whole town - there are pretty terrace gardens; in other towns, there +is the clang of shipwrights’ hammers, and the building of small +vessels on the beach. In some of the broad bays, the fleets of +Europe might ride at anchor. In every case, each little group +of houses presents, in the distance, some enchanting confusion of picturesque +and fanciful shapes.<br> +<br> +The road itself - now high above the glittering sea, which breaks against +the foot of the precipice: now turning inland to sweep the shore of +a bay: now crossing the stony bed of a mountain stream: now low down +on the beach: now winding among riven rocks of many forms and colours: +now chequered by a solitary ruined tower, one of a chain of towers built, +in old time, to protect the coast from the invasions of the Barbary +Corsairs - presents new beauties every moment. When its own striking +scenery is passed, and it trails on through a long line of suburb, lying +on the flat sea-shore, to Genoa, then, the changing glimpses of that +noble city and its harbour, awaken a new source of interest; freshened +by every huge, unwieldy, half-inhabited old house in its outskirts: +and coming to its climax when the city gate is reached, and all Genoa +with its beautiful harbour, and neighbouring hills, bursts proudly on +the view.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER V - TO PARMA, MODENA, AND BOLOGNA<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +I strolled away from Genoa on the 6th of November, bound for a good +many places (England among them), but first for Piacenza; for which +town I started in the <i>coupé</i> of a machine something like +a travelling caravan, in company with the brave Courier, and a lady +with a large dog, who howled dolefully, at intervals, all night. +It was very wet, and very cold; very dark, and very dismal; we travelled +at the rate of barely four miles an hour, and stopped nowhere for refreshment. +At ten o’clock next morning, we changed coaches at Alessandria, +where we were packed up in another coach (the body whereof would have +been small for a fly), in company with a very old priest; a young Jesuit, +his companion - who carried their breviaries and other books, and who, +in the exertion of getting into the coach, had made a gash of pink leg +between his black stocking and his black knee-shorts, that reminded +one of Hamlet in Ophelia’s closet, only it was visible on both +legs - a provincial Avvocáto; and a gentleman with a red nose +that had an uncommon and singular sheen upon it, which I never observed +in the human subject before. In this way we travelled on, until +four o’clock in the afternoon; the roads being still very heavy, +and the coach very slow. To mend the matter, the old priest was +troubled with cramps in his legs, so that he had to give a terrible +yell every ten minutes or so, and be hoisted out by the united efforts +of the company; the coach always stopping for him, with great gravity. +This disorder, and the roads, formed the main subject of conversation. +Finding, in the afternoon, that the <i>coupé</i> had discharged +two people, and had only one passenger inside - a monstrous ugly Tuscan, +with a great purple moustache, of which no man could see the ends when +he had his hat on - I took advantage of its better accommodation, and +in company with this gentleman (who was very conversational and good-humoured) +travelled on, until nearly eleven o’clock at night, when the driver +reported that he couldn’t think of going any farther, and we accordingly +made a halt at a place called Stradella.<br> +<br> +The inn was a series of strange galleries surrounding a yard where our +coach, and a waggon or two, and a lot of fowls, and firewood, were all +heaped up together, higgledy-piggledy; so that you didn’t know, +and couldn’t have taken your oath, which was a fowl and which +was a cart. We followed a sleepy man with a flaring torch, into +a great, cold room, where there were two immensely broad beds, on what +looked like two immensely broad deal dining-tables; another deal table +of similar dimensions in the middle of the bare floor; four windows; +and two chairs. Somebody said it was my room; and I walked up +and down it, for half an hour or so, staring at the Tuscan, the old +priest, the young priest, and the Avvocáto (Red-Nose lived in +the town, and had gone home), who sat upon their beds, and stared at +me in return.<br> +<br> +The rather dreary whimsicality of this stage of the proceedings, is +interrupted by an announcement from the Brave (he had been cooking) +that supper is ready; and to the priest’s chamber (the next room +and the counterpart of mine) we all adjourn. The first dish is +a cabbage, boiled with a great quantity of rice in a tureen full of +water, and flavoured with cheese. It is so hot, and we are so +cold, that it appears almost jolly. The second dish is some little +bits of pork, fried with pigs’ kidneys. The third, two red +fowls. The fourth, two little red turkeys. The fifth, a +huge stew of garlic and truffles, and I don’t know what else; +and this concludes the entertainment.<br> +<br> +Before I can sit down in my own chamber, and think it of the dampest, +the door opens, and the Brave comes moving in, in the middle of such +a quantity of fuel that he looks like Birnam Wood taking a winter walk. +He kindles this heap in a twinkling, and produces a jorum of hot brandy +and water; for that bottle of his keeps company with the seasons, and +now holds nothing but the purest <i>eau de vie</i>. When he has +accomplished this feat, he retires for the night; and I hear him, for +an hour afterwards, and indeed until I fall asleep, making jokes in +some outhouse (apparently under the pillow), where he is smoking cigars +with a party of confidential friends. He never was in the house +in his life before; but he knows everybody everywhere, before he has +been anywhere five minutes; and is certain to have attracted to himself, +in the meantime, the enthusiastic devotion of the whole establishment.<br> +<br> +This is at twelve o’clock at night. At four o’clock +next morning, he is up again, fresher than a full-blown rose; making +blazing fires without the least authority from the landlord; producing +mugs of scalding coffee when nobody else can get anything but cold water; +and going out into the dark streets, and roaring for fresh milk, on +the chance of somebody with a cow getting up to supply it. While +the horses are ‘coming,’ I stumble out into the town too. +It seems to be all one little Piazza, with a cold damp wind blowing +in and out of the arches, alternately, in a sort of pattern. But +it is profoundly dark, and raining heavily; and I shouldn’t know +it to-morrow, if I were taken there to try. Which Heaven forbid.<br> +<br> +The horses arrive in about an hour. In the interval, the driver +swears; sometimes Christian oaths, sometimes Pagan oaths. Sometimes, +when it is a long, compound oath, he begins with Christianity and merges +into Paganism. Various messengers are despatched; not so much +after the horses, as after each other; for the first messenger never +comes back, and all the rest imitate him. At length the horses +appear, surrounded by all the messengers; some kicking them, and some +dragging them, and all shouting abuse to them. Then, the old priest, +the young priest, the Avvocáto, the Tuscan, and all of us, take +our places; and sleepy voices proceeding from the doors of extraordinary +hutches in divers parts of the yard, cry out ‘Addio corrière +mio! Buon’ viággio, corrière!’ +Salutations which the courier, with his face one monstrous grin, returns +in like manner as we go jolting and wallowing away, through the mud.<br> +<br> +At Piacenza, which was four or five hours’ journey from the inn +at Stradella, we broke up our little company before the hotel door, +with divers manifestations of friendly feeling on all sides. The +old priest was taken with the cramp again, before he had got half-way +down the street; and the young priest laid the bundle of books on a +door-step, while he dutifully rubbed the old gentleman’s legs. +The client of the Avvocáto was waiting for him at the yard-gate, +and kissed him on each cheek, with such a resounding smack, that I am +afraid he had either a very bad case, or a scantily-furnished purse. +The Tuscan, with a cigar in his mouth, went loitering off, carrying +his hat in his hand that he might the better trail up the ends of his +dishevelled moustache. And the brave Courier, as he and I strolled +away to look about us, began immediately to entertain me with the private +histories and family affairs of the whole party.<br> +<br> +A brown, decayed, old town, Piacenza is. A deserted, solitary, +grass-grown place, with ruined ramparts; half filled-up trenches, which +afford a frowsy pasturage to the lean kine that wander about them; and +streets of stern houses, moodily frowning at the other houses over the +way. The sleepiest and shabbiest of soldiery go wandering about, +with the double curse of laziness and poverty, uncouthly wrinkling their +misfitting regimentals; the dirtiest of children play with their impromptu +toys (pigs and mud) in the feeblest of gutters; and the gauntest of +dogs trot in and out of the dullest of archways, in perpetual search +of something to eat, which they never seem to find. A mysterious +and solemn Palace, guarded by two colossal statues, twin Genii of the +place, stands gravely in the midst of the idle town; and the king with +the marble legs, who flourished in the time of the thousand and one +Nights, might live contentedly inside of it, and never have the energy, +in his upper half of flesh and blood, to want to come out.<br> +<br> +What a strange, half-sorrowful and half-delicious doze it is, to ramble +through these places gone to sleep and basking in the sun! Each, +in its turn, appears to be, of all the mouldy, dreary, God-forgotten +towns in the wide world, the chief. Sitting on this hillock where +a bastion used to be, and where a noisy fortress was, in the time of +the old Roman station here, I became aware that I have never known till +now, what it is to be lazy. A dormouse must surely be in very +much the same condition before he retires under the wool in his cage; +or a tortoise before he buries himself.<br> +<br> +I feel that I am getting rusty. That any attempt to think, would +be accompanied with a creaking noise. That there is nothing, anywhere, +to be done, or needing to be done. That there is no more human +progress, motion, effort, or advancement, of any kind beyond this. +That the whole scheme stopped here centuries ago, and laid down to rest +until the Day of Judgment.<br> +<br> +Never while the brave Courier lives! Behold him jingling out of +Piacenza, and staggering this way, in the tallest posting-chaise ever +seen, so that he looks out of the front window as if he were peeping +over a garden wall; while the postilion, concentrated essence of all +the shabbiness of Italy, pauses for a moment in his animated conversation, +to touch his hat to a blunt-nosed little Virgin, hardly less shabby +than himself, enshrined in a plaster Punch’s show outside the +town.<br> +<br> +In Genoa, and thereabouts, they train the vines on trellis-work, supported +on square clumsy pillars, which, in themselves, are anything but picturesque. +But, here, they twine them around trees, and let them trail among the +hedges; and the vineyards are full of trees, regularly planted for this +purpose, each with its own vine twining and clustering about it. +Their leaves are now of the brightest gold and deepest red; and never +was anything so enchantingly graceful and full of beauty. Through +miles of these delightful forms and colours, the road winds its way. +The wild festoons, the elegant wreaths, and crowns, and garlands of +all shapes; the fairy nets flung over great trees, and making them prisoners +in sport; the tumbled heaps and mounds of exquisite shapes upon the +ground; how rich and beautiful they are! And every now and then, +a long, long line of trees, will be all bound and garlanded together: +as if they had taken hold of one another, and were coming dancing down +the field!<br> +<br> +Parma has cheerful, stirring streets, for an Italian town; and consequently +is not so characteristic as many places of less note. Always excepting +the retired Piazza, where the Cathedral, Baptistery, and Campanile - +ancient buildings, of a sombre brown, embellished with innumerable grotesque +monsters and dreamy-looking creatures carved in marble and red stone +- are clustered in a noble and magnificent repose. Their silent +presence was only invaded, when I saw them, by the twittering of the +many birds that were flying in and out of the crevices in the stones +and little nooks in the architecture, where they had made their nests. +They were busy, rising from the cold shade of Temples made with hands, +into the sunny air of Heaven. Not so the worshippers within, who +were listening to the same drowsy chaunt, or kneeling before the same +kinds of images and tapers, or whispering, with their heads bowed down, +in the selfsame dark confessionals, as I had left in Genoa and everywhere +else.<br> +<br> +The decayed and mutilated paintings with which this church is covered, +have, to my thinking, a remarkably mournful and depressing influence. +It is miserable to see great works of art - something of the Souls of +Painters - perishing and fading away, like human forms. This cathedral +is odorous with the rotting of Correggio’s frescoes in the Cupola. +Heaven knows how beautiful they may have been at one time. Connoisseurs +fall into raptures with them now; but such a labyrinth of arms and legs: +such heaps of foreshortened limbs, entangled and involved and jumbled +together: no operative surgeon, gone mad, could imagine in his wildest +delirium.<br> +<br> +There is a very interesting subterranean church here: the roof supported +by marble pillars, behind each of which there seemed to be at least +one beggar in ambush: to say nothing of the tombs and secluded altars. +From every one of these lurking-places, such crowds of phantom-looking +men and women, leading other men and women with twisted limbs, or chattering +jaws, or paralytic gestures, or idiotic heads, or some other sad infirmity, +came hobbling out to beg, that if the ruined frescoes in the cathedral +above, had been suddenly animated, and had retired to this lower church, +they could hardly have made a greater confusion, or exhibited a more +confounding display of arms and legs.<br> +<br> +There is Petrarch’s Monument, too; and there is the Baptistery, +with its beautiful arches and immense font; and there is a gallery containing +some very remarkable pictures, whereof a few were being copied by hairy-faced +artists, with little velvet caps more off their heads than on. +There is the Farnese Palace, too; and in it one of the dreariest spectacles +of decay that ever was seen - a grand, old, gloomy theatre, mouldering +away.<br> +<br> +It is a large wooden structure, of the horse-shoe shape; the lower seats +arranged upon the Roman plan, but above them, great heavy chambers; +rather than boxes, where the Nobles sat, remote in their proud state. +Such desolation as has fallen on this theatre, enhanced in the spectator’s +fancy by its gay intention and design, none but worms can be familiar +with. A hundred and ten years have passed, since any play was +acted here. The sky shines in through the gashes in the roof; +the boxes are dropping down, wasting away, and only tenanted by rats; +damp and mildew smear the faded colours, and make spectral maps upon +the panels; lean rags are dangling down where there were gay festoons +on the Proscenium; the stage has rotted so, that a narrow wooden gallery +is thrown across it, or it would sink beneath the tread, and bury the +visitor in the gloomy depth beneath. The desolation and decay +impress themselves on all the senses. The air has a mouldering +smell, and an earthy taste; any stray outer sounds that straggle in +with some lost sunbeam, are muffled and heavy; and the worm, the maggot, +and the rot have changed the surface of the wood beneath the touch, +as time will seam and roughen a smooth hand. If ever Ghosts act +plays, they act them on this ghostly stage.<br> +<br> +It was most delicious weather, when we came into Modena, where the darkness +of the sombre colonnades over the footways skirting the main street +on either side, was made refreshing and agreeable by the bright sky, +so wonderfully blue. I passed from all the glory of the day, into +a dim cathedral, where High Mass was performing, feeble tapers were +burning, people were kneeling in all directions before all manner of +shrines, and officiating priests were crooning the usual chant, in the +usual, low, dull, drawling, melancholy tone.<br> +<br> +Thinking how strange it was, to find, in every stagnant town, this same +Heart beating with the same monotonous pulsation, the centre of the +same torpid, listless system, I came out by another door, and was suddenly +scared to death by a blast from the shrillest trumpet that ever was +blown. Immediately, came tearing round the corner, an equestrian +company from Paris: marshalling themselves under the walls of the church, +and flouting, with their horses’ heels, the griffins, lions, tigers, +and other monsters in stone and marble, decorating its exterior. +First, there came a stately nobleman with a great deal of hair, and +no hat, bearing an enormous banner, on which was inscribed, MAZEPPA! +TO-NIGHT! Then, a Mexican chief, with a great pear-shaped club +on his shoulder, like Hercules. Then, six or eight Roman chariots: +each with a beautiful lady in extremely short petticoats, and unnaturally +pink tights, erect within: shedding beaming looks upon the crowd, in +which there was a latent expression of discomposure and anxiety, for +which I couldn’t account, until, as the open back of each chariot +presented itself, I saw the immense difficulty with which the pink legs +maintained their perpendicular, over the uneven pavement of the town: +which gave me quite a new idea of the ancient Romans and Britons. +The procession was brought to a close, by some dozen indomitable warriors +of different nations, riding two and two, and haughtily surveying the +tame population of Modena: among whom, however, they occasionally condescended +to scatter largesse in the form of a few handbills. After caracolling +among the lions and tigers, and proclaiming that evening’s entertainments +with blast of trumpet, it then filed off, by the other end of the square, +and left a new and greatly increased dulness behind.<br> +<br> +When the procession had so entirely passed away, that the shrill trumpet +was mild in the distance, and the tail of the last horse was hopelessly +round the corner, the people who had come out of the church to stare +at it, went back again. But one old lady, kneeling on the pavement +within, near the door, had seen it all, and had been immensely interested, +without getting up; and this old lady’s eye, at that juncture, +I happened to catch: to our mutual confusion. She cut our embarrassment +very short, however, by crossing herself devoutly, and going down, at +full length, on her face, before a figure in a fancy petticoat and a +gilt crown; which was so like one of the procession-figures, that perhaps +at this hour she may think the whole appearance a celestial vision. +Anyhow, I must certainly have forgiven her her interest in the Circus, +though I had been her Father Confessor.<br> +<br> +There was a little fiery-eyed old man with a crooked shoulder, in the +cathedral, who took it very ill that I made no effort to see the bucket +(kept in an old tower) which the people of Modena took away from the +people of Bologna in the fourteenth century, and about which there was +war made and a mock-heroic poem by TASSONE, too. Being quite content, +however, to look at the outside of the tower, and feast, in imagination, +on the bucket within; and preferring to loiter in the shade of the tall +Campanile, and about the cathedral; I have no personal knowledge of +this bucket, even at the present time.<br> +<br> +Indeed, we were at Bologna, before the little old man (or the Guide-Book) +would have considered that we had half done justice to the wonders of +Modena. But it is such a delight to me to leave new scenes behind, +and still go on, encountering newer scenes - and, moreover, I have such +a perverse disposition in respect of sights that are cut, and dried, +and dictated - that I fear I sin against similar authorities in every +place I visit.<br> +<br> +Be this as it may, in the pleasant Cemetery at Bologna, I found myself +walking next Sunday morning, among the stately marble tombs and colonnades, +in company with a crowd of Peasants, and escorted by a little Cicerone +of that town, who was excessively anxious for the honour of the place, +and most solicitous to divert my attention from the bad monuments: whereas +he was never tired of extolling the good ones. Seeing this little +man (a good-humoured little man he was, who seemed to have nothing in +his face but shining teeth and eyes) looking wistfully at a certain +plot of grass, I asked him who was buried there. ‘The poor +people, Signore,’ he said, with a shrug and a smile, and stopping +to look back at me - for he always went on a little before, and took +off his hat to introduce every new monument. ‘Only the poor, +Signore! It’s very cheerful. It’s very lively. +How green it is, how cool! It’s like a meadow! There +are five,’ - holding up all the fingers of his right hand to express +the number, which an Italian peasant will always do, if it be within +the compass of his ten fingers, - ‘there are five of my little +children buried there, Signore; just there; a little to the right. +Well! Thanks to God! It’s very cheerful. How +green it is, how cool it is! It’s quite a meadow!’<br> +<br> +He looked me very hard in the face, and seeing I was sorry for him, +took a pinch of snuff (every Cicerone takes snuff), and made a little +bow; partly in deprecation of his having alluded to such a subject, +and partly in memory of the children and of his favourite saint. +It was as unaffected and as perfectly natural a little bow, as ever +man made. Immediately afterwards, he took his hat off altogether, +and begged to introduce me to the next monument; and his eyes and his +teeth shone brighter than before.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER VI - THROUGH BOLOGNA AND FERRARA<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +There was such a very smart official in attendance at the Cemetery where +the little Cicerone had buried his children, that when the little Cicerone +suggested to me, in a whisper, that there would be no offence in presenting +this officer, in return for some slight extra service, with a couple +of pauls (about tenpence, English money), I looked incredulously at +his cocked hat, wash-leather gloves, well-made uniform, and dazzling +buttons, and rebuked the little Cicerone with a grave shake of the head. +For, in splendour of appearance, he was at least equal to the Deputy +Usher of the Black Rod; and the idea of his carrying, as Jeremy Diddler +would say, ‘such a thing as tenpence’ away with him, seemed +monstrous. He took it in excellent part, however, when I made +bold to give it him, and pulled off his cocked hat with a flourish that +would have been a bargain at double the money.<br> +<br> +It seemed to be his duty to describe the monuments to the people - at +all events he was doing so; and when I compared him, like Gulliver in +Brobdingnag, ‘with the Institutions of my own beloved country, +I could not refrain from tears of pride and exultation.’ +He had no pace at all; no more than a tortoise. He loitered as +the people loitered, that they might gratify their curiosity; and positively +allowed them, now and then, to read the inscriptions on the tombs. +He was neither shabby, nor insolent, nor churlish, nor ignorant. +He spoke his own language with perfect propriety, and seemed to consider +himself, in his way, a kind of teacher of the people, and to entertain +a just respect both for himself and them. They would no more have +such a man for a Verger in Westminster Abbey, than they would let the +people in (as they do at Bologna) to see the monuments for nothing. +<a name="citation2"></a><a href="#footnote2">{2}</a><br> +<br> +Again, an ancient sombre town, under the brilliant sky; with heavy arcades +over the footways of the older streets, and lighter and more cheerful +archways in the newer portions of the town. Again, brown piles +of sacred buildings, with more birds flying in and out of chinks in +the stones; and more snarling monsters for the bases of the pillars. +Again, rich churches, drowsy Masses, curling incense, tinkling bells, +priests in bright vestments: pictures, tapers, laced altar cloths, crosses, +images, and artificial flowers.<br> +<br> +There is a grave and learned air about the city, and a pleasant gloom +upon it, that would leave it, a distinct and separate impression in +the mind, among a crowd of cities, though it were not still further +marked in the traveller’s remembrance by the two brick leaning +towers (sufficiently unsightly in themselves, it must be acknowledged), +inclining cross-wise as if they were bowing stiffly to each other - +a most extraordinary termination to the perspective of some of the narrow +streets. The colleges, and churches too, and palaces: and above +all the academy of Fine Arts, where there are a host of interesting +pictures, especially by GUIDO, DOMENICHINO, and LUDOVICO CARACCI: give +it a place of its own in the memory. Even though these were not, +and there were nothing else to remember it by, the great Meridian on +the pavement of the church of San Petronio, where the sunbeams mark +the time among the kneeling people, would give it a fanciful and pleasant +interest.<br> +<br> +Bologna being very full of tourists, detained there by an inundation +which rendered the road to Florence impassable, I was quartered up at +the top of an hotel, in an out-of-the-way room which I never could find: +containing a bed, big enough for a boarding-school, which I couldn’t +fall asleep in. The chief among the waiters who visited this lonely +retreat, where there was no other company but the swallows in the broad +eaves over the window, was a man of one idea in connection with the +English; and the subject of this harmless monomania, was Lord Byron. +I made the discovery by accidentally remarking to him, at breakfast, +that the matting with which the floor was covered, was very comfortable +at that season, when he immediately replied that Milor Beeron had been +much attached to that kind of matting. Observing, at the same +moment, that I took no milk, he exclaimed with enthusiasm, that Milor +Beeron had never touched it. At first, I took it for granted, +in my innocence, that he had been one of the Beeron servants; but no, +he said, no, he was in the habit of speaking about my Lord, to English +gentlemen; that was all. He knew all about him, he said. +In proof of it, he connected him with every possible topic, from the +Monte Pulciano wine at dinner (which was grown on an estate he had owned), +to the big bed itself, which was the very model of his. When I +left the inn, he coupled with his final bow in the yard, a parting assurance +that the road by which I was going, had been Milor Beeron’s favourite +ride; and before the horse’s feet had well begun to clatter on +the pavement, he ran briskly up-stairs again, I dare say to tell some +other Englishman in some other solitary room that the guest who had +just departed was Lord Beeron’s living image.<br> +<br> +I had entered Bologna by night - almost midnight - and all along the +road thither, after our entrance into the Papal territory: which is +not, in any part, supremely well governed, Saint Peter’s keys +being rather rusty now; the driver had so worried about the danger of +robbers in travelling after dark, and had so infected the brave Courier, +and the two had been so constantly stopping and getting up and down +to look after a portmanteau which was tied on behind, that I should +have felt almost obliged to any one who would have had the goodness +to take it away. Hence it was stipulated, that, whenever we left +Bologna, we should start so as not to arrive at Ferrara later than eight +at night; and a delightful afternoon and evening journey it was, albeit +through a flat district which gradually became more marshy from the +overflow of brooks and rivers in the recent heavy rains.<br> +<br> +At sunset, when I was walking on alone, while the horses rested, I arrived +upon a little scene, which, by one of those singular mental operations +of which we are all conscious, seemed perfectly familiar to me, and +which I see distinctly now. There was not much in it. In +the blood red light, there was a mournful sheet of water, just stirred +by the evening wind; upon its margin a few trees. In the foreground +was a group of silent peasant girls leaning over the parapet of a little +bridge, and looking, now up at the sky, now down into the water; in +the distance, a deep bell; the shade of approaching night on everything. +If I had been murdered there, in some former life, I could not have +seemed to remember the place more thoroughly, or with a more emphatic +chilling of the blood; and the mere remembrance of it acquired in that +minute, is so strengthened by the imaginary recollection, that I hardly +think I could forget it.<br> +<br> +More solitary, more depopulated, more deserted, old Ferrara, than any +city of the solemn brotherhood! The grass so grows up in the silent +streets, that any one might make hay there, literally, while the sun +shines. But the sun shines with diminished cheerfulness in grim +Ferrara; and the people are so few who pass and re-pass through the +places, that the flesh of its inhabitants might be grass indeed, and +growing in the squares.<br> +<br> +I wonder why the head coppersmith in an Italian town, always lives next +door to the Hotel, or opposite: making the visitor feel as if the beating +hammers were his own heart, palpitating with a deadly energy! +I wonder why jealous corridors surround the bedroom on all sides, and +fill it with unnecessary doors that can’t be shut, and will not +open, and abut on pitchy darkness! I wonder why it is not enough +that these distrustful genii stand agape at one’s dreams all night, +but there must also be round open portholes, high in the wall, suggestive, +when a mouse or rat is heard behind the wainscot, of a somebody scraping +the wall with his toes, in his endeavours to reach one of these portholes +and look in! I wonder why the faggots are so constructed, as to +know of no effect but an agony of heat when they are lighted and replenished, +and an agony of cold and suffocation at all other times! I wonder, +above all, why it is the great feature of domestic architecture in Italian +inns, that all the fire goes up the chimney, except the smoke!<br> +<br> +The answer matters little. Coppersmiths, doors, portholes, smoke, +and faggots, are welcome to me. Give me the smiling face of the +attendant, man or woman; the courteous manner; the amiable desire to +please and to be pleased; the light-hearted, pleasant, simple air - +so many jewels set in dirt - and I am theirs again to-morrow!<br> +<br> +ARIOSTO’S house, TASSO’S prison, a rare old Gothic cathedral, +and more churches of course, are the sights of Ferrara. But the +long silent streets, and the dismantled palaces, where ivy waves in +lieu of banners, and where rank weeds are slowly creeping up the long-untrodden +stairs, are the best sights of all.<br> +<br> +The aspect of this dreary town, half an hour before sunrise one fine +morning, when I left it, was as picturesque as it seemed unreal and +spectral. It was no matter that the people were not yet out of +bed; for if they had all been up and busy, they would have made but +little difference in that desert of a place. It was best to see +it, without a single figure in the picture; a city of the dead, without +one solitary survivor. Pestilence might have ravaged streets, +squares, and market-places; and sack and siege have ruined the old houses, +battered down their doors and windows, and made breaches in their roofs. +In one part, a great tower rose into the air; the only landmark in the +melancholy view. In another, a prodigious castle, with a moat +about it, stood aloof: a sullen city in itself. In the black dungeons +of this castle, Parisina and her lover were beheaded in the dead of +night. The red light, beginning to shine when I looked back upon +it, stained its walls without, as they have, many a time, been stained +within, in old days; but for any sign of life they gave, the castle +and the city might have been avoided by all human creatures, from the +moment when the axe went down upon the last of the two lovers: and might +have never vibrated to another sound<br> +<br> +<br> +Beyond the blow that to the block<br> +Pierced through with forced and sullen shock.<br> +<br> +<br> +Coming to the Po, which was greatly swollen, and running fiercely, we +crossed it by a floating bridge of boats, and so came into the Austrian +territory, and resumed our journey: through a country of which, for +some miles, a great part was under water. The brave Courier and +the soldiery had first quarrelled, for half an hour or more, over our +eternal passport. But this was a daily relaxation with the Brave, +who was always stricken deaf when shabby functionaries in uniform came, +as they constantly did come, plunging out of wooden boxes to look at +it - or in other words to beg - and who, stone deaf to my entreaties +that the man might have a trifle given him, and we resume our journey +in peace, was wont to sit reviling the functionary in broken English: +while the unfortunate man’s face was a portrait of mental agony +framed in the coach window, from his perfect ignorance of what was being +said to his disparagement.<br> +<br> +There was a postilion, in the course of this day’s journey, as +wild and savagely good-looking a vagabond as you would desire to see. +He was a tall, stout-made, dark-complexioned fellow, with a profusion +of shaggy black hair hanging all over his face, and great black whiskers +stretching down his throat. His dress was a torn suit of rifle +green, garnished here and there with red; a steeple-crowned hat, innocent +of nap, with a broken and bedraggled feather stuck in the band; and +a flaming red neckerchief hanging on his shoulders. He was not +in the saddle, but reposed, quite at his ease, on a sort of low foot-board +in front of the postchaise, down amongst the horses’ tails - convenient +for having his brains kicked out, at any moment. To this Brigand, +the brave Courier, when we were at a reasonable trot, happened to suggest +the practicability of going faster. He received the proposal with +a perfect yell of derision; brandished his whip about his head (such +a whip! it was more like a home-made bow); flung up his heels, much +higher than the horses; and disappeared, in a paroxysm, somewhere in +the neighbourhood of the axle-tree. I fully expected to see him +lying in the road, a hundred yards behind, but up came the steeple-crowned +hat again, next minute, and he was seen reposing, as on a sofa, entertaining +himself with the idea, and crying, ‘Ha, ha! what next! Oh +the devil! Faster too! Shoo - hoo - o - o!’ +(This last ejaculation, an inexpressibly defiant hoot.) Being +anxious to reach our immediate destination that night, I ventured, by-and-by, +to repeat the experiment on my own account. It produced exactly +the same effect. Round flew the whip with the same scornful flourish, +up came the heels, down went the steeple-crowned hat, and presently +he reappeared, reposing as before and saying to himself, ‘Ha ha! +what next! Faster too! Oh the devil! Shoo - hoo - +o - o!’<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER VII - AN ITALIAN DREAM<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +I had been travelling, for some days; resting very little in the night, +and never in the day. The rapid and unbroken succession of novelties +that had passed before me, came back like half-formed dreams; and a +crowd of objects wandered in the greatest confusion through my mind, +as I travelled on, by a solitary road. At intervals, some one +among them would stop, as it were, in its restless flitting to and fro, +and enable me to look at it, quite steadily, and behold it in full distinctness. +After a few moments, it would dissolve, like a view in a magic-lantern; +and while I saw some part of it quite plainly, and some faintly, and +some not at all, would show me another of the many places I had lately +seen, lingering behind it, and coming through it. This was no +sooner visible than, in its turn, it melted into something else.<br> +<br> +At one moment, I was standing again, before the brown old rugged churches +of Modena. As I recognised the curious pillars with grim monsters +for their bases, I seemed to see them, standing by themselves in the +quiet square at Padua, where there were the staid old University, and +the figures, demurely gowned, grouped here and there in the open space +about it. Then, I was strolling in the outskirts of that pleasant +city, admiring the unusual neatness of the dwelling-houses, gardens, +and orchards, as I had seen them a few hours before. In their +stead arose, immediately, the two towers of Bologna; and the most obstinate +of all these objects, failed to hold its ground, a minute, before the +monstrous moated castle of Ferrara, which, like an illustration to a +wild romance, came back again in the red sunrise, lording it over the +solitary, grass-grown, withered town. In short, I had that incoherent +but delightful jumble in my brain, which travellers are apt to have, +and are indolently willing to encourage. Every shake of the coach +in which I sat, half dozing in the dark, appeared to jerk some new recollection +out of its place, and to jerk some other new recollection into it; and +in this state I fell asleep.<br> +<br> +I was awakened after some time (as I thought) by the stopping of the +coach. It was now quite night, and we were at the waterside. +There lay here, a black boat, with a little house or cabin in it of +the same mournful colour. When I had taken my seat in this, the +boat was paddled, by two men, towards a great light, lying in the distance +on the sea.<br> +<br> +Ever and again, there was a dismal sigh of wind. It ruffled the +water, and rocked the boat, and sent the dark clouds flying before the +stars. I could not but think how strange it was, to be floating +away at that hour: leaving the land behind, and going on, towards this +light upon the sea. It soon began to burn brighter; and from being +one light became a cluster of tapers, twinkling and shining out of the +water, as the boat approached towards them by a dreamy kind of track, +marked out upon the sea by posts and piles.<br> +<br> +We had floated on, five miles or so, over the dark water, when I heard +it rippling in my dream, against some obstruction near at hand. +Looking out attentively, I saw, through the gloom, a something black +and massive - like a shore, but lying close and flat upon the water, +like a raft - which we were gliding past. The chief of the two +rowers said it was a burial-place.<br> +<br> +Full of the interest and wonder which a cemetery lying out there, in +the lonely sea, inspired, I turned to gaze upon it as it should recede +in our path, when it was quickly shut out from my view. Before +I knew by what, or how, I found that we were gliding up a street - a +phantom street; the houses rising on both sides, from the water, and +the black boat gliding on beneath their windows. Lights were shining +from some of these casements, plumbing the depth of the black stream +with their reflected rays, but all was profoundly silent.<br> +<br> +So we advanced into this ghostly city, continuing to hold our course +through narrow streets and lanes, all filled and flowing with water. +Some of the corners where our way branched off, were so acute and narrow, +that it seemed impossible for the long slender boat to turn them; but +the rowers, with a low melodious cry of warning, sent it skimming on +without a pause. Sometimes, the rowers of another black boat like +our own, echoed the cry, and slackening their speed (as I thought we +did ours) would come flitting past us like a dark shadow. Other +boats, of the same sombre hue, were lying moored, I thought, to painted +pillars, near to dark mysterious doors that opened straight upon the +water. Some of these were empty; in some, the rowers lay asleep; +towards one, I saw some figures coming down a gloomy archway from the +interior of a palace: gaily dressed, and attended by torch-bearers. +It was but a glimpse I had of them; for a bridge, so low and close upon +the boat that it seemed ready to fall down and crush us: one of the +many bridges that perplexed the Dream: blotted them out, instantly. +On we went, floating towards the heart of this strange place - with +water all about us where never water was elsewhere - clusters of houses, +churches, heaps of stately buildings growing out of it - and, everywhere, +the same extraordinary silence. Presently, we shot across a broad +and open stream; and passing, as I thought, before a spacious paved +quay, where the bright lamps with which it was illuminated showed long +rows of arches and pillars, of ponderous construction and great strength, +but as light to the eye as garlands of hoarfrost or gossamer - and where, +for the first time, I saw people walking - arrived at a flight of steps +leading from the water to a large mansion, where, having passed through +corridors and galleries innumerable, I lay down to rest; listening to +the black boats stealing up and down below the window on the rippling +water, till I fell asleep.<br> +<br> +The glory of the day that broke upon me in this Dream; its freshness, +motion, buoyancy; its sparkles of the sun in water; its clear blue sky +and rustling air; no waking words can tell. But, from my window, +I looked down on boats and barks; on masts, sails, cordage, flags; on +groups of busy sailors, working at the cargoes of these vessels; on +wide quays, strewn with bales, casks, merchandise of many kinds; on +great ships, lying near at hand in stately indolence; on islands, crowned +with gorgeous domes and turrets: and where golden crosses glittered +in the light, atop of wondrous churches, springing from the sea! +Going down upon the margin of the green sea, rolling on before the door, +and filling all the streets, I came upon a place of such surpassing +beauty, and such grandeur, that all the rest was poor and faded, in +comparison with its absorbing loveliness.<br> +<br> +It was a great Piazza, as I thought; anchored, like all the rest, in +the deep ocean. On its broad bosom, was a Palace, more majestic +and magnificent in its old age, than all the buildings of the earth, +in the high prime and fulness of their youth. Cloisters and galleries: +so light, they might have been the work of fairy hands: so strong that +centuries had battered them in vain: wound round and round this palace, +and enfolded it with a Cathedral, gorgeous in the wild luxuriant fancies +of the East. At no great distance from its porch, a lofty tower, +standing by itself, and rearing its proud head, alone, into the sky, +looked out upon the Adriatic Sea. Near to the margin of the stream, +were two ill-omened pillars of red granite; one having on its top, a +figure with a sword and shield; the other, a winged lion. Not +far from these again, a second tower: richest of the rich in all its +decorations: even here, where all was rich: sustained aloft, a great +orb, gleaming with gold and deepest blue: the Twelve Signs painted on +it, and a mimic sun revolving in its course around them: while above, +two bronze giants hammered out the hours upon a sounding bell. +An oblong square of lofty houses of the whitest stone, surrounded by +a light and beautiful arcade, formed part of this enchanted scene; and, +here and there, gay masts for flags rose, tapering, from the pavement +of the unsubstantial ground.<br> +<br> +I thought I entered the Cathedral, and went in and out among its many +arches: traversing its whole extent. A grand and dreamy structure, +of immense proportions; golden with old mosaics; redolent of perfumes; +dim with the smoke of incense; costly in treasure of precious stones +and metals, glittering through iron bars; holy with the bodies of deceased +saints; rainbow-hued with windows of stained glass; dark with carved +woods and coloured marbles; obscure in its vast heights, and lengthened +distances; shining with silver lamps and winking lights; unreal, fantastic, +solemn, inconceivable throughout. I thought I entered the old +palace; pacing silent galleries and council-chambers, where the old +rulers of this mistress of the waters looked sternly out, in pictures, +from the walls, and where her high-prowed galleys, still victorious +on canvas, fought and conquered as of old. I thought I wandered +through its halls of state and triumph - bare and empty now! - and musing +on its pride and might, extinct: for that was past; all past: heard +a voice say, ‘Some tokens of its ancient rule and some consoling +reasons for its downfall, may be traced here, yet!’<br> +<br> +I dreamed that I was led on, then, into some jealous rooms, communicating +with a prison near the palace; separated from it by a lofty bridge crossing +a narrow street; and called, I dreamed, The Bridge of Sighs.<br> +<br> +But first I passed two jagged slits in a stone wall; the lions’ +mouths - now toothless - where, in the distempered horror of my sleep, +I thought denunciations of innocent men to the old wicked Council, had +been dropped through, many a time, when the night was dark. So, +when I saw the council-room to which such prisoners were taken for examination, +and the door by which they passed out, when they were condemned - a +door that never closed upon a man with life and hope before him - my +heart appeared to die within me.<br> +<br> +It was smitten harder though, when, torch in hand, I descended from +the cheerful day into two ranges, one below another, of dismal, awful, +horrible stone cells. They were quite dark. Each had a loop-hole +in its massive wall, where, in the old time, every day, a torch was +placed - I dreamed - to light the prisoner within, for half an hour. +The captives, by the glimmering of these brief rays, had scratched and +cut inscriptions in the blackened vaults. I saw them. For +their labour with a rusty nail’s point, had outlived their agony +and them, through many generations.<br> +<br> +One cell, I saw, in which no man remained for more than four-and-twenty +hours; being marked for dead before he entered it. Hard by, another, +and a dismal one, whereto, at midnight, the confessor came - a monk +brown-robed, and hooded - ghastly in the day, and free bright air, but +in the midnight of that murky prison, Hope’s extinguisher, and +Murder’s herald. I had my foot upon the spot, where, at +the same dread hour, the shriven prisoner was strangled; and struck +my hand upon the guilty door - low-browed and stealthy - through which +the lumpish sack was carried out into a boat, and rowed away, and drowned +where it was death to cast a net.<br> +<br> +Around this dungeon stronghold, and above some part of it: licking the +rough walls without, and smearing them with damp and slime within: stuffing +dank weeds and refuse into chinks and crevices, as if the very stones +and bars had mouths to stop: furnishing a smooth road for the removal +of the bodies of the secret victims of the State - a road so ready that +it went along with them, and ran before them, like a cruel officer - +flowed the same water that filled this Dream of mine, and made it seem +one, even at the time.<br> +<br> +Descending from the palace by a staircase, called, I thought, the Giant’s +- I had some imaginary recollection of an old man abdicating, coming, +more slowly and more feebly, down it, when he heard the bell, proclaiming +his successor - I glided off, in one of the dark boats, until we came +to an old arsenal guarded by four marble lions. To make my Dream +more monstrous and unlikely, one of these had words and sentences upon +its body, inscribed there, at an unknown time, and in an unknown language; +so that their purport was a mystery to all men.<br> +<br> +There was little sound of hammers in this place for building ships, +and little work in progress; for the greatness of the city was no more, +as I have said. Indeed, it seemed a very wreck found drifting +on the sea; a strange flag hoisted in its honourable stations, and strangers +standing at its helm. A splendid barge in which its ancient chief +had gone forth, pompously, at certain periods, to wed the ocean, lay +here, I thought, no more; but, in its place, there was a tiny model, +made from recollection like the city’s greatness; and it told +of what had been (so are the strong and weak confounded in the dust) +almost as eloquently as the massive pillars, arches, roofs, reared to +overshadow stately ships that had no other shadow now, upon the water +or the earth.<br> +<br> +An armoury was there yet. Plundered and despoiled; but an armoury. +With a fierce standard taken from the Turks, drooping in the dull air +of its cage. Rich suits of mail worn by great warriors were hoarded +there; crossbows and bolts; quivers full of arrows; spears; swords, +daggers, maces, shields, and heavy-headed axes. Plates of wrought +steel and iron, to make the gallant horse a monster cased in metal scales; +and one spring-weapon (easy to be carried in the breast) designed to +do its office noiselessly, and made for shooting men with poisoned darts.<br> +<br> +One press or case I saw, full of accursed instruments of torture horribly +contrived to cramp, and pinch, and grind and crush men’s bones, +and tear and twist them with the torment of a thousand deaths. +Before it, were two iron helmets, with breast-pieces: made to close +up tight and smooth upon the heads of living sufferers; and fastened +on to each, was a small knob or anvil, where the directing devil could +repose his elbow at his ease, and listen, near the walled-up ear, to +the lamentations and confessions of the wretch within. There was +that grim resemblance in them to the human shape - they were such moulds +of sweating faces, pained and cramped - that it was difficult to think +them empty; and terrible distortions lingering within them, seemed to +follow me, when, taking to my boat again, I rowed off to a kind of garden +or public walk in the sea, where there were grass and trees. But +I forgot them when I stood upon its farthest brink - I stood there, +in my dream - and looked, along the ripple, to the setting sun; before +me, in the sky and on the deep, a crimson flush; and behind me the whole +city resolving into streaks of red and purple, on the water.<br> +<br> +In the luxurious wonder of so rare a dream, I took but little heed of +time, and had but little understanding of its flight. But there +were days and nights in it; and when the sun was high, and when the +rays of lamps were crooked in the running water, I was still afloat, +I thought: plashing the slippery walls and houses with the cleavings +of the tide, as my black boat, borne upon it, skimmed along the streets.<br> +<br> +Sometimes, alighting at the doors of churches and vast palaces, I wandered +on, from room to room, from aisle to aisle, through labyrinths of rich +altars, ancient monuments; decayed apartments where the furniture, half +awful, half grotesque, was mouldering away. Pictures were there, +replete with such enduring beauty and expression: with such passion, +truth and power: that they seemed so many young and fresh realities +among a host of spectres. I thought these, often intermingled +with the old days of the city: with its beauties, tyrants, captains, +patriots, merchants, counters, priests: nay, with its very stones, and +bricks, and public places; all of which lived again, about me, on the +walls. Then, coming down some marble staircase where the water +lapped and oozed against the lower steps, I passed into my boat again, +and went on in my dream.<br> +<br> +Floating down narrow lanes, where carpenters, at work with plane and +chisel in their shops, tossed the light shaving straight upon the water, +where it lay like weed, or ebbed away before me in a tangled heap. +Past open doors, decayed and rotten from long steeping in the wet, through +which some scanty patch of vine shone green and bright, making unusual +shadows on the pavement with its trembling leaves. Past quays +and terraces, where women, gracefully veiled, were passing and repassing, +and where idlers were reclining in the sunshine, on flag-stones and +on flights of steps. Past bridges, where there were idlers too; +loitering and looking over. Below stone balconies, erected at +a giddy height, before the loftiest windows of the loftiest houses. +Past plots of garden, theatres, shrines, prodigious piles of architecture +- Gothic - Saracenic - fanciful with all the fancies of all times and +countries. Past buildings that were high, and low, and black, +and white, and straight, and crooked; mean and grand, crazy and strong. +Twining among a tangled lot of boats and barges, and shooting out at +last into a Grand Canal! There, in the errant fancy of my dream, +I saw old Shylock passing to and fro upon a bridge, all built upon with +shops and humming with the tongues of men; a form I seemed to know for +Desdemona’s, leaned down through a latticed blind to pluck a flower. +And, in the dream, I thought that Shakespeare’s spirit was abroad +upon the water somewhere: stealing through the city.<br> +<br> +At night, when two votive lamps burnt before an image of the Virgin, +in a gallery outside the great cathedral, near the roof, I fancied that +the great piazza of the Winged Lion was a blaze of cheerful light, and +that its whole arcade was thronged with people; while crowds were diverting +themselves in splendid coffee-houses opening from it - which were never +shut, I thought, but open all night long. When the bronze giants +struck the hour of midnight on the bell, I thought the life and animation +of the city were all centred here; and as I rowed away, abreast the +silent quays, I only saw them dotted, here and there, with sleeping +boatmen wrapped up in their cloaks, and lying at full length upon the +stones.<br> +<br> +But close about the quays and churches, palaces and prisons sucking +at their walls, and welling up into the secret places of the town: crept +the water always. Noiseless and watchful: coiled round and round +it, in its many folds, like an old serpent: waiting for the time, I +thought, when people should look down into its depths for any stone +of the old city that had claimed to be its mistress.<br> +<br> +Thus it floated me away, until I awoke in the old market-place at Verona. +I have, many and many a time, thought since, of this strange Dream upon +the water: half-wondering if it lie there yet, and if its name be VENICE.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER VIII - BY VERONA, MANTUA, AND MILAN, ACROSS THE PASS OF THE +SIMPLON INTO SWITZERLAND<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +I had been half afraid to go to Verona, lest it should at all put me +out of conceit with Romeo and Juliet. But, I was no sooner come +into the old market-place, than the misgiving vanished. It is +so fanciful, quaint, and picturesque a place, formed by such an extraordinary +and rich variety of fantastic buildings, that there could be nothing +better at the core of even this romantic town: scene of one of the most +romantic and beautiful of stories.<br> +<br> +It was natural enough, to go straight from the Market-place, to the +House of the Capulets, now degenerated into a most miserable little +inn. Noisy vetturíni and muddy market-carts were disputing +possession of the yard, which was ankle-deep in dirt, with a brood of +splashed and bespattered geese; and there was a grim-visaged dog, viciously +panting in a doorway, who would certainly have had Romeo by the leg, +the moment he put it over the wall, if he had existed and been at large +in those times. The orchard fell into other hands, and was parted +off many years ago; but there used to be one attached to the house - +or at all events there may have, been, - and the hat (Cappêllo) +the ancient cognizance of the family, may still be seen, carved in stone, +over the gateway of the yard. The geese, the market-carts, their +drivers, and the dog, were somewhat in the way of the story, it must +be confessed; and it would have been pleasanter to have found the house +empty, and to have been able to walk through the disused rooms. +But the hat was unspeakably comfortable; and the place where the garden +used to be, hardly less so. Besides, the house is a distrustful, +jealous-looking house as one would desire to see, though of a very moderate +size. So I was quite satisfied with it, as the veritable mansion +of old Capulet, and was correspondingly grateful in my acknowledgments +to an extremely unsentimental middle-aged lady, the Padrona of the Hotel, +who was lounging on the threshold looking at the geese; and who at least +resembled the Capulets in the one particular of being very great indeed +in the ‘Family’ way.<br> +<br> +From Juliet’s home, to Juliet’s tomb, is a transition as +natural to the visitor, as to fair Juliet herself, or to the proudest +Juliet that ever has taught the torches to burn bright in any time. +So, I went off, with a guide, to an old, old garden, once belonging +to an old, old convent, I suppose; and being admitted, at a shattered +gate, by a bright-eyed woman who was washing clothes, went down some +walks where fresh plants and young flowers were prettily growing among +fragments of old wall, and ivy-coloured mounds; and was shown a little +tank, or water-trough, which the bright-eyed woman - drying her arms +upon her ‘kerchief, called ‘La tomba di Giulietta la sfortunáta.’ +With the best disposition in the world to believe, I could do no more +than believe that the bright-eyed woman believed; so I gave her that +much credit, and her customary fee in ready money. It was a pleasure, +rather than a disappointment, that Juliet’s resting-place was +forgotten. However consolatory it may have been to Yorick’s +Ghost, to hear the feet upon the pavement overhead, and, twenty times +a day, the repetition of his name, it is better for Juliet to lie out +of the track of tourists, and to have no visitors but such as come to +graves in spring-rain, and sweet air, and sunshine.<br> +<br> +Pleasant Verona! With its beautiful old palaces, and charming +country in the distance, seen from terrace walks, and stately, balustraded +galleries. With its Roman gates, still spanning the fair street, +and casting, on the sunlight of to-day, the shade of fifteen hundred +years ago. With its marble-fitted churches, lofty towers, rich +architecture, and quaint old quiet thoroughfares, where shouts of Montagues +and Capulets once resounded,<br> +<br> +<br> +And made Verona’s ancient citizens<br> +Cast by their grave, beseeming ornaments,<br> +To wield old partizans.<br> +<br> +<br> +With its fast-rushing river, picturesque old bridge, great castle, waving +cypresses, and prospect so delightful, and so cheerful! Pleasant +Verona!<br> +<br> +In the midst of it, in the Piazza di Brá - a spirit of old time +among the familiar realities of the passing hour - is the great Roman +Amphitheatre. So well preserved, and carefully maintained, that +every row of seats is there, unbroken. Over certain of the arches, +the old Roman numerals may yet be seen; and there are corridors, and +staircases, and subterranean passages for beasts, and winding ways, +above ground and below, as when the fierce thousands hurried in and +out, intent upon the bloody shows of the arena. Nestling in some +of the shadows and hollow places of the walls, now, are smiths with +their forges, and a few small dealers of one kind or other; and there +are green weeds, and leaves, and grass, upon the parapet. But +little else is greatly changed.<br> +<br> +When I had traversed all about it, with great interest, and had gone +up to the topmost round of seats, and turning from the lovely panorama +closed in by the distant Alps, looked down into the building, it seemed +to lie before me like the inside of a prodigious hat of plaited straw, +with an enormously broad brim and a shallow crown; the plaits being +represented by the four-and-forty rows of seats. The comparison +is a homely and fantastic one, in sober remembrance and on paper, but +it was irresistibly suggested at the moment, nevertheless.<br> +<br> +An equestrian troop had been there, a short time before - the same troop, +I dare say, that appeared to the old lady in the church at Modena - +and had scooped out a little ring at one end of the area; where their +performances had taken place, and where the marks of their horses’ +feet were still fresh. I could not but picture to myself, a handful +of spectators gathered together on one or two of the old stone seats, +and a spangled Cavalier being gallant, or a Policinello funny, with +the grim walls looking on. Above all, I thought how strangely +those Roman mutes would gaze upon the favourite comic scene of the travelling +English, where a British nobleman (Lord John), with a very loose stomach: +dressed in a blue-tailed coat down to his heels, bright yellow breeches, +and a white hat: comes abroad, riding double on a rearing horse, with +an English lady (Lady Betsy) in a straw bonnet and green veil, and a +red spencer; and who always carries a gigantic reticule, and a put-up +parasol.<br> +<br> +I walked through and through the town all the rest of the day, and could +have walked there until now, I think. In one place, there was +a very pretty modern theatre, where they had just performed the opera +(always popular in Verona) of Romeo and Juliet. In another there +was a collection, under a colonnade, of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan remains, +presided over by an ancient man who might have been an Etruscan relic +himself; for he was not strong enough to open the iron gate, when he +had unlocked it, and had neither voice enough to be audible when he +described the curiosities, nor sight enough to see them: he was so very +old. In another place, there was a gallery of pictures: so abominably +bad, that it was quite delightful to see them mouldering away. +But anywhere: in the churches, among the palaces, in the streets, on +the bridge, or down beside the river: it was always pleasant Verona, +and in my remembrance always will be.<br> +<br> +I read Romeo and Juliet in my own room at the inn that night - of course, +no Englishman had ever read it there, before - and set out for Mantua +next day at sunrise, repeating to myself (in the <i>coupé</i> +of an omnibus, and next to the conductor, who was reading the Mysteries +of Paris),<br> +<br> +<br> +There is no world without Verona’s walls<br> +But purgatory, torture, hell itself.<br> +Hence-banished is banished from the world,<br> +And world’s exile is death -<br> +<br> +<br> +which reminded me that Romeo was only banished five-and-twenty miles +after all, and rather disturbed my confidence in his energy and boldness.<br> +<br> +Was the way to Mantua as beautiful, in his time, I wonder! Did +it wind through pasture land as green, bright with the same glancing +streams, and dotted with fresh clumps of graceful trees! Those +purple mountains lay on the horizon, then, for certain; and the dresses +of these peasant girls, who wear a great, knobbed, silver pin like an +English ‘life-preserver’ through their hair behind, can +hardly be much changed. The hopeful feeling of so bright a morning, +and so exquisite a sunrise, can have been no stranger, even to an exiled +lover’s breast; and Mantua itself must have broken on him in the +prospect, with its towers, and walls, and water, pretty much as on a +commonplace and matrimonial omnibus. He made the same sharp twists +and turns, perhaps, over two rumbling drawbridges; passed through the +like long, covered, wooden bridge; and leaving the marshy water behind, +approached the rusty gate of stagnant Mantua.<br> +<br> +If ever a man were suited to his place of residence, and his place of +residence to him, the lean Apothecary and Mantua came together in a +perfect fitness of things. It may have been more stirring then, +perhaps. If so, the Apothecary was a man in advance of his time, +and knew what Mantua would be, in eighteen hundred and forty-four. +He fasted much, and that assisted him in his foreknowledge.<br> +<br> +I put up at the Hotel of the Golden Lion, and was in my own room arranging +plans with the brave Courier, when there came a modest little tap at +the door, which opened on an outer gallery surrounding a court-yard; +and an intensely shabby little man looked in, to inquire if the gentleman +would have a Cicerone to show the town. His face was so very wistful +and anxious, in the half-opened doorway, and there was so much poverty +expressed in his faded suit and little pinched hat, and in the thread-bare +worsted glove with which he held it - not expressed the less, because +these were evidently his genteel clothes, hastily slipped on - that +I would as soon have trodden on him as dismissed him. I engaged +him on the instant, and he stepped in directly.<br> +<br> +While I finished the discussion in which I was engaged, he stood, beaming +by himself in a corner, making a feint of brushing my hat with his arm. +If his fee had been as many napoleons as it was francs, there could +not have shot over the twilight of his shabbiness such a gleam of sun, +as lighted up the whole man, now that he was hired.<br> +<br> +‘Well!’ said I, when I was ready, ‘shall we go out +now?’<br> +<br> +‘If the gentleman pleases. It is a beautiful day. +A little fresh, but charming; altogether charming. The gentleman +will allow me to open the door. This is the Inn Yard. The +court-yard of the Golden Lion! The gentleman will please to mind +his footing on the stairs.’<br> +<br> +We were now in the street.<br> +<br> +‘This is the street of the Golden Lion. This, the outside +of the Golden Lion. The interesting window up there, on the first +Piano, where the pane of glass is broken, is the window of the gentleman’s +chamber!’<br> +<br> +Having viewed all these remarkable objects, I inquired if there were +much to see in Mantua.<br> +<br> +‘Well! Truly, no. Not much! So, so,’ he +said, shrugging his shoulders apologetically.<br> +<br> +‘Many churches?’<br> +<br> +‘No. Nearly all suppressed by the French.’<br> +<br> +‘Monasteries or convents?’<br> +<br> +‘No. The French again! Nearly all suppressed by Napoleon.’<br> +<br> +‘Much business?’<br> +<br> +‘Very little business.’<br> +<br> +‘Many strangers?’<br> +<br> +‘Ah Heaven!’<br> +<br> +I thought he would have fainted.<br> +<br> +‘Then, when we have seen the two large churches yonder, what shall +we do next?’ said I.<br> +<br> +He looked up the street, and down the street, and rubbed his chin timidly; +and then said, glancing in my face as if a light had broken on his mind, +yet with a humble appeal to my forbearance that was perfectly irresistible:<br> +<br> +‘We can take a little turn about the town, Signore!’ +(Si può far ‘un píccolo gíro della citta).<br> +<br> +It was impossible to be anything but delighted with the proposal, so +we set off together in great good-humour. In the relief of his +mind, he opened his heart, and gave up as much of Mantua as a Cicerone +could.<br> +<br> +‘One must eat,’ he said; ‘but, bah! it was a dull +place, without doubt!’<br> +<br> +He made as much as possible of the Basilica of Santa Andrea - a noble +church - and of an inclosed portion of the pavement, about which tapers +were burning, and a few people kneeling, and under which is said to +be preserved the Sangreal of the old Romances. This church disposed +of, and another after it (the cathedral of San Pietro), we went to the +Museum, which was shut up. ‘It was all the same,’ +he said. ‘Bah! There was not much inside!’ +Then, we went to see the Piazza del Diavolo, built by the Devil (for +no particular purpose) in a single night; then, the Piazza Virgiliana; +then, the statue of Virgil - <i>our</i> Poet, my little friend said, +plucking up a spirit, for the moment, and putting his hat a little on +one side. Then, we went to a dismal sort of farm-yard, by which +a picture-gallery was approached. The moment the gate of this +retreat was opened, some five hundred geese came waddling round us, +stretching out their necks, and clamouring in the most hideous manner, +as if they were ejaculating, ‘Oh! here’s somebody come to +see the Pictures! Don’t go up! Don’t go up!’ +While we went up, they waited very quietly about the door in a crowd, +cackling to one another occasionally, in a subdued tone; but the instant +we appeared again, their necks came out like telescopes, and setting +up a great noise, which meant, I have no doubt, ‘What, you would +go, would you! What do you think of it! How do you like +it!’ they attended us to the outer gate, and cast us forth, derisively, +into Mantua.<br> +<br> +The geese who saved the Capitol, were, as compared to these, Pork to +the learned Pig. What a gallery it was! I would take their +opinion on a question of art, in preference to the discourses of Sir +Joshua Reynolds.<br> +<br> +Now that we were standing in the street, after being thus ignominiouly +escorted thither, my little friend was plainly reduced to the ‘píccolo +gíro,’ or little circuit of the town, he had formerly proposed. +But my suggestion that we should visit the Palazzo Tè (of which +I had heard a great deal, as a strange wild place) imparted new life +to him, and away we went.<br> +<br> +The secret of the length of Midas’s ears, would have been more +extensively known, if that servant of his, who whispered it to the reeds, +had lived in Mantua, where there are reeds and rushes enough to have +published it to all the world. The Palazzo Tè stands in +a swamp, among this sort of vegetation; and is, indeed, as singular +a place as I ever saw.<br> +<br> +Not for its dreariness, though it is very dreary. Not for its +dampness, though it is very damp. Nor for its desolate condition, +though it is as desolate and neglected as house can be. But chiefly +for the unaccountable nightmares with which its interior has been decorated +(among other subjects of more delicate execution), by Giulio Romano. +There is a leering Giant over a certain chimney-piece, and there are +dozens of Giants (Titans warring with Jove) on the walls of another +room, so inconceivably ugly and grotesque, that it is marvellous how +any man can have imagined such creatures. In the chamber in which +they abound, these monsters, with swollen faces and cracked cheeks, +and every kind of distortion of look and limb, are depicted as staggering +under the weight of falling buildings, and being overwhelmed in the +ruins; upheaving masses of rock, and burying themselves beneath; vainly +striving to sustain the pillars of heavy roofs that topple down upon +their heads; and, in a word, undergoing and doing every kind of mad +and demoniacal destruction. The figures are immensely large, and +exaggerated to the utmost pitch of uncouthness; the colouring is harsh +and disagreeable; and the whole effect more like (I should imagine) +a violent rush of blood to the head of the spectator, than any real +picture set before him by the hand of an artist. This apoplectic +performance was shown by a sickly-looking woman, whose appearance was +referable, I dare say, to the bad air of the marshes; but it was difficult +to help feeling as if she were too much haunted by the Giants, and they +were frightening her to death, all alone in that exhausted cistern of +a Palace, among the reeds and rushes, with the mists hovering about +outside, and stalking round and round it continually.<br> +<br> +Our walk through Mantua showed us, in almost every street, some suppressed +church: now used for a warehouse, now for nothing at all: all as crazy +and dismantled as they could be, short of tumbling down bodily. +The marshy town was so intensely dull and flat, that the dirt upon it +seemed not to have come there in the ordinary course, but to have settled +and mantled on its surface as on standing water. And yet there +were some business-dealings going on, and some profits realising; for +there were arcades full of Jews, where those extraordinary people were +sitting outside their shops, contemplating their stores of stuffs, and +woollens, and bright handkerchiefs, and trinkets: and looking, in all +respects, as wary and business-like, as their brethren in Houndsditch, +London.<br> +<br> +Having selected a Vetturíno from among the neighbouring Christians, +who agreed to carry us to Milan in two days and a half, and to start, +next morning, as soon as the gates were opened, I returned to the Golden +Lion, and dined luxuriously in my own room, in a narrow passage between +two bedsteads: confronted by a smoky fire, and backed up by a chest +of drawers. At six o’clock next morning, we were jingling +in the dark through the wet cold mist that enshrouded the town; and, +before noon, the driver (a native of Mantua, and sixty years of age +or thereabouts) began <i>to ask the</i> <i>way</i> to Milan.<br> +<br> +It lay through Bozzolo; formerly a little republic, and now one of the +most deserted and poverty-stricken of towns: where the landlord of the +miserable inn (God bless him! it was his weekly custom) was distributing +infinitesimal coins among a clamorous herd of women and children, whose +rags were fluttering in the wind and rain outside his door, where they +were gathered to receive his charity. It lay through mist, and +mud, and rain, and vines trained low upon the ground, all that day and +the next; the first sleeping-place being Cremona, memorable for its +dark brick churches, and immensely high tower, the Torrazzo - to say +nothing of its violins, of which it certainly produces none in these +degenerate days; and the second, Lodi. Then we went on, through +more mud, mist, and rain, and marshy ground: and through such a fog, +as Englishmen, strong in the faith of their own grievances, are apt +to believe is nowhere to be found but in their own country, until we +entered the paved streets of Milan.<br> +<br> +The fog was so dense here, that the spire of the far-famed Cathedral +might as well have been at Bombay, for anything that could be seen of +it at that time. But as we halted to refresh, for a few days then, +and returned to Milan again next summer, I had ample opportunities of +seeing the glorious structure in all its majesty and beauty.<br> +<br> +All Christian homage to the saint who lies within it! There are +many good and true saints in the calendar, but San Carlo Borromeo has +- if I may quote Mrs. Primrose on such a subject - ‘my warm heart.’ +A charitable doctor to the sick, a munificent friend to the poor, and +this, not in any spirit of blind bigotry, but as the bold opponent of +enormous abuses in the Romish church, I honour his memory. I honour +it none the less, because he was nearly slain by a priest, suborned, +by priests, to murder him at the altar: in acknowledgment of his endeavours +to reform a false and hypocritical brotherhood of monks. Heaven +shield all imitators of San Carlo Borromeo as it shielded him! +A reforming Pope would need a little shielding, even now.<br> +<br> +The subterranean chapel in which the body of San Carlo Borromeo is preserved, +presents as striking and as ghastly a contrast, perhaps, as any place +can show. The tapers which are lighted down there, flash and gleam +on alti-rilievi in gold and silver, delicately wrought by skilful hands, +and representing the principal events in the life of the saint. +Jewels, and precious metals, shine and sparkle on every side. +A windlass slowly removes the front of the altar; and, within it, in +a gorgeous shrine of gold and silver, is seen, through alabaster, the +shrivelled mummy of a man: the pontifical robes with which it is adorned, +radiant with diamonds, emeralds, rubies: every costly and magnificent +gem. The shrunken heap of poor earth in the midst of this great +glitter, is more pitiful than if it lay upon a dung-hill. There +is not a ray of imprisoned light in all the flash and fire of jewels, +but seems to mock the dusty holes where eyes were, once. Every +thread of silk in the rich vestments seems only a provision from the +worms that spin, for the behoof of worms that propagate in sepulchres.<br> +<br> +In the old refectory of the dilapidated Convent of Santa Maria delle +Grazie, is the work of art, perhaps, better known than any other in +the world: the Last Supper, by Leonardo da Vinci - with a door cut through +it by the intelligent Dominican friars, to facilitate their operations +at dinner-time.<br> +<br> +I am not mechanically acquainted with the art of painting, and have +no other means of judging of a picture than as I see it resembling and +refining upon nature, and presenting graceful combinations of forms +and colours. I am, therefore, no authority whatever, in reference +to the ‘touch’ of this or that master; though I know very +well (as anybody may, who chooses to think about the matter) that few +very great masters can possibly have painted, in the compass of their +lives, one-half of the pictures that bear their names, and that are +recognised by many aspirants to a reputation for taste, as undoubted +originals. But this, by the way. Of the Last Supper, I would +simply observe, that in its beautiful composition and arrangement, there +it is, at Milan, a wonderful picture; and that, in its original colouring, +or in its original expression of any single face or feature, there it +is not. Apart from the damage it has sustained from damp, decay, +or neglect, it has been (as Barry shows) so retouched upon, and repainted, +and that so clumsily, that many of the heads are, now, positive deformities, +with patches of paint and plaster sticking upon them like wens, and +utterly distorting the expression. Where the original artist set +that impress of his genius on a face, which, almost in a line or touch, +separated him from meaner painters and made him what he was, succeeding +bunglers, filling up, or painting across seams and cracks, have been +quite unable to imitate his hand; and putting in some scowls, or frowns, +or wrinkles, of their own, have blotched and spoiled the work. +This is so well established as an historical fact, that I should not +repeat it, at the risk of being tedious, but for having observed an +English gentleman before the picture, who was at great pains to fall +into what I may describe as mild convulsions, at certain minute details +of expression which are not left in it. Whereas, it would be comfortable +and rational for travellers and critics to arrive at a general understanding +that it cannot fail to have been a work of extraordinary merit, once: +when, with so few of its original beauties remaining, the grandeur of +the general design is yet sufficient to sustain it, as a piece replete +with interest and dignity.<br> +<br> +We achieved the other sights of Milan, in due course, and a fine city +it is, though not so unmistakably Italian as to possess the characteristic +qualities of many towns far less important in themselves. The +Corso, where the Milanese gentry ride up and down in carriages, and +rather than not do which, they would half starve themselves at home, +is a most noble public promenade, shaded by long avenues of trees. +In the splendid theatre of La Scala, there was a ballet of action performed +after the opera, under the title of Prometheus: in the beginning of +which, some hundred or two of men and women represented our mortal race +before the refinements of the arts and sciences, and loves and graces, +came on earth to soften them. I never saw anything more effective. +Generally speaking, the pantomimic action of the Italians is more remarkable +for its sudden and impetuous character than for its delicate expression, +but, in this case, the drooping monotony: the weary, miserable, listless, +moping life: the sordid passions and desires of human creatures, destitute +of those elevating influences to which we owe so much, and to whose +promoters we render so little: were expressed in a manner really powerful +and affecting. I should have thought it almost impossible to present +such an idea so strongly on the stage, without the aid of speech.<br> +<br> +Milan soon lay behind us, at five o’clock in the morning; and +before the golden statue on the summit of the cathedral spire was lost +in the blue sky, the Alps, stupendously confused in lofty peaks and +ridges, clouds and snow, were towering in our path.<br> +<br> +Still, we continued to advance toward them until nightfall; and, all +day long, the mountain tops presented strangely shifting shapes, as +the road displayed them in different points of view. The beautiful +day was just declining, when we came upon the Lago Maggiore, with its +lovely islands. For however fanciful and fantastic the Isola Bella +may be, and is, it still is beautiful. Anything springing out +of that blue water, with that scenery around it, must be.<br> +<br> +It was ten o’clock at night when we got to Domo d’Ossola, +at the foot of the Pass of the Simplon. But as the moon was shining +brightly, and there was not a cloud in the starlit sky, it was no time +for going to bed, or going anywhere but on. So, we got a little +carriage, after some delay, and began the ascent.<br> +<br> +It was late in November; and the snow lying four or five feet thick +in the beaten road on the summit (in other parts the new drift was already +deep), the air was piercing cold. But, the serenity of the night, +and the grandeur of the road, with its impenetrable shadows, and deep +glooms, and its sudden turns into the shining of the moon and its incessant +roar of falling water, rendered the journey more and more sublime at +every step.<br> +<br> +Soon leaving the calm Italian villages below us, sleeping in the moonlight, +the road began to wind among dark trees, and after a time emerged upon +a barer region, very steep and toilsome, where the moon shone bright +and high. By degrees, the roar of water grew louder; and the stupendous +track, after crossing the torrent by a bridge, struck in between two +massive perpendicular walls of rock that quite shut out the moonlight, +and only left a few stars shining in the narrow strip of sky above. +Then, even this was lost, in the thick darkness of a cavern in the rock, +through which the way was pierced; the terrible cataract thundering +and roaring close below it, and its foam and spray hanging, in a mist, +about the entrance. Emerging from this cave, and coming again +into the moonlight, and across a dizzy bridge, it crept and twisted +upward, through the Gorge of Gondo, savage and grand beyond description, +with smooth-fronted precipices, rising up on either hand, and almost +meeting overhead. Thus we went, climbing on our rugged way, higher +and higher all night, without a moment’s weariness: lost in the +contemplation of the black rocks, the tremendous heights and depths, +the fields of smooth snow lying, in the clefts and hollows, and the +fierce torrents thundering headlong down the deep abyss.<br> +<br> +Towards daybreak, we came among the snow, where a keen wind was blowing +fiercely. Having, with some trouble, awakened the inmates of a +wooden house in this solitude: round which the wind was howling dismally, +catching up the snow in wreaths and hurling it away: we got some breakfast +in a room built of rough timbers, but well warmed by a stove, and well +contrived (as it had need to be) for keeping out the bitter storms. +A sledge being then made ready, and four horses harnessed to it, we +went, ploughing, through the snow. Still upward, but now in the +cold light of morning, and with the great white desert on which we travelled, +plain and clear.<br> +<br> +We were well upon the summit of the mountain: and had before us the +rude cross of wood, denoting its greatest altitude above the sea: when +the light of the rising sun, struck, all at once, upon the waste of +snow, and turned it a deep red. The lonely grandeur of the scene +was then at its height.<br> +<br> +As we went sledging on, there came out of the Hospice founded by Napoleon, +a group of Peasant travellers, with staves and knapsacks, who had rested +there last night: attended by a Monk or two, their hospitable entertainers, +trudging slowly forward with them, for company’s sake. It +was pleasant to give them good morning, and pretty, looking back a long +way after them, to see them looking back at us, and hesitating presently, +when one of our horses stumbled and fell, whether or no they should +return and help us. But he was soon up again, with the assistance +of a rough waggoner whose team had stuck fast there too; and when we +had helped him out of his difficulty, in return, we left him slowly +ploughing towards them, and went slowly and swiftly forward, on the +brink of a steep precipice, among the mountain pines.<br> +<br> +Taking to our wheels again, soon afterwards, we began rapidly to descend; +passing under everlasting glaciers, by means of arched galleries, hung +with clusters of dripping icicles; under and over foaming waterfalls; +near places of refuge, and galleries of shelter against sudden danger; +through caverns over whose arched roofs the avalanches slide, in spring, +and bury themselves in the unknown gulf beneath. Down, over lofty +bridges, and through horrible ravines: a little shifting speck in the +vast desolation of ice and snow, and monstrous granite rocks; down through +the deep Gorge of the Saltine, and deafened by the torrent plunging +madly down, among the riven blocks of rock, into the level country, +far below. Gradually down, by zig-zag roads, lying between an +upward and a downward precipice, into warmer weather, calmer air, and +softer scenery, until there lay before us, glittering like gold or silver +in the thaw and sunshine, the metal-covered, red, green, yellow, domes +and church-spires of a Swiss town.<br> +<br> +The business of these recollections being with Italy, and my business, +consequently, being to scamper back thither as fast as possible, I will +not recall (though I am sorely tempted) how the Swiss villages, clustered +at the feet of Giant mountains, looked like playthings; or how confusedly +the houses were heaped and piled together; or how there were very narrow +streets to shut the howling winds out in the winter-time; and broken +bridges, which the impetuous torrents, suddenly released in spring, +had swept away. Or how there were peasant women here, with great +round fur caps: looking, when they peeped out of casements and only +their heads were seen, like a population of Sword-bearers to the Lord +Mayor of London; or how the town of Vevey, lying on the smooth lake +of Geneva, was beautiful to see; or how the statue of Saint Peter in +the street at Fribourg, grasps the largest key that ever was beheld; +or how Fribourg is illustrious for its two suspension bridges, and its +grand cathedral organ.<br> +<br> +Or how, between that town and Bâle, the road meandered among thriving +villages of wooden cottages, with overhanging thatched roofs, and low +protruding windows, glazed with small round panes of glass like crown-pieces; +or how, in every little Swiss homestead, with its cart or waggon carefully +stowed away beside the house, its little garden, stock of poultry, and +groups of red-cheeked children, there was an air of comfort, very new +and very pleasant after Italy; or how the dresses of the women changed +again, and there were no more sword-bearers to be seen; and fair white +stomachers, and great black, fan-shaped, gauzy-looking caps, prevailed +instead.<br> +<br> +Or how the country by the Jura mountains, sprinkled with snow, and lighted +by the moon, and musical with falling water, was delightful; or how, +below the windows of the great hotel of the Three Kings at Bâle, +the swollen Rhine ran fast and green; or how, at Strasbourg, it was +quite as fast but not as green: and was said to be foggy lower down: +and, at that late time of the year, was a far less certain means of +progress, than the highway road to Paris.<br> +<br> +Or how Strasbourg itself, in its magnificent old Gothic Cathedral, and +its ancient houses with their peaked roofs and gables, made a little +gallery of quaint and interesting views; or how a crowd was gathered +inside the cathedral at noon, to see the famous mechanical clock in +motion, striking twelve. How, when it struck twelve, a whole army +of puppets went through many ingenious evolutions; and, among them, +a huge puppet-cock, perched on the top, crowed twelve times, loud and +clear. Or how it was wonderful to see this cock at great pains +to clap its wings, and strain its throat; but obviously having no connection +whatever with its own voice; which was deep within the clock, a long +way down.<br> +<br> +Or how the road to Paris, was one sea of mud, and thence to the coast, +a little better for a hard frost. Or how the cliffs of Dover were +a pleasant sight, and England was so wonderfully neat - though dark, +and lacking colour on a winter’s day, it must be conceded.<br> +<br> +Or how, a few days afterwards, it was cool, re-crossing the channel, +with ice upon the decks, and snow lying pretty deep in France. +Or how the Malle Poste scrambled through the snow, headlong, drawn in +the hilly parts by any number of stout horses at a canter; or how there +were, outside the Post-office Yard in Paris, before daybreak, extraordinary +adventurers in heaps of rags, groping in the snowy streets with little +rakes, in search of odds and ends.<br> +<br> +Or how, between Paris and Marseilles, the snow being then exceeding +deep, a thaw came on, and the mail waded rather than rolled for the +next three hundred miles or so; breaking springs on Sunday nights, and +putting out its two passengers to warm and refresh themselves pending +the repairs, in miserable billiard-rooms, where hairy company, collected +about stoves, were playing cards; the cards being very like themselves +- extremely limp and dirty.<br> +<br> +Or how there was detention at Marseilles from stress of weather; and +steamers were advertised to go, which did not go; or how the good Steam-packet +Charlemagne at length put out, and met such weather that now she threatened +to run into Toulon, and now into Nice, but, the wind moderating, did +neither, but ran on into Genoa harbour instead, where the familiar Bells +rang sweetly in my ear. Or how there was a travelling party on +board, of whom one member was very ill in the cabin next to mine, and +being ill was cross, and therefore declined to give up the Dictionary, +which he kept under his pillow; thereby obliging his companions to come +down to him, constantly, to ask what was the Italian for a lump of sugar +- a glass of brandy and water - what’s o’clock? and so forth: +which he always insisted on looking out, with his own sea-sick eyes, +declining to entrust the book to any man alive.<br> +<br> +Like GRUMIO, I might have told you, in detail, all this and something +more - but to as little purpose - were I not deterred by the remembrance +that my business is with Italy. Therefore, like GRUMIO’S +story, ‘it shall die in oblivion.’<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER IX - TO ROME BY PISA AND SIENA<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +There is nothing in Italy, more beautiful to me, than the coast-road +between Genoa and Spezzia. On one side: sometimes far below, sometimes +nearly on a level with the road, and often skirted by broken rocks of +many shapes: there is the free blue sea, with here and there a picturesque +felucca gliding slowly on; on the other side are lofty hills, ravines +besprinkled with white cottages, patches of dark olive woods, country +churches with their light open towers, and country houses gaily painted. +On every bank and knoll by the wayside, the wild cactus and aloe flourish +in exuberant profusion; and the gardens of the bright villages along +the road, are seen, all blushing in the summer-time with clusters of +the Belladonna, and are fragrant in the autumn and winter with golden +oranges and lemons.<br> +<br> +Some of the villages are inhabited, almost exclusively, by fishermen; +and it is pleasant to see their great boats hauled up on the beach, +making little patches of shade, where they lie asleep, or where the +women and children sit romping and looking out to sea, while they mend +their nets upon the shore. There is one town, Camoglia, with its +little harbour on the sea, hundreds of feet below the road; where families +of mariners live, who, time out of mind, have owned coasting-vessels +in that place, and have traded to Spain and elsewhere. Seen from +the road above, it is like a tiny model on the margin of the dimpled +water, shining in the sun. Descended into, by the winding mule-tracks, +it is a perfect miniature of a primitive seafaring town; the saltest, +roughest, most piratical little place that ever was seen. Great +rusty iron rings and mooring-chains, capstans, and fragments of old +masts and spars, choke up the way; hardy rough-weather boats, and seamen’s +clothing, flutter in the little harbour or are drawn out on the sunny +stones to dry; on the parapet of the rude pier, a few amphibious-looking +fellows lie asleep, with their legs dangling over the wall, as though +earth or water were all one to them, and if they slipped in, they would +float away, dozing comfortably among the fishes; the church is bright +with trophies of the sea, and votive offerings, in commemoration of +escape from storm and shipwreck. The dwellings not immediately +abutting on the harbour are approached by blind low archways, and by +crooked steps, as if in darkness and in difficulty of access they should +be like holds of ships, or inconvenient cabins under water; and everywhere, +there is a smell of fish, and sea-weed, and old rope.<br> +<br> +The coast-road whence Camoglia is descried so far below, is famous, +in the warm season, especially in some parts near Genoa, for fire-flies. +Walking there on a dark night, I have seen it made one sparkling firmament +by these beautiful insects: so that the distant stars were pale against +the flash and glitter that spangled every olive wood and hill-side, +and pervaded the whole air.<br> +<br> +It was not in such a season, however, that we traversed this road on +our way to Rome. The middle of January was only just past, and +it was very gloomy and dark weather; very wet besides. In crossing +the fine pass of Bracco, we encountered such a storm of mist and rain, +that we travelled in a cloud the whole way. There might have been +no Mediterranean in the world, for anything that we saw of it there, +except when a sudden gust of wind, clearing the mist before it, for +a moment, showed the agitated sea at a great depth below, lashing the +distant rocks, and spouting up its foam furiously. The rain was +incessant; every brook and torrent was greatly swollen; and such a deafening +leaping, and roaring, and thundering of water, I never heard the like +of in my life.<br> +<br> +Hence, when we came to Spezzia, we found that the Magra, an unbridged +river on the high-road to Pisa, was too high to be safely crossed in +the Ferry Boat, and were fain to wait until the afternoon of next day, +when it had, in some degree, subsided. Spezzia, however, is a +good place to tarry at; by reason, firstly, of its beautiful bay; secondly, +of its ghostly Inn; thirdly, of the head-dress of the women, who wear, +on one side of their head, a small doll’s straw hat, stuck on +to the hair; which is certainly the oddest and most roguish head-gear +that ever was invented.<br> +<br> +The Magra safely crossed in the Ferry Boat - the passage is not by any +means agreeable, when the current is swollen and strong - we arrived +at Carrara, within a few hours. In good time next morning, we +got some ponies, and went out to see the marble quarries.<br> +<br> +They are four or five great glens, running up into a range of lofty +hills, until they can run no longer, and are stopped by being abruptly +strangled by Nature. The quarries, ‘or caves,’ as +they call them there, are so many openings, high up in the hills, on +either side of these passes, where they blast and excavate for marble: +which may turn out good or bad: may make a man’s fortune very +quickly, or ruin him by the great expense of working what is worth nothing. +Some of these caves were opened by the ancient Romans, and remain as +they left them to this hour. Many others are being worked at this +moment; others are to be begun to-morrow, next week, next month; others +are unbought, unthought of; and marble enough for more ages than have +passed since the place was resorted to, lies hidden everywhere: patiently +awaiting its time of discovery.<br> +<br> +As you toil and clamber up one of these steep gorges (having left your +pony soddening his girths in water, a mile or two lower down) you hear, +every now and then, echoing among the hills, in a low tone, more silent +than the previous silence, a melancholy warning bugle, - a signal to +the miners to withdraw. Then, there is a thundering, and echoing +from hill to hill, and perhaps a splashing up of great fragments of +rock into the air; and on you toil again until some other bugle sounds, +in a new direction, and you stop directly, lest you should come within +the range of the new explosion.<br> +<br> +There were numbers of men, working high up in these hills - on the sides +- clearing away, and sending down the broken masses of stone and earth, +to make way for the blocks of marble that had been discovered. +As these came rolling down from unseen hands into the narrow valley, +I could not help thinking of the deep glen (just the same sort of glen) +where the Roc left Sindbad the Sailor; and where the merchants from +the heights above, flung down great pieces of meat for the diamonds +to stick to. There were no eagles here, to darken the sun in their +swoop, and pounce upon them; but it was as wild and fierce as if there +had been hundreds.<br> +<br> +But the road, the road down which the marble comes, however immense +the blocks! The genius of the country, and the spirit of its institutions, +pave that road: repair it, watch it, keep it going! Conceive a +channel of water running over a rocky bed, beset with great heaps of +stone of all shapes and sizes, winding down the middle of this valley; +and <i>that</i> being the road - because it was the road five hundred +years ago! Imagine the clumsy carts of five hundred years ago, +being used to this hour, and drawn, as they used to be, five hundred +years ago, by oxen, whose ancestors were worn to death five hundred +years ago, as their unhappy descendants are now, in twelve months, by +the suffering and agony of this cruel work! Two pair, four pair, +ten pair, twenty pair, to one block, according to its size; down it +must come, this way. In their struggling from stone to stone, +with their enormous loads behind them, they die frequently upon the +spot; and not they alone; for their passionate drivers, sometimes tumbling +down in their energy, are crushed to death beneath the wheels. +But it was good five hundred years ago, and it must be good now: and +a railroad down one of these steeps (the easiest thing in the world) +would be flat blasphemy.<br> +<br> +When we stood aside, to see one of these cars drawn by only a pair of +oxen (for it had but one small block of marble on it), coming down, +I hailed, in my heart, the man who sat upon the heavy yoke, to keep +it on the neck of the poor beasts - and who faced backwards: not before +him - as the very Devil of true despotism. He had a great rod +in his hand, with an iron point; and when they could plough and force +their way through the loose bed of the torrent no longer, and came to +a stop, he poked it into their bodies, beat it on their heads, screwed +it round and round in their nostrils, got them on a yard or two, in +the madness of intense pain; repeated all these persuasions, with increased +intensity of purpose, when they stopped again; got them on, once more; +forced and goaded them to an abrupter point of the descent; and when +their writhing and smarting, and the weight behind them, bore them plunging +down the precipice in a cloud of scattered water, whirled his rod above +his head, and gave a great whoop and hallo, as if he had achieved something, +and had no idea that they might shake him off, and blindly mash his +brains upon the road, in the noontide of his triumph.<br> +<br> +Standing in one of the many studii of Carrara, that afternoon - for +it is a great workshop, full of beautifully-finished copies in marble, +of almost every figure, group, and bust, we know - it seemed, at first, +so strange to me that those exquisite shapes, replete with grace, and +thought, and delicate repose, should grow out of all this toil, and +sweat, and torture! But I soon found a parallel to it, and an +explanation of it, in every virtue that springs up in miserable ground, +and every good thing that has its birth in sorrow and distress. +And, looking out of the sculptor’s great window, upon the marble +mountains, all red and glowing in the decline of day, but stern and +solemn to the last, I thought, my God! how many quarries of human hearts +and souls, capable of far more beautiful results, are left shut up and +mouldering away: while pleasure-travellers through life, avert their +faces, as they pass, and shudder at the gloom and ruggedness that conceal +them!<br> +<br> +The then reigning Duke of Modena, to whom this territory in part belonged, +claimed the proud distinction of being the only sovereign in Europe +who had not recognised Louis-Philippe as King of the French! He +was not a wag, but quite in earnest. He was also much opposed +to railroads; and if certain lines in contemplation by other potentates, +on either side of him, had been executed, would have probably enjoyed +the satisfaction of having an omnibus plying to and fro across his not +very vast dominions, to forward travellers from one terminus to another.<br> +<br> +Carrara, shut in by great hills, is very picturesque and bold. +Few tourists stay there; and the people are nearly all connected, in +one way or other, with the working of marble. There are also villages +among the caves, where the workmen live. It contains a beautiful +little Theatre, newly built; and it is an interesting custom there, +to form the chorus of labourers in the marble quarries, who are self-taught +and sing by ear. I heard them in a comic opera, and in an act +of ‘Norma;’ and they acquitted themselves very well; unlike +the common people of Italy generally, who (with some exceptions among +the Neapolitans) sing vilely out of tune, and have very disagreeable +singing voices.<br> +<br> +From the summit of a lofty hill beyond Carrara, the first view of the +fertile plain in which the town of Pisa lies - with Leghorn, a purple +spot in the flat distance - is enchanting. Nor is it only distance +that lends enchantment to the view; for the fruitful country, and rich +woods of olive-trees through which the road subsequently passes, render +it delightful.<br> +<br> +The moon was shining when we approached Pisa, and for a long time we +could see, behind the wall, the leaning Tower, all awry in the uncertain +light; the shadowy original of the old pictures in school-books, setting +forth ‘The Wonders of the World.’ Like most things +connected in their first associations with school-books and school-times, +it was too small. I felt it keenly. It was nothing like +so high above the wall as I had hoped. It was another of the many +deceptions practised by Mr. Harris, Bookseller, at the corner of St. +Paul’s Churchyard, London. <i>His</i> Tower was a fiction, +but this was a reality - and, by comparison, a short reality. +Still, it looked very well, and very strange, and was quite as much +out of the perpendicular as Harris had represented it to be. The +quiet air of Pisa too; the big guard-house at the gate, with only two +little soldiers in it; the streets with scarcely any show of people +in them; and the Arno, flowing quaintly through the centre of the town; +were excellent. So, I bore no malice in my heart against Mr. Harris +(remembering his good intentions), but forgave him before dinner, and +went out, full of confidence, to see the Tower next morning.<br> +<br> +I might have known better; but, somehow, I had expected to see it, casting +its long shadow on a public street where people came and went all day. +It was a surprise to me to find it in a grave retired place, apart from +the general resort, and carpeted with smooth green turf. But, +the group of buildings, clustered on and about this verdant carpet: +comprising the Tower, the Baptistery, the Cathedral, and the Church +of the Campo Santo: is perhaps the most remarkable and beautiful in +the whole world; and from being clustered there, together, away from +the ordinary transactions and details of the town, they have a singularly +venerable and impressive character. It is the architectural essence +of a rich old city, with all its common life and common habitations +pressed out, and filtered away.<br> +<br> +SIMOND compares the Tower to the usual pictorial representations in +children’s books of the Tower of Babel. It is a happy simile, +and conveys a better idea of the building than chapters of laboured +description. Nothing can exceed the grace and lightness of the +structure; nothing can be more remarkable than its general appearance. +In the course of the ascent to the top (which is by an easy staircase), +the inclination is not very apparent; but, at the summit, it becomes +so, and gives one the sensation of being in a ship that has heeled over, +through the action of an ebb-tide. The effect <i>upon the low +side</i>, so to speak - looking over from the gallery, and seeing the +shaft recede to its base - is very startling; and I saw a nervous traveller +hold on to the Tower involuntarily, after glancing down, as if he had +some idea of propping it up. The view within, from the ground +- looking up, as through a slanted tube - is also very curious. +It certainly inclines as much as the most sanguine tourist could desire. +The natural impulse of ninety-nine people out of a hundred, who were +about to recline upon the grass below it, to rest, and contemplate the +adjacent buildings, would probably be, not to take up their position +under the leaning side; it is so very much aslant.<br> +<br> +The manifold beauties of the Cathedral and Baptistery need no recapitulation +from me; though in this case, as in a hundred others, I find it difficult +to separate my own delight in recalling them, from your weariness in +having them recalled. There is a picture of St. Agnes, by Andrea +del Sarto, in the former, and there are a variety of rich columns in +the latter, that tempt me strongly.<br> +<br> +It is, I hope, no breach of my resolution not to be tempted into elaborate +descriptions, to remember the Campo Santo; where grass-grown graves +are dug in earth brought more than six hundred years ago, from the Holy +Land; and where there are, surrounding them, such cloisters, with such +playing lights and shadows falling through their delicate tracery on +the stone pavement, as surely the dullest memory could never forget. +On the walls of this solemn and lovely place, are ancient frescoes, +very much obliterated and decayed, but very curious. As usually +happens in almost any collection of paintings, of any sort, in Italy, +where there are many heads, there is, in one of them, a striking accidental +likeness of Napoleon. At one time, I used to please my fancy with +the speculation whether these old painters, at their work, had a foreboding +knowledge of the man who would one day arise to wreak such destruction +upon art: whose soldiers would make targets of great pictures, and stable +their horses among triumphs of architecture. But the same Corsican +face is so plentiful in some parts of Italy at this day, that a more +commonplace solution of the coincidence is unavoidable.<br> +<br> +If Pisa be the seventh wonder of the world in right of its Tower, it +may claim to be, at least, the second or third in right of its beggars. +They waylay the unhappy visitor at every turn, escort him to every door +he enters at, and lie in wait for him, with strong reinforcements, at +every door by which they know he must come out. The grating of +the portal on its hinges is the signal for a general shout, and the +moment he appears, he is hemmed in, and fallen on, by heaps of rags +and personal distortions. The beggars seem to embody all the trade +and enterprise of Pisa. Nothing else is stirring, but warm air. +Going through the streets, the fronts of the sleepy houses look like +backs. They are all so still and quiet, and unlike houses with +people in them, that the greater part of the city has the appearance +of a city at daybreak, or during a general siesta of the population. +Or it is yet more like those backgrounds of houses in common prints, +or old engravings, where windows and doors are squarely indicated, and +one figure (a beggar of course) is seen walking off by itself into illimitable +perspective.<br> +<br> +Not so Leghorn (made illustrious by SMOLLETT’S grave), which is +a thriving, business-like, matter-of-fact place, where idleness is shouldered +out of the way by commerce. The regulations observed there, in +reference to trade and merchants, are very liberal and free; and the +town, of course, benefits by them. Leghorn had a bad name in connection +with stabbers, and with some justice it must be allowed; for, not many +years ago, there was an assassination club there, the members of which +bore no ill-will to anybody in particular, but stabbed people (quite +strangers to them) in the streets at night, for the pleasure and excitement +of the recreation. I think the president of this amiable society +was a shoemaker. He was taken, however, and the club was broken +up. It would, probably, have disappeared in the natural course +of events, before the railroad between Leghorn and Pisa, which is a +good one, and has already begun to astonish Italy with a precedent of +punctuality, order, plain dealing, and improvement - the most dangerous +and heretical astonisher of all. There must have been a slight +sensation, as of earthquake, surely, in the Vatican, when the first +Italian railroad was thrown open.<br> +<br> +Returning to Pisa, and hiring a good-tempered Vetturíno, and +his four horses, to take us on to Rome, we travelled through pleasant +Tuscan villages and cheerful scenery all day. The roadside crosses +in this part of Italy are numerous and curious. There is seldom +a figure on the cross, though there is sometimes a face, but they are +remarkable for being garnished with little models in wood, of every +possible object that can be connected with the Saviour’s death. +The cock that crowed when Peter had denied his Master thrice, is usually +perched on the tip-top; and an ornithological phenomenon he generally +is. Under him, is the inscription. Then, hung on to the +cross-beam, are the spear, the reed with the sponge of vinegar and water +at the end, the coat without seam for which the soldiers cast lots, +the dice-box with which they threw for it, the hammer that drove in +the nails, the pincers that pulled them out, the ladder which was set +against the cross, the crown of thorns, the instrument of flagellation, +the lanthorn with which Mary went to the tomb (I suppose), and the sword +with which Peter smote the servant of the high priest, - a perfect toy-shop +of little objects, repeated at every four or five miles, all along the +highway.<br> +<br> +On the evening of the second day from Pisa, we reached the beautiful +old city of Siena. There was what they called a Carnival, in progress; +but, as its secret lay in a score or two of melancholy people walking +up and down the principal street in common toy-shop masks, and being +more melancholy, if possible, than the same sort of people in England, +I say no more of it. We went off, betimes next morning, to see +the Cathedral, which is wonderfully picturesque inside and out, especially +the latter - also the market-place, or great Piazza, which is a large +square, with a great broken-nosed fountain in it: some quaint Gothic +houses: and a high square brick tower; <i>outside</i> the top of which +- a curious feature in such views in Italy - hangs an enormous bell. +It is like a bit of Venice, without the water. There are some +curious old Palazzi in the town, which is very ancient; and without +having (for me) the interest of Verona, or Genoa, it is very dreamy +and fantastic, and most interesting.<br> +<br> +We went on again, as soon as we had seen these things, and going over +a rather bleak country (there had been nothing but vines until now: +mere walking-sticks at that season of the year), stopped, as usual, +between one and two hours in the middle of the day, to rest the horses; +that being a part of every Vetturíno contract. We then +went on again, through a region gradually becoming bleaker and wilder, +until it became as bare and desolate as any Scottish moors. Soon +after dark, we halted for the night, at the osteria of La Scala: a perfectly +lone house, where the family were sitting round a great fire in the +kitchen, raised on a stone platform three or four feet high, and big +enough for the roasting of an ox. On the upper, and only other +floor of this hotel, there was a great, wild, rambling sála, +with one very little window in a by-corner, and four black doors opening +into four black bedrooms in various directions. To say nothing +of another large black door, opening into another large black sála, +with the staircase coming abruptly through a kind of trap-door in the +floor, and the rafters of the roof looming above: a suspicious little +press skulking in one obscure corner: and all the knives in the house +lying about in various directions. The fireplace was of the purest +Italian architecture, so that it was perfectly impossible to see it +for the smoke. The waitress was like a dramatic brigand’s +wife, and wore the same style of dress upon her head. The dogs +barked like mad; the echoes returned the compliments bestowed upon them; +there was not another house within twelve miles; and things had a dreary, +and rather a cut-throat, appearance.<br> +<br> +They were not improved by rumours of robbers having come out, strong +and boldly, within a few nights; and of their having stopped the mail +very near that place. They were known to have waylaid some travellers +not long before, on Mount Vesuvius itself, and were the talk at all +the roadside inns. As they were no business of ours, however (for +we had very little with us to lose), we made ourselves merry on the +subject, and were very soon as comfortable as need be. We had +the usual dinner in this solitary house; and a very good dinner it is, +when you are used to it. There is something with a vegetable or +some rice in it which is a sort of shorthand or arbitrary character +for soup, and which tastes very well, when you have flavoured it with +plenty of grated cheese, lots of salt, and abundance of pepper. +There is the half fowl of which this soup has been made. There +is a stewed pigeon, with the gizzards and livers of himself and other +birds stuck all round him. There is a bit of roast beef, the size +of a small French roll. There are a scrap of Parmesan cheese, +and five little withered apples, all huddled together on a small plate, +and crowding one upon the other, as if each were trying to save itself +from the chance of being eaten. Then there is coffee; and then +there is bed. You don’t mind brick floors; you don’t +mind yawning doors, nor banging windows; you don’t mind your own +horses being stabled under the bed: and so close, that every time a +horse coughs or sneezes, he wakes you. If you are good-humoured +to the people about you, and speak pleasantly, and look cheerful, take +my word for it you may be well entertained in the very worst Italian +Inn, and always in the most obliging manner, and may go from one end +of the country to the other (despite all stories to the contrary) without +any great trial of your patience anywhere. Especially, when you +get such wine in flasks, as the Orvieto, and the Monte Pulciano.<br> +<br> +It was a bad morning when we left this place; and we went, for twelve +miles, over a country as barren, as stony, and as wild, as Cornwall +in England, until we came to Radicofani, where there is a ghostly, goblin +inn: once a hunting-seat, belonging to the Dukes of Tuscany. It +is full of such rambling corridors, and gaunt rooms, that all the murdering +and phantom tales that ever were written might have originated in that +one house. There are some horrible old Palazzi in Genoa: one in +particular, not unlike it, outside: but there is a winding, creaking, +wormy, rustling, door-opening, foot-on-staircase-falling character about +this Radicofani Hotel, such as I never saw, anywhere else. The +town, such as it is, hangs on a hill-side above the house, and in front +of it. The inhabitants are all beggars; and as soon as they see +a carriage coming, they swoop down upon it, like so many birds of prey.<br> +<br> +When we got on the mountain pass, which lies beyond this place, the +wind (as they had forewarned us at the inn) was so terrific, that we +were obliged to take my other half out of the carriage, lest she should +be blown over, carriage and all, and to hang to it, on the windy side +(as well as we could for laughing), to prevent its going, Heaven knows +where. For mere force of wind, this land-storm might have competed +with an Atlantic gale, and had a reasonable chance of coming off victorious. +The blast came sweeping down great gullies in a range of mountains on +the right: so that we looked with positive awe at a great morass on +the left, and saw that there was not a bush or twig to hold by. +It seemed as if, once blown from our feet, we must be swept out to sea, +or away into space. There was snow, and hail, and rain, and lightning, +and thunder; and there were rolling mists, travelling with incredible +velocity. It was dark, awful, and solitary to the last degree; +there were mountains above mountains, veiled in angry clouds; and there +was such a wrathful, rapid, violent, tumultuous hurry, everywhere, as +rendered the scene unspeakably exciting and grand.<br> +<br> +It was a relief to get out of it, notwithstanding; and to cross even +the dismal, dirty Papal Frontier. After passing through two little +towns; in one of which, Acquapendente, there was also a ‘Carnival’ +in progress: consisting of one man dressed and masked as a woman, and +one woman dressed and masked as a man, walking ankle-deep, through the +muddy streets, in a very melancholy manner: we came, at dusk, within +sight of the Lake of Bolsena, on whose bank there is a little town of +the same name, much celebrated for malaria. With the exception +of this poor place, there is not a cottage on the banks of the lake, +or near it (for nobody dare sleep there); not a boat upon its waters; +not a stick or stake to break the dismal monotony of seven-and-twenty +watery miles. We were late in getting in, the roads being very +bad from heavy rains; and, after dark, the dulness of the scene was +quite intolerable.<br> +<br> +We entered on a very different, and a finer scene of desolation, next +night, at sunset. We had passed through Montefiaschone (famous +for its wine) and Viterbo (for its fountains): and after climbing up +a long hill of eight or ten miles’ extent, came suddenly upon +the margin of a solitary lake: in one part very beautiful, with a luxuriant +wood; in another, very barren, and shut in by bleak volcanic hills. +Where this lake flows, there stood, of old, a city. It was swallowed +up one day; and in its stead, this water rose. There are ancient +traditions (common to many parts of the world) of the ruined city having +been seen below, when the water was clear; but however that may be, +from this spot of earth it vanished. The ground came bubbling +up above it; and the water too; and here they stand, like ghosts on +whom the other world closed suddenly, and who have no means of getting +back again. They seem to be waiting the course of ages, for the +next earthquake in that place; when they will plunge below the ground, +at its first yawning, and be seen no more. The unhappy city below, +is not more lost and dreary, than these fire-charred hills and the stagnant +water, above. The red sun looked strangely on them, as with the +knowledge that they were made for caverns and darkness; and the melancholy +water oozed and sucked the mud, and crept quietly among the marshy grass +and reeds, as if the overthrow of all the ancient towers and housetops, +and the death of all the ancient people born and bred there, were yet +heavy on its conscience.<br> +<br> +A short ride from this lake, brought us to Ronciglione; a little town +like a large pig-sty, where we passed the night. Next morning +at seven o’clock, we started for Rome.<br> +<br> +As soon as we were out of the pig-sty, we entered on the Campagna Romana; +an undulating flat (as you know), where few people can live; and where, +for miles and miles, there is nothing to relieve the terrible monotony +and gloom. Of all kinds of country that could, by possibility, +lie outside the gates of Rome, this is the aptest and fittest burial-ground +for the Dead City. So sad, so quiet, so sullen; so secret in its +covering up of great masses of ruin, and hiding them; so like the waste +places into which the men possessed with devils used to go and howl, +and rend themselves, in the old days of Jerusalem. We had to traverse +thirty miles of this Campagna; and for two-and-twenty we went on and +on, seeing nothing but now and then a lonely house, or a villainous-looking +shepherd: with matted hair all over his face, and himself wrapped to +the chin in a frowsy brown mantle, tending his sheep. At the end +of that distance, we stopped to refresh the horses, and to get some +lunch, in a common malaria-shaken, despondent little public-house, whose +every inch of wall and beam, inside, was (according to custom) painted +and decorated in a way so miserable that every room looked like the +wrong side of another room, and, with its wretched imitation of drapery, +and lop-sided little daubs of lyres, seemed to have been plundered from +behind the scenes of some travelling circus.<br> +<br> +When we were fairly going off again, we began, in a perfect fever, to +strain our eyes for Rome; and when, after another mile or two, the Eternal +City appeared, at length, in the distance; it looked like - I am half +afraid to write the word - like LONDON!!! There it lay, under +a thick cloud, with innumerable towers, and steeples, and roofs of houses, +rising up into the sky, and high above them all, one Dome. I swear, +that keenly as I felt the seeming absurdity of the comparison, it was +so like London, at that distance, that if you could have shown it me, +in a glass, I should have taken it for nothing else.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER X - ROME<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +We entered the Eternal City, at about four o’clock in the afternoon, +on the thirtieth of January, by the Porta del Popolo, and came immediately +- it was a dark, muddy day, and there had been heavy rain - on the skirts +of the Carnival. We did not, then, know that we were only looking +at the fag end of the masks, who were driving slowly round and round +the Piazza until they could find a promising opportunity for falling +into the stream of carriages, and getting, in good time, into the thick +of the festivity; and coming among them so abruptly, all travel-stained +and weary, was not coming very well prepared to enjoy the scene.<br> +<br> +We had crossed the Tiber by the Ponte Molle two or three miles before. +It had looked as yellow as it ought to look, and hurrying on between +its worn-away and miry banks, had a promising aspect of desolation and +ruin. The masquerade dresses on the fringe of the Carnival, did +great violence to this promise. There were no great ruins, no +solemn tokens of antiquity, to be seen; - they all lie on the other +side of the city. There seemed to be long streets of commonplace +shops and houses, such as are to be found in any European town; there +were busy people, equipages, ordinary walkers to and fro; a multitude +of chattering strangers. It was no more <i>my</i> Rome: the Rome +of anybody’s fancy, man or boy; degraded and fallen and lying +asleep in the sun among a heap of ruins: than the Place de la Concorde +in Paris is. A cloudy sky, a dull cold rain, and muddy streets, +I was prepared for, but not for this: and I confess to having gone to +bed, that night, in a very indifferent humour, and with a very considerably +quenched enthusiasm.<br> +<br> +Immediately on going out next day, we hurried off to St. Peter’s. +It looked immense in the distance, but distinctly and decidedly small, +by comparison, on a near approach. The beauty of the Piazza, on +which it stands, with its clusters of exquisite columns, and its gushing +fountains - so fresh, so broad, and free, and beautiful - nothing can +exaggerate. The first burst of the interior, in all its expansive +majesty and glory: and, most of all, the looking up into the Dome: is +a sensation never to be forgotten. But, there were preparations +for a Festa; the pillars of stately marble were swathed in some impertinent +frippery of red and yellow; the altar, and entrance to the subterranean +chapel: which is before it: in the centre of the church: were like a +goldsmith’s shop, or one of the opening scenes in a very lavish +pantomime. And though I had as high a sense of the beauty of the +building (I hope) as it is possible to entertain, I felt no very strong +emotion. I have been infinitely more affected in many English +cathedrals when the organ has been playing, and in many English country +churches when the congregation have been singing. I had a much +greater sense of mystery and wonder, in the Cathedral of San Mark at +Venice.<br> +<br> +When we came out of the church again (we stood nearly an hour staring +up into the dome: and would not have ‘gone over’ the Cathedral +then, for any money), we said to the coachman, ‘Go to the Coliseum.’ +In a quarter of an hour or so, he stopped at the gate, and we went in.<br> +<br> +It is no fiction, but plain, sober, honest Truth, to say: so suggestive +and distinct is it at this hour: that, for a moment - actually in passing +in - they who will, may have the whole great pile before them, as it +used to be, with thousands of eager faces staring down into the arena, +and such a whirl of strife, and blood, and dust going on there, as no +language can describe. Its solitude, its awful beauty, and its +utter desolation, strike upon the stranger the next moment, like a softened +sorrow; and never in his life, perhaps, will he be so moved and overcome +by any sight, not immediately connected with his own affections and +afflictions.<br> +<br> +To see it crumbling there, an inch a year; its walls and arches overgrown +with green; its corridors open to the day; the long grass growing in +its porches; young trees of yesterday, springing up on its ragged parapets, +and bearing fruit: chance produce of the seeds dropped there by the +birds who build their nests within its chinks and crannies; to see its +Pit of Fight filled up with earth, and the peaceful Cross planted in +the centre; to climb into its upper halls, and look down on ruin, ruin, +ruin, all about it; the triumphal arches of Constantine, Septimus Severus, +and Titus; the Roman Forum; the Palace of the Caesars; the temples of +the old religion, fallen down and gone; is to see the ghost of old Rome, +wicked, wonderful old city, haunting the very ground on which its people +trod. It is the most impressive, the most stately, the most solemn, +grand, majestic, mournful sight, conceivable. Never, in its bloodiest +prime, can the sight of the gigantic Coliseum, full and running over +with the lustiest life, have moved one’s heart, as it must move +all who look upon it now, a ruin. GOD be thanked: a ruin!<br> +<br> +As it tops the other ruins: standing there, a mountain among graves: +so do its ancient influences outlive all other remnants of the old mythology +and old butchery of Rome, in the nature of the fierce and cruel Roman +people. The Italian face changes as the visitor approaches the +city; its beauty becomes devilish; and there is scarcely one countenance +in a hundred, among the common people in the streets, that would not +be at home and happy in a renovated Coliseum to-morrow.<br> +<br> +Here was Rome indeed at last; and such a Rome as no one can imagine +in its full and awful grandeur! We wandered out upon the Appian +Way, and then went on, through miles of ruined tombs and broken walls, +with here and there a desolate and uninhabited house: past the Circus +of Romulus, where the course of the chariots, the stations of the judges, +competitors, and spectators, are yet as plainly to be seen as in old +time: past the tomb of Cecilia Metella: past all inclosure, hedge, or +stake, wall or fence: away upon the open Campagna, where on that side +of Rome, nothing is to be beheld but Ruin. Except where the distant +Apennines bound the view upon the left, the whole wide prospect is one +field of ruin. Broken aqueducts, left in the most picturesque +and beautiful clusters of arches; broken temples; broken tombs. +A desert of decay, sombre and desolate beyond all expression; and with +a history in every stone that strews the ground.<br> +<br> +<br> +On Sunday, the Pope assisted in the performance of High Mass at St. +Peter’s. The effect of the Cathedral on my mind, on that +second visit, was exactly what it was at first, and what it remains +after many visits. It is not religiously impressive or affecting. +It is an immense edifice, with no one point for the mind to rest upon; +and it tires itself with wandering round and round. The very purpose +of the place, is not expressed in anything you see there, unless you +examine its details - and all examination of details is incompatible +with the place itself. It might be a Pantheon, or a Senate House, +or a great architectural trophy, having no other object than an architectural +triumph. There is a black statue of St. Peter, to be sure, under +a red canopy; which is larger than life and which is constantly having +its great toe kissed by good Catholics. You cannot help seeing +that: it is so very prominent and popular. But it does not heighten +the effect of the temple, as a work of art; and it is not expressive +- to me at least - of its high purpose.<br> +<br> +A large space behind the altar, was fitted up with boxes, shaped like +those at the Italian Opera in England, but in their decoration much +more gaudy. In the centre of the kind of theatre thus railed off, +was a canopied dais with the Pope’s chair upon it. The pavement +was covered with a carpet of the brightest green; and what with this +green, and the intolerable reds and crimsons, and gold borders of the +hangings, the whole concern looked like a stupendous Bonbon. On +either side of the altar, was a large box for lady strangers. +These were filled with ladies in black dresses and black veils. +The gentlemen of the Pope’s guard, in red coats, leather breeches, +and jack-boots, guarded all this reserved space, with drawn swords that +were very flashy in every sense; and from the altar all down the nave, +a broad lane was kept clear by the Pope’s Swiss guard, who wear +a quaint striped surcoat, and striped tight legs, and carry halberds +like those which are usually shouldered by those theatrical supernumeraries, +who never <i>can</i> get off the stage fast enough, and who may be generally +observed to linger in the enemy’s camp after the open country, +held by the opposite forces, has been split up the middle by a convulsion +of Nature.<br> +<br> +I got upon the border of the green carpet, in company with a great many +other gentlemen, attired in black (no other passport is necessary), +and stood there at my ease, during the performance of Mass. The +singers were in a crib of wirework (like a large meat-safe or bird-cage) +in one corner; and sang most atrociously. All about the green +carpet, there was a slowly moving crowd of people: talking to each other: +staring at the Pope through eye-glasses; defrauding one another, in +moments of partial curiosity, out of precarious seats on the bases of +pillars: and grinning hideously at the ladies. Dotted here and +there, were little knots of friars (Frances-cáni, or Cappuccíni, +in their coarse brown dresses and peaked hoods) making a strange contrast +to the gaudy ecclesiastics of higher degree, and having their humility +gratified to the utmost, by being shouldered about, and elbowed right +and left, on all sides. Some of these had muddy sandals and umbrellas, +and stained garments: having trudged in from the country. The +faces of the greater part were as coarse and heavy as their dress; their +dogged, stupid, monotonous stare at all the glory and splendour, having +something in it, half miserable, and half ridiculous.<br> +<br> +Upon the green carpet itself, and gathered round the altar, was a perfect +army of cardinals and priests, in red, gold, purple, violet, white, +and fine linen. Stragglers from these, went to and fro among the +crowd, conversing two and two, or giving and receiving introductions, +and exchanging salutations; other functionaries in black gowns, and +other functionaries in court-dresses, were similarly engaged. +In the midst of all these, and stealthy Jesuits creeping in and out, +and the extreme restlessness of the Youth of England, who were perpetually +wandering about, some few steady persons in black cassocks, who had +knelt down with their faces to the wall, and were poring over their +missals, became, unintentionally, a sort of humane man-traps, and with +their own devout legs, tripped up other people’s by the dozen.<br> +<br> +There was a great pile of candles lying down on the floor near me, which +a very old man in a rusty black gown with an open-work tippet, like +a summer ornament for a fireplace in tissue-paper, made himself very +busy in dispensing to all the ecclesiastics: one a-piece. They +loitered about with these for some time, under their arms like walking-sticks, +or in their hands like truncheons. At a certain period of the +ceremony, however, each carried his candle up to the Pope, laid it across +his two knees to be blessed, took it back again, and filed off. +This was done in a very attenuated procession, as you may suppose, and +occupied a long time. Not because it takes long to bless a candle +through and through, but because there were so many candles to be blessed. +At last they were all blessed: and then they were all lighted; and then +the Pope was taken up, chair and all, and carried round the church.<br> +<br> +I must say, that I never saw anything, out of November, so like the +popular English commemoration of the fifth of that month. A bundle +of matches and a lantern, would have made it perfect. Nor did +the Pope, himself, at all mar the resemblance, though he has a pleasant +and venerable face; for, as this part of the ceremony makes him giddy +and sick, he shuts his eyes when it is performed: and having his eyes +shut and a great mitre on his head, and his head itself wagging to and +fro as they shook him in carrying, he looked as if his mask were going +to tumble off. The two immense fans which are always borne, one +on either side of him, accompanied him, of course, on this occasion. +As they carried him along, he blessed the people with the mystic sign; +and as he passed them, they kneeled down. When he had made the +round of the church, he was brought back again, and if I am not mistaken, +this performance was repeated, in the whole, three times. There +was, certainly nothing solemn or effective in it; and certainly very +much that was droll and tawdry. But this remark applies to the +whole ceremony, except the raising of the Host, when every man in the +guard dropped on one knee instantly, and dashed his naked sword on the +ground; which had a fine effect.<br> +<br> +The next time I saw the cathedral, was some two or three weeks afterwards, +when I climbed up into the ball; and then, the hangings being taken +down, and the carpet taken up, but all the framework left, the remnants +of these decorations looked like an exploded cracker.<br> +<br> +The Friday and Saturday having been solemn Festa days, and Sunday being +always a <i>dies non</i> in carnival proceedings, we had looked forward, +with some impatience and curiosity, to the beginning of the new week: +Monday and Tuesday being the two last and best days of the Carnival.<br> +<br> +On the Monday afternoon at one or two o’clock, there began to +be a great rattling of carriages into the court-yard of the hotel; a +hurrying to and fro of all the servants in it; and, now and then, a +swift shooting across some doorway or balcony, of a straggling stranger +in a fancy dress: not yet sufficiently well used to the same, to wear +it with confidence, and defy public opinion. All the carriages +were open, and had the linings carefully covered with white cotton or +calico, to prevent their proper decorations from being spoiled by the +incessant pelting of sugar-plums; and people were packing and cramming +into every vehicle as it waited for its occupants, enormous sacks and +baskets full of these confétti, together with such heaps of flowers, +tied up in little nosegays, that some carriages were not only brimful +of flowers, but literally running over: scattering, at every shake and +jerk of the springs, some of their abundance on the ground. Not +to be behindhand in these essential particulars, we caused two very +respectable sacks of sugar-plums (each about three feet high) and a +large clothes-basket full of flowers to be conveyed into our hired barouche, +with all speed. And from our place of observation, in one of the +upper balconies of the hotel, we contemplated these arrangements with +the liveliest satisfaction. The carriages now beginning to take +up their company, and move away, we got into ours, and drove off too, +armed with little wire masks for our faces; the sugar-plums, like Falstaff’s +adulterated sack, having lime in their composition.<br> +<br> +The Corso is a street a mile long; a street of shops, and palaces, and +private houses, sometimes opening into a broad piazza. There are +verandahs and balconies, of all shapes and sizes, to almost every house +- not on one story alone, but often to one room or another on every +story - put there in general with so little order or regularity, that +if, year after year, and season after season, it had rained balconies, +hailed balconies, snowed balconies, blown balconies, they could scarcely +have come into existence in a more disorderly manner.<br> +<br> +This is the great fountain-head and focus of the Carnival. But +all the streets in which the Carnival is held, being vigilantly kept +by dragoons, it is necessary for carriages, in the first instance, to +pass, in line, down another thoroughfare, and so come into the Corso +at the end remote from the Piázza del Popolo; which is one of +its terminations. Accordingly, we fell into the string of coaches, +and, for some time, jogged on quietly enough; now crawling on at a very +slow walk; now trotting half-a-dozen yards; now backing fifty; and now +stopping altogether: as the pressure in front obliged us. If any +impetuous carriage dashed out of the rank and clattered forward, with +the wild idea of getting on faster, it was suddenly met, or overtaken, +by a trooper on horseback, who, deaf as his own drawn sword to all remonstrances, +immediately escorted it back to the very end of the row, and made it +a dim speck in the remotest perspective. Occasionally, we interchanged +a volley of confétti with the carriage next in front, or the +carriage next behind; but as yet, this capturing of stray and errant +coaches by the military, was the chief amusement.<br> +<br> +Presently, we came into a narrow street, where, besides one line of +carriages going, there was another line of carriages returning. +Here the sugar-plums and the nosegays began to fly about, pretty smartly; +and I was fortunate enough to observe one gentleman attired as a Greek +warrior, catch a light-whiskered brigand on the nose (he was in the +very act of tossing up a bouquet to a young lady in a first-floor window) +with a precision that was much applauded by the bystanders. As +this victorious Greek was exchanging a facetious remark with a stout +gentleman in a doorway - one-half black and one-half white, as if he +had been peeled up the middle - who had offered him his congratulations +on this achievement, he received an orange from a housetop, full on +his left ear, and was much surprised, not to say discomfited. +Especially, as he was standing up at the time; and in consequence of +the carriage moving on suddenly, at the same moment, staggered ignominiously, +and buried himself among his flowers.<br> +<br> +Some quarter of an hour of this sort of progress, brought us to the +Corso; and anything so gay, so bright, and lively as the whole scene +there, it would be difficult to imagine. From all the innumerable +balconies: from the remotest and highest, no less than from the lowest +and nearest: hangings of bright red, bright green, bright blue, white +and gold, were fluttering in the brilliant sunlight. From windows, +and from parapets, and tops of houses, streamers of the richest colours, +and draperies of the gaudiest and most sparkling hues, were floating +out upon the street. The buildings seemed to have been literally +turned inside out, and to have all their gaiety towards the highway. +Shop-fronts were taken down, and the windows filled with company, like +boxes at a shining theatre; doors were carried off their hinges, and +long tapestried groves, hung with garlands of flowers and evergreens, +displayed within; builders’ scaffoldings were gorgeous temples, +radiant in silver, gold, and crimson; and in every nook and corner, +from the pavement to the chimney-tops, where women’s eyes could +glisten, there they danced, and laughed, and sparkled, like the light +in water. Every sort of bewitching madness of dress was there. +Little preposterous scarlet jackets; quaint old stomachers, more wicked +than the smartest bodices; Polish pelisses, strained and tight as ripe +gooseberries; tiny Greek caps, all awry, and clinging to the dark hair, +Heaven knows how; every wild, quaint, bold, shy, pettish, madcap fancy +had its illustration in a dress; and every fancy was as dead forgotten +by its owner, in the tumult of merriment, as if the three old aqueducts +that still remain entire had brought Lethe into Rome, upon their sturdy +arches, that morning.<br> +<br> +The carriages were now three abreast; in broader places four; often +stationary for a long time together, always one close mass of variegated +brightness; showing, the whole street-full, through the storm of flowers, +like flowers of a larger growth themselves. In some, the horses +were richly caparisoned in magnificent trappings; in others they were +decked from head to tail, with flowing ribbons. Some were driven +by coachmen with enormous double faces: one face leering at the horses: +the other cocking its extraordinary eyes into the carriage: and both +rattling again, under the hail of sugar-plums. Other drivers were +attired as women, wearing long ringlets and no bonnets, and looking +more ridiculous in any real difficulty with the horses (of which, in +such a concourse, there were a great many) than tongue can tell, or +pen describe. Instead of sitting <i>in</i> the carriages, upon +the seats, the handsome Roman women, to see and to be seen the better, +sit in the heads of the barouches, at this time of general licence, +with their feet upon the cushions - and oh, the flowing skirts and dainty +waists, the blessed shapes and laughing faces, the free, good-humoured, +gallant figures that they make! There were great vans, too, full of +handsome girls - thirty, or more together, perhaps - and the broadsides +that were poured into, and poured out of, these fairy fire-shops, splashed +the air with flowers and bon-bons for ten minutes at a time. Carriages, +delayed long in one place, would begin a deliberate engagement with +other carriages, or with people at the lower windows; and the spectators +at some upper balcony or window, joining in the fray, and attacking +both parties, would empty down great bags of confétti, that descended +like a cloud, and in an instant made them white as millers. Still, +carriages on carriages, dresses on dresses, colours on colours, crowds +upon crowds, without end. Men and boys clinging to the wheels +of coaches, and holding on behind, and following in their wake, and +diving in among the horses’ feet to pick up scattered flowers +to sell again; maskers on foot (the drollest generally) in fantastic +exaggerations of court-dresses, surveying the throng through enormous +eye-glasses, and always transported with an ecstasy of love, on the +discovery of any particularly old lady at a window; long strings of +Policinelli, laying about them with blown bladders at the ends of sticks; +a waggon-full of madmen, screaming and tearing to the life; a coach-full +of grave mamelukes, with their horse-tail standard set up in the midst; +a party of gipsy-women engaged in terrific conflict with a shipful of +sailors; a man-monkey on a pole, surrounded by strange animals with +pigs’ faces, and lions’ tails, carried under their arms, +or worn gracefully over their shoulders; carriages on carriages, dresses +on dresses, colours on colours, crowds upon crowds, without end. +Not many actual characters sustained, or represented, perhaps, considering +the number dressed, but the main pleasure of the scene consisting in +its perfect good temper; in its bright, and infinite, and flashing variety; +and in its entire abandonment to the mad humour of the time - an abandonment +so perfect, so contagious, so irresistible, that the steadiest foreigner +fights up to his middle in flowers and sugar-plums, like the wildest +Roman of them all, and thinks of nothing else till half-past four o’clock, +when he is suddenly reminded (to his great regret) that this is not +the whole business of his existence, by hearing the trumpets sound, +and seeing the dragoons begin to clear the street.<br> +<br> +How it ever <i>is</i> cleared for the race that takes place at five, +or how the horses ever go through the race, without going over the people, +is more than I can say. But the carriages get out into the by-streets, +or up into the Piázza del Popolo, and some people sit in temporary +galleries in the latter place, and tens of thousands line the Corso +on both sides, when the horses are brought out into the Piázza +- to the foot of that same column which, for centuries, looked down +upon the games and chariot-races in the Circus Maximus.<br> +<br> +At a given signal they are started off. Down the live lane, the +whole length of the Corso, they fly like the wind: riderless, as all +the world knows: with shining ornaments upon their backs, and twisted +in their plaited manes: and with heavy little balls stuck full of spikes, +dangling at their sides, to goad them on. The jingling of these +trappings, and the rattling of their hoofs upon the hard stones; the +dash and fury of their speed along the echoing street; nay, the very +cannon that are fired - these noises are nothing to the roaring of the +multitude: their shouts: the clapping of their hands. But it is +soon over - almost instantaneously. More cannon shake the town. +The horses have plunged into the carpets put across the street to stop +them; the goal is reached; the prizes are won (they are given, in part, +by the poor Jews, as a compromise for not running foot-races themselves); +and there is an end to that day’s sport.<br> +<br> +But if the scene be bright, and gay, and crowded, on the last day but +one, it attains, on the concluding day, to such a height of glittering +colour, swarming life, and frolicsome uproar, that the bare recollection +of it makes me giddy at this moment. The same diversions, greatly +heightened and intensified in the ardour with which they are pursued, +go on until the same hour. The race is repeated; the cannon are +fired; the shouting and clapping of hands are renewed; the cannon are +fired again; the race is over; and the prizes are won. But the +carriages: ankle-deep with sugar-plums within, and so be-flowered and +dusty without, as to be hardly recognisable for the same vehicles that +they were, three hours ago: instead of scampering off in all directions, +throng into the Corso, where they are soon wedged together in a scarcely +moving mass. For the diversion of the Moccoletti, the last gay +madness of the Carnival, is now at hand; and sellers of little tapers +like what are called Christmas candles in England, are shouting lustily +on every side, ‘Moccoli, Moccoli! Ecco Moccoli!’ - +a new item in the tumult; quite abolishing that other item of ‘ +Ecco Fióri! Ecco Fior-r-r!’ which has been making +itself audible over all the rest, at intervals, the whole day through.<br> +<br> +As the bright hangings and dresses are all fading into one dull, heavy, +uniform colour in the decline of the day, lights begin flashing, here +and there: in the windows, on the housetops, in the balconies, in the +carriages, in the hands of the foot-passengers: little by little: gradually, +gradually: more and more: until the whole long street is one great glare +and blaze of fire. Then, everybody present has but one engrossing +object; that is, to extinguish other people’s candles, and to +keep his own alight; and everybody: man, woman, or child, gentleman +or lady, prince or peasant, native or foreigner: yells and screams, +and roars incessantly, as a taunt to the subdued, ‘Senza Moccolo, +Senza Moccolo!’ (Without a light! Without a light!) +until nothing is heard but a gigantic chorus of those two words, mingled +with peals of laughter.<br> +<br> +The spectacle, at this time, is one of the most extraordinary that can +be imagined. Carriages coming slowly by, with everybody standing +on the seats or on the box, holding up their lights at arms’ length, +for greater safety; some in paper shades; some with a bunch of undefended +little tapers, kindled altogether; some with blazing torches; some with +feeble little candles; men on foot, creeping along, among the wheels, +watching their opportunity, to make a spring at some particular light, +and dash it out; other people climbing up into carriages, to get hold +of them by main force; others, chasing some unlucky wanderer, round +and round his own coach, to blow out the light he has begged or stolen +somewhere, before he can ascend to his own company, and enable them +to light their extinguished tapers; others, with their hats off, at +a carriage-door, humbly beseeching some kind-hearted lady to oblige +them with a light for a cigar, and when she is in the fulness of doubt +whether to comply or no, blowing out the candle she is guarding so tenderly +with her little hand; other people at the windows, fishing for candles +with lines and hooks, or letting down long willow-wands with handkerchiefs +at the end, and flapping them out, dexterously, when the bearer is at +the height of his triumph, others, biding their time in corners, with +immense extinguishers like halberds, and suddenly coming down upon glorious +torches; others, gathered round one coach, and sticking to it; others, +raining oranges and nosegays at an obdurate little lantern, or regularly +storming a pyramid of men, holding up one man among them, who carries +one feeble little wick above his head, with which he defies them all! +Senza Moccolo! Senza Moccolo! Beautiful women, standing +up in coaches, pointing in derision at extinguished lights, and clapping +their hands, as they pass on, crying, ‘Senza Moccolo! Senza +Moccolo!’; low balconies full of lovely faces and gay dresses, +struggling with assailants in the streets; some repressing them as they +climb up, some bending down, some leaning over, some shrinking back +- delicate arms and bosoms - graceful figures - glowing lights, fluttering +dresses, Senza Moccolo, Senza Moccoli, Senza Moc-co-lo-o-o-o! - when +in the wildest enthusiasm of the cry, and fullest ecstasy of the sport, +the Ave Maria rings from the church steeples, and the Carnival is over +in an instant - put out like a taper, with a breath!<br> +<br> +There was a masquerade at the theatre at night, as dull and senseless +as a London one, and only remarkable for the summary way in which the +house was cleared at eleven o’clock: which was done by a line +of soldiers forming along the wall, at the back of the stage, and sweeping +the whole company out before them, like a broad broom. The game +of the Moccoletti (the word, in the singular, Moccoletto, is the diminutive +of Moccolo, and means a little lamp or candlesnuff) is supposed by some +to be a ceremony of burlesque mourning for the death of the Carnival: +candles being indispensable to Catholic grief. But whether it +be so, or be a remnant of the ancient Saturnalia, or an incorporation +of both, or have its origin in anything else, I shall always remember +it, and the frolic, as a brilliant and most captivating sight: no less +remarkable for the unbroken good-humour of all concerned, down to the +very lowest (and among those who scaled the carriages, were many of +the commonest men and boys), than for its innocent vivacity. For, +odd as it may seem to say so, of a sport so full of thoughtlessness +and personal display, it is as free from any taint of immodesty as any +general mingling of the two sexes can possibly be; and there seems to +prevail, during its progress, a feeling of general, almost childish, +simplicity and confidence, which one thinks of with a pang, when the +Ave Maria has rung it away, for a whole year.<br> +<br> +<br> +Availing ourselves of a part of the quiet interval between the termination +of the Carnival and the beginning of the Holy Week: when everybody had +run away from the one, and few people had yet begun to run back again +for the other: we went conscientiously to work, to see Rome. And, +by dint of going out early every morning, and coming back late every +evening, and labouring hard all day, I believe we made acquaintance +with every post and pillar in the city, and the country round; and, +in particular, explored so many churches, that I abandoned that part +of the enterprise at last, before it was half finished, lest I should +never, of my own accord, go to church again, as long as I lived. +But, I managed, almost every day, at one time or other, to get back +to the Coliseum, and out upon the open Campagna, beyond the Tomb of +Cecilia Metella.<br> +<br> +We often encountered, in these expeditions, a company of English Tourists, +with whom I had an ardent, but ungratified longing, to establish a speaking +acquaintance. They were one Mr. Davis, and a small circle of friends. +It was impossible not to know Mrs. Davis’s name, from her being +always in great request among her party, and her party being everywhere. +During the Holy Week, they were in every part of every scene of every +ceremony. For a fortnight or three weeks before it, they were +in every tomb, and every church, and every ruin, and every Picture Gallery; +and I hardly ever observed Mrs. Davis to be silent for a moment. +Deep underground, high up in St. Peter’s, out on the Campagna, +and stifling in the Jews’ quarter, Mrs. Davis turned up, all the +same. I don’t think she ever saw anything, or ever looked +at anything; and she had always lost something out of a straw hand-basket, +and was trying to find it, with all her might and main, among an immense +quantity of English halfpence, which lay, like sands upon the sea-shore, +at the bottom of it. There was a professional Cicerone always +attached to the party (which had been brought over from London, fifteen +or twenty strong, by contract), and if he so much as looked at Mrs. +Davis, she invariably cut him short by saying, ‘There, God bless +the man, don’t worrit me! I don’t understand a word +you say, and shouldn’t if you was to talk till you was black in +the face!’ Mr. Davis always had a snuff-coloured great-coat +on, and carried a great green umbrella in his hand, and had a slow curiosity +constantly devouring him, which prompted him to do extraordinary things, +such as taking the covers off urns in tombs, and looking in at the ashes +as if they were pickles - and tracing out inscriptions with the ferrule +of his umbrella, and saying, with intense thoughtfulness, ‘Here’s +a B you see, and there’s a R, and this is the way we goes on in; +is it!’ His antiquarian habits occasioned his being frequently +in the rear of the rest; and one of the agonies of Mrs. Davis, and the +party in general, was an ever-present fear that Davis would be lost. +This caused them to scream for him, in the strangest places, and at +the most improper seasons. And when he came, slowly emerging out +of some sepulchre or other, like a peaceful Ghoule, saying ‘Here +I am!’ Mrs. Davis invariably replied, ‘You’ll be buried +alive in a foreign country, Davis, and it’s no use trying to prevent +you!’<br> +<br> +Mr. and Mrs. Davis, and their party, had, probably, been brought from +London in about nine or ten days. Eighteen hundred years ago, +the Roman legions under Claudius, protested against being led into Mr. +and Mrs. Davis’s country, urging that it lay beyond the limits +of the world.<br> +<br> +Among what may be called the Cubs or minor Lions of Rome, there was +one that amused me mightily. It is always to be found there; and +its den is on the great flight of steps that lead from the Piazza di +Spágna, to the church of Trínita del Monte. In plainer +words, these steps are the great place of resort for the artists’ +‘Models,’ and there they are constantly waiting to be hired. +The first time I went up there, I could not conceive why the faces seemed +familiar to me; why they appeared to have beset me, for years, in every +possible variety of action and costume; and how it came to pass that +they started up before me, in Rome, in the broad day, like so many saddled +and bridled nightmares. I soon found that we had made acquaintance, +and improved it, for several years, on the walls of various Exhibition +Galleries. There is one old gentleman, with long white hair and +an immense beard, who, to my knowledge, has gone half through the catalogue +of the Royal Academy. This is the venerable, or patriarchal model. +He carries a long staff; and every knot and twist in that staff I have +seen, faithfully delineated, innumerable times. There is another +man in a blue cloak, who always pretends to be asleep in the sun (when +there is any), and who, I need not say, is always very wide awake, and +very attentive to the disposition of his legs. This is the <i>dolce +far’ niente</i> model. There is another man in a brown cloak, +who leans against a wall, with his arms folded in his mantle, and looks +out of the corners of his eyes: which are just visible beneath his broad +slouched hat. This is the assassin model. There is another +man, who constantly looks over his own shoulder, and is always going +away, but never does. This is the haughty, or scornful model. +As to Domestic Happiness, and Holy Families, they should come very cheap, +for there are lumps of them, all up the steps; and the cream of the +thing is, that they are all the falsest vagabonds in the world, especially +made up for the purpose, and having no counterparts in Rome or any other +part of the habitable globe.<br> +<br> +My recent mention of the Carnival, reminds me of its being said to be +a mock mourning (in the ceremony with which it closes), for the gaieties +and merry-makings before Lent; and this again reminds me of the real +funerals and mourning processions of Rome, which, like those in most +other parts of Italy, are rendered chiefly remarkable to a Foreigner, +by the indifference with which the mere clay is universally regarded, +after life has left it. And this is not from the survivors having +had time to dissociate the memory of the dead from their well-remembered +appearance and form on earth; for the interment follows too speedily +after death, for that: almost always taking place within four-and-twenty +hours, and, sometimes, within twelve.<br> +<br> +At Rome, there is the same arrangement of Pits in a great, bleak, open, +dreary space, that I have already described as existing in Genoa. +When I visited it, at noonday, I saw a solitary coffin of plain deal: +uncovered by any shroud or pall, and so slightly made, that the hoof +of any wandering mule would have crushed it in: carelessly tumbled down, +all on one side, on the door of one of the pits - and there left, by +itself, in the wind and sunshine. ‘How does it come to be +left here?’ I asked the man who showed me the place. ‘It +was brought here half an hour ago, Signore,’ he said. I +remembered to have met the procession, on its return: straggling away +at a good round pace. ‘When will it be put in the pit?’ +I asked him. ‘When the cart comes, and it is opened to-night,’ +he said. ‘How much does it cost to be brought here in this +way, instead of coming in the cart?’ I asked him. ‘Ten +scudi,’ he said (about two pounds, two-and-sixpence, English). +‘The other bodies, for whom nothing is paid, are taken to the +church of the Santa Maria della Consolázione,’ he continued, +‘and brought here altogether, in the cart at night.’ +I stood, a moment, looking at the coffin, which had two initial letters +scrawled upon the top; and turned away, with an expression in my face, +I suppose, of not much liking its exposure in that manner: for he said, +shrugging his shoulders with great vivacity, and giving a pleasant smile, +‘But he’s dead, Signore, he’s dead. Why not?’<br> +<br> +<br> +Among the innumerable churches, there is one I must select for separate +mention. It is the church of the Ara Coeli, supposed to be built +on the site of the old Temple of Jupiter Feretrius; and approached, +on one side, by a long steep flight of steps, which seem incomplete +without some group of bearded soothsayers on the top. It is remarkable +for the possession of a miraculous Bambíno, or wooden doll, representing +the Infant Saviour; and I first saw this miraculous Bambíno, +in legal phrase, in manner following, that is to say:<br> +<br> +We had strolled into the church one afternoon, and were looking down +its long vista of gloomy pillars (for all these ancient churches built +upon the ruins of old temples, are dark and sad), when the Brave came +running in, with a grin upon his face that stretched it from ear to +ear, and implored us to follow him, without a moment’s delay, +as they were going to show the Bambíno to a select party. +We accordingly hurried off to a sort of chapel, or sacristy, hard by +the chief altar, but not in the church itself, where the select party, +consisting of two or three Catholic gentlemen and ladies (not Italians), +were already assembled: and where one hollow-cheeked young monk was +lighting up divers candles, while another was putting on some clerical +robes over his coarse brown habit. The candles were on a kind +of altar, and above it were two delectable figures, such as you would +see at any English fair, representing the Holy Virgin, and Saint Joseph, +as I suppose, bending in devotion over a wooden box, or coffer; which +was shut.<br> +<br> +The hollow-cheeked monk, number One, having finished lighting the candles, +went down on his knees, in a corner, before this set-piece; and the +monk number Two, having put on a pair of highly ornamented and gold-bespattered +gloves, lifted down the coffer, with great reverence, and set it on +the altar. Then, with many genuflexions, and muttering certain +prayers, he opened it, and let down the front, and took off sundry coverings +of satin and lace from the inside. The ladies had been on their +knees from the commencement; and the gentlemen now dropped down devoutly, +as he exposed to view a little wooden doll, in face very like General +Tom Thumb, the American Dwarf: gorgeously dressed in satin and gold +lace, and actually blazing with rich jewels. There was scarcely +a spot upon its little breast, or neck, or stomach, but was sparkling +with the costly offerings of the Faithful. Presently, he lifted +it out of the box, and carrying it round among the kneelers, set its +face against the forehead of every one, and tendered its clumsy foot +to them to kiss - a ceremony which they all performed down to a dirty +little ragamuffin of a boy who had walked in from the street. +When this was done, he laid it in the box again: and the company, rising, +drew near, and commended the jewels in whispers. In good time, +he replaced the coverings, shut up the box, put it back in its place, +locked up the whole concern (Holy Family and all) behind a pair of folding-doors; +took off his priestly vestments; and received the customary ‘small +charge,’ while his companion, by means of an extinguisher fastened +to the end of a long stick, put out the lights, one after another. +The candles being all extinguished, and the money all collected, they +retired, and so did the spectators.<br> +<br> +I met this same Bambíno, in the street a short time afterwards, +going, in great state, to the house of some sick person. It is +taken to all parts of Rome for this purpose, constantly; but, I understand +that it is not always as successful as could be wished; for, making +its appearance at the bedside of weak and nervous people in extremity, +accompanied by a numerous escort, it not unfrequently frightens them +to death. It is most popular in cases of child-birth, where it +has done such wonders, that if a lady be longer than usual in getting +through her difficulties, a messenger is despatched, with all speed, +to solicit the immediate attendance of the Bambíno. It +is a very valuable property, and much confided in - especially by the +religious body to whom it belongs.<br> +<br> +I am happy to know that it is not considered immaculate, by some who +are good Catholics, and who are behind the scenes, from what was told +me by the near relation of a Priest, himself a Catholic, and a gentleman +of learning and intelligence. This Priest made my informant promise +that he would, on no account, allow the Bambíno to be borne into +the bedroom of a sick lady, in whom they were both interested. +‘For,’ said he, ‘if they (the monks) trouble her with +it, and intrude themselves into her room, it will certainly kill her.’ +My informant accordingly looked out of the window when it came; and, +with many thanks, declined to open the door. He endeavoured, in +another case of which he had no other knowledge than such as he gained +as a passer-by at the moment, to prevent its being carried into a small +unwholesome chamber, where a poor girl was dying. But, he strove +against it unsuccessfully, and she expired while the crowd were pressing +round her bed.<br> +<br> +Among the people who drop into St. Peter’s at their leisure, to +kneel on the pavement, and say a quiet prayer, there are certain schools +and seminaries, priestly and otherwise, that come in, twenty or thirty +strong. These boys always kneel down in single file, one behind +the other, with a tall grim master in a black gown, bringing up the +rear: like a pack of cards arranged to be tumbled down at a touch, with +a disproportionately large Knave of clubs at the end. When they +have had a minute or so at the chief altar, they scramble up, and filing +off to the chapel of the Madonna, or the sacrament, flop down again +in the same order; so that if anybody did stumble against the master, +a general and sudden overthrow of the whole line must inevitably ensue.<br> +<br> +The scene in all the churches is the strangest possible. The same +monotonous, heartless, drowsy chaunting, always going on; the same dark +building, darker from the brightness of the street without; the same +lamps dimly burning; the selfsame people kneeling here and there; turned +towards you, from one altar or other, the same priest’s back, +with the same large cross embroidered on it; however different in size, +in shape, in wealth, in architecture, this church is from that, it is +the same thing still. There are the same dirty beggars stopping +in their muttered prayers to beg; the same miserable cripples exhibiting +their deformity at the doors; the same blind men, rattling little pots +like kitchen pepper-castors: their depositories for alms; the same preposterous +crowns of silver stuck upon the painted heads of single saints and Virgins +in crowded pictures, so that a little figure on a mountain has a head-dress +bigger than the temple in the foreground, or adjacent miles of landscape; +the same favourite shrine or figure, smothered with little silver hearts +and crosses, and the like: the staple trade and show of all the jewellers; +the same odd mixture of respect and indecorum, faith and phlegm: kneeling +on the stones, and spitting on them, loudly; getting up from prayers +to beg a little, or to pursue some other worldly matter: and then kneeling +down again, to resume the contrite supplication at the point where it +was interrupted. In one church, a kneeling lady got up from her +prayer, for a moment, to offer us her card, as a teacher of Music; and +in another, a sedate gentleman with a very thick walking-staff, arose +from his devotions to belabour his dog, who was growling at another +dog: and whose yelps and howls resounded through the church, as his +master quietly relapsed into his former train of meditation - keeping +his eye upon the dog, at the same time, nevertheless.<br> +<br> +Above all, there is always a receptacle for the contributions of the +Faithful, in some form or other. Sometimes, it is a money-box, +set up between the worshipper, and the wooden life-size figure of the +Redeemer; sometimes, it is a little chest for the maintenance of the +Virgin; sometimes, an appeal on behalf of a popular Bambíno; +sometimes, a bag at the end of a long stick, thrust among the people +here and there, and vigilantly jingled by an active Sacristan; but there +it always is, and, very often, in many shapes in the same church, and +doing pretty well in all. Nor, is it wanting in the open air - +the streets and roads - for, often as you are walking along, thinking +about anything rather than a tin canister, that object pounces out upon +you from a little house by the wayside; and on its top is painted, ‘For +the Souls in Purgatory;’ an appeal which the bearer repeats a +great many times, as he rattles it before you, much as Punch rattles +the cracked bell which his sanguine disposition makes an organ of.<br> +<br> +And this reminds me that some Roman altars of peculiar sanctity, bear +the inscription, ‘Every Mass performed at this altar frees a soul +from Purgatory.’ I have never been able to find out the +charge for one of these services, but they should needs be expensive. +There are several Crosses in Rome too, the kissing of which, confers +indulgences for varying terms. That in the centre of the Coliseum, +is worth a hundred days; and people may be seen kissing it from morning +to night. It is curious that some of these crosses seem to acquire +an arbitrary popularity: this very one among them. In another +part of the Coliseum there is a cross upon a marble slab, with the inscription, +‘Who kisses this cross shall be entitled to Two hundred and forty +days’ indulgence.’ But I saw no one person kiss it, +though, day after day, I sat in the arena, and saw scores upon scores +of peasants pass it, on their way to kiss the other.<br> +<br> +To single out details from the great dream of Roman Churches, would +be the wildest occupation in the world. But St. Stefano Rotondo, +a damp, mildewed vault of an old church in the outskirts of Rome, will +always struggle uppermost in my mind, by reason of the hideous paintings +with which its walls are covered. These represent the martyrdoms +of saints and early Christians; and such a panorama of horror and butchery +no man could imagine in his sleep, though he were to eat a whole pig +raw, for supper. Grey-bearded men being boiled, fried, grilled, +crimped, singed, eaten by wild beasts, worried by dogs, buried alive, +torn asunder by horses, chopped up small with hatchets: women having +their breasts torn with iron pinchers, their tongues cut out, their +ears screwed off, their jaws broken, their bodies stretched upon the +rack, or skinned upon the stake, or crackled up and melted in the fire: +these are among the mildest subjects. So insisted on, and laboured +at, besides, that every sufferer gives you the same occasion for wonder +as poor old Duncan awoke, in Lady Macbeth, when she marvelled at his +having so much blood in him.<br> +<br> +There is an upper chamber in the Mamertine prisons, over what is said +to have been - and very possibly may have been - the dungeon of St. +Peter. This chamber is now fitted up as an oratory, dedicated +to that saint; and it lives, as a distinct and separate place, in my +recollection, too. It is very small and low-roofed; and the dread +and gloom of the ponderous, obdurate old prison are on it, as if they +had come up in a dark mist through the floor. Hanging on the walls, +among the clustered votive offerings, are objects, at once strangely +in keeping, and strangely at variance, with the place - rusty daggers, +knives, pistols, clubs, divers instruments of violence and murder, brought +here, fresh from use, and hung up to propitiate offended Heaven: as +if the blood upon them would drain off in consecrated air, and have +no voice to cry with. It is all so silent and so close, and tomb-like; +and the dungeons below are so black and stealthy, and stagnant, and +naked; that this little dark spot becomes a dream within a dream: and +in the vision of great churches which come rolling past me like a sea, +it is a small wave by itself, that melts into no other wave, and does +not flow on with the rest.<br> +<br> +It is an awful thing to think of the enormous caverns that are entered +from some Roman churches, and undermine the city. Many churches +have crypts and subterranean chapels of great size, which, in the ancient +time, were baths, and secret chambers of temples, and what not: but +I do not speak of them. Beneath the church of St. Giovanni and +St. Paolo, there are the jaws of a terrific range of caverns, hewn out +of the rock, and said to have another outlet underneath the Coliseum +- tremendous darknesses of vast extent, half-buried in the earth and +unexplorable, where the dull torches, flashed by the attendants, glimmer +down long ranges of distant vaults branching to the right and left, +like streets in a city of the dead; and show the cold damp stealing +down the walls, drip-drop, drip-drop, to join the pools of water that +lie here and there, and never saw, or never will see, one ray of the +sun. Some accounts make these the prisons of the wild beasts destined +for the amphitheatre; some the prisons of the condemned gladiators; +some, both. But the legend most appalling to the fancy is, that +in the upper range (for there are two stories of these caves) the Early +Christians destined to be eaten at the Coliseum Shows, heard the wild +beasts, hungry for them, roaring down below; until, upon the night and +solitude of their captivity, there burst the sudden noon and life of +the vast theatre crowded to the parapet, and of these, their dreaded +neighbours, bounding in!<br> +<br> +Below the church of San Sebastiano, two miles beyond the gate of San +Sebastiano, on the Appian Way, is the entrance to the catacombs of Rome +- quarries in the old time, but afterwards the hiding-places of the +Christians. These ghastly passages have been explored for twenty +miles; and form a chain of labyrinths, sixty miles in circumference.<br> +<br> +A gaunt Franciscan friar, with a wild bright eye, was our only guide, +down into this profound and dreadful place. The narrow ways and +openings hither and thither, coupled with the dead and heavy air, soon +blotted out, in all of us, any recollection of the track by which we +had come: and I could not help thinking ‘Good Heaven, if, in a +sudden fit of madness, he should dash the torches out, or if he should +be seized with a fit, what would become of us!’ On we wandered, +among martyrs’ graves: passing great subterranean vaulted roads, +diverging in all directions, and choked up with heaps of stones, that +thieves and murderers may not take refuge there, and form a population +under Rome, even worse than that which lives between it and the sun. +Graves, graves, graves; Graves of men, of women, of their little children, +who ran crying to the persecutors, ‘We are Christians! We +are Christians!’ that they might be murdered with their parents; +Graves with the palm of martyrdom roughly cut into their stone boundaries, +and little niches, made to hold a vessel of the martyrs’ blood; +Graves of some who lived down here, for years together, ministering +to the rest, and preaching truth, and hope, and comfort, from the rude +altars, that bear witness to their fortitude at this hour; more roomy +graves, but far more terrible, where hundreds, being surprised, were +hemmed in and walled up: buried before Death, and killed by slow starvation.<br> +<br> +‘The Triumphs of the Faith are not above ground in our splendid +churches,’ said the friar, looking round upon us, as we stopped +to rest in one of the low passages, with bones and dust surrounding +us on every side. ‘They are here! Among the Martyrs’ +Graves!’ He was a gentle, earnest man, and said it from +his heart; but when I thought how Christian men have dealt with one +another; how, perverting our most merciful religion, they have hunted +down and tortured, burnt and beheaded, strangled, slaughtered, and oppressed +each other; I pictured to myself an agony surpassing any that this Dust +had suffered with the breath of life yet lingering in it, and how these +great and constant hearts would have been shaken - how they would have +quailed and drooped - if a foreknowledge of the deeds that professing +Christians would commit in the Great Name for which they died, could +have rent them with its own unutterable anguish, on the cruel wheel, +and bitter cross, and in the fearful fire.<br> +<br> +Such are the spots and patches in my dream of churches, that remain +apart, and keep their separate identity. I have a fainter recollection, +sometimes of the relics; of the fragments of the pillar of the Temple +that was rent in twain; of the portion of the table that was spread +for the Last Supper; of the well at which the woman of Samaria gave +water to Our Saviour; of two columns from the house of Pontius Pilate; +of the stone to which the Sacred hands were bound, when the scourging +was performed; of the grid-iron of Saint Lawrence, and the stone below +it, marked with the frying of his fat and blood; these set a shadowy +mark on some cathedrals, as an old story, or a fable might, and stop +them for an instant, as they flit before me. The rest is a vast +wilderness of consecrated buildings of all shapes and fancies, blending +one with another; of battered pillars of old Pagan temples, dug up from +the ground, and forced, like giant captives, to support the roofs of +Christian churches; of pictures, bad, and wonderful, and impious, and +ridiculous; of kneeling people, curling incense, tinkling bells, and +sometimes (but not often) of a swelling organ: of Madonne, with their +breasts stuck full of swords, arranged in a half-circle like a modern +fan; of actual skeletons of dead saints, hideously attired in gaudy +satins, silks, and velvets trimmed with gold: their withered crust of +skull adorned with precious jewels, or with chaplets of crushed flowers; +sometimes of people gathered round the pulpit, and a monk within it +stretching out the crucifix, and preaching fiercely: the sun just streaming +down through some high window on the sail-cloth stretched above him +and across the church, to keep his high-pitched voice from being lost +among the echoes of the roof. Then my tired memory comes out upon +a flight of steps, where knots of people are asleep, or basking in the +light; and strolls away, among the rags, and smells, and palaces, and +hovels, of an old Italian street.<br> +<br> +<br> +On one Saturday morning (the eighth of March), a man was beheaded here. +Nine or ten months before, he had waylaid a Bavarian countess, travelling +as a pilgrim to Rome - alone and on foot, of course - and performing, +it is said, that act of piety for the fourth time. He saw her +change a piece of gold at Viterbo, where he lived; followed her; bore +her company on her journey for some forty miles or more, on the treacherous +pretext of protecting her; attacked her, in the fulfilment of his unrelenting +purpose, on the Campagna, within a very short distance of Rome, near +to what is called (but what is not) the Tomb of Nero; robbed her; and +beat her to death with her own pilgrim’s staff. He was newly +married, and gave some of her apparel to his wife: saying that he had +bought it at a fair. She, however, who had seen the pilgrim-countess +passing through their town, recognised some trifle as having belonged +to her. Her husband then told her what he had done. She, +in confession, told a priest; and the man was taken, within four days +after the commission of the murder.<br> +<br> +There are no fixed times for the administration of justice, or its execution, +in this unaccountable country; and he had been in prison ever since. +On the Friday, as he was dining with the other prisoners, they came +and told him he was to be beheaded next morning, and took him away. +It is very unusual to execute in Lent; but his crime being a very bad +one, it was deemed advisable to make an example of him at that time, +when great numbers of pilgrims were coming towards Rome, from all parts, +for the Holy Week. I heard of this on the Friday evening, and +saw the bills up at the churches, calling on the people to pray for +the criminal’s soul. So, I determined to go, and see him +executed.<br> +<br> +The beheading was appointed for fourteen and a-half o’clock, Roman +time: or a quarter before nine in the forenoon. I had two friends +with me; and as we did not know but that the crowd might be very great, +we were on the spot by half-past seven. The place of execution +was near the church of San Giovanni decolláto (a doubtful compliment +to Saint John the Baptist) in one of the impassable back streets without +any footway, of which a great part of Rome is composed - a street of +rotten houses, which do not seem to belong to anybody, and do not seem +to have ever been inhabited, and certainly were never built on any plan, +or for any particular purpose, and have no window-sashes, and are a +little like deserted breweries, and might be warehouses but for having +nothing in them. Opposite to one of these, a white house, the +scaffold was built. An untidy, unpainted, uncouth, crazy-looking +thing of course: some seven feet high, perhaps: with a tall, gallows-shaped +frame rising above it, in which was the knife, charged with a ponderous +mass of iron, all ready to descend, and glittering brightly in the morning +sun, whenever it looked out, now and then, from behind a cloud.<br> +<br> +There were not many people lingering about; and these were kept at a +considerable distance from the scaffold, by parties of the Pope’s +dragoons. Two or three hundred foot-soldiers were under arms, +standing at ease in clusters here and there; and the officers were walking +up and down in twos and threes, chatting together, and smoking cigars.<br> +<br> +At the end of the street, was an open space, where there would be a +dust-heap, and piles of broken crockery, and mounds of vegetable refuse, +but for such things being thrown anywhere and everywhere in Rome, and +favouring no particular sort of locality. We got into a kind of +wash-house, belonging to a dwelling-house on this spot; and standing +there in an old cart, and on a heap of cartwheels piled against the +wall, looked, through a large grated window, at the scaffold, and straight +down the street beyond it until, in consequence of its turning off abruptly +to the left, our perspective was brought to a sudden termination, and +had a corpulent officer, in a cocked hat, for its crowning feature.<br> +<br> +Nine o’clock struck, and ten o’clock struck, and nothing +happened. All the bells of all the churches rang as usual. +A little parliament of dogs assembled in the open space, and chased +each other, in and out among the soldiers. Fierce-looking Romans +of the lowest class, in blue cloaks, russet cloaks, and rags uncloaked, +came and went, and talked together. Women and children fluttered, +on the skirts of the scanty crowd. One large muddy spot was left +quite bare, like a bald place on a man’s head. A cigar-merchant, +with an earthen pot of charcoal ashes in one hand, went up and down, +crying his wares. A pastry-merchant divided his attention between +the scaffold and his customers. Boys tried to climb up walls, +and tumbled down again. Priests and monks elbowed a passage for +themselves among the people, and stood on tiptoe for a sight of the +knife: then went away. Artists, in inconceivable hats of the middle-ages, +and beards (thank Heaven!) of no age at all, flashed picturesque scowls +about them from their stations in the throng. One gentleman (connected +with the fine arts, I presume) went up and down in a pair of Hessian-boots, +with a red beard hanging down on his breast, and his long and bright +red hair, plaited into two tails, one on either side of his head, which +fell over his shoulders in front of him, very nearly to his waist, and +were carefully entwined and braided!<br> +<br> +Eleven o’clock struck and still nothing happened. A rumour +got about, among the crowd, that the criminal would not confess; in +which case, the priests would keep him until the Ave Maria (sunset); +for it is their merciful custom never finally to turn the crucifix away +from a man at that pass, as one refusing to be shriven, and consequently +a sinner abandoned of the Saviour, until then. People began to +drop off. The officers shrugged their shoulders and looked doubtful. +The dragoons, who came riding up below our window, every now and then, +to order an unlucky hackney-coach or cart away, as soon as it had comfortably +established itself, and was covered with exulting people (but never +before), became imperious, and quick-tempered. The bald place +hadn’t a straggling hair upon it; and the corpulent officer, crowning +the perspective, took a world of snuff.<br> +<br> +Suddenly, there was a noise of trumpets. ‘Attention!’ +was among the foot-soldiers instantly. They were marched up to +the scaffold and formed round it. The dragoons galloped to their +nearer stations too. The guillotine became the centre of a wood +of bristling bayonets and shining sabres. The people closed round +nearer, on the flank of the soldiery. A long straggling stream +of men and boys, who had accompanied the procession from the prison, +came pouring into the open space. The bald spot was scarcely distinguishable +from the rest. The cigar and pastry-merchants resigned all thoughts +of business, for the moment, and abandoning themselves wholly to pleasure, +got good situations in the crowd. The perspective ended, now, +in a troop of dragoons. And the corpulent officer, sword in hand, +looked hard at a church close to him, which he could see, but we, the +crowd, could not.<br> +<br> +After a short delay, some monks were seen approaching to the scaffold +from this church; and above their heads, coming on slowly and gloomily, +the effigy of Christ upon the cross, canopied with black. This +was carried round the foot of the scaffold, to the front, and turned +towards the criminal, that he might see it to the last. It was +hardly in its place, when he appeared on the platform, bare-footed; +his hands bound; and with the collar and neck of his shirt cut away, +almost to the shoulder. A young man - six-and-twenty - vigorously +made, and well-shaped. Face pale; small dark moustache; and dark +brown hair.<br> +<br> +He had refused to confess, it seemed, without first having his wife +brought to see him; and they had sent an escort for her, which had occasioned +the delay.<br> +<br> +He immediately kneeled down, below the knife. His neck fitting +into a hole, made for the purpose, in a cross plank, was shut down, +by another plank above; exactly like the pillory. Immediately +below him was a leathern bag. And into it his head rolled instantly.<br> +<br> +The executioner was holding it by the hair, and walking with it round +the scaffold, showing it to the people, before one quite knew that the +knife had fallen heavily, and with a rattling sound.<br> +<br> +When it had travelled round the four sides of the scaffold, it was set +upon a pole in front - a little patch of black and white, for the long +street to stare at, and the flies to settle on. The eyes were +turned upward, as if he had avoided the sight of the leathern bag, and +looked to the crucifix. Every tinge and hue of life had left it +in that instant. It was dull, cold, livid, wax. The body +also.<br> +<br> +There was a great deal of blood. When we left the window, and +went close up to the scaffold, it was very dirty; one of the two men +who were throwing water over it, turning to help the other lift the +body into a shell, picked his way as through mire. A strange appearance +was the apparent annihilation of the neck. The head was taken +off so close, that it seemed as if the knife had narrowly escaped crushing +the jaw, or shaving off the ear; and the body looked as if there were +nothing left above the shoulder.<br> +<br> +Nobody cared, or was at all affected. There was no manifestation +of disgust, or pity, or indignation, or sorrow. My empty pockets +were tried, several times, in the crowd immediately below the scaffold, +as the corpse was being put into its coffin. It was an ugly, filthy, +careless, sickening spectacle; meaning nothing but butchery beyond the +momentary interest, to the one wretched actor. Yes! Such +a sight has one meaning and one warning. Let me not forget it. +The speculators in the lottery, station themselves at favourable points +for counting the gouts of blood that spirt out, here or there; and buy +that number. It is pretty sure to have a run upon it.<br> +<br> +The body was carted away in due time, the knife cleansed, the scaffold +taken down, and all the hideous apparatus removed. The executioner: +an outlaw <i>ex officio</i> (what a satire on the Punishment!) who dare +not, for his life, cross the Bridge of St. Angelo but to do his work: +retreated to his lair, and the show was over.<br> +<br> +<br> +At the head of the collections in the palaces of Rome, the Vatican, +of course, with its treasures of art, its enormous galleries, and staircases, +and suites upon suites of immense chambers, ranks highest and stands +foremost. Many most noble statues, and wonderful pictures, are +there; nor is it heresy to say that there is a considerable amount of +rubbish there, too. When any old piece of sculpture dug out of +the ground, finds a place in a gallery because it is old, and without +any reference to its intrinsic merits: and finds admirers by the hundred, +because it is there, and for no other reason on earth: there will be +no lack of objects, very indifferent in the plain eyesight of any one +who employs so vulgar a property, when he may wear the spectacles of +Cant for less than nothing, and establish himself as a man of taste +for the mere trouble of putting them on.<br> +<br> +I unreservedly confess, for myself, that I cannot leave my natural perception +of what is natural and true, at a palace-door, in Italy or elsewhere, +as I should leave my shoes if I were travelling in the East. I +cannot forget that there are certain expressions of face, natural to +certain passions, and as unchangeable in their nature as the gait of +a lion, or the flight of an eagle. I cannot dismiss from my certain +knowledge, such commonplace facts as the ordinary proportion of men’s +arms, and legs, and heads; and when I meet with performances that do +violence to these experiences and recollections, no matter where they +may be, I cannot honestly admire them, and think it best to say so; +in spite of high critical advice that we should sometimes feign an admiration, +though we have it not.<br> +<br> +Therefore, I freely acknowledge that when I see a jolly young Waterman +representing a cherubim, or a Barclay and Perkins’s Drayman depicted +as an Evangelist, I see nothing to commend or admire in the performance, +however great its reputed Painter. Neither am I partial to libellous +Angels, who play on fiddles and bassoons, for the edification of sprawling +monks apparently in liquor. Nor to those Monsieur Tonsons of galleries, +Saint Francis and Saint Sebastian; both of whom I submit should have +very uncommon and rare merits, as works of art, to justify their compound +multiplication by Italian Painters.<br> +<br> +It seems to me, too, that the indiscriminate and determined raptures +in which some critics indulge, is incompatible with the true appreciation +of the really great and transcendent works. I cannot imagine, +for example, how the resolute champion of undeserving pictures can soar +to the amazing beauty of Titian’s great picture of the Assumption +of the Virgin at Venice; or how the man who is truly affected by the +sublimity of that exquisite production, or who is truly sensible of +the beauty of Tintoretto’s great picture of the Assembly of the +Blessed in the same place, can discern in Michael Angelo’s Last +Judgment, in the Sistine chapel, any general idea, or one pervading +thought, in harmony with the stupendous subject. He who will contemplate +Raphael’s masterpiece, the Transfiguration, and will go away into +another chamber of that same Vatican, and contemplate another design +of Raphael, representing (in incredible caricature) the miraculous stopping +of a great fire by Leo the Fourth - and who will say that he admires +them both, as works of extraordinary genius - must, as I think, be wanting +in his powers of perception in one of the two instances, and, probably, +in the high and lofty one.<br> +<br> +It is easy to suggest a doubt, but I have a great doubt whether, sometimes, +the rules of art are not too strictly observed, and whether it is quite +well or agreeable that we should know beforehand, where this figure +will be turning round, and where that figure will be lying down, and +where there will be drapery in folds, and so forth. When I observe +heads inferior to the subject, in pictures of merit, in Italian galleries, +I do not attach that reproach to the Painter, for I have a suspicion +that these great men, who were, of necessity, very much in the hands +of monks and priests, painted monks and priests a great deal too often. +I frequently see, in pictures of real power, heads quite below the story +and the painter: and I invariably observe that those heads are of the +Convent stamp, and have their counterparts among the Convent inmates +of this hour; so, I have settled with myself that, in such cases, the +lameness was not with the painter, but with the vanity and ignorance +of certain of his employers, who would be apostles - on canvas, at all +events.<br> +<br> +The exquisite grace and beauty of Canova’s statues; the wonderful +gravity and repose of many of the ancient works in sculpture, both in +the Capitol and the Vatican; and the strength and fire of many others; +are, in their different ways, beyond all reach of words. They +are especially impressive and delightful, after the works of Bernini +and his disciples, in which the churches of Rome, from St. Peter’s +downward, abound; and which are, I verily believe, the most detestable +class of productions in the wide world. I would infinitely rather +(as mere works of art) look upon the three deities of the Past, the +Present, and the Future, in the Chinese Collection, than upon the best +of these breezy maniacs; whose every fold of drapery is blown inside-out; +whose smallest vein, or artery, is as big as an ordinary forefinger; +whose hair is like a nest of lively snakes; and whose attitudes put +all other extravagance to shame. Insomuch that I do honestly believe, +there can be no place in the world, where such intolerable abortions, +begotten of the sculptor’s chisel, are to be found in such profusion, +as in Rome.<br> +<br> +There is a fine collection of Egyptian antiquities, in the Vatican; +and the ceilings of the rooms in which they are arranged, are painted +to represent a starlight sky in the Desert. It may seem an odd +idea, but it is very effective. The grim, half-human monsters +from the temples, look more grim and monstrous underneath the deep dark +blue; it sheds a strange uncertain gloomy air on everything - a mystery +adapted to the objects; and you leave them, as you find them, shrouded +in a solemn night.<br> +<br> +In the private palaces, pictures are seen to the best advantage. +There are seldom so many in one place that the attention need become +distracted, or the eye confused. You see them very leisurely; +and are rarely interrupted by a crowd of people. There are portraits +innumerable, by Titian, and Rembrandt, and Vandyke; heads by Guido, +and Domenichino, and Carlo Dolci; various subjects by Correggio, and +Murillo, and Raphael, and Salvator Rosa, and Spagnoletto - many of which +it would be difficult, indeed, to praise too highly, or to praise enough; +such is their tenderness and grace; their noble elevation, purity, and +beauty.<br> +<br> +The portrait of Beatrice di Cenci, in the Palazzo Berberini, is a picture +almost impossible to be forgotten. Through the transcendent sweetness +and beauty of the face, there is a something shining out, that haunts +me. I see it now, as I see this paper, or my pen. The head +is loosely draped in white; the light hair falling down below the linen +folds. She has turned suddenly towards you; and there is an expression +in the eyes - although they are very tender and gentle - as if the wildness +of a momentary terror, or distraction, had been struggled with and overcome, +that instant; and nothing but a celestial hope, and a beautiful sorrow, +and a desolate earthly helplessness remained. Some stories say +that Guido painted it, the night before her execution; some other stories, +that he painted it from memory, after having seen her, on her way to +the scaffold. I am willing to believe that, as you see her on +his canvas, so she turned towards him, in the crowd, from the first +sight of the axe, and stamped upon his mind a look which he has stamped +on mine as though I had stood beside him in the concourse. The +guilty palace of the Cenci: blighting a whole quarter of the town, as +it stands withering away by grains: had that face, to my fancy, in its +dismal porch, and at its black, blind windows, and flitting up and down +its dreary stairs, and growing out of the darkness of the ghostly galleries. +The History is written in the Painting; written, in the dying girl’s +face, by Nature’s own hand. And oh! how in that one touch +she puts to flight (instead of making kin) the puny world that claim +to be related to her, in right of poor conventional forgeries!<br> +<br> +I saw in the Palazzo Spada, the statue of Pompey; the statue at whose +base Caesar fell. A stern, tremendous figure! I imagined +one of greater finish: of the last refinement: full of delicate touches: +losing its distinctness, in the giddy eyes of one whose blood was ebbing +before it, and settling into some such rigid majesty as this, as Death +came creeping over the upturned face.<br> +<br> +The excursions in the neighbourhood of Rome are charming, and would +be full of interest were it only for the changing views they afford, +of the wild Campagna. But, every inch of ground, in every direction, +is rich in associations, and in natural beauties. There is Albano, +with its lovely lake and wooded shore, and with its wine, that certainly +has not improved since the days of Horace, and in these times hardly +justifies his panegyric. There is squalid Tivoli, with the river +Anio, diverted from its course, and plunging down, headlong, some eighty +feet in search of it. With its picturesque Temple of the Sibyl, +perched high on a crag; its minor waterfalls glancing and sparkling +in the sun; and one good cavern yawning darkly, where the river takes +a fearful plunge and shoots on, low down under beetling rocks. +There, too, is the Villa d’Este, deserted and decaying among groves +of melancholy pine and cypress trees, where it seems to lie in state. +Then, there is Frascati, and, on the steep above it, the ruins of Tusculum, +where Cicero lived, and wrote, and adorned his favourite house (some +fragments of it may yet be seen there), and where Cato was born. +We saw its ruined amphitheatre on a grey, dull day, when a shrill March +wind was blowing, and when the scattered stones of the old city lay +strewn about the lonely eminence, as desolate and dead as the ashes +of a long extinguished fire.<br> +<br> +One day we walked out, a little party of three, to Albano, fourteen +miles distant; possessed by a great desire to go there by the ancient +Appian way, long since ruined and overgrown. We started at half-past +seven in the morning, and within an hour or so were out upon the open +Campagna. For twelve miles we went climbing on, over an unbroken +succession of mounds, and heaps, and hills, of ruin. Tombs and +temples, overthrown and prostrate; small fragments of columns, friezes, +pediments; great blocks of granite and marble; mouldering arches, grass-grown +and decayed; ruin enough to build a spacious city from; lay strewn about +us. Sometimes, loose walls, built up from these fragments by the +shepherds, came across our path; sometimes, a ditch between two mounds +of broken stones, obstructed our progress; sometimes, the fragments +themselves, rolling from beneath our feet, made it a toilsome matter +to advance; but it was always ruin. Now, we tracked a piece of +the old road, above the ground; now traced it, underneath a grassy covering, +as if that were its grave; but all the way was ruin. In the distance, +ruined aqueducts went stalking on their giant course along the plain; +and every breath of wind that swept towards us, stirred early flowers +and grasses, springing up, spontaneously, on miles of ruin. The +unseen larks above us, who alone disturbed the awful silence, had their +nests in ruin; and the fierce herdsmen, clad in sheepskins, who now +and then scowled out upon us from their sleeping nooks, were housed +in ruin. The aspect of the desolate Campagna in one direction, +where it was most level, reminded me of an American prairie; but what +is the solitude of a region where men have never dwelt, to that of a +Desert, where a mighty race have left their footprints in the earth +from which they have vanished; where the resting-places of their Dead, +have fallen like their Dead; and the broken hour-glass of Time is but +a heap of idle dust! Returning, by the road, at sunset! and looking, +from the distance, on the course we had taken in the morning, I almost +feel (as I had felt when I first saw it, at that hour) as if the sun +would never rise again, but looked its last, that night, upon a ruined +world.<br> +<br> +To come again on Rome, by moonlight, after such an expedition, is a +fitting close to such a day. The narrow streets, devoid of footways, +and choked, in every obscure corner, by heaps of dunghill-rubbish, contrast +so strongly, in their cramped dimensions, and their filth, and darkness, +with the broad square before some haughty church: in the centre of which, +a hieroglyphic-covered obelisk, brought from Egypt in the days of the +Emperors, looks strangely on the foreign scene about it; or perhaps +an ancient pillar, with its honoured statue overthrown, supports a Christian +saint: Marcus Aurelius giving place to Paul, and Trajan to St. Peter. +Then, there are the ponderous buildings reared from the spoliation of +the Coliseum, shutting out the moon, like mountains: while here and +there, are broken arches and rent walls, through which it gushes freely, +as the life comes pouring from a wound. The little town of miserable +houses, walled, and shut in by barred gates, is the quarter where the +Jews are locked up nightly, when the clock strikes eight - a miserable +place, densely populated, and reeking with bad odours, but where the +people are industrious and money-getting. In the day-time, as +you make your way along the narrow streets, you see them all at work: +upon the pavement, oftener than in their dark and frouzy shops: furbishing +old clothes, and driving bargains.<br> +<br> +Crossing from these patches of thick darkness, out into the moon once +more, the fountain of Trevi, welling from a hundred jets, and rolling +over mimic rocks, is silvery to the eye and ear. In the narrow +little throat of street, beyond, a booth, dressed out with flaring lamps, +and boughs of trees, attracts a group of sulky Romans round its smoky +coppers of hot broth, and cauliflower stew; its trays of fried fish, +and its flasks of wine. As you rattle round the sharply-twisting +corner, a lumbering sound is heard. The coachman stops abruptly, +and uncovers, as a van comes slowly by, preceded by a man who bears +a large cross; by a torch-bearer; and a priest: the latter chaunting +as he goes. It is the Dead Cart, with the bodies of the poor, +on their way to burial in the Sacred Field outside the walls, where +they will be thrown into the pit that will be covered with a stone to-night, +and sealed up for a year.<br> +<br> +But whether, in this ride, you pass by obelisks, or columns ancient +temples, theatres, houses, porticoes, or forums: it is strange to see, +how every fragment, whenever it is possible, has been blended into some +modern structure, and made to serve some modern purpose - a wall, a +dwelling-place, a granary, a stable - some use for which it never was +designed, and associated with which it cannot otherwise than lamely +assort. It is stranger still, to see how many ruins of the old +mythology: how many fragments of obsolete legend and observance: have +been incorporated into the worship of Christian altars here; and how, +in numberless respects, the false faith and the true are fused into +a monstrous union.<br> +<br> +From one part of the city, looking out beyond the walls, a squat and +stunted pyramid (the burial-place of Caius Cestius) makes an opaque +triangle in the moonlight. But, to an English traveller, it serves +to mark the grave of Shelley too, whose ashes lie beneath a little garden +near it. Nearer still, almost within its shadow, lie the bones +of Keats, ‘whose name is writ in water,’ that shines brightly +in the landscape of a calm Italian night.<br> +<br> +The Holy Week in Rome is supposed to offer great attractions to all +visitors; but, saving for the sights of Easter Sunday, I would counsel +those who go to Rome for its own interest, to avoid it at that time. +The ceremonies, in general, are of the most tedious and wearisome kind; +the heat and crowd at every one of them, painfully oppressive; the noise, +hubbub, and confusion, quite distracting. We abandoned the pursuit +of these shows, very early in the proceedings, and betook ourselves +to the Ruins again. But, we plunged into the crowd for a share +of the best of the sights; and what we saw, I will describe to you.<br> +<br> +At the Sistine chapel, on the Wednesday, we saw very little, for by +the time we reached it (though we were early) the besieging crowd had +filled it to the door, and overflowed into the adjoining hall, where +they were struggling, and squeezing, and mutually expostulating, and +making great rushes every time a lady was brought out faint, as if at +least fifty people could be accommodated in her vacant standing-room. +Hanging in the doorway of the chapel, was a heavy curtain, and this +curtain, some twenty people nearest to it, in their anxiety to hear +the chaunting of the Miserere, were continually plucking at, in opposition +to each other, that it might not fall down and stifle the sound of the +voices. The consequence was, that it occasioned the most extraordinary +confusion, and seemed to wind itself about the unwary, like a Serpent. +Now, a lady was wrapped up in it, and couldn’t be unwound. +Now, the voice of a stifling gentleman was heard inside it, beseeching +to be let out. Now, two muffled arms, no man could say of which +sex, struggled in it as in a sack. Now, it was carried by a rush, +bodily overhead into the chapel, like an awning. Now, it came +out the other way, and blinded one of the Pope’s Swiss Guard, +who had arrived, that moment, to set things to rights.<br> +<br> +Being seated at a little distance, among two or three of the Pope’s +gentlemen, who were very weary and counting the minutes - as perhaps +his Holiness was too - we had better opportunities of observing this +eccentric entertainment, than of hearing the Miserere. Sometimes, +there was a swell of mournful voices that sounded very pathetic and +sad, and died away, into a low strain again; but that was all we heard.<br> +<br> +At another time, there was the Exhibition of Relics in St. Peter’s, +which took place at between six and seven o’clock in the evening, +and was striking from the cathedral being dark and gloomy, and having +a great many people in it. The place into which the relics were +brought, one by one, by a party of three priests, was a high balcony +near the chief altar. This was the only lighted part of the church. +There are always a hundred and twelve lamps burning near the altar, +and there were two tall tapers, besides, near the black statue of St. +Peter; but these were nothing in such an immense edifice. The +gloom, and the general upturning of faces to the balcony, and the prostration +of true believers on the pavement, as shining objects, like pictures +or looking-glasses, were brought out and shown, had something effective +in it, despite the very preposterous manner in which they were held +up for the general edification, and the great elevation at which they +were displayed; which one would think rather calculated to diminish +the comfort derivable from a full conviction of their being genuine.<br> +<br> +On the Thursday, we went to see the Pope convey the Sacrament from the +Sistine chapel, to deposit it in the Capella Paolina, another chapel +in the Vatican; - a ceremony emblematical of the entombment of the Saviour +before His Resurrection. We waited in a great gallery with a great +crowd of people (three-fourths of them English) for an hour or so, while +they were chaunting the Miserere, in the Sistine chapel again. +Both chapels opened out of the gallery; and the general attention was +concentrated on the occasional opening and shutting of the door of the +one for which the Pope was ultimately bound. None of these openings +disclosed anything more tremendous than a man on a ladder, lighting +a great quantity of candles; but at each and every opening, there was +a terrific rush made at this ladder and this man, something like (I +should think) a charge of the heavy British cavalry at Waterloo. +The man was never brought down, however, nor the ladder; for it performed +the strangest antics in the world among the crowd - where it was carried +by the man, when the candles were all lighted; and finally it was stuck +up against the gallery wall, in a very disorderly manner, just before +the opening of the other chapel, and the commencement of a new chaunt, +announced the approach of his Holiness. At this crisis, the soldiers +of the guard, who had been poking the crowd into all sorts of shapes, +formed down the gallery: and the procession came up, between the two +lines they made.<br> +<br> +There were a few choristers, and then a great many priests, walking +two and two, and carrying - the good-looking priests at least - their +lighted tapers, so as to throw the light with a good effect upon their +faces: for the room was darkened. Those who were not handsome, +or who had not long beards, carried <i>their</i> tapers anyhow, and +abandoned themselves to spiritual contemplation. Meanwhile, the +chaunting was very monotonous and dreary. The procession passed +on, slowly, into the chapel, and the drone of voices went on, and came +on, with it, until the Pope himself appeared, walking under a white +satin canopy, and bearing the covered Sacrament in both hands; cardinals +and canons clustered round him, making a brilliant show. The soldiers +of the guard knelt down as he passed; all the bystanders bowed; and +so he passed on into the chapel: the white satin canopy being removed +from over him at the door, and a white satin parasol hoisted over his +poor old head, in place of it. A few more couples brought up the +rear, and passed into the chapel also. Then, the chapel door was +shut; and it was all over; and everybody hurried off headlong, as for +life or death, to see something else, and say it wasn’t worth +the trouble.<br> +<br> +I think the most popular and most crowded sight (excepting those of +Easter Sunday and Monday, which are open to all classes of people) was +the Pope washing the feet of Thirteen men, representing the twelve apostles, +and Judas Iscariot. The place in which this pious office is performed, +is one of the chapels of St. Peter’s, which is gaily decorated +for the occasion; the thirteen sitting, ‘all of a row,’ +on a very high bench, and looking particularly uncomfortable, with the +eyes of Heaven knows how many English, French, Americans, Swiss, Germans, +Russians, Swedes, Norwegians, and other foreigners, nailed to their +faces all the time. They are robed in white; and on their heads +they wear a stiff white cap, like a large English porter-pot, without +a handle. Each carries in his hand, a nosegay, of the size of +a fine cauliflower; and two of them, on this occasion, wore spectacles; +which, remembering the characters they sustained, I thought a droll +appendage to the costume. There was a great eye to character. +St. John was represented by a good-looking young man. St. Peter, +by a grave-looking old gentleman, with a flowing brown beard; and Judas +Iscariot by such an enormous hypocrite (I could not make out, though, +whether the expression of his face was real or assumed) that if he had +acted the part to the death and had gone away and hanged himself, he +would have left nothing to be desired.<br> +<br> +As the two large boxes, appropriated to ladies at this sight, were full +to the throat, and getting near was hopeless, we posted off, along with +a great crowd, to be in time at the Table, where the Pope, in person, +waits on these Thirteen; and after a prodigious struggle at the Vatican +staircase, and several personal conflicts with the Swiss guard, the +whole crowd swept into the room. It was a long gallery hung with +drapery of white and red, with another great box for ladies (who are +obliged to dress in black at these ceremonies, and to wear black veils), +a royal box for the King of Naples and his party; and the table itself, +which, set out like a ball supper, and ornamented with golden figures +of the real apostles, was arranged on an elevated platform on one side +of the gallery. The counterfeit apostles’ knives and forks +were laid out on that side of the table which was nearest to the wall, +so that they might be stared at again, without let or hindrance.<br> +<br> +The body of the room was full of male strangers; the crowd immense; +the heat very great; and the pressure sometimes frightful. It +was at its height, when the stream came pouring in, from the feet-washing; +and then there were such shrieks and outcries, that a party of Piedmontese +dragoons went to the rescue of the Swiss guard, and helped them to calm +the tumult.<br> +<br> +The ladies were particularly ferocious, in their struggles for places. +One lady of my acquaintance was seized round the waist, in the ladies’ +box, by a strong matron, and hoisted out of her place; and there was +another lady (in a back row in the same box) who improved her position +by sticking a large pin into the ladies before her.<br> +<br> +The gentlemen about me were remarkably anxious to see what was on the +table; and one Englishman seemed to have embarked the whole energy of +his nature in the determination to discover whether there was any mustard. +‘By Jupiter there’s vinegar!’ I heard him say to his +friend, after he had stood on tiptoe an immense time, and had been crushed +and beaten on all sides. ‘And there’s oil! I +saw them distinctly, in cruets! Can any gentleman, in front there, +see mustard on the table? Sir, will you oblige me! <i>Do</i> +you see a Mustard-Pot?’<br> +<br> +The apostles and Judas appearing on the platform, after much expectation, +were marshalled, in line, in front of the table, with Peter at the top; +and a good long stare was taken at them by the company, while twelve +of them took a long smell at their nosegays, and Judas - moving his +lips very obtrusively - engaged in inward prayer. Then, the Pope, +clad in a scarlet robe, and wearing on his head a skull-cap of white +satin, appeared in the midst of a crowd of Cardinals and other dignitaries, +and took in his hand a little golden ewer, from which he poured a little +water over one of Peter’s hands, while one attendant held a golden +basin; a second, a fine cloth; a third, Peter’s nosegay, which +was taken from him during the operation. This his Holiness performed, +with considerable expedition, on every man in the line (Judas, I observed, +to be particularly overcome by his condescension); and then the whole +Thirteen sat down to dinner. Grace said by the Pope. Peter +in the chair.<br> +<br> +There was white wine, and red wine: and the dinner looked very good. +The courses appeared in portions, one for each apostle: and these being +presented to the Pope, by Cardinals upon their knees, were by him handed +to the Thirteen. The manner in which Judas grew more white-livered +over his victuals, and languished, with his head on one side, as if +he had no appetite, defies all description. Peter was a good, +sound, old man, and went in, as the saying is, ‘to win;’ +eating everything that was given him (he got the best: being first in +the row) and saying nothing to anybody. The dishes appeared to +be chiefly composed of fish and vegetables. The Pope helped the +Thirteen to wine also; and, during the whole dinner, somebody read something +aloud, out of a large book - the Bible, I presume - which nobody could +hear, and to which nobody paid the least attention. The Cardinals, +and other attendants, smiled to each other, from time to time, as if +the thing were a great farce; and if they thought so, there is little +doubt they were perfectly right. His Holiness did what he had +to do, as a sensible man gets through a troublesome ceremony, and seemed +very glad when it was all over.<br> +<br> +The Pilgrims’ Suppers: where lords and ladies waited on the Pilgrims, +in token of humility, and dried their feet when they had been well washed +by deputy: were very attractive. But, of all the many spectacles +of dangerous reliance on outward observances, in themselves mere empty +forms, none struck me half so much as the Scala Santa, or Holy Staircase, +which I saw several times, but to the greatest advantage, or disadvantage, +on Good Friday.<br> +<br> +This holy staircase is composed of eight-and-twenty steps, said to have +belonged to Pontius Pilate’s house and to be the identical stair +on which Our Saviour trod, in coming down from the judgment-seat. +Pilgrims ascend it, only on their knees. It is steep; and, at +the summit, is a chapel, reported to be full of relics; into which they +peep through some iron bars, and then come down again, by one of two +side staircases, which are not sacred, and may be walked on.<br> +<br> +On Good Friday, there were, on a moderate computation, a hundred people, +slowly shuffling up these stairs, on their knees, at one time; while +others, who were going up, or had come down - and a few who had done +both, and were going up again for the second time - stood loitering +in the porch below, where an old gentleman in a sort of watch-box, rattled +a tin canister, with a slit in the top, incessantly, to remind them +that he took the money. The majority were country-people, male +and female. There were four or five Jesuit priests, however, and +some half-dozen well-dressed women. A whole school of boys, twenty +at least, were about half-way up - evidently enjoying it very much. +They were all wedged together, pretty closely; but the rest of the company +gave the boys as wide a berth as possible, in consequence of their betraying +some recklessness in the management of their boots.<br> +<br> +I never, in my life, saw anything at once so ridiculous, and so unpleasant, +as this sight - ridiculous in the absurd incidents inseparable from +it; and unpleasant in its senseless and unmeaning degradation. +There are two steps to begin with, and then a rather broad landing. +The more rigid climbers went along this landing on their knees, as well +as up the stairs; and the figures they cut, in their shuffling progress +over the level surface, no description can paint. Then, to see +them watch their opportunity from the porch, and cut in where there +was a place next the wall! And to see one man with an umbrella +(brought on purpose, for it was a fine day) hoisting himself, unlawfully, +from stair to stair! And to observe a demure lady of fifty-five +or so, looking back, every now and then, to assure herself that her +legs were properly disposed!<br> +<br> +There were such odd differences in the speed of different people, too. +Some got on as if they were doing a match against time; others stopped +to say a prayer on every step. This man touched every stair with +his forehead, and kissed it; that man scratched his head all the way. +The boys got on brilliantly, and were up and down again before the old +lady had accomplished her half-dozen stairs. But most of the penitents +came down, very sprightly and fresh, as having done a real good substantial +deed which it would take a good deal of sin to counterbalance; and the +old gentleman in the watch-box was down upon them with his canister +while they were in this humour, I promise you.<br> +<br> +As if such a progress were not in its nature inevitably droll enough, +there lay, on the top of the stairs, a wooden figure on a crucifix, +resting on a sort of great iron saucer: so rickety and unsteady, that +whenever an enthusiastic person kissed the figure, with more than usual +devotion, or threw a coin into the saucer, with more than common readiness +(for it served in this respect as a second or supplementary canister), +it gave a great leap and rattle, and nearly shook the attendant lamp +out: horribly frightening the people further down, and throwing the +guilty party into unspeakable embarrassment.<br> +<br> +On Easter Sunday, as well as on the preceding Thursday, the Pope bestows +his benediction on the people, from the balcony in front of St. Peter’s. +This Easter Sunday was a day so bright and blue: so cloudless, balmy, +wonderfully bright: that all the previous bad weather vanished from +the recollection in a moment. I had seen the Thursday’s +Benediction dropping damply on some hundreds of umbrellas, but there +was not a sparkle then, in all the hundred fountains of Rome - such +fountains as they are! - and on this Sunday morning they were running +diamonds. The miles of miserable streets through which we drove +(compelled to a certain course by the Pope’s dragoons: the Roman +police on such occasions) were so full of colour, that nothing in them +was capable of wearing a faded aspect. The common people came +out in their gayest dresses; the richer people in their smartest vehicles; +Cardinals rattled to the church of the Poor Fishermen in their state +carriages; shabby magnificence flaunted its thread-bare liveries and +tarnished cocked hats, in the sun; and every coach in Rome was put in +requisition for the Great Piazza of St. Peter’s.<br> +<br> +One hundred and fifty thousand people were there at least! Yet +there was ample room. How many carriages were there, I don’t +know; yet there was room for them too, and to spare. The great +steps of the church were densely crowded. There were many of the +Contadini, from Albano (who delight in red), in that part of the square, +and the mingling of bright colours in the crowd was beautiful. +Below the steps the troops were ranged. In the magnificent proportions +of the place they looked like a bed of flowers. Sulky Romans, +lively peasants from the neighbouring country, groups of pilgrims from +distant parts of Italy, sight-seeing foreigners of all nations, made +a murmur in the clear air, like so many insects; and high above them +all, plashing and bubbling, and making rainbow colours in the light, +the two delicious fountains welled and tumbled bountifully.<br> +<br> +A kind of bright carpet was hung over the front of the balcony; and +the sides of the great window were bedecked with crimson drapery. +An awning was stretched, too, over the top, to screen the old man from +the hot rays of the sun. As noon approached, all eyes were turned +up to this window. In due time, the chair was seen approaching +to the front, with the gigantic fans of peacock’s feathers, close +behind. The doll within it (for the balcony is very high) then +rose up, and stretched out its tiny arms, while all the male spectators +in the square uncovered, and some, but not by any means the greater +part, kneeled down. The guns upon the ramparts of the Castle of +St. Angelo proclaimed, next moment, that the benediction was given; +drums beat; trumpets sounded; arms clashed; and the great mass below, +suddenly breaking into smaller heaps, and scattering here and there +in rills, was stirred like parti-coloured sand.<br> +<br> +What a bright noon it was, as we rode away! The Tiber was no longer +yellow, but blue. There was a blush on the old bridges, that made +them fresh and hale again. The Pantheon, with its majestic front, +all seamed and furrowed like an old face, had summer light upon its +battered walls. Every squalid and desolate hut in the Eternal +City (bear witness every grim old palace, to the filth and misery of +the plebeian neighbour that elbows it, as certain as Time has laid its +grip on its patrician head!) was fresh and new with some ray of the +sun. The very prison in the crowded street, a whirl of carriages +and people, had some stray sense of the day, dropping through its chinks +and crevices: and dismal prisoners who could not wind their faces round +the barricading of the blocked-up windows, stretched out their hands, +and clinging to the rusty bars, turned <i>them</i> towards the overflowing +street: as if it were a cheerful fire, and could be shared in, that +way.<br> +<br> +But, when the night came on, without a cloud to dim the full moon, what +a sight it was to see the Great Square full once more, and the whole +church, from the cross to the ground, lighted with innumerable lanterns, +tracing out the architecture, and winking and shining all round the +colonnade of the piazza! And what a sense of exultation, joy, +delight, it was, when the great bell struck half-past seven - on the +instant - to behold one bright red mass of fire, soar gallantly from +the top of the cupola to the extremest summit of the cross, and the +moment it leaped into its place, become the signal of a bursting out +of countless lights, as great, and red, and blazing as itself, from +every part of the gigantic church; so that every cornice, capital, and +smallest ornament of stone, expressed itself in fire: and the black, +solid groundwork of the enormous dome seemed to grow transparent as +an egg-shell!<br> +<br> +A train of gunpowder, an electric chain - nothing could be fired, more +suddenly and swiftly, than this second illumination; and when we had +got away, and gone upon a distant height, and looked towards it two +hours afterwards, there it still stood, shining and glittering in the +calm night like a jewel! Not a line of its proportions wanting; +not an angle blunted; not an atom of its radiance lost.<br> +<br> +The next night - Easter Monday - there was a great display of fireworks +from the Castle of St. Angelo. We hired a room in an opposite +house, and made our way, to our places, in good time, through a dense +mob of people choking up the square in front, and all the avenues leading +to it; and so loading the bridge by which the castle is approached, +that it seemed ready to sink into the rapid Tiber below. There +are statues on this bridge (execrable works), and, among them, great +vessels full of burning tow were placed: glaring strangely on the faces +of the crowd, and not less strangely on the stone counterfeits above +them.<br> +<br> +The show began with a tremendous discharge of cannon; and then, for +twenty minutes or half an hour, the whole castle was one incessant sheet +of fire, and labyrinth of blazing wheels of every colour, size, and +speed: while rockets streamed into the sky, not by ones or twos, or +scores, but hundreds at a time. The concluding burst - the Girandola +- was like the blowing up into the air of the whole massive castle, +without smoke or dust.<br> +<br> +In half an hour afterwards, the immense concourse had dispersed; the +moon was looking calmly down upon her wrinkled image in the river; and +half-a-dozen men and boys, with bits of lighted candle in their hands: +moving here and there, in search of anything worth having, that might +have been dropped in the press: had the whole scene to themselves.<br> +<br> +By way of contrast we rode out into old ruined Rome, after all this +firing and booming, to take our leave of the Coliseum. I had seen +it by moonlight before (I could never get through a day without going +back to it), but its tremendous solitude that night is past all telling. +The ghostly pillars in the Forum; the Triumphal Arches of Old Emperors; +those enormous masses of ruins which were once their palaces; the grass-grown +mounds that mark the graves of ruined temples; the stones of the Via +Sacra, smooth with the tread of feet in ancient Rome; even these were +dimmed, in their transcendent melancholy, by the dark ghost of its bloody +holidays, erect and grim; haunting the old scene; despoiled by pillaging +Popes and fighting Princes, but not laid; wringing wild hands of weed, +and grass, and bramble; and lamenting to the night in every gap and +broken arch - the shadow of its awful self, immovable!<br> +<br> +As we lay down on the grass of the Campagna, next day, on our way to +Florence, hearing the larks sing, we saw that a little wooden cross +had been erected on the spot where the poor Pilgrim Countess was murdered. +So, we piled some loose stones about it, as the beginning of a mound +to her memory, and wondered if we should ever rest there again, and +look back at Rome.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER XI - A RAPID DIORAMA<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +We are bound for Naples! And we cross the threshold of the Eternal +City at yonder gate, the Gate of San Giovanni Laterano, where the two +last objects that attract the notice of a departing visitor, and the +two first objects that attract the notice of an arriving one, are a +proud church and a decaying ruin - good emblems of Rome.<br> +<br> +Our way lies over the Campagna, which looks more solemn on a bright +blue day like this, than beneath a darker sky; the great extent of ruin +being plainer to the eye: and the sunshine through the arches of the +broken aqueducts, showing other broken arches shining through them in +the melancholy distance. When we have traversed it, and look back +from Albano, its dark, undulating surface lies below us like a stagnant +lake, or like a broad, dull Lethe flowing round the walls of Rome, and +separating it from all the world! How often have the Legions, +in triumphant march, gone glittering across that purple waste, so silent +and unpeopled now! How often has the train of captives looked, +with sinking hearts, upon the distant city, and beheld its population +pouring out, to hail the return of their conqueror! What riot, +sensuality and murder, have run mad in the vast palaces now heaps of +brick and shattered marble! What glare of fires, and roar of popular +tumult, and wail of pestilence and famine, have come sweeping over the +wild plain where nothing is now heard but the wind, and where the solitary +lizards gambol unmolested in the sun!<br> +<br> +The train of wine-carts going into Rome, each driven by a shaggy peasant +reclining beneath a little gipsy-fashioned canopy of sheep-skin, is +ended now, and we go toiling up into a higher country where there are +trees. The next day brings us on the Pontine Marshes, wearily +flat and lonesome, and overgrown with brushwood, and swamped with water, +but with a fine road made across them, shaded by a long, long avenue. +Here and there, we pass a solitary guard-house; here and there a hovel, +deserted, and walled up. Some herdsmen loiter on the banks of +the stream beside the road, and sometimes a flat-bottomed boat, towed +by a man, comes rippling idly along it. A horseman passes occasionally, +carrying a long gun cross-wise on the saddle before him, and attended +by fierce dogs; but there is nothing else astir save the wind and the +shadows, until we come in sight of Terracina.<br> +<br> +How blue and bright the sea, rolling below the windows of the inn so +famous in robber stories! How picturesque the great crags and +points of rock overhanging to-morrow’s narrow road, where galley-slaves +are working in the quarries above, and the sentinels who guard them +lounge on the sea-shore! All night there is the murmur of the +sea beneath the stars; and, in the morning, just at daybreak, the prospect +suddenly becoming expanded, as if by a miracle, reveals - in the far +distance, across the sea there! - Naples with its islands, and Vesuvius +spouting fire! Within a quarter of an hour, the whole is gone +as if it were a vision in the clouds, and there is nothing but the sea +and sky.<br> +<br> +The Neapolitan frontier crossed, after two hours’ travelling; +and the hungriest of soldiers and custom-house officers with difficulty +appeased; we enter, by a gateless portal, into the first Neapolitan +town - Fondi. Take note of Fondi, in the name of all that is wretched +and beggarly.<br> +<br> +A filthy channel of mud and refuse meanders down the centre of the miserable +streets, fed by obscene rivulets that trickle from the abject houses. +There is not a door, a window, or a shutter; not a roof, a wall, a post, +or a pillar, in all Fondi, but is decayed, and crazy, and rotting away. +The wretched history of the town, with all its sieges and pillages by +Barbarossa and the rest, might have been acted last year. How +the gaunt dogs that sneak about the miserable streets, come to be alive, +and undevoured by the people, is one of the enigmas of the world.<br> +<br> +A hollow-cheeked and scowling people they are! All beggars; but +that’s nothing. Look at them as they gather round. +Some, are too indolent to come down-stairs, or are too wisely mistrustful +of the stairs, perhaps, to venture: so stretch out their lean hands +from upper windows, and howl; others, come flocking about us, fighting +and jostling one another, and demanding, incessantly, charity for the +love of God, charity for the love of the Blessed Virgin, charity for +the love of all the Saints. A group of miserable children, almost +naked, screaming forth the same petition, discover that they can see +themselves reflected in the varnish of the carriage, and begin to dance +and make grimaces, that they may have the pleasure of seeing their antics +repeated in this mirror. A crippled idiot, in the act of striking +one of them who drowns his clamorous demand for charity, observes his +angry counterpart in the panel, stops short, and thrusting out his tongue, +begins to wag his head and chatter. The shrill cry raised at this, +awakens half-a-dozen wild creatures wrapped in frowsy brown cloaks, +who are lying on the church-steps with pots and pans for sale. +These, scrambling up, approach, and beg defiantly. ‘I am +hungry. Give me something. Listen to me, Signor. I +am hungry!’ Then, a ghastly old woman, fearful of being +too late, comes hobbling down the street, stretching out one hand, and +scratching herself all the way with the other, and screaming, long before +she can be heard, ‘Charity, charity! I’ll go and pray +for you directly, beautiful lady, if you’ll give me charity!’ +Lastly, the members of a brotherhood for burying the dead: hideously +masked, and attired in shabby black robes, white at the skirts, with +the splashes of many muddy winters: escorted by a dirty priest, and +a congenial cross-bearer: come hurrying past. Surrounded by this +motley concourse, we move out of Fondi: bad bright eyes glaring at us, +out of the darkness of every crazy tenement, like glistening fragments +of its filth and putrefaction.<br> +<br> +A noble mountain-pass, with the ruins of a fort on a strong eminence, +traditionally called the Fort of Fra Diavolo; the old town of Itrí, +like a device in pastry, built up, almost perpendicularly, on a hill, +and approached by long steep flights of steps; beautiful Mola di Gaëta, +whose wines, like those of Albano, have degenerated since the days of +Horace, or his taste for wine was bad: which is not likely of one who +enjoyed it so much, and extolled it so well; another night upon the +road at St. Agatha; a rest next day at Capua, which is picturesque, +but hardly so seductive to a traveller now, as the soldiers of Praetorian +Rome were wont to find the ancient city of that name; a flat road among +vines festooned and looped from tree to tree; and Mount Vesuvius close +at hand at last! - its cone and summit whitened with snow; and its smoke +hanging over it, in the heavy atmosphere of the day, like a dense cloud. +So we go, rattling down hill, into Naples.<br> +<br> +A funeral is coming up the street, towards us. The body, on an +open bier, borne on a kind of palanquin, covered with a gay cloth of +crimson and gold. The mourners, in white gowns and masks. +If there be death abroad, life is well represented too, for all Naples +would seem to be out of doors, and tearing to and fro in carriages. +Some of these, the common Vetturíno vehicles, are drawn by three +horses abreast, decked with smart trappings and great abundance of brazen +ornament, and always going very fast. Not that their loads are +light; for the smallest of them has at least six people inside, four +in front, four or five more hanging on behind, and two or three more, +in a net or bag below the axle-tree, where they lie half-suffocated +with mud and dust. Exhibitors of Punch, buffo singers with guitars, +reciters of poetry, reciters of stories, a row of cheap exhibitions +with clowns and showmen, drums, and trumpets, painted cloths representing +the wonders within, and admiring crowds assembled without, assist the +whirl and bustle. Ragged lazzaroni lie asleep in doorways, archways, +and kennels; the gentry, gaily dressed, are dashing up and down in carriages +on the Chiaji, or walking in the Public Gardens; and quiet letter-writers, +perched behind their little desks and inkstands under the Portico of +the Great Theatre of San Carlo, in the public street, are waiting for +clients.<br> +<br> +Here is a galley-slave in chains, who wants a letter written to a friend. +He approaches a clerkly-looking man, sitting under the corner arch, +and makes his bargain. He has obtained permission of the sentinel +who guards him: who stands near, leaning against the wall and cracking +nuts. The galley-slave dictates in the ear of the letter-writer, +what he desires to say; and as he can’t read writing, looks intently +in his face, to read there whether he sets down faithfully what he is +told. After a time, the galley-slave becomes discursive - incoherent. +The secretary pauses and rubs his chin. The galley-slave is voluble +and energetic. The secretary, at length, catches the idea, and +with the air of a man who knows how to word it, sets it down; stopping, +now and then, to glance back at his text admiringly. The galley-slave +is silent. The soldier stoically cracks his nuts. Is there +anything more to say? inquires the letter-writer. No more. +Then listen, friend of mine. He reads it through. The galley-slave +is quite enchanted. It is folded, and addressed, and given to +him, and he pays the fee. The secretary falls back indolently +in his chair, and takes a book. The galley-slave gathers up an +empty sack. The sentinel throws away a handful of nut-shells, +shoulders his musket, and away they go together.<br> +<br> +Why do the beggars rap their chins constantly, with their right hands, +when you look at them? Everything is done in pantomime in Naples, +and that is the conventional sign for hunger. A man who is quarrelling +with another, yonder, lays the palm of his right hand on the back of +his left, and shakes the two thumbs - expressive of a donkey’s +ears - whereat his adversary is goaded to desperation. Two people +bargaining for fish, the buyer empties an imaginary waistcoat pocket +when he is told the price, and walks away without a word: having thoroughly +conveyed to the seller that he considers it too dear. Two people +in carriages, meeting, one touches his lips, twice or thrice, holding +up the five fingers of his right hand, and gives a horizontal cut in +the air with the palm. The other nods briskly, and goes his way. +He has been invited to a friendly dinner at half-past five o’clock, +and will certainly come.<br> +<br> +All over Italy, a peculiar shake of the right hand from the wrist, with +the forefinger stretched out, expresses a negative - the only negative +beggars will ever understand. But, in Naples, those five fingers +are a copious language.<br> +<br> +All this, and every other kind of out-door life and stir, and macaroni-eating +at sunset, and flower-selling all day long, and begging and stealing +everywhere and at all hours, you see upon the bright sea-shore, where +the waves of the bay sparkle merrily. But, lovers and hunters +of the picturesque, let us not keep too studiously out of view the miserable +depravity, degradation, and wretchedness, with which this gay Neapolitan +life is inseparably associated! It is not well to find Saint Giles’s +so repulsive, and the Porta Capuana so attractive. A pair of naked +legs and a ragged red scarf, do not make <i>all</i> the difference between +what is interesting and what is coarse and odious? Painting and +poetising for ever, if you will, the beauties of this most beautiful +and lovely spot of earth, let us, as our duty, try to associate a new +picturesque with some faint recognition of man’s destiny and capabilities; +more hopeful, I believe, among the ice and snow of the North Pole, than +in the sun and bloom of Naples.<br> +<br> +Capri - once made odious by the deified beast Tiberius - Ischia, Procida, +and the thousand distant beauties of the Bay, lie in the blue sea yonder, +changing in the mist and sunshine twenty times a-day: now close at hand, +now far off, now unseen. The fairest country in the world, is +spread about us. Whether we turn towards the Miseno shore of the +splendid watery amphitheatre, and go by the Grotto of Posilipo to the +Grotto del Cane and away to Baiae: or take the other way, towards Vesuvius +and Sorrento, it is one succession of delights. In the last-named +direction, where, over doors and archways, there are countless little +images of San Gennaro, with his Canute’s hand stretched out, to +check the fury of the Burning Mountain, we are carried pleasantly, by +a railroad on the beautiful Sea Beach, past the town of Torre del Greco, +built upon the ashes of the former town destroyed by an eruption of +Vesuvius, within a hundred years; and past the flat-roofed houses, granaries, +and macaroni manufactories; to Castel-a-Mare, with its ruined castle, +now inhabited by fishermen, standing in the sea upon a heap of rocks. +Here, the railroad terminates; but, hence we may ride on, by an unbroken +succession of enchanting bays, and beautiful scenery, sloping from the +highest summit of Saint Angelo, the highest neighbouring mountain, down +to the water’s edge - among vineyards, olive-trees, gardens of +oranges and lemons, orchards, heaped-up rocks, green gorges in the hills +- and by the bases of snow-covered heights, and through small towns +with handsome, dark-haired women at the doors - and pass delicious summer +villas - to Sorrento, where the Poet Tasso drew his inspiration from +the beauty surrounding him. Returning, we may climb the heights +above Castel-a-Mare, and looking down among the boughs and leaves, see +the crisp water glistening in the sun; and clusters of white houses +in distant Naples, dwindling, in the great extent of prospect, down +to dice. The coming back to the city, by the beach again, at sunset: +with the glowing sea on one side, and the darkening mountain, with its +smoke and flame, upon the other: is a sublime conclusion to the glory +of the day.<br> +<br> +That church by the Porta Capuana - near the old fisher-market in the +dirtiest quarter of dirty Naples, where the revolt of Masaniello began +- is memorable for having been the scene of one of his earliest proclamations +to the people, and is particularly remarkable for nothing else, unless +it be its waxen and bejewelled Saint in a glass case, with two odd hands; +or the enormous number of beggars who are constantly rapping their chins +there, like a battery of castanets. The cathedral with the beautiful +door, and the columns of African and Egyptian granite that once ornamented +the temple of Apollo, contains the famous sacred blood of San Gennaro +or Januarius: which is preserved in two phials in a silver tabernacle, +and miraculously liquefies three times a-year, to the great admiration +of the people. At the same moment, the stone (distant some miles) +where the Saint suffered martyrdom, becomes faintly red. It is +said that the officiating priests turn faintly red also, sometimes, +when these miracles occur.<br> +<br> +The old, old men who live in hovels at the entrance of these ancient +catacombs, and who, in their age and infirmity, seem waiting here, to +be buried themselves, are members of a curious body, called the Royal +Hospital, who are the official attendants at funerals. Two of +these old spectres totter away, with lighted tapers, to show the caverns +of death - as unconcerned as if they were immortal. They were +used as burying-places for three hundred years; and, in one part, is +a large pit full of skulls and bones, said to be the sad remains of +a great mortality occasioned by a plague. In the rest there is +nothing but dust. They consist, chiefly, of great wide corridors +and labyrinths, hewn out of the rock. At the end of some of these +long passages, are unexpected glimpses of the daylight, shining down +from above. It looks as ghastly and as strange; among the torches, +and the dust, and the dark vaults: as if it, too, were dead and buried.<br> +<br> +The present burial-place lies out yonder, on a hill between the city +and Vesuvius. The old Campo Santo with its three hundred and sixty-five +pits, is only used for those who die in hospitals, and prisons, and +are unclaimed by their friends. The graceful new cemetery, at +no great distance from it, though yet unfinished, has already many graves +among its shrubs and flowers, and airy colonnades. It might be +reasonably objected elsewhere, that some of the tombs are meretricious +and too fanciful; but the general brightness seems to justify it here; +and Mount Vesuvius, separated from them by a lovely slope of ground, +exalts and saddens the scene.<br> +<br> +If it be solemn to behold from this new City of the Dead, with its dark +smoke hanging in the clear sky, how much more awful and impressive is +it, viewed from the ghostly ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii!<br> +<br> +Stand at the bottom of the great market-place of Pompeii, and look up +the silent streets, through the ruined temples of Jupiter and Isis, +over the broken houses with their inmost sanctuaries open to the day, +away to Mount Vesuvius, bright and snowy in the peaceful distance; and +lose all count of time, and heed of other things, in the strange and +melancholy sensation of seeing the Destroyed and the Destroyer making +this quiet picture in the sun. Then, ramble on, and see, at every +turn, the little familiar tokens of human habitation and every-day pursuits; +the chafing of the bucket-rope in the stone rim of the exhausted well; +the track of carriage-wheels in the pavement of the street; the marks +of drinking-vessels on the stone counter of the wine-shop; the amphorae +in private cellars, stored away so many hundred years ago, and undisturbed +to this hour - all rendering the solitude and deadly lonesomeness of +the place, ten thousand times more solemn, than if the volcano, in its +fury, had swept the city from the earth, and sunk it in the bottom of +the sea.<br> +<br> +After it was shaken by the earthquake which preceded the eruption, workmen +were employed in shaping out, in stone, new ornaments for temples and +other buildings that had suffered. Here lies their work, outside +the city gate, as if they would return to-morrow.<br> +<br> +In the cellar of Diomede’s house, where certain skeletons were +found huddled together, close to the door, the impression of their bodies +on the ashes, hardened with the ashes, and became stamped and fixed +there, after they had shrunk, inside, to scanty bones. So, in +the theatre of Herculaneum, a comic mask, floating on the stream when +it was hot and liquid, stamped its mimic features in it as it hardened +into stone; and now, it turns upon the stranger the fantastic look it +turned upon the audiences in that same theatre two thousand years ago.<br> +<br> +Next to the wonder of going up and down the streets, and in and out +of the houses, and traversing the secret chambers of the temples of +a religion that has vanished from the earth, and finding so many fresh +traces of remote antiquity: as if the course of Time had been stopped +after this desolation, and there had been no nights and days, months, +years, and centuries, since: nothing is more impressive and terrible +than the many evidences of the searching nature of the ashes, as bespeaking +their irresistible power, and the impossibility of escaping them. +In the wine-cellars, they forced their way into the earthen vessels: +displacing the wine and choking them, to the brim, with dust. +In the tombs, they forced the ashes of the dead from the funeral urns, +and rained new ruin even into them. The mouths, and eyes, and +skulls of all the skeletons, were stuffed with this terrible hail. +In Herculaneum, where the flood was of a different and a heavier kind, +it rolled in, like a sea. Imagine a deluge of water turned to +marble, at its height - and that is what is called ‘the lava’ +here.<br> +<br> +Some workmen were digging the gloomy well on the brink of which we now +stand, looking down, when they came on some of the stone benches of +the theatre - those steps (for such they seem) at the bottom of the +excavation - and found the buried city of Herculaneum. Presently +going down, with lighted torches, we are perplexed by great walls of +monstrous thickness, rising up between the benches, shutting out the +stage, obtruding their shapeless forms in absurd places, confusing the +whole plan, and making it a disordered dream. We cannot, at first, +believe, or picture to ourselves, that THIS came rolling in, and drowned +the city; and that all that is not here, has been cut away, by the axe, +like solid stone. But this perceived and understood, the horror +and oppression of its presence are indescribable.<br> +<br> +Many of the paintings on the walls in the roofless chambers of both +cities, or carefully removed to the museum at Naples, are as fresh and +plain, as if they had been executed yesterday. Here are subjects +of still life, as provisions, dead game, bottles, glasses, and the like; +familiar classical stories, or mythological fables, always forcibly +and plainly told; conceits of cupids, quarrelling, sporting, working +at trades; theatrical rehearsals; poets reading their productions to +their friends; inscriptions chalked upon the walls; political squibs, +advertisements, rough drawings by schoolboys; everything to people and +restore the ancient cities, in the fancy of their wondering visitor. +Furniture, too, you see, of every kind - lamps, tables, couches; vessels +for eating, drinking, and cooking; workmen’s tools, surgical instruments, +tickets for the theatre, pieces of money, personal ornaments, bunches +of keys found clenched in the grasp of skeletons, helmets of guards +and warriors; little household bells, yet musical with their old domestic +tones.<br> +<br> +The least among these objects, lends its aid to swell the interest of +Vesuvius, and invest it with a perfect fascination. The looking, +from either ruined city, into the neighbouring grounds overgrown with +beautiful vines and luxuriant trees; and remembering that house upon +house, temple on temple, building after building, and street after street, +are still lying underneath the roots of all the quiet cultivation, waiting +to be turned up to the light of day; is something so wonderful, so full +of mystery, so captivating to the imagination, that one would think +it would be paramount, and yield to nothing else. To nothing but +Vesuvius; but the mountain is the genius of the scene. From every +indication of the ruin it has worked, we look, again, with an absorbing +interest to where its smoke is rising up into the sky. It is beyond +us, as we thread the ruined streets: above us, as we stand upon the +ruined walls, we follow it through every vista of broken columns, as +we wander through the empty court-yards of the houses; and through the +garlandings and interlacings of every wanton vine. Turning away +to Paestum yonder, to see the awful structures built, the least aged +of them, hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, and standing +yet, erect in lonely majesty, upon the wild, malaria-blighted plain +- we watch Vesuvius as it disappears from the prospect, and watch for +it again, on our return, with the same thrill of interest: as the doom +and destiny of all this beautiful country, biding its terrible time.<br> +<br> +It is very warm in the sun, on this early spring-day, when we return +from Paestum, but very cold in the shade: insomuch, that although we +may lunch, pleasantly, at noon, in the open air, by the gate of Pompeii, +the neighbouring rivulet supplies thick ice for our wine. But, +the sun is shining brightly; there is not a cloud or speck of vapour +in the whole blue sky, looking down upon the bay of Naples; and the +moon will be at the full to-night. No matter that the snow and +ice lie thick upon the summit of Vesuvius, or that we have been on foot +all day at Pompeii, or that croakers maintain that strangers should +not be on the mountain by night, in such an unusual season. Let +us take advantage of the fine weather; make the best of our way to Resina, +the little village at the foot of the mountain; prepare ourselves, as +well as we can, on so short a notice, at the guide’s house; ascend +at once, and have sunset half-way up, moonlight at the top, and midnight +to come down in!<br> +<br> +At four o’clock in the afternoon, there is a terrible uproar in +the little stable-yard of Signior Salvatore, the recognised head-guide, +with the gold band round his cap; and thirty under-guides who are all +scuffling and screaming at once, are preparing half-a-dozen saddled +ponies, three litters, and some stout staves, for the journey. +Every one of the thirty, quarrels with the other twenty-nine, and frightens +the six ponies; and as much of the village as can possibly squeeze itself +into the little stable-yard, participates in the tumult, and gets trodden +on by the cattle.<br> +<br> +After much violent skirmishing, and more noise than would suffice for +the storming of Naples, the procession starts. The head-guide, +who is liberally paid for all the attendants, rides a little in advance +of the party; the other thirty guides proceed on foot. Eight go +forward with the litters that are to be used by-and-by; and the remaining +two-and-twenty beg.<br> +<br> +We ascend, gradually, by stony lanes like rough broad flights of stairs, +for some time. At length, we leave these, and the vineyards on +either side of them, and emerge upon a bleak bare region where the lava +lies confusedly, in enormous rusty masses; as if the earth had been +ploughed up by burning thunderbolts. And now, we halt to see the +sun set. The change that falls upon the dreary region, and on +the whole mountain, as its red light fades, and the night comes on - +and the unutterable solemnity and dreariness that reign around, who +that has witnessed it, can ever forget!<br> +<br> +It is dark, when after winding, for some time, over the broken ground, +we arrive at the foot of the cone: which is extremely steep, and seems +to rise, almost perpendicularly, from the spot where we dismount. +The only light is reflected from the snow, deep, hard, and white, with +which the cone is covered. It is now intensely cold, and the air +is piercing. The thirty-one have brought no torches, knowing that +the moon will rise before we reach the top. Two of the litters +are devoted to the two ladies; the third, to a rather heavy gentleman +from Naples, whose hospitality and good-nature have attached him to +the expedition, and determined him to assist in doing the honours of +the mountain. The rather heavy gentleman is carried by fifteen +men; each of the ladies by half-a-dozen. We who walk, make the +best use of our staves; and so the whole party begin to labour upward +over the snow, - as if they were toiling to the summit of an antediluvian +Twelfth-cake.<br> +<br> +We are a long time toiling up; and the head-guide looks oddly about +him when one of the company - not an Italian, though an habitué +of the mountain for many years: whom we will call, for our present purpose, +Mr. Pickle of Portici - suggests that, as it is freezing hard, and the +usual footing of ashes is covered by the snow and ice, it will surely +be difficult to descend. But the sight of the litters above, tilting +up and down, and jerking from this side to that, as the bearers continually +slip and tumble, diverts our attention; more especially as the whole +length of the rather heavy gentleman is, at that moment, presented to +us alarmingly foreshortened, with his head downwards.<br> +<br> +The rising of the moon soon afterwards, revives the flagging spirits +of the bearers. Stimulating each other with their usual watchword, +‘Courage, friend! It is to eat macaroni!’ they press +on, gallantly, for the summit.<br> +<br> +From tingeing the top of the snow above us, with a band of light, and +pouring it in a stream through the valley below, while we have been +ascending in the dark, the moon soon lights the whole white mountain-side, +and the broad sea down below, and tiny Naples in the distance, and every +village in the country round. The whole prospect is in this lovely +state, when we come upon the platform on the mountain-top - the region +of Fire - an exhausted crater formed of great masses of gigantic cinders, +like blocks of stone from some tremendous waterfall, burnt up; from +every chink and crevice of which, hot, sulphurous smoke is pouring out: +while, from another conical-shaped hill, the present crater, rising +abruptly from this platform at the end, great sheets of fire are streaming +forth: reddening the night with flame, blackening it with smoke, and +spotting it with red-hot stones and cinders, that fly up into the air +like feathers, and fall down like lead. What words can paint the +gloom and grandeur of this scene!<br> +<br> +The broken ground; the smoke; the sense of suffocation from the sulphur: +the fear of falling down through the crevices in the yawning ground; +the stopping, every now and then, for somebody who is missing in the +dark (for the dense smoke now obscures the moon); the intolerable noise +of the thirty; and the hoarse roaring of the mountain; make it a scene +of such confusion, at the same time, that we reel again. But, +dragging the ladies through it, and across another exhausted crater +to the foot of the present Volcano, we approach close to it on the windy +side, and then sit down among the hot ashes at its foot, and look up +in silence; faintly estimating the action that is going on within, from +its being full a hundred feet higher, at this minute, than it was six +weeks ago.<br> +<br> +There is something in the fire and roar, that generates an irresistible +desire to get nearer to it. We cannot rest long, without starting +off, two of us, on our hands and knees, accompanied by the head-guide, +to climb to the brim of the flaming crater, and try to look in. +Meanwhile, the thirty yell, as with one voice, that it is a dangerous +proceeding, and call to us to come back; frightening the rest of the +party out of their wits.<br> +<br> +What with their noise, and what with the trembling of the thin crust +of ground, that seems about to open underneath our feet and plunge us +in the burning gulf below (which is the real danger, if there be any); +and what with the flashing of the fire in our faces, and the shower +of red-hot ashes that is raining down, and the choking smoke and sulphur; +we may well feel giddy and irrational, like drunken men. But, +we contrive to climb up to the brim, and look down, for a moment, into +the Hell of boiling fire below. Then, we all three come rolling +down; blackened, and singed, and scorched, and hot, and giddy: and each +with his dress alight in half-a-dozen places.<br> +<br> +You have read, a thousand times, that the usual way of descending, is, +by sliding down the ashes: which, forming a gradually-increasing ledge +below the feet, prevent too rapid a descent. But, when we have +crossed the two exhausted craters on our way back and are come to this +precipitous place, there is (as Mr. Pickle has foretold) no vestige +of ashes to be seen; the whole being a smooth sheet of ice.<br> +<br> +In this dilemma, ten or a dozen of the guides cautiously join hands, +and make a chain of men; of whom the foremost beat, as well as they +can, a rough track with their sticks, down which we prepare to follow. +The way being fearfully steep, and none of the party: even of the thirty: +being able to keep their feet for six paces together, the ladies are +taken out of their litters, and placed, each between two careful persons; +while others of the thirty hold by their skirts, to prevent their falling +forward - a necessary precaution, tending to the immediate and hopeless +dilapidation of their apparel. The rather heavy gentleman is abjured +to leave his litter too, and be escorted in a similar manner; but he +resolves to be brought down as he was brought up, on the principle that +his fifteen bearers are not likely to tumble all at once, and that he +is safer so, than trusting to his own legs.<br> +<br> +In this order, we begin the descent: sometimes on foot, sometimes shuffling +on the ice: always proceeding much more quietly and slowly, than on +our upward way: and constantly alarmed by the falling among us of somebody +from behind, who endangers the footing of the whole party, and clings +pertinaciously to anybody’s ankles. It is impossible for +the litter to be in advance, too, as the track has to be made; and its +appearance behind us, overhead - with some one or other of the bearers +always down, and the rather heavy gentleman with his legs always in +the air - is very threatening and frightful. We have gone on thus, +a very little way, painfully and anxiously, but quite merrily, and regarding +it as a great success - and have all fallen several times, and have +all been stopped, somehow or other, as we were sliding away - when Mr. +Pickle of Portici, in the act of remarking on these uncommon circumstances +as quite beyond his experience, stumbles, falls, disengages himself, +with quick presence of mind, from those about him, plunges away head +foremost, and rolls, over and over, down the whole surface of the cone!<br> +<br> +Sickening as it is to look, and be so powerless to help him, I see him +there, in the moonlight - I have had such a dream often - skimming over +the white ice, like a cannon-ball. Almost at the same moment, +there is a cry from behind; and a man who has carried a light basket +of spare cloaks on his head, comes rolling past, at the same frightful +speed, closely followed by a boy. At this climax of the chapter +of accidents, the remaining eight-and-twenty vociferate to that degree, +that a pack of wolves would be music to them!<br> +<br> +Giddy, and bloody, and a mere bundle of rags, is Pickle of Portici when +we reach the place where we dismounted, and where the horses are waiting; +but, thank God, sound in limb! And never are we likely to be more +glad to see a man alive and on his feet, than to see him now - making +light of it too, though sorely bruised and in great pain. The +boy is brought into the Hermitage on the Mountain, while we are at supper, +with his head tied up; and the man is heard of, some hours afterwards. +He too is bruised and stunned, but has broken no bones; the snow having, +fortunately, covered all the larger blocks of rock and stone, and rendered +them harmless.<br> +<br> +After a cheerful meal, and a good rest before a blazing fire, we again +take horse, and continue our descent to Salvatore’s house - very +slowly, by reason of our bruised friend being hardly able to keep the +saddle, or endure the pain of motion. Though it is so late at +night, or early in the morning, all the people of the village are waiting +about the little stable-yard when we arrive, and looking up the road +by which we are expected. Our appearance is hailed with a great +clamour of tongues, and a general sensation for which in our modesty +we are somewhat at a loss to account, until, turning into the yard, +we find that one of a party of French gentlemen who were on the mountain +at the same time is lying on some straw in the stable, with a broken +limb: looking like Death, and suffering great torture; and that we were +confidently supposed to have encountered some worse accident.<br> +<br> +So ‘well returned, and Heaven be praised!’ as the cheerful +Vetturíno, who has borne us company all the way from Pisa, says, +with all his heart! And away with his ready horses, into sleeping +Naples!<br> +<br> +It wakes again to Policinelli and pickpockets, buffo singers and beggars, +rags, puppets, flowers, brightness, dirt, and universal degradation; +airing its Harlequin suit in the sunshine, next day and every day; singing, +starving, dancing, gaming, on the sea-shore; and leaving all labour +to the burning mountain, which is ever at its work.<br> +<br> +Our English dilettanti would be very pathetic on the subject of the +national taste, if they could hear an Italian opera half as badly sung +in England as we may hear the Foscari performed, to-night, in the splendid +theatre of San Carlo. But, for astonishing truth and spirit in +seizing and embodying the real life about it, the shabby little San +Carlino Theatre - the rickety house one story high, with a staring picture +outside: down among the drums and trumpets, and the tumblers, and the +lady conjurer - is without a rival anywhere.<br> +<br> +There is one extraordinary feature in the real life of Naples, at which +we may take a glance before we go - the Lotteries.<br> +<br> +They prevail in most parts of Italy, but are particularly obvious, in +their effects and influences, here. They are drawn every Saturday. +They bring an immense revenue to the Government; and diffuse a taste +for gambling among the poorest of the poor, which is very comfortable +to the coffers of the State, and very ruinous to themselves. The +lowest stake is one grain; less than a farthing. One hundred numbers +- from one to a hundred, inclusive - are put into a box. Five +are drawn. Those are the prizes. I buy three numbers. +If one of them come up, I win a small prize. If two, some hundreds +of times my stake. If three, three thousand five hundred times +my stake. I stake (or play as they call it) what I can upon my +numbers, and buy what numbers I please. The amount I play, I pay +at the lottery office, where I purchase the ticket; and it is stated +on the ticket itself.<br> +<br> +Every lottery office keeps a printed book, an Universal Lottery Diviner, +where every possible accident and circumstance is provided for, and +has a number against it. For instance, let us take two carlini +- about sevenpence. On our way to the lottery office, we run against +a black man. When we get there, we say gravely, ‘The Diviner.’ +It is handed over the counter, as a serious matter of business. +We look at black man. Such a number. ‘Give us that.’ +We look at running against a person in the street. ‘Give +us that. ’ We look at the name of the street itself. ‘Give +us that.’ Now, we have our three numbers.<br> +<br> +If the roof of the theatre of San Carlo were to fall in, so many people +would play upon the numbers attached to such an accident in the Diviner, +that the Government would soon close those numbers, and decline to run +the risk of losing any more upon them. This often happens. +Not long ago, when there was a fire in the King’s Palace, there +was such a desperate run on fire, and king, and palace, that further +stakes on the numbers attached to those words in the Golden Book were +forbidden. Every accident or event, is supposed, by the ignorant +populace, to be a revelation to the beholder, or party concerned, in +connection with the lottery. Certain people who have a talent +for dreaming fortunately, are much sought after; and there are some +priests who are constantly favoured with visions of the lucky numbers.<br> +<br> +I heard of a horse running away with a man, and dashing him down, dead, +at the corner of a street. Pursuing the horse with incredible +speed, was another man, who ran so fast, that he came up, immediately +after the accident. He threw himself upon his knees beside the +unfortunate rider, and clasped his hand with an expression of the wildest +grief. ‘If you have life,’ he said, ‘speak one +word to me! If you have one gasp of breath left, mention your +age for Heaven’s sake, that I may play that number in the lottery.’<br> +<br> +It is four o’clock in the afternoon, and we may go to see our +lottery drawn. The ceremony takes place every Saturday, in the +Tribunale, or Court of Justice - this singular, earthy-smelling room, +or gallery, as mouldy as an old cellar, and as damp as a dungeon. +At the upper end is a platform, with a large horse-shoe table upon it; +and a President and Council sitting round - all judges of the Law. +The man on the little stool behind the President, is the Capo Lazzarone, +a kind of tribune of the people, appointed on their behalf to see that +all is fairly conducted: attended by a few personal friends. A +ragged, swarthy fellow he is: with long matted hair hanging down all +over his face: and covered, from head to foot, with most unquestionably +genuine dirt. All the body of the room is filled with the commonest +of the Neapolitan people: and between them and the platform, guarding +the steps leading to the latter, is a small body of soldiers.<br> +<br> +There is some delay in the arrival of the necessary number of judges; +during which, the box, in which the numbers are being placed, is a source +of the deepest interest. When the box is full, the boy who is +to draw the numbers out of it becomes the prominent feature of the proceedings. +He is already dressed for his part, in a tight brown Holland coat, with +only one (the left) sleeve to it, which leaves his right arm bared to +the shoulder, ready for plunging down into the mysterious chest.<br> +<br> +During the hush and whisper that pervade the room, all eyes are turned +on this young minister of fortune. People begin to inquire his +age, with a view to the next lottery; and the number of his brothers +and sisters; and the age of his father and mother; and whether he has +any moles or pimples upon him; and where, and how many; when the arrival +of the last judge but one (a little old man, universally dreaded as +possessing the Evil Eye) makes a slight diversion, and would occasion +a greater one, but that he is immediately deposed, as a source of interest, +by the officiating priest, who advances gravely to his place, followed +by a very dirty little boy, carrying his sacred vestments, and a pot +of Holy Water.<br> +<br> +Here is the last judge come at last, and now he takes his place at the +horse-shoe table.<br> +<br> +There is a murmur of irrepressible agitation. In the midst of +it, the priest puts his head into the sacred vestments, and pulls the +same over his shoulders. Then he says a silent prayer; and dipping +a brush into the pot of Holy Water, sprinkles it over the box - and +over the boy, and gives them a double-barrelled blessing, which the +box and the boy are both hoisted on the table to receive. The +boy remaining on the table, the box is now carried round the front of +the platform, by an attendant, who holds it up and shakes it lustily +all the time; seeming to say, like the conjurer, ‘There is no +deception, ladies and gentlemen; keep your eyes upon me, if you please!’<br> +<br> +At last, the box is set before the boy; and the boy, first holding up +his naked arm and open hand, dives down into the hole (it is made like +a ballot-box) and pulls out a number, which is rolled up, round something +hard, like a bonbon. This he hands to the judge next him, who +unrolls a little bit, and hands it to the President, next to whom he +sits. The President unrolls it, very slowly. The Capo Lazzarone +leans over his shoulder. The President holds it up, unrolled, +to the Capo Lazzarone. The Capo Lazzarone, looking at it eagerly, +cries out, in a shrill, loud voice, ‘Sessantadue!’ (sixty-two), +expressing the two upon his fingers, as he calls it out. Alas! +the Capo Lazzarone himself has not staked on sixty-two. His face +is very long, and his eyes roll wildly.<br> +<br> +As it happens to be a favourite number, however, it is pretty well received, +which is not always the case. They are all drawn with the same +ceremony, omitting the blessing. One blessing is enough for the +whole multiplication-table. The only new incident in the proceedings, +is the gradually deepening intensity of the change in the Cape Lazzarone, +who has, evidently, speculated to the very utmost extent of his means; +and who, when he sees the last number, and finds that it is not one +of his, clasps his hands, and raises his eyes to the ceiling before +proclaiming it, as though remonstrating, in a secret agony, with his +patron saint, for having committed so gross a breach of confidence. +I hope the Capo Lazzarone may not desert him for some other member of +the Calendar, but he seems to threaten it.<br> +<br> +Where the winners may be, nobody knows. They certainly are not +present; the general disappointment filling one with pity for the poor +people. They look: when we stand aside, observing them, in their +passage through the court-yard down below: as miserable as the prisoners +in the gaol (it forms a part of the building), who are peeping down +upon them, from between their bars; or, as the fragments of human heads +which are still dangling in chains outside, in memory of the good old +times, when their owners were strung up there, for the popular edification.<br> +<br> +Away from Naples in a glorious sunrise, by the road to Capua, and then +on a three days’ journey along by-roads, that we may see, on the +way, the monastery of Monte Cassino, which is perched on the steep and +lofty hill above the little town of San Germano, and is lost on a misty +morning in the clouds.<br> +<br> +So much the better, for the deep sounding of its bell, which, as we +go winding up, on mules, towards the convent, is heard mysteriously +in the still air, while nothing is seen but the grey mist, moving solemnly +and slowly, like a funeral procession. Behold, at length the shadowy +pile of building close before us: its grey walls and towers dimly seen, +though so near and so vast: and the raw vapour rolling through its cloisters +heavily.<br> +<br> +There are two black shadows walking to and fro in the quadrangle, near +the statues of the Patron Saint and his sister; and hopping on behind +them, in and out of the old arches, is a raven, croaking in answer to +the bell, and uttering, at intervals, the purest Tuscan. How like +a Jesuit he looks! There never was a sly and stealthy fellow so +at home as is this raven, standing now at the refectory door, with his +head on one side, and pretending to glance another way, while he is +scrutinizing the visitors keenly, and listening with fixed attention. +What a dull-headed monk the porter becomes in comparison!<br> +<br> +‘He speaks like us!’ says the porter: ‘quite as plainly.’ +Quite as plainly, Porter. Nothing could be more expressive than +his reception of the peasants who are entering the gate with baskets +and burdens. There is a roll in his eye, and a chuckle in his +throat, which should qualify him to be chosen Superior of an Order of +Ravens. He knows all about it. ‘It’s all right,’ +he says. ‘We know what we know. Come along, good people. +Glad to see you!’ How was this extraordinary structure ever +built in such a situation, where the labour of conveying the stone, +and iron, and marble, so great a height, must have been prodigious? +‘Caw!’ says the raven, welcoming the peasants. How, +being despoiled by plunder, fire and earthquake, has it risen from its +ruins, and been again made what we now see it, with its church so sumptuous +and magnificent? ‘Caw!’ says the raven, welcoming +the peasants. These people have a miserable appearance, and (as +usual) are densely ignorant, and all beg, while the monks are chaunting +in the chapel. ‘Caw!’ says the raven, ‘Cuckoo!’<br> +<br> +So we leave him, chuckling and rolling his eye at the convent gate, +and wind slowly down again through the cloud. At last emerging +from it, we come in sight of the village far below, and the flat green +country intersected by rivulets; which is pleasant and fresh to see +after the obscurity and haze of the convent - no disrespect to the raven, +or the holy friars.<br> +<br> +Away we go again, by muddy roads, and through the most shattered and +tattered of villages, where there is not a whole window among all the +houses, or a whole garment among all the peasants, or the least appearance +of anything to eat, in any of the wretched hucksters’ shops. +The women wear a bright red bodice laced before and behind, a white +skirt, and the Neapolitan head-dress of square folds of linen, primitively +meant to carry loads on. The men and children wear anything they +can get. The soldiers are as dirty and rapacious as the dogs. +The inns are such hobgoblin places, that they are infinitely more attractive +and amusing than the best hotels in Paris. Here is one near Valmontone +(that is Valmontone the round, walled town on the mount opposite), which +is approached by a quagmire almost knee-deep. There is a wild +colonnade below, and a dark yard full of empty stables and lofts, and +a great long kitchen with a great long bench and a great long form, +where a party of travellers, with two priests among them, are crowding +round the fire while their supper is cooking. Above stairs, is +a rough brick gallery to sit in, with very little windows with very +small patches of knotty glass in them, and all the doors that open from +it (a dozen or two) off their hinges, and a bare board on tressels for +a table, at which thirty people might dine easily, and a fireplace large +enough in itself for a breakfast-parlour, where, as the faggots blaze +and crackle, they illuminate the ugliest and grimmest of faces, drawn +in charcoal on the whitewashed chimney-sides by previous travellers. +There is a flaring country lamp on the table; and, hovering about it, +scratching her thick black hair continually, a yellow dwarf of a woman, +who stands on tiptoe to arrange the hatchet knives, and takes a flying +leap to look into the water-jug. The beds in the adjoining rooms +are of the liveliest kind. There is not a solitary scrap of looking-glass +in the house, and the washing apparatus is identical with the cooking +utensils. But the yellow dwarf sets on the table a good flask +of excellent wine, holding a quart at least; and produces, among half-a-dozen +other dishes, two-thirds of a roasted kid, smoking hot. She is +as good-humoured, too, as dirty, which is saying a great deal. +So here’s long life to her, in the flask of wine, and prosperity +to the establishment.<br> +<br> +Rome gained and left behind, and with it the Pilgrims who are now repairing +to their own homes again - each with his scallop shell and staff, and +soliciting alms for the love of God - we come, by a fair country, to +the Falls of Terni, where the whole Velino river dashes, headlong, from +a rocky height, amidst shining spray and rainbows. Perugia, strongly +fortified by art and nature, on a lofty eminence, rising abruptly from +the plain where purple mountains mingle with the distant sky, is glowing, +on its market-day, with radiant colours. They set off its sombre +but rich Gothic buildings admirably. The pavement of its market-place +is strewn with country goods. All along the steep hill leading +from the town, under the town wall, there is a noisy fair of calves, +lambs, pigs, horses, mules, and oxen. Fowls, geese, and turkeys, +flutter vigorously among their very hoofs; and buyers, sellers, and +spectators, clustering everywhere, block up the road as we come shouting +down upon them.<br> +<br> +Suddenly, there is a ringing sound among our horses. The driver +stops them. Sinking in his saddle, and casting up his eyes to +Heaven, he delivers this apostrophe, ‘Oh Jove Omnipotent! here +is a horse has lost his shoe!’<br> +<br> +Notwithstanding the tremendous nature of this accident, and the utterly +forlorn look and gesture (impossible in any one but an Italian Vetturíno) +with which it is announced, it is not long in being repaired by a mortal +Farrier, by whose assistance we reach Castiglione the same night, and +Arezzo next day. Mass is, of course, performing in its fine cathedral, +where the sun shines in among the clustered pillars, through rich stained-glass +windows: half revealing, half concealing the kneeling figures on the +pavement, and striking out paths of spotted light in the long aisles.<br> +<br> +But, how much beauty of another kind is here, when, on a fair clear +morning, we look, from the summit of a hill, on Florence! See +where it lies before us in a sun-lighted valley, bright with the winding +Arno, and shut in by swelling hills; its domes, and towers, and palaces, +rising from the rich country in a glittering heap, and shining in the +sun like gold!<br> +<br> +Magnificently stern and sombre are the streets of beautiful Florence; +and the strong old piles of building make such heaps of shadow, on the +ground and in the river, that there is another and a different city +of rich forms and fancies, always lying at our feet. Prodigious +palaces, constructed for defence, with small distrustful windows heavily +barred, and walls of great thickness formed of huge masses of rough +stone, frown, in their old sulky state, on every street. In the +midst of the city - in the Piazza of the Grand Duke, adorned with beautiful +statues and the Fountain of Neptune - rises the Palazzo Vecchio, with +its enormous overhanging battlements, and the Great Tower that watches +over the whole town. In its court-yard - worthy of the Castle +of Otranto in its ponderous gloom - is a massive staircase that the +heaviest waggon and the stoutest team of horses might be driven up. +Within it, is a Great Saloon, faded and tarnished in its stately decorations, +and mouldering by grains, but recording yet, in pictures on its walls, +the triumphs of the Medici and the wars of the old Florentine people. +The prison is hard by, in an adjacent court-yard of the building - a +foul and dismal place, where some men are shut up close, in small cells +like ovens; and where others look through bars and beg; where some are +playing draughts, and some are talking to their friends, who smoke, +the while, to purify the air; and some are buying wine and fruit of +women-vendors; and all are squalid, dirty, and vile to look at. +‘They are merry enough, Signore,’ says the jailer. +‘They are all blood-stained here,’ he adds, indicating, +with his hand, three-fourths of the whole building. Before the +hour is out, an old man, eighty years of age, quarrelling over a bargain +with a young girl of seventeen, stabs her dead, in the market-place +full of bright flowers; and is brought in prisoner, to swell the number.<br> +<br> +Among the four old bridges that span the river, the Ponte Vecchio - +that bridge which is covered with the shops of Jewellers and Goldsmiths +- is a most enchanting feature in the scene. The space of one +house, in the centre, being left open, the view beyond is shown as in +a frame; and that precious glimpse of sky, and water, and rich buildings, +shining so quietly among the huddled roofs and gables on the bridge, +is exquisite. Above it, the Gallery of the Grand Duke crosses +the river. It was built to connect the two Great Palaces by a +secret passage; and it takes its jealous course among the streets and +houses, with true despotism: going where it lists, and spurning every +obstacle away, before it.<br> +<br> +The Grand Duke has a worthier secret passage through the streets, in +his black robe and hood, as a member of the Compagnia della Misericordia, +which brotherhood includes all ranks of men. If an accident take +place, their office is, to raise the sufferer, and bear him tenderly +to the Hospital. If a fire break out, it is one of their functions +to repair to the spot, and render their assistance and protection. +It is, also, among their commonest offices, to attend and console the +sick; and they neither receive money, nor eat, nor drink, in any house +they visit for this purpose. Those who are on duty for the time, +are all called together, on a moment’s notice, by the tolling +of the great bell of the Tower; and it is said that the Grand Duke has +been seen, at this sound, to rise from his seat at table, and quietly +withdraw to attend the summons.<br> +<br> +In this other large Piazza, where an irregular kind of market is held, +and stores of old iron and other small merchandise are set out on stalls, +or scattered on the pavement, are grouped together, the Cathedral with +its great Dome, the beautiful Italian Gothic Tower the Campanile, and +the Baptistery with its wrought bronze doors. And here, a small +untrodden square in the pavement, is ‘the Stone of DANTE,’ +where (so runs the story) he was used to bring his stool, and sit in +contemplation. I wonder was he ever, in his bitter exile, withheld +from cursing the very stones in the streets of Florence the ungrateful, +by any kind remembrance of this old musing-place, and its association +with gentle thoughts of little Beatrice!<br> +<br> +The chapel of the Medici, the Good and Bad Angels, of Florence; the +church of Santa Croce where Michael Angelo lies buried, and where every +stone in the cloisters is eloquent on great men’s deaths; innumerable +churches, often masses of unfinished heavy brickwork externally, but +solemn and serene within; arrest our lingering steps, in strolling through +the city.<br> +<br> +In keeping with the tombs among the cloisters, is the Museum of Natural +History, famous through the world for its preparations in wax; beginning +with models of leaves, seeds, plants, inferior animals; and gradually +ascending, through separate organs of the human frame, up to the whole +structure of that wonderful creation, exquisitely presented, as in recent +death. Few admonitions of our frail mortality can be more solemn +and more sad, or strike so home upon the heart, as the counterfeits +of Youth and Beauty that are lying there, upon their beds, in their +last sleep.<br> +<br> +Beyond the walls, the whole sweet Valley of the Arno, the convent at +Fiesole, the Tower of Galileo, BOCCACCIO’S house, old villas and +retreats; innumerable spots of interest, all glowing in a landscape +of surpassing beauty steeped in the richest light; are spread before +us. Returning from so much brightness, how solemn and how grand +the streets again, with their great, dark, mournful palaces, and many +legends: not of siege, and war, and might, and Iron Hand alone, but +of the triumphant growth of peaceful Arts and Sciences.<br> +<br> +What light is shed upon the world, at this day, from amidst these rugged +Palaces of Florence! Here, open to all comers, in their beautiful +and calm retreats, the ancient Sculptors are immortal, side by side +with Michael Angelo, Canova, Titian, Rembrandt, Raphael, Poets, Historians, +Philosophers - those illustrious men of history, beside whom its crowned +heads and harnessed warriors show so poor and small, and are so soon +forgotten. Here, the imperishable part of noble minds survives, +placid and equal, when strongholds of assault and defence are overthrown; +when the tyranny of the many, or the few, or both, is but a tale; when +Pride and Power are so much cloistered dust. The fire within the +stern streets, and among the massive Palaces and Towers, kindled by +rays from Heaven, is still burning brightly, when the flickering of +war is extinguished and the household fires of generations have decayed; +as thousands upon thousands of faces, rigid with the strife and passion +of the hour, have faded out of the old Squares and public haunts, while +the nameless Florentine Lady, preserved from oblivion by a Painter’s +hand, yet lives on, in enduring grace and youth.<br> +<br> +Let us look back on Florence while we may, and when its shining Dome +is seen no more, go travelling through cheerful Tuscany, with a bright +remembrance of it; for Italy will be the fairer for the recollection. +The summer-time being come: and Genoa, and Milan, and the Lake of Como +lying far behind us: and we resting at Faido, a Swiss village, near +the awful rocks and mountains, the everlasting snows and roaring cataracts, +of the Great Saint Gothard: hearing the Italian tongue for the last +time on this journey: let us part from Italy, with all its miseries +and wrongs, affectionately, in our admiration of the beauties, natural +and artificial, of which it is full to overflowing, and in our tenderness +towards a people, naturally well-disposed, and patient, and sweet-tempered. +Years of neglect, oppression, and misrule, have been at work, to change +their nature and reduce their spirit; miserable jealousies, fomented +by petty Princes to whom union was destruction, and division strength, +have been a canker at their root of nationality, and have barbarized +their language; but the good that was in them ever, is in them yet, +and a noble people may be, one day, raised up from these ashes. +Let us entertain that hope! And let us not remember Italy the +less regardfully, because, in every fragment of her fallen Temples, +and every stone of her deserted palaces and prisons, she helps to inculcate +the lesson that the wheel of Time is rolling for an end, and that the +world is, in all great essentials, better, gentler, more forbearing, +and more hopeful, as it rolls!<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +Footnotes:<br> +<br> +<a name="footnote1"></a><a href="#citation1">{1}</a> This was +written in 1846.<br> +<br> +<a name="footnote2"></a><a href="#citation2">{2}</a> A far more +liberal and just recognition of the public has arisen in Westminster +Abbey since this was written.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PICTURES FROM ITALY ***<br> +<pre> + +******This file should be named picit10h.htm or picit10h.zip****** +Corrected EDITIONS of our EBooks get a new NUMBER, picit11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, picit10ah.htm + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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